My game plan was decided right after the first turn: Both England and Turkey had turned all their forces toward poor me Russia. I suddenly found myself fighting two nations from opposite sides! At that point, I solicited two alliances: France and Germany against England, and Austria and Italy against Turkey. It worked like a charm: Both England and Turkey went down faster than the Titanic.
With my two initial threats gone, I planned my next phase. I proposed to Austria and France about the Triple Alliance, with which I had planned to end the game. I have always thought that a well-played WTA should always end in 3-way draw because solo is too hard (in a well-played game by rational players), 2-way is too unstable (too many points at stake), and anything else is just splitting the pot too much (more about the 4-way draw later). I chose this Triple because France can help me tear through Germany easily and Italy would keep Austria busy and away from me.
However, my phase-two went wrong in two crucial, unexpected ways. Italy threw the game to Austria while Germany put up a resilient fight. Austria suddenly grew at a rate faster than both France and I could keep up. I tried numerous times talking to Austria to uphold the Alliance, but when it became obvious that he was going for solo I had to approach Germany.
Now, Germany was a dick. He was totally on tilt. No amount of reasoning could reach him for many turns. All he could hold in that thick skull of his was anger. Alliances shift all the times based on changing circumstances. Sun Tzu has said, "A king cannot wage war because of anger; a general cannot engaged out of wrath. Move forward when it is beneficial; cease when it is not." But to Germany's credit, he did calm down and turned around to hold the stalemate to end the game.
Or so you would think...
At the last two turns, I was waiting for Austria to approach me to stab Germany one more time. I had hoped that Austria would propose his retreat away from my border so that I can finish off Germany for a 3-way draw. 4-way draw and 3-way meant a difference of 175
! But Austria never did so. I suppose I could have approach Austria myself, but at this point I did not want to drag the game for another 2 years (Austria must retreat in the first year; then I wipe out Germany the next.).
Sorry, Germany. But this is Diplomacy. :)
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