The fact that I still have Warsaw is mindboggling.

I am tempted to tell Italy, "I told you so"

do you want the alliance now?

Austria, suffice to say I will not be moving against you, and will be doing what I can to support you, until my own inevitable demise - obviously I feel foolish requesting an alliance, since this situation is my own fault, but I'm certainly not going to turn an offer down. After the build phase we can speak more of the best moves for us.

And yes, you did tell me so. So noted.

Germany, I am willing to renew our NAP if you are. Choose the length, it is up to you.

{Meta}
What's really amusing from an SC point of view is that it didn't really gain Turkey much of anything. Sure, he denied me two centers, but they're held by someone who is hostile in any case. So instead of playing me for another season to get me out of position, he has to deal with the hostilities now, with no net gain for the stab.

OK...I am not sure what I have done to upset the Pontiff. I expected the Czar to be most upset with me, but I don't understand Italy's problem. I also don't understand why Italy is throwing away an alliance that was just made?? If I was stabbing Italy it really doesn't make sense at this point. Hmmm...

Nevermind....I see what the problem is...I misread your statement thinking Venice would support Albania..not the other way around....This is really an honest mistake....I am open to restitution or we can fight...but the spirit in which I made my moves was friendly to Italy (other than I thought we would bounce ION). I moved against Russia rather than into Austria for the sole reason of gaining position in the continent.

With respect to my colleague from Turkey, the only way to finish the Austrians would have been a two-unit assault on each of the Austrian SCs - by *not* attacking Budapest you did not break the expected support, and I would have had a net loss of territory no matter what. In that case, it would have been foolish of me to support you into Trieste.

Additionally, you taking Trieste instead of makes no sense from a territory-continuity standpoint - if you truly expected support from Venice, the appropriate move would have been SER > BUD to break the support.

Finally, Budapest makes a far better invasion pathway than
Servastopol or Trieste - where, exactly, would you expect *me* to play into this? A pair of lonely units in Vienna and Budapest, surrounded by Turkish territory, does not make for a comfortable partnership.

While it is possible your misunderstanding is genuine, I find the logic underlying your choice in moves to be confusing in the extreme if that was indeed your goal.

Turkey, give up, it wasn't an honest mistake and treat us as more than idiots. Italy may have made a mistake in not taking heed of the warning of a stab, and I may have been unable to convince him of it, but that doesn't mean we cannot recognise a stab when we see it

Italy, can I ask that you disband in the West? If we are to combat Turkey, we need maximum power for this year at the very least. That way we can win back Trieste, and then have an extra unit.

I thought you were drawing my fleet in to take control of the Ionian Sea to make certain you had me bottled up...actually I said bounce the Ionina....I meant that I would bounce back, not you. My expectation was that you would control the bulk of Austria and I was looking at Galicia as my only entry point into Germany unless I could establish control of the Urals....No, me going to Trieste didn't make sense to me either....but again, I thought you were trying to bottle me up for your own security. I honestly expected my only new enemy at the end of this turn to be Russia....which I suspected that Livonia was giving up...which he did. Anyway, I intended no stab...it is a poor point to stab you....but I understand your viewpoint...if you want to ally with Austria, I understand that as well...I will defend myself, but it was not my intent. I will build 3 armies--no fleets, which given my fleet position gives you the upperhand. If you can see your way past this, I will make territorial concessions.

Austria--I would have said the same thing if I was in your position.

I am waiting to hear from Germany re: an extension of the NAP, but you can be assured that the disband will be made in such a way to allow us to regain Trieste

Well, we need to ensure we hold onto Budapest.

And Turkey, that was frankly cheap. If you want to preserve even the slightest shred of credibility in this game, I would put that claim to bed at once.

Do you think I don't understand that I jeopardize my ability to create alliances with the unaffected nations by my actions. All I can do is stand on the truth and make reparations. If I was Germany I would hesitate to make an alliance with me as well, which I would need to succeed in the event that I am battling both of you. I stand on the truth and will accept the consequences.

If you stand on the truth, admit that you are attacking Italy.

I will build only armies....which will jeopardize my ability to defend my homeland against Italy. I had no designs on Italy...I thought I was acting as Italy had wanted....I thought I was giving up security with the fleet movement inward to secure Italian good will.

I will absolutely accept a continued NAP with you Italy for as long as possible. If you wish to have it end at some point we can say until either England or Turkey is reduced to thee centres.

I would also like to propose a central powers alliance to hold off the corner powers. Also, I'd like to point out that Turkey has now stabbed more people than I have.

Turkey has only stabbed one or two people in truth, but he is making a rather heavy habit of stabbing them.........

Sultan,

On a personal level, I can accept that people have different methods in which they choose to engage in Diplomacy, therefore it is possible that your moves do represent both a misunderstanding of my requested assistance and a misunderstanding of the motivation behind what you believed my moves were.

Having said that, I still have a hard time figuring out *why* you'd go along with such an illogical set of moves without raising any concerns before execution.

Our builds and deletes are complete. We now have 24 hours to determine where to go from here. From my point of view, you will understand why I may have a hard time accepting your statements, without necessarily rejecting them entirely.

Pontiff,

I think the nature of the variant may play into that question. Perhaps with more open dialogue in a normal game, more questions would have been raised. Honestly, though, I hadn't seen that my moves would have lead to your disbandment. So the fault lies doubly with me for not questioning it more and failing to see how terrible the consequences were .I did believe that I was moving to Trieste based on your request and focused on what was needed to acheive that goal. I did believe you had your own motives. Anyway it is a failure in my tactical assessment.

I understand your position and hesitation...and I don't blame you. I am ready to make amends. Otherwise I will prepare to defend myself.

Italy, I shall be making an attack on Trieste, which will necessitate both support of Budapest and of the attack to be successful. Thank you in advance.

Germany, Russia, if you don't want to see a powerful Turkey, can you arrange covering Ukraine between you please?

Sultan - might I suggest supporting the Royal Army in St. Petersburg into Moscow while yourself moving to Ukraine? At least one of them will succeed regardless of what the Germans choose to do (and since the Germans are aware of these communications, it is more likely than not that they will help defend Moscow, I fear)

The English are working with the Turk! I believe an occupation of Portugal is in order.

Indeed. We seem to have a very clear structure now. England and Turkey against Austria, Italy, Germany and Russia.

To the English Monarch...yes I do agree to support you into Moscow and attempt Ukraine.

Disappointed.

I am supporting Galicia to Budapest...whether or not that is Galicia's intent.

The Pontiff is wise enough not to throw his lot in with Germany I am sure. The English and Italians made a deal and there is no good reason for either to break it.

Well you made a deal with the Russian as well. But I suppose that was convenient at the time. Warsaw will be supporting a Moscow hold.

I challenge you to show me any point in which I made a deal with the Russians that I did not follow through on. I said that I would cease hostilities with him immediately, which I did. I promised to support him into Warsaw, which I did twice. His government proved to be weak, complacent in German greed and imperialsim. I never said hostilities would not resume