Okay, now my EoG:
1901:
This was the third or fourth game in a row in which I had started as Italy, All of the other games had had early and quite obvious Juggernauts. My slight boredom with the AI combined with almost no press from Russia made me decide that an IT seemed like the most favorable option. Austria saw through me and went for Venice, and Russia and Turkey seemed a little too friendly, I had to reassess my options. I reconciled with Austria and decided to move back to hit France with England and Germany, as it was probably my only source of centers for fighting the Juggernaut.
1902:
Builds left little doubt about the Juggernaut, and Spring moves confirmed it. Things went quite well in France, but England lost a center and Germany was beginning to grow a bit too rapidly. I made the decision to only send one unit into France, as it seemed like Austria was going to fall quite quickly, and England and Germany weren't ready to hit Russia yet.
1903:
I agreed to give England Spain this year to fight France off in exchange for all of Iberia in the near future. Germany and England were ready to hit Russia, and I began sliding my army further east. Turkey chose to move an army into Greece, which bottled up his fleets and probably saved me in the long run. England and I began talking more in depth about the possibility of a German stab, as the Juggernaut was losing momentum, he was growing quite quickly, he was quite open, and he wasn't being very friendly.
Spring 1904:
Germany agreed to support me into Warsaw but instead attempted what may be the worst stab attempt I've ever seen. I slid into Spain in the fall with England's permission. With Turkey bottled up and Russia weakened by the overaggressive German, I had less to worry about with the Juggernaut and many expansion opportunities.
1905:
Germany told me something along the lines of "don't fucking take Marseilles back, shithead!" England gave me a nice logical argument for leaving Portugal his, that was all I really needed to make my decision. Austria and I caught a break on the Turkish NMR, and Russia turned his focus to Germany and left us alone. Things continued to look up, and although England was gaining slightly more quickly than I would have liked, it wasn't too much of a concern yet.
1906:
I was planning on taking Portugal this year, but I misordered my fleet back to Tyr, which ultimately lead to England getting pretty much all of Germany's centers and me having little leverage. I was a little worried about an Austrian stab here too because he barely sent any press in the Spring phase, and I didn't get a chance to respond to him until very late, but all was fine and I was able to resume movement, only slowed by about a year. Turkey seemed resigned to holding in his corner, and Austria was dealing quite well with Russia, so I was in a position with no real enemies and good options.
1907:
I moved to take Portugal and Munich, and for a short time considered helping Germany hold, but I decided that it was going to fall eventually, he was being rude, and I really didn't want England to become more of a solo threat than he already was. Austria, England, and I planned to eliminate Russia and Turkey and take the 3-way. I was cautious, but England didn't really have a high enough army density to do any serious damage yet.
1908:
England seemed to be holding true to his word, I was hopeful that the game would end in a draw in just two or three more years. In the fall, England decided it was time to kill of France, and decided to be honest and tell him, as there was nothing he could do to stop it. Almost immediately after England told me that, I was hit with a storm of messages from France asking for support into Kiel. I wasn't inclined to believe him given the circumstances, but I decided to give him his support, as no real harm could come of it. I can't say I saw the English stab coming, but I was in the process of repositioning to prevent one from happening, so I ended up in a decent position to hold him off until reinforcements arrived.
1909:
Shitshitshitshitshit, England's coming! I was quite worried, but his advance had been slow, and I was confident that we could stop the solo if nobody did anything stupid. England told me he was probably going to give up after a year if he made no real progress so that we could eliminate Turkey, but I didn't really trust him. I guess he had to try for the solo, but I don't really think it was the best attempt, and it just ended up increasing the draw pool.
1909:
I realized that I wouldn't be able to hold indefinitely in Piedmont if he made it into the Gulf of Lyons, and asked Austria to move his extra army in through Venice to help hold him off. I think most of the board, including England, saw this as an attempt to get rid of me and reduce the draw size, which made me rethink things and scared me quite a bit. He told me he was going to try to get them to eliminate me, and I thought he would be able to pull it off with his silver tongue. I really should have trusted my allies more here, as I could have pretty easily thrown the game to England, and they were smart enough to know that. They stayed loyal and I think England saw that it was done at that point and just drew.
Again, good game everyone. @MM, I liked the idea and setup of the blind invitational, but I don't really think you're ever really going to be able to hide yourself from anyone. You have a quite distinctive diplomatic style (every message you send is a lengthy essay) that makes it hard to hide yourself, even to those of us who have never played with you before.
Any graduate student/professor of Psychology on this site?
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