Damn, France got screwed.. lol

You're giving me a bit of credit that I don't deserve. I played Russia the whole time, though I'll happily agree that I was in a bad position at the start with that E/G. You should be thanking LanGaidin for taking over Turkey. Anyway, some brief thoughts:
I started off 1901 making friends with everybody. Turkey wanted to try a slingshot Jugg of some kind, and I went along with the moves even though I wasn't too into it because I thought it might afford me possibilities in early Turkish expansion. I quickly backtracked when he decided to NMR. Things went bad in the North from the get go, and my first choice for an alliance in the East, Italy, was too busy in France to help me out, so things started going badly for me fairly early. Austria somehow managed to stab me AND Turkey in the same turn in 1902 (all credit to Tas there, how did you manage to come out of that favorably?), and Turkey spent his time flip-flopping and barely talking to me, which was really disappointing. I made an attempt to get a three-way alliance with Germany and Italy going, and I seemed to be making headway until Germany seemingly stabbed both of us at the same time, and from there, my fate was set.

Yonni- Always a pleasure to play with you, even when that happens.

THM- You always kill me violently, even when I make convincing arguments centered on A Song Of Ice And Fire. You should try allying with me sometime.

Lando- You were pretty pissed at me when you died, but there was really nothing that I could have done to save you. I'm not sure what to say there.

uclabb- This was my first game with you, and I already very clearly understand why you're one of the best players on the site. Well played.

Tasnica- I want my draw, damnit!

LanGaidan- That was a very different experience than I'm used to with you, I'm not entirely sure what was different here. Thanks for taking over the position though.

ghug- You suck. Learn to play Russia.

Good game, all.

Ah, I take that back then. Thanks LanGaidan for taking over.

I don't always EOG but when I do, I make them lonnnnnnnnng.

EOG FROM GERMANY

This was a disappointing game for me, to get up to 11 SCs and ultimately get eliminated. The primary problem was that I misjudged England’s willingness to come after me at the expense of any shot he had at a solo himself. Kudos to Italy (uclabb) for coming back from near death to snake “my” share of the three-way draw.

I feel like on the site generally, people get too complacent in settling for draws rather than trying for solos in non-stalemate conditions. I thought that this game still had plenty of play left when it was down to 5, or even 4, powers, but no one seemed interested in making a real effort to solo. I knew when I stabbed Austria that I had slim odds of succeeding at a solo, but I relied on my expectation that the game would continue to be fluid as others made solo bids after I was smacked back down. That didn’t happen, so I mis-assessed the situation.

SPRING 1901

Fairly standard opening press with A and R. The entirety of my press with the original T player was two lines of “gobble gobble” from me and one “quack” from him. Italy was wary of empty CPA promises and interested in early EGI vs. F action. I was turned off by F’s initial press, where he wanted Bel but did not want to make any concrete plans or commitments. In contrast, E invited me to lay out how I saw things working out for us so we could brainstorm plans together. I responded with a very detailed plan for a quick kill of F, followed by G expansion into R and E expansion into Italy. It was probably more comprehensive and cutthroat than he wanted or expected, and may have spooked him. E admitted he was a cautious player and seemed more interested in a conservative pro-E opening that did not ruffle any feathers. EG had good communication over many early messages, but I was concerned our play styles would not match.

So back I went to F. We had not had much communication early because he said he had been busy. Once we got down to it, I thought we were a better match. I expressed my expectation that everyone in the West would open conservatively, but that I could be on board with early anti-E aggression if he wanted. At this point, I had given up on E opening aggressively and I was prepared to work with F against E, or alternately wait and see how S01 played out. I then promised F a DMZ in Bur, which was a mistake. We were well into the phase, it seemed like an early attack on F was a no-go due to E's reluctance, and I thought the fulfillment of a DMZ promise would be good for trustbuilding with F so we could work together against E. I never heard back from F, so we never worked out a plan against E beyond the concept of a false promise of a Western Triple.

Late in the phase, GI started talking even more intently about EGI vs. F. We agreed that E was a necessary participant. GI both wanted the early jump, but E was the cautious holdout. Just before deadline, E agreed to pile on F and hoped he did not regret this “drunken decision.” I regretted having promised a DMZ in Bur, but decided that the opportunity of EGI vs. F was too good to pass up. It worked like a charm and we stormed the chateau.

AUTUMN 1901

F was very upset with me. Despite the EGI attack, apparently I was the only one who had straight-up lied to him. E apparently had negotiated his move to EC with F’s blessing. I tried to persuade F that the EGI attack was all E’s idea, and that E was super-devious to have gotten himself invited into EC.

Over the course of this phase, F was all over the place. His press was at times caustic, calling me (and to a lesser extent EI) shortsighted and the scum of the board, as well as other personal attacks; to paranoid, tracking what other players said about when and how often I was communicating with them so F could tell whether I was ignoring his press; to conciliatory. The conciliatory part was well worded and presented a logical analysis of why I should relent from my initial course, but in the context of the haphazard other parts came off as insincere. I was reminded of another game (http://www.webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=69819) where EGI similarly jumped on F in S01, but F’s post-ambush press to me (England) was so good he got me to flip in his favor. That didn’t happen here, and I was ready to just finish F off and proceed with my original EG plan. I played up F’s inconsistent press with the other powers, calling him bipolar and ridiculing him to try to insure that no one reconsidered. To his credit, F was persistent and kept gamely trying to persuade me for several turns.

Meanwhile, GI were collaborating on how best to dismantle F. We concluded that EGI should all aim for a blue home center because F could not defend them all. E didn’t like the risk that he might end up with only one build. By this time, I had decided that my chief competition in the game was Italy, followed by Russia. I felt that E was unlikely to stab me down the road, and probably would be himself a good stab target once he had overcommitted in the Med. Eventually, we persuaded E to hit Bre and – as E had feared – F chose to bounce Bre and E got only one build.

T NMR’d, creating uncertainty in the East. We paused the game with moderator assistance until a new T player could join. A cancel might have been appropriate because it was only A01, but the western powers had put a LOT of time and effort into 1901 press and it would have been a huge shame to see it all be for naught. None of the remaining players seemed desirous of a cancel, so we continued on.

SPRING/AUTUMN 1902

1902 was just shooting fish in a barrel. F had no chance against the combined EGI. Meanwhile, EI made inroads on R in Scandinavia. R had asked whether I wanted him to build a fleet or army in StP and I said I didn’t care. I didn’t care because either way, I was about to come after him. My original S01 plan with E had all of Scandinavia and R with me and all of FI for him. His one army (Nor) was at my disposal, with the understanding that it eventually would be destroyed/disbanded and E would hold no territory in the northeast. My one army (Par) was at his disposal, with the same corresponding understanding. We would keep ownership of Bel fluid to maintain relatively even SC count, leave Nth a DMZ, and I would have no fleets bordering on Nth.

I kept alive the idea of a CPA with AI while acknowledging to both that none of us had actually agreed to a CPA. My real plan continued to be EG vs. the world. That happened to coincide with A’s request that we team up on R, which also coincided with a CPA. This made the press for 1902 easy: kill F, stall R, friendly with everyone else.

1902 went well, except that in A02 E had EC SH Bel instead of EC-MAO as we discussed. This turned out to be a crucial move because the next turn, Italy moved into MAO. E said he expected Italy would bounce him in MAO, but I had been pretty sure EC-MAO would succeed. I think the real reason was E was worried that my two armies and/or F’s army would combine to kick him out of Bel. I told E that this type of EG plan breaks down when E fails to get into the Med fast enough. He apologized, and I felt we were still in good shape. In this game, if E had moved to MAO then maybe he would have turned the corner into the Med and there would have been a different endgame. Instead, E never entered the Med, to my detriment.

1903

RI wanted me to team up with them against E. I wasn’t interested. First, dogpiling on E would involve splitting up the pink territories with RI. I had no interest in inviting RI fleets into the Atlantic. As I explained to E (to calm his paranoia – he had a nightmare that I stabbed him), under my EG plan his fleets would move *away* from me whereas under the RI plan their fleets would move *toward* me. I knew I was going to be at a fleet disadvantage, so I wanted R out of the northern fleet game, F dead, and most/all pink fleets heading south.

Second, I felt I had a sound strategy with my original EG plan. I didn’t think anyone suspected the depth of the EG alliance, or the pre-arranged expendability of the pink army in Nor or the brown army in Par. Italy was offering me part of the former France, but I didn’t want French territory. Being in France overextended me and I had worked out a nice efficient division of the board with E.

Third, I thought I had a better chance of effecting a productive stab against E down the road than against RI. For me to solo, I would need to stab my ally and have them miscalculate how much momentum the stab would give me. I assessed Italy as a stronger player than E, and therefore less likely to leave me the necessary opening. So far, E generally had been receptive to my suggested moves and I thought I would have a better likelihood of negotiating with E for moves that subtly favored my solo attempt.

Fourth, R was busy fighting A in the south. It was unclear what T was doing. If AT joined together, R was going to go down quickly. I saw little benefit in keeping R viable in the north.

Lastly, Italy had better relations with R, and even with one-center F. Italy was proposing GRIF vs. E. I agreed that E would go down in that scenario, but after the dust settled, I thought Italy would have too much control and I would end up on the short end. (I'm being very detailed about my reasoning here because uclabb asked me.)

So instead, I strung along RI into thinking I would help them and instead stayed true to E. R agreed to disband his second northern fleet rather than retreat, which made my expansion into his territory much smoother.

By A03, it was clear that I was no friend to RI. I stole Mar, and E advanced into StP. Having the pink army at the front against R was part of my plan all along, with me backfilling behind him. I didn’t even care about taking Mar because I planned to give it back to E whenever convenient. My possession of Mar was important only to deny Italy the build and help E against him.

1904

1904 was good for me. We wiped out R, I continued to expand to the east, and EI were fighting around Iberia. All according to the original EG plan. Additionally, A was carving up Italy’s flank, making it more likely that E would finally be able to punch through to the Med.

Winter 1904 was crucial. I was ready to stab in 1905, and I intended to attack E. However, E did a good job (perhaps with prompting from Italy) of negotiating safeguards with me. Meanwhile, A did none of that. As a result, I shifted my plans to attack A instead. I didn't think I could likely get 18 by stabbing A, but I felt strong enough to give it a shot -- you can't solo if you don't try -- and I thought I could smooth things out diplomatically with E. After all, I wasn't coming after E! The alternative was to just sit back and wait for the EGA 3wd to coalesce, which I thought was wimpy given that I was at 11 SC and in the best solo position.

E wanted an EGA 3wd, and I sensed he was sincere, rather than just giving empty talk to mask his own solo aspirations. He warned me that he would come after me if I tried to solo. I sprinkled in ambiguous language into our press so I could point back to it later.

1905

In the spring, I made a crucial mistake of ordering GoB-StP(sc). I knew that the safe course was to order GoB-Swe so that I could beat E to Ska, my weak point. However, I had promised E that I would take StP with a fleet. I think he expected it to be Nor, but I thought that if I sent GoB I could say I took it with a fleet like I promised. I thought it was unlikely E would move to NWG, although I knew he was worried about me trying for a solo. I thought his concern was mainly about me stabbing him, and our pre-arranged bounce in Nth would take care of that. So I sent GoB-StP so that I could try to defend my actions to E. Also, taking StP with an army (Mos) would create other vulnerability to E’s army in Sev.

My stab of A worked beautifully, but E did go NAO-NWG instead of NAO-MAO. The latter would have put him in prime position to kill Italy. Now I was in trouble because I was out of position to defend Ska. I colluded with AT on the destruction of the pink army in Sev to take it out of the equation and to deny E the center. Having a T fleet in Sev allowed me to shift my forces west to address the E threat.

I tried to convince E that my attack on A was not a solo bid, but instead was part of the natural expansion path I had blocked out back in S01. I said I still intended a 3wd, but the natural third partner was T, not A. I went back through all the EG press to show him that interpretation was consistent with our prior communication. I also tried to convince him that I could not possibly get to 18 in the east. I thought I had made some progress, and there was a chance he might back off and let me be. I was wrong.

1906

In S06, I guessed horribly wrong on E’s moves. Had I moved Bar-NWG, Kie-Hel, I think I would have been totally fine. Instead, I used Bar and Kie on unnecessary supports. I had not remotely expected E to vacate NWG because it would have been the end of his attack had I correctly anticipated and moved to NWG.

I also made a mistake in not backing off of my attack on A. A took my stab very well, even congratulating me on it (what a contrast to F). He promised we could reconcile if I would just get out of Vie. I believed it at the time, but I thought I could still manage to hold off E and have A force me out, to slow him down a little. I tried to get TI to attack A, in which case I might even have been able to hang onto Vie. I should have backed off on A once things went sideways with E.

At the end of 1906, I had to disband two units. I knew that the only way I would survive is if I could get Italy to attack E. I thought the best way of accomplishing that was by tying up E’s units in the north to make a stab attractive to Italy. So I disbanded my two eastern armies, giving A free license to rampage. I knew that he likely would take me down, but I hoped that if I could last long enough for Italy to hit E, that I might still survive. I also thought that E was the type of player who would quickly patch things up with me if Italy attacked his southern flank.

It didn’t work. Italy never came after England, and Austria unsurprisingly ate up my centers. I wonder now if I would have been better off focusing all in the east and letting E have free rein, so that Italy might feel compelled to come after him to prevent an E solo.

1907-1911

The rest of the game was just me running around until they finally killed me. I really thought that Italy would try for a solo with a northern push. It probably would not have worked, but I think it was a possibility. Instead, EAI just cemented their positions and took the straightforward 3wd.

Like I said, it was a disappointing game. I still had fun. I just wish I had been part of the final board. Perhaps one of these days I’ll actually be allied with ghug instead of responsible for his demise. Thanks LanGaidan for taking over Turkey.

Great EoG - do you take notes or just spit this all out by memory at the end?

I think you have me pegged pretty well as a player and I'm looking forward to hear from AI especially.

I definitely do remember now agreed at the last minute to attack France in 1901. It was right before I went to sleep. I had been in discussions with you and Italy for most of the evening and then changed to attacking England at the last minute. When I woke up, I checked WebDip (as I'm wont to to do) and had that terrible sinking feeling that you get while the screen is loading and you remember the moves you entered. Pretty happy that it worked out though.

In 1902, not moving to MAO definitely was so that I could SH Belgium. It was definitely a lapse in judgement as it stopped me from getting my fair share of French centres.

In 1905, I don't remember what you said. But there was definitely something that made me seriously expect an attack soon which prompted the move to NWG. Also, I remember expecting more support from Austria after my stab of you. I was pretty shocked by his support of Turkey into Sevastopol. The fact that it turned out badly for him is a little vindicating but all signs to me getting through this game thanks to a healthy amount of luck.

I don't take notes. When I do an EOG, I have two browser windows open plus Word. One window is on the map display and the other is on the message archive. I move through the game progression in both windows simultaneously and write what I remember about what I was thinking at the time in Word. Then when I get to the end, I copy and paste the EOG.

I was waiting for this. Hopefully I can comment tonight. Glad to see Germany was defeated, less glad to see both Italy and England in the draw.

Ha. I look forward to hearing it. I'm sorry we didn't oblige and all get eliminated.

well i was more pulling for an austrian solo but oh well.

I'm in the process of writing mine in my various free moments today. It will be up by the end of the day.

This looked like it was a very dynamic game.

Uclabb, damnnnnnn, that was a nice comeback as Italy. I thought you were done for when Austria took Rome. It was fairly impressive. I would like to play against you again, but you were really mean to me last time. :)

THM, I thought you had a chance to solo at one point.

Tasnica, always fun to watch you play. :)

When you "watch" a game zultar, do you "watch" the private press as well? Or do you just watch what everyone else can see, the moves and the global?

Just the moves and global press. I would consider it an invasion of players' privacy to "watch" their private press whether or not I have the ability to do so.
I only commented because I have played against THM, uclabb and Tasnica and I hold them in high esteem. Please don't start a witch hunt against me.

I JUST WANTED TO CONFIRM THE FOLLOWING: "I would consider it an invasion of players' privacy to "watch" their private press whether or not I have the ability to do so."

NO WITCH HUNT NECESSARY.

Ok, it seems to me that you are looking for a fight, but I'm not going to give it to you. I came by to comment on some of the people that I've played with and enjoyed, and I did not instigate anything. If you are always looking for a fight, you are going to find it sooner or later; it just won't be with me.

Sorry to derailing Yonni's thread, and I am going to excuse myself from Lando's remarks.

Lando, no moderators use any of the tools available to them for anything besides investigations. If you feel this is the case please send an email to an admin or kestas.

Come on guys, picking fights is only fun when you can actually punch the person...

Just relax guys and revel in Tom Cheek's awesome call of the 9th inning of the '93 WS.
God, it's giving me goosebumps. I wish I was a few years older so I could have appreciated it.

Just relax guys and revel in Tom Cheek's awesome call of the 9th inning of the '93 WS.
God, it's giving me goosebumps. I wish I was a few years older so I could have appreciated it.

http://blogs.thescore.com/mlb/2012/12/05/less-contentious-hall-of-fame-news-tom-cheeks-is-in/

AS PER MY RESPONSE, WHERE I CLEARLY ACCEPTED ZULTAR'S EXPLANATION, I HAVE DEMONSTRATED I HAD NO INTEREST IN FIGHTING. I WAS IMPLY LOOKING FOR A CONFIRMATION, WHICH I RECEIVED AND ACKNOWLEDGED. NO NEED TO DISCUSS IT FURTHER IN THIS THREAD, AND AS I MENTIONED, I WILL HOPEFULLY GET AN EOG STATEMENT IN HERE TONIGHT.

Z, I think I did have a chance. I just botched it diplomatically and tactically, which is no recipe for success.

So I've been very busy the last few days, and I usually write long and detailed EOGs when I do write them, so I will post what I have so far, and then hopefully finish either tonight or tomorrow at some time.

Spring 1901
So I feel kind of bad for Lando, because I have been searching for my last few games as Italy for a chance to attack move on France in 1901. It seemed to me (at least before this game) that it should happen more often, and I wanted to give it a try. Thus, my entire Spring 1901 was spent trying to figure out if it was possible, and when that seemed to be the case, to try to make it happen.
This made my communication with the east kind of vague and weird. Austria sent me a first message that felt like a lot of quantity and not so much quality, so I called him on it in the hopes that we could move forward with effective communication instead of writing essays to each other about nothing. I liked Russia, but he didn’t really say anything either. A lot of smoke-blowing all around.
England seemed like he would do whatever Germany wanted to do (maybe this should have been a red flag!) so I focused on getting Germany on board for a move on France. I tried to get there in a roundabout way but I doubt it was all that subtle. First we spent a long time talking about how if we were to actually form a CPA I would want it to be a real alliance rather than just a non-aggression cuddle-fest. Eventually this swung into the move on France, with both England and Germany saying “I’ll do it if he does it”, which is easy enough to turn into “I’m doing it because he’s doing it” and we were off.
France was low on communication in Spring 1901, which didn’t help. I didn’t really have anything particularly against him, although I think his wish for Belgium in 1901 helped pull Germany and England against him. I’ve never gotten why Frances ask for that. We mainly talked about how the game was low on communication, which I got a kick out of because as I was sending that message I was frantically trying to flip England and Germany with a high volume of messages.
Fall 1901
So England and Germany followed through with the move on France, and France was freaking out. He told me a lot of crazy things, gave me a lot of advice for how I could play better, and was just generally disorganized and all over the place. Definitely the highlight of this turn for me was a message from Germany that said about France: “He’s not cocky, he’s just a good diplomacy player stuck in a game with a bunch of short-sighted opportunists who don’t understand negotiation.” Lol. Basically, I was pretty confident that as long as I didn’t give France anything to forward to the other powers and I kept talking to Germany and England we would be fine. I talked to France a lot nevertheless and learned that England was at least offering to leak my and Germany’s moves to France, which was a red flag. We also got to the point where we agreed that he would let me into Marseilles and then we would go from there.
I think part of the reason why France agreed to this was so that he could suggest that I loan Austria Venice so that Austria would be in better shape, since Russia and Turkey made textbook slingshot juggernaut moves. I had tried to ask Russia about this, and he repeatedly lied to me, which was disappointing. Nevertheless, there was no way in hell I was going to let Austria have one of my centers when the only reason it was even a discussion at all was because he wanted to bounce in Venice in the spring. In fact, him asking about it turned me off to him a little bit. This caused me to start talking in earnest with Turkey about what us working together would look like.
1902
Turkey’s CD completely changed my game. With Turkey not moving in the fall and then not building either, all of a sudden Austria was in great shape. The new Turkey also seemed to be pretty vehemently anti-Russia. Austria was now convinced that he could handle the east on his own, which was bad for me because it greatly decreased my options. The good news was that France had decided that I was the least terrible of his three attackers, so he was willing to essentially melt away and give me Iberia. He was trying to get us to flip on England, and I was all for that, but Germany seemed unwilling. England wanted to have a E/I/G to sweep the board, but as far as I could tell what he really meant by that was that he wanted me to let him have Portugal. We argued about Portugal for a long, long time, and eventually I just moved to go get it.
I ended 1902 with 6 centers and an empty Portugal, which was a great start for any Italy, but I didn’t have any real allies. England was trying to get me to move unilaterally on Austria and Austria was trying to get me to move unilaterally on England. Turkey has already decided he was my “vassal” but as far as I could tell it was BS. So I focused my attention on Germany. I originally thought that that he would be all for moving on England. It seemed like the obvious path forward, but his responses were unsettling. They all centered on “getting rid of variables” like France and Russia, when to me it seemed that they were only tools that we could use as a springboard to get the jump on England and take them out later. But Germany said that he didn’t see it that way. What I think he really meant in retrospect is “I think I’m going to work with England instead” but I nevertheless just went to work to try to remove those excuses so I could see where he really stood.

Can't it mean "I think I'm going to work with England instead because the joint EG plan we've already sealed in ketchup gets rid of variables like France, Russia, and uh, Italy"?

Just to clarify, I don't consider my statements on the possible Juggernaut to be lies. While it is true that I agreed to the move with Turkey, I was also seriously considering attacking him right up to his NMR and subsequent replacement, and then I had Austria to deal with.

@ghug:

This is the kind of thing I interpreted as a lie. I probably shouldn't have said lie because I don't really know:

Me: "You understand why it looks to me that Turkey knew it was coming, right? Why else would he move to Ankara?"
You: Yeah, that makes sense, I honestly don't know why he did that."

It's OK, you can sign onto my game from here BOG
gameID=105657

Ghug, it looked painfully obvious like a juggernaut was coming right off the bat. Whether you mean it or not, turkey's moves made it look like it was all planned and that did play into the press in the rest of the board.

I agree. R probably would have been better off admitting he intended to ally with T but now had to start all over after the NMR. Even if that weren't true and R really was undecided, it would have come off more credibly given what the board showed.

1903

Builds were terrible for me. England build 100% anti_Italy, and Austria built an unannounced fleet. I was starting to get very frustrated with Austria. The one good thing about the English builds is that it left him unbelievably vulnerable to a German stab. I pointed this out to Germany and described how we could take 3 of Norway, Brest, North Sea, and English Channel that year. I thought it would be a slam dunk, especially since Germany would come out of the turn with much better position on England than I would. Germany’s main hang up about attacking England were supposedly the “rogue” French and Russian units near him, which made little sense to me, but nevertheless I tried to help get rid of them. We arranged to get one of the Russian fleets disbanded in the spring in such a way that would keep all of our options open in the fall.

When moves went through, Germany had done the bare minimum to “follow through” but I was not pleased. He had given England one of his centers and displaced one of France’s units so that it could retreat into Marseilles, which was mine. Luckily, France was cool about it and just disbanded. More frustratingly, Turkey was literally just twiddling his thumbs in Turkey seemingly waiting for the draw, instead of actually working with anyone and making progress on Austria. I started talking in earnest with England about moving on Germany and how I could safely demilitarize our area. England had the opportunity to take two centers off Germany and have at least one more guaranteed, so it seemed like there was a good chance. Unfortunately, I think England never really planned to make such a move and was just giving me lip service. So it was back to Germany. I was pretty desperate. Russia and I were talking and talking and talking to him and we eventually came up with a plan that would put him up two, me up one, and England down 1 and give us, and by us I mean him, good position on England moving forward. He committed to the move, so I decided to give him the chance to lie to me. He did.

Spring 1904

Bad bad bad. England was mad at me for moving on him again. I tried to focus on talking about how I was just desperate for allies and I only moved on him because Germany was whispering sweet nothings in my ear, which was true. In return, England tried to convince me that it was better for me to cede Iberia to him. I figured we would be better off talking next turn.

At this point, I wasn’t particularly mad at Germany. I thought that his choices clearly indicated that in his estimation England was a better ally for him than me, but I figured that should change. So I kept working on that of course. Germany was threatening to support Austria into Venice with his new unit in Tyrolia, which was, in my estimation, either an empty threat or something he would do in concert with a move on England, neither of which would be too terrible as far as I was concerned. Turkey had made another stall move, which was annoying, but it didn’t occur to me that he might support Austria to Ionian Sea.

Fall 1904

Well, that is exactly what happened. When I went to the board, I literally just stared at it for a good 5 minutes without doing anything. I was shocked. Germany supported Trieste to Venice and Turkey supported Greece to Ionian Sea. I was in deep deep shit. My goals for the game were now:
1a) Climb back into the game
1b) Get Germany out of it
I was so, so mad at Germany, and I never got over it. That support from Tyrolia continues to make no sense to me to this day.

So I had to figure out how to achieve these goals. Austria wanted to solo. That much was clear. He had been seemingly running circles around turkey and Russia, and seemed to think he was doing the same with Germany (although I don’t think that was true). So I pitched my collapse to Austria as his chance of soloing melting away: Once England had Iberia locked up he had nowhere to look for an 18th center. So I tried to convince Austria that I could just hold a stalemate line against England indefinitely while he prepared for a solo try if he took Venice and Tunis instead of Rome and Naples. The reason why it needed to be those was that for it to be a true stalemate there needed to be units in Venice and Tunis and I didn’t have enough units to cover them. England also fed me Germany’s moves. Unfortunately, I misunderstood those and screwed up in Marseilles. I also failed to convince Austria, so I had to move back toward my home centers to keep up my very real threat to Austria to “melt away” and leave England Iberia.

However, all wasn’t lost. I did by far my most talking of the game in the retreats and builds in 1904. I think Austria thought he was calling my bluff when he took Rome and Naples. It was now clear that I wasn’t bluffing, and England was very close to wrapping up Iberia and with it Austria’s chance to solo. Another big thing was that Turkey had decided that he was throwing the game to Germany, which really caused everyone to freak out more than they should have, I think. To be honest, I’m not 100% clear why I was making progress with England: I think maybe he would rather gain a little less but also not stab than gain more while stabbing and he was a little bit scared by Germany’s size and seeming vassal in Turkey. My angle was that Turkey and I weren’t going to be around forever to act as a counterweight if and when he moved on Germany. Austria really backed off and realized that I had a lot of negotiating power with him. I had Austria committed to giving me back Naples in return for me giving him Venice and moving to stop England, and England seemed like he was going to be willing to help me get Marseilles while he took Portugal.

1905

From my perspective at least, once Spring started, England balked on his agreement with me about Iberia. I do believe him that it was a real miscommunication, but I nevertheless went into chainsaw diplomacy mode, talking about how disappointing it was that he had wasted my time and things like that. And I did feel that way. Unfortunately, it seemed like we were at an impasse: There was too much uncertainty for a move on Germany in his mind, and in that case he wanted two centers in Iberia. I thought about it for a long time, and then I figured out the solution: Getting the army in Gascony disbanded! And that was the moment when my game changed. I had England and Austria on board with me and I was pretty sure Germany was about to stab Austria, which was awesome for me.

I could have entered everyone’s moves myself and I wouldn’t have changed anything. It was great. Compared to previous turns, this one was cake. Austria was still constantly trying to figure out a way to trick me, but I just had to be careful and all would be good. He couldn’t afford to stab me, so I just needed to be careful. We got it all figure out and I ended the year still with 4 centers and actually pretty good position. England moved to slow down Germany, and it looked like I might actually make it to the end of the game.

1906

There isn’t too much to say here. I really felt like England was 100% on my side. I didn’t feel that way at all about Austria. He was constantly (from my perspective) trying to manipulate me and turning every small thing for me into a fight. It was a struggle to negotiate myself back into Rome in the Autumn even though he has already agreed to it in the spring, but eventually we got there. One thing that didn’t help is that I leaked him the moves Turkey told me in spring which turned out to be wrong, and then in the fall I think he may have misinterpreted what I told him about what I knew about Rumania, so basically our relationship was rocky at best. I had thought about taking Venice that turn as well, but I wouldn’t have been able to use the extra build and when it came down to it I thought I might lose England’s trust, and I wasn’t sure that Turkey would actually in any way be a better ally for me to have than Austria. It also didn’t help that Turkey was very pro-Germany, which didn’t thrill me. Germany disbanded his armies in Russia, which ratcheted up the tension with me and Austria, but I wasn’t close to being able to attack him for real: He still owned Venice and was in Ionian Sea.

Rest of the Game

The rest of the game wasn’t super interesting. It was just a lot of me arguing with Austria about how we should progress through the rest of the game. And there was a lot of arguing, to the point where I really was considering working with Turkey against him. The problem was twofold: First, Turkey had been telling me literally every phase that he was done with Austria and that he would work with me to the end, blah blah blah, and then he would work with Austria and the process would start over again. I sort of felt like Austria had earned his way into the draw just because he kept tricking Turkey over and over and over again.

The big turn where something may have happened was in Fall 1908. I knew that if I moved with Turkey, we could keep Austria even build-wise (he was picking up Moscow) and I could get in position to take Trieste. It would have been a fair fight, but it also would have been an interesting one. I started up ramping up alliance talks with Turkey game philosophy-wise and things like that and I think he was on board. At the last minute, though, Austria got England to come down to MAO to enforce me working with Austria, and that was that. I couldn’t fight on two fronts. I felt bad about moving on Turkey after really ramping up alliance talks, but that’s what ended up happening.

And then soon after, the game was over.