I am Russia in one of my games, and I allied with Italy immediately. Trusting him even a little bit proved to be my mistake. He betrayed me (I had only left myself partially open) and tried to take on the world hoping to take advantage of the fight between England and France.

Lucky for me, I'm good at gaining allies when necessary. I convinced both England and France to attack each other and at the same time work with me against Italy; then I betrayed England (since I couldn't stay allied with both), in favor of France who seemed to be a better ally for me. This was my second mistake. France moved out of two empty SCs before he gained them. So while I was losing ground to Italy, and gaining ground against England, England was somehow doing quite well against France.

I decided an alliance with England was necessary against Italy who was now at 13 and growing. I sacrificed Edinburgh, and suggested that France sacrifice Munich and Berlin, two SCs that he was bound to lose anyway, to allow England to help us against Italy. I'm still not sure what happened, but France was very stubborn about the alliance and refused to give in.

Meanwhile I had been moving back and forth, sacrificing one SC for another to delay Italy's advance. He had about nine units to my eight. I even gained ground once, but he had too many advances in the west and sent too many armies to force me back.

I decided to throw my lot in with England. He was much more capable and now we were in a good position to take some ground. Interestingly enough, Italy requested a draw. I suppose it was my third mistake to deny this, but I believed then and now that we had a good chance of defeating the strategically inept Italy, who only had 15 SCs, and I told England this.

At this time I went into the hospital with a collapsing lung (I'm ok now, and don't want sympathy. I just think this game is bunch of crazy shit). So I was not able to fully convince England of our chances of success. I was out for nearly the entire phase, but I arrived in time to finalize. Maybe my lack of communication was the cause.

When the moves were shown, England had betrayed me, thinking all was lost. For the past two or three years, Italy has been at 16 or 17 SCs while England advances on both of us. He now realizes Italy's "inefficiency" and claims he can win with 13 SCs. I am down to a dismal 3 SCs.

I'm sorry, if I offended anyone in the game, but what were you thinking, what was I thinking, and how did this happen. This is so deppressing.