WINTER 1907

England--I put in for a fleet build because I knew you'd do it, I personally think you needed the army. There's going to come a time when your fleets will simply become congested.

France--nice build. I think you'll find that fleet pretty handy.

Germany--ouch, I hope there was some diplomacy that caused the Gas disband because to me, that was your best piece.

Agreed on all counts there. I find that after 4 fleets as any country you should really start building armies. While this isn't true in every case you should make sure to take a minute after you have 4 fleets to really consider whether another fleet is going to do any good long term. In this case I think an army would have been more effective for England.

I've noticed that English players that are fleet-happy are that way because of a short-term necessity. They frequently move to attack Russia or France and then find that all their fleets are pushed to one side leaving vacant sea zones and then build additional fleets instead of recalling them the other direction.

If an English player is careful, they will see the end of a foe in the not-too-distant future and begin to call fleets home slowly to change direction quickly, and if it's well-planned, their new target won't really notice, or if they do, they'll be in a position to be forced to trust they won't come his way while they're busy with another player. This kind of fleet movement requires a bit of extended foresight on the part of the player and can be tough to do.

I understand the need to build fleets when you've already got plenty, but it's an urge you have to consciously fight.

I'm on planes most of the next couple of days, but I think it's worth mentioning here that I would have made the same build England did. Having too many fleets is definitely something to be concerned about in general, but in this particluar game, I would have built F Lon, and there are ways I could imagine the game developing in which I would be happy to be a 7-fleet, 2-army England and feel it the correct disposition of my forces. There are also ways I could imagine the game developing in which I'd really want the army immediately. I will be interested to see how England uses this fleet, and I recommend we come back to this discussion in two and four turns and evaluate at that point whether it was a good choice.

So if all the players agree, and I hope you do, I would like to take everyone's messages at the end of the game and have them compiled into years. Tru has agreed to do this if everyone's willing. It would let other players give all the students advice on how they might want to approach their press in the future or help explain why some turns weren't that effective. Students can post in reply to this topic here without breaking the rules. Please let me know here or by pm.

i can do that, I think it would be interesting to know what press was going on in this game, that helped drive some of the moves and builds, and listen to everyones opinions about it.

I agree

If anyone who will agree to this would send their press to [email protected] once they are eliminated or the game is over, that would be great.

SPRING 1908
I do believe this game is back into 4-way draw mode with two countries having just a final few seasons left on the map. Support holds and support moves have generally indicated the flow of the game so I'll see what becomes of the next year.

England--Still on top and expecting another build from a German center, I still feel you're missing some play left in your game. As a general rule, once a game looks as if a 4-way or 3-way will play out, I don't believe in whittling a draw for a scant few GR points, but if I believe working on whittling a draw will allow me the opportunity to solo, then I'm all for it. The biggest and undisputed key that a player has to have in order to solo is to have an open eye for opportunity. Frequently, the window of opportunity is so subtle, it can be overlooked by those that don't know what to look for, or more importantly, how to set one up. In order to solo, a player has to play in both sides of the board and you have to prepare other players for your solo opportunity in a way that theu welcome it, but don't see it as it is. Often, this takes form in talking to those in a crippled position, or have the ability to lock you out to simply allow you into spaces critical to success because your being there serves a greater benefit to them in the present. In other words, you want to find the guy who is so selfish that all he cares about is that he gets out of whatever situation he's in and he doesn't care or see that it could mean you could win. All of us hit that selfish stage under the right conditions, and I believe that in every map, someone is always at that point. That doesn't mean that the guy in that position is in any place to "help" you solo, but someone is always at that juncture, beginning with the first attacks on the board. These are the subtle things you have to begin to key in on that I think you're missing. That, and having the right units in the right spots.

Austria--If you take a build this season, you will have solidified your spot in second and won't have to worry about moving downward, especially if France drops one as a result. I really liked the use of Apu to take Nap instead of the ION because had you used the ION, it would have bounced. It was still a good call for France to make by storming the ION, but it was even better for you to out-wit him at it. I'm kinda 50-50 about the support of Ber. On the one hand, it's the way to go if you don't have any intention of working with Germany, and I agree with the decision to not do so because he ditched a pretty vital unit for you, but I hope that this season doesn't result in you gaining Nap and losing elsewhere along the Turkish border. There are always things at stake, and sometimes a set of moves is a big gamble. I'm going to leave this alone instead of going into detail and will confer some additional thoughts with the other profs to see how much we are in agreement. On another note, it was quite a gamble to not cover Tyr, but it clearly didn't lead to anything. As I said in a prior year to Frqnce, Tyr is one of those key zones. In the mid and late game, someone is almost always in it, or trying to fight for it, and in my opinion, it's one of the non-center power zones. Just a warning to be careful.

Russia--I believe pretty strongly that you've moved up. I really like your position, and not by any small margin. You could very well be a contender for second place. First off, if you just play conservatively, you've got 2 builds coming to you, and if you play things really well, you could have 3. You also have a lot of future potential. I won't count your chickens before they hatch, so we will see how the Fall fares for you, because you could still only have one build coming to you.

France--Your slide down one spot was more due to circumstance and a well-played Austrian move more than anything, but not entirely. Part of your fall comes from the loss of Nap whereby you don't stand to gain anything to take its place. Another (hefty) part has to do with your dependent position. There are several things that could go sour for you and cripple your world. There's a time to cut your losses, and I believe that time is here. The biggest mistake was not in your ION move, because I'd have done the same thing assuminv Austria would double-support ION in, but it comes in the move A Pie--holds. You had a huge opportunity to try for Tyr and you missed it. Had you been there, Austria would have been sweatting his balls off because you can play for Mun, Vie, Tri and if coupled with Mar-Pie, you'd have the option to try for Ven, which would have been a guarantee, plus put you in control of the boot. Now, I think your best move was to pick Germany up as an ally. Hopefully things go well this fall, because there's a lot that could occur.

Germany--Well, it looks like you'll lose a couple more this year. It's good that you nabbed a French ally, but it might be too little, too late. I can see why you opted to disband the army, and if that was your one shot at survival, I say that you made the right call. I know it was a tough choice to make. I really feel for ya.Hopefully things will continue to shift around the board to keep your chances alive.

Turkey--Nice move! This means you'll still have that army around for another year. Very well played.

Spring 1908 Commentary

This turn, let's focus on tactics. I'm going to try and point out a decision I might have made differently as each player, basically a stronger choice for how to try and accomplish the same goals. Remember, superior tactics tends to beat superior numbers in Diplomacy. So, let's go alphabetically...

Austria: You made the decision to take Naples, and were willing to give up the Ionian to do so. Given the availability of a retreat to Greece, this is a reasonable choice. However, you did this in a way that risked not getting Naples, when you could have forced it: ION - TYS, Apu S Rom - Nap, Tus - Rom. This would also have had the advantage of giving you a mobile fleet in Apulia to cover Adriatic, rather than an immobile garrison in Naples. One of the lessons here: if a unit is likely to be dislodged anyway, use it to cut a support, not to support.

England: Nothing major went wrong here, but I dislike Sweden to Denmark on general principles, beacuse you now have an army in Denmark rather than a fleet. Armies in Denmark can influence just two other territories -- only Portugal is a worse place for an army. Fleets in Denmark are quite powerful, influencing six neighbors. Presumably you'll attempt to put that army through to Kiel as a way of solving this problem, but in return you have telegraphed your intentions, making your tactics for the upcoming turn entirely predictable. That often ends poorly. Finally, having decided to build the fleet instead of the army, you need to get maximal use out of the two you've got. NWG - BAR, StP - Nwy would have been a good way of setting up a swap, whereas now you cannot swap this turn except through Finland, which isn't all that much closer to someplace useful. The main lesson here: Put fleets in places that have a lot of sea borders and armies in places that have a lot of land borders. We'll see whether predictability ends up being a problem for you or not this coming turn.

France: Mar S Pie: what's the idea here? If you lose Piedmont, you defend against successfully just by holding in Marseilles, so Piedmont is currently a useless unit. Fortunately, your passive play with it is about to be rewarded by a disband. :) In fact, there's a good chance that if Piedmont was dislodged, it would have a valuable retreat -- Mar *not* supporting Piedmont would have been the smarter play, and Pie - Tyrolia much better. The lesson: with a very limited number of units, it's important to get maximal use out of the units you've got, so make every one count. And sometimes being forced to retreat isn't such a bad thing, if it comes to that.

Germany: Given the tactics you choice, I don't understand your disband. If the goal was to hold Berlin, you needed to keep Berlin on the board, presumably at the expense of Holland. If, instead, the goal was to keep Kiel, then Kie - Ber risked losing it. And, if the goal was to get an army instead of a fleet into Kiel (a good idea -- see the lesson for England), then Kie - HEL was the best chance not to bounce (as it turns out, it would have bounced, but then that's why you disband Kie if you're that desperate to try and swing at Munich). The lesson here: When you have a decision for builds/disbands, decide what you might order next Spring before submitting the adjustments. You'll have to put that time in anyway, but looking ahead might convince you that a different set of adjustments makes more sense.

Russia: You picked a combination that, no matter what Turkey ordered, could not possibly leave you in a position to prevent him from staying alive, and still has a possibility, albeit slim, of letting him get a second center. Think about some combinations that would let you eliminate him. A Ank, F Con, with Turkey in Smyrna would work, for example -- there are several others. If it turns out that you negotiated this, I'll apologize, but if you are truly hostile to Turkey and trying to eliminate him, you took what should have been a guessing game and turned it into and automatic loss.

Turkey: You picked a reasonable guess, so no complaints here. I think I might have made a different guess myself, but it was legitimately a guess, and Ank - Con, Arm - Ank was always a possibility. I hope you were aware that you could be eliminated this year if Russia guesses right (for example, Arm - Smy, Ank H, and Austria or Russia covers Bulgaria in the Fall). But, you had to take a guess, and you're going to live to see another year -- well done!

bump

FALL 1908
This spring held a number of developments, including builds from the prior season, that indicate additional change and a definite sway from what would have been a series of dull seasons. I will also say that the orders finalizing is preventing me from adequately commenting as I get the ability. It doesn't bother me that you all finalize, just know that it could mean I miss commentary for various phases.

Russia: While my view of the southern situation is different from that of CS, I will start by discussing that, and then get to the Austrian stab. I believe you have the top spot on the map because you currently have the best current unit-setup to turn something mediocre into something big. Starting with the Turkish situation, my guess is that you weren't trying to eliminate Turkey this season, but it appears that you were offering him a move to Bul, and/or expected him to bite on one. Your clear motivation was more the Austrian stab that will have changed the layout of the endgame in a pretty major way. However, I do agree with CS in that if your goal was to eliminate Turkey, there were far better ways to go about it, including keeping your fleet in Ank in the spring and supporting your army into Con in the fall, thus forcing Turkey out of the game between your three southern units, or at least into Rum. Now, there are great stabs and bad ones. Really bad stabs are those that are botched or end up with the other guy not losing anything and you not gaining anything. Great stabs are those that see you going up and your opponent going down or those that set themselves up for future stabs. This one was more in-between. I do agree with it, but there were essentially two ways I see you could have gone about it. The preferred method would have been to talk to Austria and convince him that you would cover Bul against Turkey with your fleet and Rum army, talk to Turkey about not moving there and making it worth his while, and then moving A Rum-Bul and F BLA-Ank. You could have used the excuse that you made a last-minute decision to cover Ank in case Turkey attacked there and that you were using Rum to bounce him and you took Rum by "accident" and that you'll make it up to him with a build. Going about the stab in this way nets you one center, only irritates Austria but doesn't cue him in on the stab and forces him to continue to focus on stopping France. Any time you can stab someone and lace it with a lie that allows you to setup for another stab is really, in my opinion, the best way to go about it. The other way to stab would have been for BLA to also go to Rum and simply talk Turkey into not going there. At this point, Turkey is most likely apathetic as to what's going on and he's not likely talking to anyone and only marginally interested in making short-term deals. He probably logs on, fills in an order if he has to in order to stay alive, and then goes on to another game or logs off. If you can go up while Austria goes down, that's the best benefit. At this point, there's a pretty good possibility that he will throw everything he has at you and ignore the EF which tips the scale in someone else's favor, and all you really got was one center from the deal in exchange for a new enemy. Now, I'd have still stabbed Austria myself, so I'm not going to criticize your efforts on that. I also think that your second build should have been a fleet in Sev and not another army. You'll need fleets pretty soon.

England--You're in a really strong second place. I still really disagree with the production of fleets but I think that the double army build has been your best build phase yet. It appears as if this game could come down to a race to solo. I'm surprised to see Russia support you into Kiel, but I expect to see the moves both you and Russia put on really change some things on the board and alter some alliances.

France--Excellent moves this season, although I expect the dynamic of the board to change quite a bit in the next season. Although if things play out really well, between yours and Russia's units, you both can make quick work of him. It's up to you to decide what to make of last season's moves and builds and go from there.

Austria--Well, I figured there might have been a Russian stab in the works, and that in addition to your regular failure to not secure Tyrolia, you've gone down in the rankings. There's no telling what next season may hold because there are sevearl changes that have been made that definitely indicate some things to come, but if some of those changes aren't made, you're going to be in a world of hurt. There was no reasons to support a hold on Ven and you could have at least spent some effort to support Tus to Pie. That would have locked France out instead of allowing him regular progress against you. Now just about every center you control is threatened and you've got two guys looking to take them.

Fall 1908:

I felt it was inappropriate to say this last phase, but part of what I was hinting at with the Russia/Turkey dynamic is that a Russian stab of Austria was likely coming (and probably long overdue). Not wanting to spoil the game is part of why I chose to focus on tactics, so I think now it's time to talk about the nature of stabs.

The most obvious change on the board this season was the Russian stab of Austria. It was a clumsy stab, done in a situation that was screaming for a stab to the point that a clumsy stab will work, but nevertheless should have been more effective. How could it have been more effective?

For one thing, Bulgaria should not be Austrian. At the very least, Russia should have taken it, but an opportunity was really missed here by Turkey as well. It was clear from the board last turn that regardless of whether Ukr - Rum was made with a stab in mind, a stab was surely forthcoming. The offer should have then been made: Turkey will go to Bul, in return Russia will vacate Smyrna (and put that army in Con), and in return for that, Turkey will build F Smy instead of A Smy and operate against Greece. Who says no to that offer? A Turkish F Smy is vastly more useful to Russia than his own units, and is never a threat to Russian security. Without fleets in the Med, Russia can't hope to solo anyway, after all, and so he's still playing for a draw (one of the other problems with this stab).

Barring this agreement, Russia needed to cover Bulgaria, not Rumania. If Austria sends Gal - Rum, it's still +1 for the turn, but otherwise +2 and with an Austrian disband.

Now, the larger problem -- what does this mean for the dynamics on the board? As part of this move, England and Russia made peace. England currently has no declared enemies and has two neighbors that have committed all of their units against Austria and are vulnerable. Presumably, England will pick at least one neighbor to fight (if not both -- the E/A vs. F/R dynamic would be interesting as well, and might well be the best choice. England is current set up to send armies to Norway, StP, Brest, and Livonia in the coming turn, for example). Which will it be? If it's Russia, the Russian stab just bought himself a two-front war, where he'll be badly outnumbered and where that lone Turkish unit is hostile (with a build and F Smy, it wouldn't have been). If it's France, Austria now has a one-front war, not two-front, a de facto Turkish ally, and now Russia is looking at an even battle, possibly one in which Austria gets a build or two out of France, but otherwise one in which Russia is going to lose a lot around Turkey.

Meanwhile, what of the Austrian position after the stab? One of the key maxims from Sun Tzu is 围兵必阙, and something worth taking to heart. Austria's current fate is to die, with no way out. As Austria, then, how do you break this up? Like I recommended to Germany, you should ensure that only one of your neighbors makes all of the gains, because that will force the other one to look for a new situation, while it will force the *neighbors of that neighbor* to suddenly worry. Dying slowly, predictably, and with an even split on all sides, like Germany did, means dying. Die surprisingly, unevenly, and you might be only half-dead or better when somebody turns around. And, again, England is your de facto ally here, because England needs to use his forces against somebody, and they're well positioned to attack everybody other than you.

I haven't mentioned France much this turn, but I'll add a quick point here -- disbanding Western Med essentially means that you cannot defend yourself against an English stab. You're now 100% committed to winning the Austrian war and getting builds before England attacks you. Was that the right call? If England in this position chooses to attack Russia, and you get the gains from Austria anyway, absolutely. If not, not. We'll see!

[Sorry for the fragmented comments, but this week is a pain in terms of travel, and in any event I try to focus on something different than TruNinja is focusing on. Good luck this turn!]

I really agree with CS, especially in part of the Russian stab, although witj a lacidasical Turkey, if he was nonresponsive, I say the best way to stab was to mask it under an offer to Audtria of genuine help in covering Rum. I do strongly agree that Rum should not have been under Austrian control. Sometimes you do want to surge ahead and cross the line while ignoring centers behind you, but that's so you can get across the line. Here, the last thing you want is to backtrack to pick up a center when your units should surge forward.

I have two thoughts: First, I want to again point to Austria's choice not to take Rumania in Autumn 1907. That is why Russia stabbed this year. I honestly think that if y'all take anything away from this game, it should be how that (non) move affected the Austria/Russia/France dynamic.

For my new move-that-I-wish-had-happened I will point to Russia's unit in Berlin. CSteinhardt is right that if he were trying to make a back-breaking move on Austria, his best choice was probably recruiting Turkey in the way that was described. But the move with the unit in Berlin is just as important. Berlin absolutely should not have supported England into Kiel. A good choice would have been to simply support Kiel's hold, perhaps even better would have been supporting Austria's move to Kiel (!).

What is important to understand about the end game is that the balance between the importance of alliances versus tactical position starts to shift toward tactics. England is not your ally, and helping him to Kiel only gives him the ability to take Berlin by himself if he wants, and nets you nothing.

Bump

Ill get to commentary tonight

That was one heck of a turn.

France, that was not a good turn. There wasn't much you could do against England once you disbanded that fleet in the Western Med and you saw 2 army builds. However, the moves in the east could have been much better. You had Trieste guaranteed, and you desperately needed it after the disband. You should have supported Tyrolia into Trieste with the Adriatic. The choice to try for Venice wasn't terrible in itself but it should have been accompanied by using Tyrr Sea to hit Rome. The reason for this is that Rome was going to be supporting Venice no matter what. Right now your best option is a lot of diplomacy with Russia and Austria. You are going to lose 2 centers this turn and at least 1 more next turn so find a way to make yourself essential to the end game.

Austria: You had a stroke of luck with outguessing every one of Frances moves, but Russia didn't support himself into Bulgaria like you expected so giving turkey one of your centers is going to hurt some. England's stab of France gives you some negotiating room and is probably going to let you concentrate your units against Russia.

Russia: Not a bad play with England, but you need to make sure that you are able to grow at the same rate as your allies and at the moment that doesn't look like it's going to happen. You have to make a choice this turn or next that is going to completely change the result of the game. Neither choice is necessarily wrong, just make sure you figure out where this game is going with your TA quickly.

turkey: spring 08 I would have preferred to see you stay in Ankara, I think you would have a build coming now if you had, but you're still in a decent position and I congratulate you for holding on as long as you have. A lot of people quit when they are down to a center, but this is one of the best times to practice the raw tactics of the game and to learn how to win guessing games when there isn't much on the line.

England: That was well done. There are always one or 2 in a game that you must act on if you want a chance at anything more then a 3 or 4 way draw. That was one of those turns. With Frances disband in the Western Med and 2 army builds you couldn't have set that up better. Getting both of those armies into play in one turn was beyond key and again well done with that. You will be getting 2 builds this turn and at least 1 next year, probably more.

I'll probably add more later, I just had a few minutes open now and wanted to get at least some quick commentary out. I expect the rest of the professors are going to have a field day with this turn as well.

* 2 (p o i n t s)

Bump

SPRING 1909
Wow what a season! There's quite a bit to talk about, here. I know I say that about every season, but there are some truely meaty chunks. I hope everyone straps on their running shoes, so let's get rolling.

England--I can't possibly dispute your top-of-the-board season. You timed your stab wonderfully, and it paid off big-time! The builds were great last build phase, the lies you must have been telling France were great, your position going into this season was great, and so was your follow-through. You managed to stab France for two, which, given his position is going to be the best stab all game. As jmo said, it was a great move to convoy both armies to French territory. Most of the time, I prefer my stabs to come in the fall, but this stab was best pulled off in the Spring because your fall moves won't really contain additional growth, but rather will be used to set yourself up for the coming year.

Russia--Well, you dropped a bit but not far. I still really like your position as you've set yourself up for at least one build, possibly two, although I won't count any chickens before they hatch. I like the moves you made with your southern fleet. It should have been in the BLA this whole time with an army in Rum, but as it stands, it's back to where it should be. I will say, though, that I believe very strongly that you're neglecting some other areas that will very soon be vital to this game and you should be talking to several players at current because you have the ability to take advantage of some situations on the map and if you allow it to slip by, could mean a bigger difference than you want to see. With Austria supporting Turkey, you'll still have 10 units to square off against and I highly doubt that Austria will have to worry about France any longer, meaning that your 9 will fight a combined force of 10, but you have some measure of advantage in that your 9 are all controlled by you and I will almost always prefer to have that kind of advantage because that's a big part of how solos are made--having a fractured group of players trying to stop you. The more people you have in the mix, the less cohesive they are and there's a bigger chance for a misorder, NMR, miscommunication, or a host of problems that simply aren't there, or there to the degree that they are when one player controls all the units. Let's see what kind of advantage you're working with once the Fall season comes to a close.

Austria--This was a really great season for you! The English stab of the French means that you'll have far less to worry about. That, combined with the addition of the Turkish army will no doubt help your cause. You'll still have to put a lot of thought into this next season's moves in addition to putting in extra time at the diplomatic table to sort through the muck. I have to really applaud you for your efforts at pushing back the French. You picked a great series of moves and it will have been worth far more than just one season's protection. Your biggest fear is how to regain some of your footing. You should be spending some time to try to out-think Russia because this season will be about making sure you have some points of advantage going into next year.

France--Well, the bad disband and double-armies of England should have been screaming "stab" in your head. In the stock market, they say that you should never put everything you have into one company, and the same holds true here. Everything you had was banking on gains from Austria. So much so that you neglected your home front with an English fleet in the ENG, and two army builds you knew had to strike land someplace. Given the fact that England has a fleet stationed on StP nc and Russia supported England into Kiel, this should have given you the notion that you would be the next target. In fact, I sent a message to CS about this very thing and I will copy-paste a portion of it below:
"My guess for the SoW is that England stabs France. The fleet in StP and recall of the army (a wasted series of moves because he didn't think long-term) indicate that it won't be Russia."
These are the sort of things you should be looking for when you're playing this game. Ask yourself "what does England plan with those two armies? Where will they make landfall? Does his current position back up that claim? Do I have enough units in place in the right spots if I'm really the target?" If you ask yourself these sorts of questions, you'll be the target of fewer stabs in the future. Now, I mentioned that you had a lot of stock in taking an Austrian center. You had either Tri or Ven locked up as a guarantee, but greed set you back. Now, you stand to lose two and possibly gain nothing to counter those losses. In addition, you've got essentially no units in place to repel the English assault. My advice to you without going into great detail is to keep a level head and select the course of action that will net you the best defense.

Turkey--I'm glad to see you have an ally in this mess. I think that this next few seasons could possibly be an upswing for you. Unlike jmo, I like the move to Bul this season. It gives you a lot of capabilities that being in Con does not. You've taken Austria's offer of help, and it's going to mean that you'll have to try to deliver. I'm sure Austria performed the support in the chance that Russia tried to support himself into Rum, however, all is not lost and both of you could work well together for a while.

Bump

I'm going to go to sleep now, but I will likely write a post some time tomorrow or the next day about why England should have stabbed France a year earlier (or even two years earlier) or a year later but almost certainly not when he did.

bump

I've been on airplanes most of the last couple of days, will be for another couple of days, and will rejoin the conversation when I'm back home. Sorry about that!

Ill comment tonight. Sorry for the delay.

I just don't like seeing it drop off the first page...

FALL & WINTER 1909
This season was a good year for one player, a less-than-stellar year for a few more and a great start/bad finish for the last. Having seen uclabb's post, I can already say that I agree with most of it already, and I'll wait to see what he posts before discussing much of my opinions.

England--This was a pretty good year for you, you netted two builds and a stronger position against France. In the years to come, I expect that you will be able to take most of the remainder of his centers, up to and including German centers. I do not, however, believe that you'll make it past Iberia. As I posted in earlier portions of the game, you barred yourself out of Russian areas by having a fleet in StP instead of an army at critical points, German passage was barred by a lack of an army presence on the mainland, and Iberia was, in my opinion, your only shot. I believe that this has now been closed to you. It can take up 3 fleets to lock it down and bar you access to the east and France has two fleets there already, and in order to force them to need more fleets, you'd need to have fleets positioned in the east already, and you simply don't have that. This means that your good year was simply that--good.

Russia--Your year started off really good and I expected that you would have a great finish, but things went sour in the fall. jmo sent me a message about not liking the build, and I agreed with that assessment. My thoughts were simply that it looked good in theory but it was missing elements to be really effective. Your fall moves played a big part in that decision. My guess is that you expected a convoy from Nwy to Germany for England and that didn't happen and the movement to Warsaw was to simply cover it from an Austrian move. However, the first issue came at the fact you gained 2 builds but can only place one on the map. Had you not moved Ukr-Mos, your army build could have been placed in Mos and would have accomplished the same thing while not abandoning your southern centers in the process. I'm not sure what the diplomacy contained this last season, but the switch to a AF was pretty much predicted and now you could be facing a 8-center Austria against your 9-unit self. The fleet build could have been a really good move to out-man the Austrian army but given that you could face some difficulty in getting it out into the open, the fleet build only really set you back in defense where another army would have been a bit more beneficial.
I will say that if you had kept more armies in the south, nabbed an army build in War or Mos, then the fleet in Sev was a good idea.

Austria--You've got a good spot in that it has the ability to really put Russia in a sour spot and it's clear France has backed off allowing you the power to use almost all of your force against him. I think out of the board, your fall moves were among the best on the map, and your position has drastically improved. I'm still not sure how things will shift in the south-east between you and Russia, but this next year will tell.

France--This was a rough year for you, but I agree with your disbands. I think it solidified an Austrian ally, and I'm glad that you chose not to try to continue to take centers from Austria in order to maintain a bit more control on your home centers. You've still got some work to do, but I think that things won't turn out to be too terrible.

Bump