Now, for those who look at it and say "Why did Russia opt to draw? He could have possibly won it." I drew because I felt Italy deserved a piece of it for trusting me and Germany had done well to support me on occassion (like into Ska) even though it could have spelt his doom.

Why did Russia opt to draw?

You'll have to ask Lando, but I suspect his loss of an SC and my ready access to two wide open and a high probability I could take Den for 17 made him realize that at best this would be a two way draw and that I did have a good chance at a win. also, note he was protecting Italy as well. Despite his size, Italy became a key player at the end of this gunboat.

As Italy, I realized with both France and Russia bearing down on me, I was going to have to occupy some position that neither of them would want to risk falling into the other's hands.... i.e. Ionian and Venice. I figured if I could get back to those before France rolled me, I'd survive, even if my outlying positions fell down. I figured that Russia wouldn't take both Trieste and Greece away (was surprised that he left both, but then realized they made a perfect bludgeon to make sure France drew).

Earlier in the game, Hellalt and I had a fairly good tacit alliance, but he gambled that he'd be able to break me before Russia got involved, and once that happened, it was difficult for me to get back to a point where he and I could trust him. He threw the dice on that one, and lost, but it could have gone the other way.

Part of me wanted to keep it going but I was worried if I did I would lose the chance to draw and Russia would solo. There were two main factors at the end. The first being that Italy countered me quickly. After he kicked me out of Rome I knew I had no shot of taking italian centres. Therefore if I wanted to win I would have needed all of Scandinavia and St. Petes. That brings me to the second factor, which was Russia getting into Skagerrack. I needed Skagerrack if I had any hope of getting Denmark, etc and once Germany supported Russia into it I knew I had been sealed out. I mean, if I had been able to work my extra southern fleet back up north I could potentially have snuck fleets into Kiel and Berlin, but the risk was too high. I think Russia must have also felt that the risk of me winning was too high or he wouldn't have drawn.

And I have to agree with you Draugner, Germany and Italy both played spectacularly in that end-game and deserved to be in on the draw.

Correction: "he and I could trust each other" Stupid typos.

I love seeing Ionian Sea with 5 support holds on it. That's great.

Pretty apt description from both of you. I was behind most of the game compared to France/Lando. It wasn't until the very end when he went down an SC and I went up one that we tied up. While I knew I could get to 17 and hold it, I didn't want to do it at the expense of Italy or Germany and it would have meant crushing Germany completely and severly crippling Italy to where he might have fallen to France. so, in my mind, it was wisest to take the draw (which I had indicated numerous times I would do) and not risk the loss. As I mentioned, I was actually willing to draw earlier but France obviously wasn't having any prt of it and then hellalt kept trying to kick me with his little Austrian remnants, so I decided he needed to be eliminated before I would draw. Otherwise, I would have left it up there for him to be included as well.

Also, I feel I owe Ava an explanation. We had some good early game coordination, with the exception of some confusion around Belgium. I eventually thought I could take you down and subsequently took Edinburgh and we fought leading to Russia eventually getting into Norwegian and even as far as onto England. Eventually we made peace and fought Russia together. I think this was important in stopping a solo. We were making gains against him but then in 1911 I saw an NMR coming so I changed my orders in order to capitalize. I think that was a mistake, but I couldn't resist. Anyway, I'm glad you were a part of the draw.

Anyway, good game to all. I had a lot of fun with that one. Hopefully we get more games with some of that same group. I think, Draugner, that was our first game together.

It was our first and it was a great game.

I have to say I was terrified Italy was gonna NMR there at the end when I moved into Gre. I figured he though he was dead so would Cd and give it to you, not realizing I was just moving through so I could get into Adr and help out some more.

Apologies for the NMR. Good game all. Glad to be part of the draw.

Also I realized I had 2 NMRs. That was a long and exhausting game, and there were a couple of bad days when I barely logged into webdip. My sincere apologies.

Don't worry Ava. It was fun. And you played well. You earned yourself a spot in that draw.

Good game to all.Kept an eye on it even with my early exit.Not much you can do as England when France/Germany and Russia all bear down on you at once.Hoped that Italy could have diverted some French forces away from me or that Russia Germany started to fight but no dice. Then just stood on the side lines watching.

Sorry podium, my strategy from the beginning was to get everyone against you. I did however fail to hedge for being sandwiched between a powerful F and R. That was bad. Then I NMRed and lost a bunch of SCs and had to play the balancing power between R and F. Luckily DEN was a desirable SC else I'd have been eliminated!

You must have alot of time to spend checking on when everyone was logged in or last logged in ava to figure out that I was England.

Oh no I meant my strategy was to get everyone against you (England) not you (Podium). I had no idea you were England. In fact I thought you were Russia and Barn3tt was France!

So who did you think I was, ava?

And for the record, I had no clue nor tried to figure out who anyone was.

I forgot you were in the game Draug, sorry

Yeah I had no clue who anyone was either. But I'll take that as a compliment, you thinking I was Barn3tt.

No problem, ava.

Thought most of you would suspect hellalt as Russia since he asked for pause and Russia was last player to hit unpause.If you had a reason for gunning for him. Thought that the unsuspecting Russian would be in for a massive assault.And I guess that's what he wanted since he was Austria.