Autumn 1905, that Budapest army is there for only one reason: to creat ean opportunity to stab in the future. I would've stalemated my other fronts and immediately prepared to attack Austria.

There is no such thing as a strong A/T.

I am excited this series is continuing.

It would be good to see the press for this one, but, did Austria and Turkey have rude words? Both continued to fight much longer than seems reasonable, given that it was a WTA. When England built two armies in 1908, what did Austria think could happen? That seems like the obvious chance for Turkey to make up, which makes me think that a permanent break had already happened.

In any event, once it started to look like it was going to be a race between England and Turkey to grab Austrian centers, giving up any leverage over MAO seems dangerous, especially if it appears that Austria is going to throw centers to England. Can anyone explain why the move from Spain to GoL in Autumn 1909? What did that cover? Austria had no fleet, and Piedmont didn't seem to be in danger. If England managed to get Turkey to agree to DMZ Iberia, well, bravo.

Aside: We've been thinking about doing a "critique my press" series, or even a press writing competition.

Maybe we could run another full disclosure game, too.

Gotta say - getting Italy to support the convoy to Spain and then taking him out the very next turn. Would love to see the press that made THAT happen.

My advice would be that right after Russia was defeated you should have struck against Austria. I'm not sure about exact orders but in 1906 you had a prime opportunity to take Rome from Austria and move your army out of Con into Bul or maybe even convoy to Albania. Chances are you could win that battle while Germany and France fight England, securing you at least a spot in a draw and a possible solo.

Also, as Turkey, you can never go two way with Austria, so one has to stab the other, be the first one to have the right positioning and execution to do so, and you have a good chance to win the game.

I love this idea for a series. I want to submit all of my games!

It looks to me like giving Moscow to Austria in 1904 or 1905 might have averted the stab, or delayed it for a while. That is probably the only thing that could have been done earlier on to secure the alliance, and maybe gain some goodwill from Austria for when it would be needed.

Turkey giving up StP, after the decision to keep Moscow had been made, was also probably a mistake - as Turkey, IMO, you get that far north, you make yourself very hard to remove at all costs. In spring 1907, as Turkey, I don't think I would have played as favourably to England. There was no hurry to eliminate France, so I don't see why there was a need to support England into Brest or let England keep StP.

It there is no such thing as a strong A/T, is there such a thing as a strong I/T? Is Turkey doomed to no friends or purple friends only?

There absolutely is such a thing as a strong A/T.

Bump

1904 isn't the trigger point. Go back a year.

Fall 1903: Austria self-bounce over Rum? Army Trieste - Serbia? What's going on here? Looking at Spring 1903 - Army Greece. If you don't have a mutual plan to get that army out of there, it's going to make Austria nervous. Even if you don't actually move it because it's less practical than leaving it there, offering to get it out of there would help.

And why wasn't the Spring 1904 northern orders what was ordered in Spring 1903?

That 1903 effectively cost A/T one full year of tempo in the north.

1905: Moscow vs Rome - if you want a solid alliance, I agree with StackelbergFollower - you could actually have arranged to swap Moscow for Rome, not just give it up for free.

Fall 1905: Double hold in Bud/Tri? That's also worrying. Why is Austria just sitting there, instead of moving units to the front(s)?

Fall 1906: As Austria, Turkish Armies Livonia and Apulia would be making me nervous. They're just sitting there. What are they doing? What's the plan for getting them out of there? Build A Bud, out of sheer worry... and then, well, now I've got it, I might as well use it.

After that it's all just general free-for-all for a few years.

Fall 1909: F Spa-GoL ? Surely F Spa-MAO.

1910: Yeah, Austria is just outright throwing the game to England. Presumably there was no way to persuade them to turn around and sit on the stalemate line by then.

ATC: Can we have a "Bulwer-Lytton S1901 public only press contest?" http://bulwer-lytton.com

A/T is a hard alliance to pull off, because Turkey almost always needs austrian centers to win. If you were aiming for a three-way draw them yes, you could easily have held england off; alternatively if your aim was to solo, then the austrian stab was well timed to stop just that.

Actually, no, the Austrian stab was terrible for Austria. Any country which build three units at home in responce to a stab is doing well and going to have unit in place to counter that stab effectively - which you pretty much did. So i think Austria left it a little late to stab you, in fact, given that Austria had little reason to trust england over turkey, and was effectively sandwiched in the middle, he was rather screwed from the point all opposition to england crumbled. You could have propped france/italy up and gone after austria long before it came to putting Austria into tue position of king-maker.

spring 1909: i think it is clear only E can play for a win. at this point, without knowing your talking, T can never ever attack A again. i see still lots of attacks from T versus A. you should every turn tell A that E will win if you dont stand together. give him SEV + SER with a smile and secure your other SC. be totally passive versus A. everytime he looks on the map he should see T doesnt fight me, it is only E who comes for me. if he is at least a reasonable player it will be an easy DRAW. if he is a bad player and you touched a weak spot in conversation with him you have at least a chance to save the game (every round he has to got a message from you). you only fight E, securing MAO/POR/SPA/MAR.

A/T relationship: i think a stab from your side is difficult as you dont have many tanks and your troops are not in a position to simply make one move and crush him. so you should prepare it as good as possible. this means trying to build tank(s) in a way that A doesnt prepares for your stab (difficult !). if you get that great, but you also can try to stab him without building tanks before. in both cases it is clear you will need some time to fight A, so you have to make sure that the whole board situation is favourable for it. this means there is noone who attacks you other than A and there is not a dominant player on the other side of the board who simply collects SC and goes for the solo while you are fighting A. i would say your latest chance for stabing A is spring 1905. E has the best postion in the west, but he is not on a run to crush F + G. if you advice F (why no bounce in PIC at spring 1905 ???) this will be a long hard fight. if you go for F than there is no possibility for you anymore to go for the solo on my opinion.