Answer to Gen Lee Question
The danger is you now have given Germany and England a reason to work together. However, with England in Scandinavia and way out of position there is only one way they can limit France. The sacrifice will will be England's. Russia could be the real winner in all that drama.

One question: Would moving A Vienna to Galicia with support from Budapest in Spring of 1902 have made a difference for Austria, or would it have prolonged the stalemate?

Hindsight. Yes it would have been better. However, given Russia and Turkey had set up for the Juggernaut they might have moved Bul-Ser with Rum support. As it turned out they chose to play it safe supported each other showing friendship and now you have what you have.

Well since I'm going to jump in here mid-game I thought I would begin by looking back and generally seeing where each power is and how they got there and if there were any moves that especially popped out to me.

England –
1901:
Opening to Nth/Nor/Edi is my preferred start with England. It guarantees you Norway and typically allows you some options in dealing with your neighbors (support at Belgium, bounces on germany, advance to Barents). I find that keeping the Eng Chan DMZ is essential to not spooking your neighbor France. If you enter the channel you guarantee a fleet build at Brest and as I England I prefer that everyone else build tanks and I stick to fleets for awhile.
Now the Fall ’01 move to Ska is fairly aggressive, and it was very unfortunate for you that Germany decided to do the Russian a big favor and allow him into Sweden. However builds by Germany were in your favor: 2 Armies, and France 1 A: 1 F. I think the build at London is the right play, you could build at Edi to signal France you mean no harm, but you are already wide open if he doesn’t get that yet he just won’t. I agree, build at London.
1902:
Lets look at Scandanavia. There are several ways to play this and I don’t disagree with your first move. But did you see the support from Denmark on the big map? He was signaling friendship, in hindsight you could have covered yourself at London entered Ska hold Nrwy and hoped for the Denmark hold on Sweden that did come. Yes it comes down to a guess/depending on G if you’re going to cover London, but another reason it may have been better to cover Norway is that your army could have been disbanded and rebuilt on the English mainland if worse came to worse, since you had 2 fleets heading North from F. It is very difficult to get that army back home to defend.
1903:
I’m not a big fan of the retreat to Barents, perhaps I am more conservative but the way France is just floating there, I want something closer to home North sea or Norwegian.
France:
1901:
A misorder in Spring 01 but it is not too damning.
1902:
Good job on supporting Paris to Burgundy, Belgium was a lost cause for you this year. Moving the 2 fleets north makes sense, England took a gamble going hard at Russia and you stand to gain by getting to the English channel. I’m not sure that I like the move of MAO to Eng Chan. Certainly you didn’t expect to get into Belgium, but it does keep your fleet at MAO in case England comes up with an extra build and may stall him retreating to defend.
1903:
A move to irish sea to threaten an empty English mainland and the successful capture of Belgium, good work! I love the move to wales from irish sea, I’m sure you were expecting as I was England to cover Liverpool, moving to wales gave you London the next turn guaranteed if that happened. Another option would be to sacrifice Belgium and go Eng Chan to London, irish sea to Liverpool. You had the units in place (retreat to Pic, Bur, Mar) to hold out a Germany with all tanks indefinitely while you pillaged the English mainland.
Germany:
1901:
You allow Russia into Sweden…I don’t do that very often, if I see Russia is in trouble in the south sometimes I will as Germany. But I prefer try and starve Russia out of any North involvement as Sweden can easily be Germany’s build in 1902 with a build of fleet Kiel. However, with England’s aggressive move towards Russia its not a bad thing to have the road be a little harder for a neighbor. The longer they squabble the better.
1902:
You’re move on Belgium was perfect in the Spring. Support into Burgundy while you sneak in, if he bounces you there you’re in his homeland. While the self-bounce at Berlin is technically a sound move to cover your bases, I think the move Russia made in the North to Finland/StP showed he had more in mind than a cheap snag of Berlin. Combine that with the fact that you clearly could not hold Belgium next year without a unit at Holland and I think the risk is worth it to contain a declared enemy in France. You could still move Munich to Berlin/kiel and cut the chances to 50:50 since nobody was in Burgundy yet. Another thing, I like that you were using Denmark to win friends.
1903:
Just looking at the map you basically know Belgium is lost. There is no point in holding it imo. Now Ruhr support move to Burgundy from Munich can change the tide of the battle from a lost unit to a strategically advantageous position, slipping to Gascony or Marseilles or Paris possibly the next turn and most importantly putting France on his heels. One unit behind enemy lines can do significant damage to his progress, he has to commit resources (read units and turns) to stop it.
Italy:
1901:
Not much to say about the first year of a standard lepanto opening. I guess I will say this Congrats! You didn’t violate one of my own golden rules about playing Italy in gunboat – don’t jump Austria. Sure it’s not a hard and fast rule as there are ways to be successful, but a good A/I alliance can carve up R/T pretty good if they stall allying early.
1902:
Oh boy, that pesky Smyrna fleet build stands in your way. This is a tough position as Italy b/c the lepanto when blocked is so slow to start an Italian can lose patience or lose his nerve about France coming his way. You are blocked at East Med, but luckily your ally Austria is on the same page as you.
1903:
You took a risk that Austria was a mind reader, not a bad chance to take since he supported you to East Med the turn before, but unfortunate. However you land at Syria next move. You are in a tough position here. Turkey should have lost Bulgaria by now and the Austrian fleet is gone to help you battle the Turkish fleets. Talk with your TA about the different options you are considering, maybe he can help you see the pros and cons of each and make a risk reward judgment call.
Austria:
1901:
I like the opening. It places full faith in Italy but a lot of folks, me included, prefer to just take that gamble because Austria can really get moving if he’s on board and is often stomped out when he is not. I also really liked your second bounce at Galicia, risky but the reward can be worth it to get the lepanto going properly.
1902:
Again I really liked your moves this year. The cut at Rumania combined with bounce Galicia ensured Serbia was not taken by Turkey and got your fleet to Aegean. You also made a wise choice to support Italy to East Med. I am always careful to watch out for my Italian ally. You don’t want him completely shut out of the action b/c then he just looks to your fertile lands to get that build he wants.
1903:
Now I take issue with your moves here and there were definitely some lost opportunities. You had just supported Italy to East Med and left Trieste open. Everything indicated a good working alliance. Either a double support of GRE to BUL or AEG support TUN to SYM while GRE was supported to BUL would have forced Turkey to have to guess the exact right holds in order to keep all of his centers. In this case you could have seen TUN in SYM and GRE in BUL with the right combination. The bounce at Albania seemed like an unlikely scenario to worry about since the fleet at East Med was deep in Turkish territory. What happened next is Russia/Turkey outguessed you. Once thing I will say, I think it is important to switch up your moves when in a deadlocked position like this. The wonderful thing about Austria is that there are so many combinations to play around with. While the cut Rumania bounce Galicia move is effective to keep the status quo it allows your opponents to think of another way to crack your defenses if they can expect the same move coming. Think about and discuss some alternative strategies with your TA that could give you the upper hand but that have contingency defenses available if they fail.
Turkey:
1901:
Not much to say about the standard Turkish opening and fleet build at Smyrna.
1902:
Exactly what I would have done, except a support of CONS to BUL would have ensured the safety of BUL. You took the risk in order to signal to Russia a juggernaut, but I would argue that moving to Serbia signals that on its own with a lepanto coming your way and the only way the move is successful is with Russian support.
1903:
You took a big risk here to get your fleet out of the black sea. But it paid off and may have saved your game here. You were certainly bailed out by Austria’s miscalculation and Russia taking a risk to cut Serbia for you. Of course now you have the Italian army on your land to worry about, but you have really improved your position.
Russia:
1901:
This is my preferred opening as well minus the move to Finland for the reasons Czech outlined. But hey you got Sweden and Rumania always a good sign for Russia!
1902:
I really like the move in the North to StP and Finland. This put you in a better position to fend off England and you were successful when it came 50:50 guess time. Solid defensive play in the South helped you hold serve while you battle in the north.
1903:
The move Rum-Serb in fall of this year was an excellent gamble that saved your southern allies butt. You are in great position thanks to a French stab on England and the Scandinavian Peninsula should open up for you shortly. Talk with your TA about where you can deploy a future build at Sweden if you are able to capture it. One of the trickiest parts of playing Russia is choosing between fleets and armies and north/south deployment because there is so much ground to cover.

Overall:
Well there is a recap of the first 3 years and hopefully some insights that you can think about in future games. Overall France and Russia I feel are in the best position on the board. With England in deep trouble these two stand to gain a lot. I like Austria’s position next. But the future of Austria depends heavily on how the battle between Italy and Turkey progresses. Turkey has vastly improved his situation and can finally get his head above water for a breath. Germany could be in trouble as well if England falls quickly he will be very vulnerable if he can’t improve his position.

I just went and dug for the old thread to look up this information so I figured I would post here for everyone's reference: The game is anon and only jmo knows which TA is assigned to which student and which student is which country.

Students:
Bo_sox48
Vexx
Socrates Dissatisfied
erist
Avif
Brain Hickey
Breath of Vega

TAs:
Lando Calrissian
achillies27
seth24c
2ndWhiteLine
trip
Barn3tt
thatwasawkward

bump

Well we have spring 1904 season in the books....

NORTH:
In the north we have two main battles between England and Russia in Scandinavia and between France and Germany on their border.

England and Russia swap the territory's of Sweden and Norway. On the plus side for England he got a disband of e Russian tank there, of course he has moved no closer to making a fight over his home centers which 2/3 will be occupied by French fleets at year end unless there is a misorder. I would have liked to see England take advantage of his German neighbors support hold, Germany has been using Denmark to either hold or support English units since 1902. England could be sitting in Sweden and Norway had you gambled on him continuing that support.

Like I said above France is sitting in London and one move from Liverpool, so you can't complain about this round. He also managed to save Belgium with a nice cut. Which brings us to Germany...oh man, I'm sure you are kicking yourself right now for not entering Ruhr to Belgium support from holland. You had one turn to make it happen before Paris closed that gap, now he could have held it with eng chan, but that would mean sacrificing either London or Liverpool for this year. You have to remember that in these close battles with lots of units a lot of times you can accomplish more with a cut or support into one of your own territories than with a traditional support hold or support move. Of course he may have ended up in Ruhr if you went for it, but you'll never make gains or defend against a superior force without taking risks of some kind, the key is calculating what the risk is and what is the best way to mitigate it afterwards if worse comes to worse.

SOUTH:
Lets see we have the Italy turkey battle which resulted in a bounce of fleets and no change in position. However Italy still gets an upper hand as his ally Austria finally breaks into Bulgaria and sends that army packing. Austria congrats on taking Bulgaria. You have greece nicely covered and now you just need to figure out how do I hold onto it and get the most effectiveness from my units. There was no change of positions on the Austrian/Russian border, but now that Russia had a disband in the north Russia and his Southern opponents should keep it in their mind that a build is in reserves and be thinking about where it might pop up. Russia I disagree with sevestapol hold. Either you think Rumania will get through to Budapest (which i'm not sure what im missing but i dont see a purpose to this move) and follow it sev to rum or my preferred action would be to go ahead and take the Black Sea for strategic positioning, if you were there right now you could hold Rumania or help to support turkey back to Bulgaria or even attack turkey if you wanted.

Good luck in the fall everyone!

bump

FALL 1904:

This time I'm going to rank each country based on the position they are in and which I would prefer to take over in order:

1. FRANCE
France is doing very well. His southern border has had no threats yet and he is marching through the English mainland without much opposition at all. I don't understand the move to Ruhr this Fall though, there wasn't even a support move from Belgium to Ruhr so that didn't make any sense and allowed Germany to get Burgundy unnecessarily. However, France has 2 builds coming which should help him clean up any mess from the last turn. I also like France's position regarding his unit distribution, I will be interested to see what he decides for the builds phase and his direction for the next year, he has a lot of options to consider.

2. AUSTRIA
I almost put Austria first, probably because I'm a little biased by the fact I do much better personally with Austria than France. The reason I didn't is because of the layout of the powers. France, Austria, Italy, Germany are all on the rise or staying even while Turkey, England, and Russia have disbands to enter. France has the whole board in front of him while Austria has a growing Italy right on his back. Of course so much can change very quickly in that regard so you never know. Now for Austria's moves in the Fall, I absolutley love it. You looked at the board, you saw 3 enemy units surrounding Bulgaria and only one hold from serbia at your disposal. Now you could have cut Rumania or just gambled that Russia and Turkey wouldn't be able to get on the same page, but the adjustment you made was much better. Turkey is already on his heels while Russia had a potential build in reserve coming so like I said the move to Rumania was excellent, you really cut Russia down.

3. ITALY
As Italy you find yourself in an interesting position between the 2 major powers on the board. What you do in the next 2 years will dictate a lot of how this game will play out. You lucked out grabbing a build this year, but to have a nice gunboat game it usually requires some luck. It's time to strategize about how you will finish off Turkey and what what you will do next with your TA. This build and what you do with it will be important in setting that all in motion.

4. GERMANY
Ranking between Germany and Italy was close, but I gave an edge to Italy mostly because of Germany's poor unit distribution. For the battle you potentially face against France, having mostly armies and just less units than him will make it difficult to put together any offensive strikes, but it can be done. Excellent work capitalizing on an ill-advised French move. The move to Burgundy could do a lot to help you in this stand-off. I also agreed with the move to Sweden, when checking the board before processing and thinking of where I would go with that unit that was my thought as well hoping for English support, of course even if it was there it would have been cut. I guess the better play would have been to support Norway to Sweden, but I can’t blame you – England hasn’t even turned around to help you with France yet and you have build needs as well.

5. RUSSIA
It is really a toss up of the bottom 3, they all are in pretty tough situations. I put Russia 5th because he still has access to 3/4 home centers and with England down to 3 units and a small chance of survival without getting back his homeland he may be able to recover some of his losses in scandanavia. Now the big question here is where does Russia and England disband. Russia really got sandwiched this turn with England continuing his attack towards St. Pete and Austria targeting Russia as well. But I think your position is receoverable because of the pressure England faces from France and Russia's ability to hold off Austria. No doubt Russia will have his fingers crossed for a shake-up in A/I relations. I don't really have any changed for your moves since there wasn't much to be done about it. I will say that support of Turkey should have probably gone to Aegean, but either way it was defendable and Turkey didn't send Aegean that way anyways. I think your situation was more the result of previous moves, was Baltic the best place to retreat Sweden what about ska having access to both Sweden and Norway? Was the disband of Norway an inevitable loss; if so, do you sacrifice Norway for that turn in order to have 3 units available for the next? Just some different thoughts that would have impacted the last 2 phases moves, but as is always true - hindsight is 20:20.

6. ENGLAND
I don't know things are pretty bleak from 4 to 5/6/7. For this ranking I went with who would I most likely want to take over. It's pretty hard to say you would take over a power with only 1 home center left, but the reason I put England above T is because Germany has been friendly and has his hands full while Russia also appears to have his hands full. Of course a lot will depend on which unit England and Russia decide to disband, but with the right combination of events England could possibly salvage his game. You ended up with a nice result in Scandinavia gaining an advantage over Russia this year, but was that a suicide shot on your way out? Or maybe it was a necessary attack to avoid disbanding any more units? It's hard to say if there was any better option.

7. TURKEY
Sorry Turkey, but you round out the bottom of the list. With Russia taking a major blow this year and you facing 2 of the premier powers in Italy/Austria it is not looking good. Also the placement of the units you have left make it difficult to defend. You went for another gamble to try and disband Italy's army...the problem is this was not a likely scenario. Italy was probably either supporting east med or Syria to Smyrna but either way Smyrna’s support gets cut. So as you know now, you gave up a 100% defensible SC, all it took was a hold from Armenia. If you wanted to gamble to improve your position it should have been Armenia support Smyrna to Syria with Aegean moving to Smyrna to bounce. This would have resulted in a bounce with Syria or the disband of Syria and a bounce at Smyrna. If you are going to cut support you have to think about which unit is likely to give the support and where is the greater risk, in this case you had to commit 3 units to stuff this or just 2 with the hold at Armenia. Now, the Aegean unit, to me that is a wasted order. It seemed pretty clear that any support from Aegean would be cut therefore it needed to be utilized with a move. It could either function as the 2nd cut you needed on east med/ the bounce we discussed at Smyrna or it should have been the unit to move to Bulgaria with Constantinople support. You did recover Bulgaria, but that unfortunately looks to be short-lived. It will take some real shake-ups in alliance dynamics to salvage your game, but I've seen it happen before and Turkey is an annoying nut to crack, so hang in there.

There it is, some only have survival on their mind while others should be thinking about the mid/end game dynamics. Good luck next year everyone!

Bump.

Thanks for the commentary, GL.

bump

Sorry I missed the last phase with thanksgiving stuff going on. Planning to post some comments later tonight.

Spring and Fall 1905:

hmm, well it gets harder to find comments as the game plays itself out but here goes nothing. I'll stick with my ranking format for this year.

1. AUSTRIA
Taking the number 1 spot after 1905 I'm going with Austria this time. I've already mentioned my bias for the red country but I really love his positioning at this time. Occupying the strategic strongholds of Galicia and Ukraine is huge. Furthermore he has all of units pushed out to the edges of his sphere of influence and none of his centers are at risk for the next turn. Only 2 powers managed a build this year, and only one managed a true build since italy's was a disband/rebuild. As for this years moves, excellent work! You took the gimme center at Bulgaria and what I really like is that moved to Galicia and then Ukraine in the fall. Russia had left you the teaser openings at sevestapol/warsaw but you wisely didn't fall for it and set yourself up for next year. Going for the teaser open center wis very commonly a bounce situation. I also like that you are still looking out for your friend italy even if it didnt work out.

2. FRANCE
Don't worry France you only dropped one space. You did a very nice job cleaning up your German problem. The double support of Belgium to Burgundy was excellent and subsequently removing Germany from your borders puts you in a great position. No builds this year is no fun, but you did save a unit that was in major danger of falling. Good work!

3. ITALY
I've kept you at number 3 but your position on the board has not improved much unfortunately. It can be challenging to take the turkish homeland. I liked your move in the Spring, but it certainly left you in a tight spot. I'm looking back at the layout trying to see what you saw and theres no obvious win-win situation here. I would have liked to see Austria support Aegean to Constantinople, and you move Ankara to Smyrna with support, but you didnt get that from Austria. The good news is you've got him down to 2 units, the bad news is you are also at 2 units. Now the move to Apulia, what is the purpose? I would say it was precautionary to make sure Austria didn't get any ideas, but Tuscany staying put would have meant if he snuck Trieste into Venice he could have retreated to Rome. Maybe you were just going for a subtle precautionary move expecting that if he came for you it would be with Vienna to Tyrolia first, I understand not wanting to set off any alarms, maybe Tuscany to Rome would have been a compromised position there, but again if I were Austria making a stab there it would be Trieste to Venice Vienna to Tyrolia and if it bounces I would then support, if it doesn't the hold is in place. Well, none of that happened so you are still in a pretty good position, congrats.

4. GERMANY
Oh Germany, tough luck going this year. France beat you out this time. I was going to write outguessed you, but when I looked back it was a 100% winnable SC. A cut on picard and support of Ruhr to Holland would have put you in Belgium and allowed you to retreat to Ruhr. Now you needed to follow this up with a move to North sea to ensure that london didn't move there and take Belgium back in the fall and probably a move to munich with kiel to fill that gap. Very unfortunate you were not able to take it because your positioning is extremely vulnerable now with a fortified french mainland with fleets hovering in the north and a growing Austrian land army to your south. I did not like your move to Sweden in the spring, but i do agree with moving to north sea in the fall with denmark. There could definitely be an argument made for disbanding your army at burgundy and rebuilding a fleet, it would have been risky with Russia in Baltic but your chances of fighting off France are slim with only 1 fleet at your disposal now. You are really dependent on flawless teamwork with England, an attack on France by Italy, or a solo threat arising...or all three.

5. RUSSIA
Not much movement between the bottom 3. Russias position got worse for sure with the Austrian advance to Ukraine and Italy not gaining anymore ground. I just can't argue that Englands got any better. I don't understand the move to Baltic. What was the thought there? Maybe you thought Sweden was lost and you would punish Germany if he was supported in there. But you could have retreated there anyways...so maybe you were thinking of swapping Sweden for Berlin/Kiel. That would not be advisable since it would be easily taken back the next year. I would have much rather seen a move to GoB to consolidate your troops to St. pete if you were going to vacate it. Or staying put since you were moving to livonia to threaten st.pete a cut of a norway hold would have ensured you that SC. I also would have preferred that you took St. pete and left either warsaw or sevestapol to the wolves. The reason I say that is because there is a strong force coming from the south. If Austria comes out as a solo threat in this game he will likely not ever capture St.Pete as one of his 18 centers. If you can hold your ground and slowly consolidate your position to scandanavia/st.pete/moscow you find yourself on the likely stalemate line for Austria and potentially a french solo attempt, that gives you a better chance of surviving for a draw and is one of the reasons I put you in the 5th position on the map. I've probably said too much but that is the reason I would have liked to see you support to St. pete and risk losing sevestapol and possibly sweden. Turns out you kept your units alive which is good, but it didn't change the status quo and your position only got worse.

6. ENGLAND
Your position also got worse. Your hopes for this turn really depended on getting a Germany support to Sweden, unfortunately it didn't come. I'm trying to find a move that would have better, but to be honest I'm not sure there is one. You were successful in keeping edinburg for the time being, but like I said success for this turn was really dependent on Germany. Now you are in a tight position, best of luck next year but I'm afraid you will be cut down to 2 units or less.

7. TURKEY
And then there were 2...tough run mate. That was really the only sensible move you could have made in the spring. There really wasn't a move that could have left you with 3 units that I can see. I guess the good news is you removed the italian army from your land and his position almost depends on austrian support. Right now you are praying for a stab and are desperate to get back to a viable position at 3 centers, its a tough road ahead.

Good luck next year everyone!

52 minutes til Fall update. Been out of town this weekend and on planes all today, but I plan to post comments on 1906 later tonight.

Spring and Fall 1906:

1. FRANCE
Well, I guess Austrias stint at #1 was short-lived. It's pretty close so the rankings are kinda silly but alas I like France right now. France takes care of business getting himself into the North Sea and taking out Edinburgh. It was interesting to see that France has entered support holds to Germany on their border, he could be trying to signal friendship or he could be putting up a diversion we will have to see. I would have liked to see France empty Marseilles opening it up for a build. Whether or not he intends to target Italy it gives France more build options, and if he does want to make a move on Italy a fleet at Brest will take several moves to put into position. But Frances overall position makes him my number 1 pick, plenty of fleets up north to do damage with and no pressure in the south, he is in the driver seat.

2. AUSTRIA
I'm not a fan of your moves this year. You make a move towards Italy which I guess was motivated by fear that he would stab you first. You coupled that with a support hold on turkey in constantinople which makes sense if you are making Italy an enemy. You moved galicia to Budapest probably for an extra unit to hold Trieste...but then you moved everything back! Wasted move. If it was a precautionary move I think it should have been less forceful and galcia should not have moved. There was no need for galcia to move because you the only way Italy got in position for double support on Trieste would have been by getting to Tyrolia, Ard sea, and venice...but you already had the bounce at Tyrolia coming. Once you made that forceful move I would have liked to see you carry it through, because now you find yourself with 3 enemies surrounding you out of position and hoping that Italy is a forgiving "ally". A precautionary move would have been understandable from Italy's perspective but I'm doubting he lets this go unless he sees pressure coming from the west and must address it. This was a common error I have made as Austria, when you don't finish off R/T and then open up an Italian front you have too many spots to cover as Austria and usually not enough fleets to make moves against italy or Turkey. Also I don't understand the support to Albania. You did gain a build at sevestapol, but you still have plenty of armies to command and should be able to fix your situation.

3. ITALY
I can understand why Austria moved your direction. If you intended to move everything south you probably should have built army at naples so you wouldn't provoke Austria to mistrust you. I liked your move on Cons in the spring you probably expected Austrian support like I did. Unfortunately you guys made each other waste moves while France again got in better position which is a major concern for you. You are in better position on the Austrian border than Austria is, but it's debatable whether that is your best move next year. Talk with your TA about your next move.

4. GERMANY
Well lets look at your Spring moves. I did expect to see the move to North Sea supported by Edinburg, but we did know that was easily beaten if France didn't screw things up, so what could have been better? At this point it can definitely be argued that a support of Baltic to Sweden might have been better. England is lost at this point and it could serve you better to have a stronger Russia to make Austrias growth slower. I do not like the self-bounce at kiel. I understand it, but what if France would have supported burgundy to ruhr? That could have resulted in holland being lost. It is interesting to see a bunch of support holds on the German-French border in the fall. Again you did not hold ruhr in the fall, not smart imo.

5. RUSSIA
I liked your move in the Spring to double cut ukraine. You got pretty lucky that Austria took a turn to go backwards and face off with Italy, but unfortunately he came right back at you. It remains to be seen whether you could get some relief from Italy next year, but if so you may be able to hold your position a little longer.

6. TURKEY
Not much to say here...2 units but a nice defensive position since Italy is out of position and a I/A battle would be really nice for you, maybe you could somehow grab that 3rd center back.

7. ENGLAND
Not much to say here, 2 units nowhere close to homecenters. :/

That's it folks. Good luck next year!

bump

Builds:
Only 2 builds on the board. France was expected to be a fleet imo. Only place he could build it as well so it doesn't tell you who his next target is.

Now Austria...concerning the comment where I had questioned your support to Albania. Looking back at the comments later I thought "Maybe I was wrong there" perhaps Austria supported Trieste to Albania to ensure it wasn't bounced there and Trieste was left open...for a FLEET build. Well, I guess not. That could have been a smart move if combined with leaving Vienna in Tyrolia.

Or even better moving Tyroila to Piedmont and trieste to tyrolia with a fleet build could have been deadly. Of course budapest still should have never left galcia imo.

Spring and Fall 1907:

Well it seems like the game is speeding up so I better get some comments down before I get behind a year. No rankings just analysis this time.

FRANCE
Nice job getting into position on Norway.and fleet Brest to MAO was the only move that made sense there imo. You had a real nice set up on Germany as well, faking the support holds in the spring as well as the move to norway, that misorder north sea to belgium really sucks. Lucky for you Germany had an ill-advised move as well, but now it seems italy and austria may have reconciled for the moment so that is also not in your favor.

GERMANY
I'm really bummed to see you didn't get that build at sweden. It was really Englands only move since he was expecting to lose Norway he had to cut you to try and live a little longer. I'm sure you are already beating yourself up about this but Ska to Sweden ensured you had it as long as there was a cut of any hold and it ensured that denmark was not left open for france to take a shot at. Unlucky.

ENGLAND
Nice job holding on for another turn, it looked like you would be out after this year.

ITALY
Well you gave up Smyrna and put yourself in position to take Trieste. I can see why you backed off and it might have been a smart decision to reconcile. I would have liked to see Tyrolia to piedmont with adriatic holding venice and venice holding trieste if you are committing to going that way. I'm really surprised to see Trieste left empty. In hindsight Aegean to symrna would have kept your build and you could have moved Adr to Ionian and tyrolia to piedmont. This is an important disband since unit distribution can be a real burden on italy so choose wisely.

RUSSIA
Not much to say but that was an unlucky guess. It was a 50:50 so the coin just flipped the wrong way.

AUSTRIA
Trieste was definitely lost, and maybe you moved Trieste to Budapest to signal to Italy you wanted no more fighting. Well, turns out you got the best of both worlds, Italy apparently wants to reconcile as well and you were successful in your 50:50 guess with Russia, so congrats! Unfortunately Turkey is back to a viable position and you are not in a great position to take him down.

TURKEY
Of the whole board your results were the best! 3 units puts you back in a viable position. I have your next moves in mind already and I'm looking foward to see how you handle this new lease on life. You could very well see yourself survive to a draw if the right things happen on the board. Congrats!

Builds/Disbands:

Turkey - that is exactly what I would have done. Having a fleet at Ankara is a pain in the ass. Perhaps you could have shifted them all, but with Italy retreating from your waters you should be okay for the time begin with only 1 fleet.

Russia - not many options there. No comment.

Italy - I was surprised to see a disband at Ionian I was expecting to see either Tyrolia or Adriatic. I don't understand the flip-flopping here, no attack on Austria then an unfavorable disband, maybe you were expecting a fleet build, i dont know. Its a really tough position to be in the middle of 2 super powers.

Austria - hmm, I didn't see the board prior to update so I'm not sure if you missed your turn or you purposefully deferred the build. I'm doubting that you missed your turn, so now I'm wondering what was the purpose for a deferred build. I'm thinking either you didn't want to scare italy and wished to keep that border friendly and attempted to show it that way. Or maybe unlikely but you could be signaling italy to lease trieste for a borrowed build to take on France. Probably not though, it would be difficult to allow a home center to another player, but it could certainly be beneficial as long as he didn't press further into your territory. But I would have rather seen a fleet build at Trieste. You are gonna have a very hard time with Turkey since you have no fleets. He can keep you out for good and eats up your units availability to advance since they have to stay back in case bulgaria/rumania/sevestapol/greece are threatened. If you were worried about spooking italy you could have moved the fleet to albania immediately and threw up support holds/backed off that border to show no ill-will.

bump

Alright guys I've been slacking, time to catch up.

Spring and Fall 1908:

North:
Well, France put himself right at Germany's front door as was suspected after the misorder on Holland. Helgio Bright is such a clutch position to take especially when the German lacks any fleets to defend with it is almost impossible to hold him back. I like the move in the Fall to support belgium to holland and picard to belgium, it puts his tanks in better position to cause havoc. France grabs 2 builds and is clearly leading the board now.

England made a break for St. Pete and you can't blame him there b/c his time was clearly up for camping in Scandanavia. The capture of St.pete was a necessity to live another turn, I would have rather seen him take St. pete with his army though, just because it is more useful but it's really a bleak situation anyways.

Germany had a rough year in 1908. His position was hopeless to hold out France with Fleets ahead and a reinforced land border. Grabbing Sweden limited the damage temporarily. You knew holland was lost so I can't argue with your series of bounces to ensure Russia didn't really wreck your day.

South:
Well Turkey moved as expected and I am sure Austria is still pissed off at himself for moving on Italy, that turned out to ensure Turkey was a headache for years to come and almost certainly a part of a draw if there is one. Lucky Turk, :)

Austria did a good job finishing off Russia. There wasn't really anything the Russian could do about it. He again moves away from Italy maybe just hoping that it's a one center rental, but a very nice guess leaves Italy with only 1 additional build and a build at Budapest helps to shore up that soft spot a bit.

Italy decides that Trieste is going to be his, I continue to be confused by this relationship. First you spare Trieste then you attack, I think you may take just Trieste for a build and you take a shot at Vienna. I think Italy wisely moved his fleet back to Ionian and to Western Med, clearly the French attacks will progress quickly now and his fleets will be looking for new victims. However, I am curious about the tank build which again adds to my confusion of these relations. Perhaps you will continue to attack Austria or felt you needed another hold there to ensure you keep Trieste. Of course a fleet could have done that at venice and been useful for turning around once France does turn your way.

This game is beginning to transition from mid-game to end-game. It's time to really start thinking about how you see this wrapping up. Imo France has the only legitimate solo shot although at 11 centers it's not a significant threat yet. But everyone knows how to count to 18 so think about how that has to happen.

Spring 1909:

North:
France takes the important strategic position of Ruhr and looks to be moving himself towards a shot at the Med. He should get 2 more german centers this fall. He's also moving into piedmont and is taking his shot at this solo attempt.

Germany, holding Ruhr was very unlikely, I would have rather seen you move it to munich or leave munich open so that it had a space to retreat to if the hold didn't work. Right now you are looking at surviving to the draw. The most pivotal centers on the board are Munich and Berlin imo since they are typically the swinging point between a solo for the north or the south.

England...no move, I expected to see you take a shot at norway even if unsuccessful. Obviously Austria has his hands full and is not worried about capturing St.Pete. I guess I do understand staying put hoping that Austria will hold you there later on, but St. Pete is impossible to hold from the South, so unfortunately your chances of survival are least likely imo.

South:
Again with the Italian changing course. Why not signal no harm by building a fleet in naples last build? Now you are in deep crap, it may be 2v2 fleets right now but we all know France has more to come and more builds on the way. 2 fleets to stalemate the Med is...impossible...and where does that magic 18th center come from? Some would say Tunis.

Austria, phew Italy isn't going to keep coming at you...well at least I think he's not lol, who knows with this guy. Now what is next? Obviously you can't get to Turkey, why not throw up a hold to signal him "hey you made it to the draw, no hard feelings - now please back off me! lol"

So Turkey, you can hold Austria out indefinitely and he can hold you out indefinitely. So what do you do now? Keep trying for another center for security? Move positions to exit Black sea? I don't know it is up to you.

I don't mean to influence anyone's moves with comments this round, but the purpose of the comments is to see how someone else reads the board in a gunboat game and gather some insights into better tactical moves that could have been done. When I look at this board I'm seeing a real threat of a French solo developing. The first thing I did was start counting to 18 to see where those magic 18 would/could come from. This is something you should always be aware of, with no ability to talk in gunboat it can take several moves to quiet a front and ban together to stop a solo, and it can be very difficult to hold a stalemate line that is comprised of many different players. You must be aware of other players signals, aware of the strategic spots on the board that allow stalemates, and constantly assess where any holes in your line may be. It is so much easier to stalemate with your own units than to do it as a team, and if you are the guy attempting the solo I've heard many great gunboaters say they love leaving around ~2 unit powers, because it makes communication so much more difficult and those powers are more worried about being eliminated than helping out until the last minute. That's all I've got for now.

Hello friends.

Fall 1909:

I saw exactly what I expected to see from France in the north with the capture of Kiel and Denmark. But i like what Germany has done with the situation, bouncing Sweden and getting his fleet to Baltic. Baltic is a major strategic position at this point in the game. Although England did support you to Norway and you could have had 4 centers, but I wasn't expecting any support after he enter hold last phase. Plus being in Baltic is probably better anyways.

Italy did a good job cleaning up his mainland. Took a risk that Austria would hold Munich and France wouldn't go for it and it worked out for you. Now how do you stop France from advancing on you? Do you know where you need units positioned? Analyze this with your TA.

Austria, I think it's overly cautious at this point to be holding there. You won't be eliminated at this point. I wanted to see your units rush the stalemate border and beat France there.

That is really all I have right now. It's becoming difficult to post more comments because I don't want to influence this crucial time. Everyone should be in contact with their TAs bc setting up a stalemate line in gunboat and being able to break through/ disrupt a stalemate are critical skills to secure your place in a draw or push yourself to that solo victory.

I will say that I'm predicting a French solo at this point. He has been playing very well all game with very few mistakes and look at the board, there are still six players alive and kicking. That will make communication very difficult. Each player may have a different plan in their head for what is the best move to stop the threat and they have to get those on the same page, it can be quite difficult.

Hi, Gen. Lee, Your recent post did not mention Turkey at all. Can you discuss what role you think Turkey will have/should have on the game as it plays out?

Yes I can but I kind of left him out because I felt it would be too leading to be honest. I hinted at this in my last comments, turkey is safe right now. He cannot possibly be eliminated by Austria bc of the lack of fleets. So what is turkeys role in this game right now? He has secured his position to b included within the draw.....IF there is a draw!

So, how can turkey help ensure that there is a draw? I see two options. Either continue the moves you have been entering to grab another center and build a fleet, which is dependent on austria allowing it, or take your fleet in Black Sea and move it out to help stuff the French advance in the Mediterranean. Remember that we looked at the French path to a solo and the major opposition to that occurring are capturing Tunis, Munich, and Berlin. If he can't get Munich and Berlin he needs Rome and Naples. And if he can't get Tunis or further he needs Warsaw and Moscow which is nearly impossible. It is impossible to stalemate the med with only the 2 fleets Italy has.

So that is how I see turkeys role and I think it is alright to comment on since it came in question form. When looking at the board from the east powers perspective here are some questions you should be thinking of after determining which centers are France's likely path to 18.

How many units will it take to stalemate the north? To stalemate the med? And where are the positions I need to beat France to, to ensure that happens? Sometimes losing a center is less important than getting into a strategic stronghold, even abandonment can be advisable in the right situation.

What kind of unit distribution will we need to stalemate? Do we have the right distribution and if not how can we change that? How can I communicate most effectively with the other powers my intentions?

Please discuss with your TAs all of these considerations, if there turns out to be a French solo I want to see it be because he earned it against a challenging defense.

Good luck everyone, any of you experienced ppl feel free to pm me or comment/ ask questions if you feel I am missing something, thanks lando.

Sorry I meant Warsaw OR* Moscow. Which is typically just Warsaw, and very difficult.

I am going to need a pause starting on Thursday (the 27th) until the 6th of January. I know it is over a week but I hope that is ok.

It's ok for me.

bump?

Is it a bump? You tell me, you posted.

Guys I'm at the hospital and our C section scheduled for January 7th got moved up to 4:00 today. I doubt ill be posting any comments in the next 2 days at least. I hope that someone could sub in for me for to cover a year? Perhaps the TAs could help in asking some friends to take a shot at it.