It was my biggest gamble if I had moved to Warsaw and tried to for Livonia from there with Moscow supporting France could bounce me and I would own it taking away a German unit.I needed to be in Sil and Germany showed the way the turn before.
If we don't get Livonia at end it would only be a matter of time before France convoyed to Norway then to StP to help gain Liv to hit Prussia and cut support.And game over.

Also thought France would disengage in Med to let me finish Italy since he wouldn't draw figured he wanted three way but he would have had to make first move till then I was on forcing stalemate the whole way.

Italy when I moved to Galcia and Sev that one turn over reacted by hitting Venice allowing France into Pie no big deal
Knew that we we need to force stalemate in north since south was good already.Wasn't sure if Germany was going to keep trying from Tyrolia so I moved him out and left Trieste open.All he needed was 3 units holding Berlin.Then I saw his support to Sil from Berlin and sayed why not if I don't get him into Warsaw we lose anyways.

I will respond more about early game later and to other players in the game views.

I had a very good start in this game. Then, when I was preparing to "ally" with France he just took ruhr (F05)... Notice that in this turn I didn't even support ruhr with munich as I could; instead I decided to support france in Burgundy to show good will...completly not expecting Barn3tt to "stab" me...
Well...from that moment I just couldn't take France out of my borders.

It was a difficult fight for me, but I managed to stay 10 years fighting France in order to stop his growth... I think I did a good job.

When Turkey arrived I was desperate as France was going to solo.
The only way to stop him was to secure livonia and allow turkey to position his units to support berlin... But I needed 3 units too... so I took triest. I was affraid Turkey wouldn't understand this, but in fact I think he wanted me to retreat there if I didn't move in the 1st place. I disbanded that unit.

The most risky move was to get turkey in silesia... If France attacked berlin with 3 that turn the solo was his. Glad he didn't understand it.
Then there was another crucial move: getting turkey in livonia, supported by warsaw. This time france decided to attack berlin with 3...too late. But if he decided to bounce livonia (Bal and Gob), in 2 turns he would have had force of 3 to livonia and the solo would be his... Once Livonia was in our hands, war and mos kept it forever.

Conclusion: 2 bad decisions by Barn3tt in the last turns made the draw possible, in my opinion. Anyway, very good show by Barn3tt.

It was an interesting game for me.

Troodonte, my move to Ruhr can hardly be called a stab. It is true that you offered a support to Bur in the spring, but you had also attacked me in 04. I'm surprised you didn't support Ruhr as the message had been sent and either I'd go for it or not.

Anyway, in attacking Germany I was pretty much just messing around. I believed that Turkey would rise faster than I could ever hope to with a weak and fractured Italy and Austria facing him. So, I decided to pick a fight with Germany (who was several centers larger than me)- figuring that we'd patch things together once Turkey approached the stalemate line. Never expected to make the in roads that I did and was surprised to find myself in a potential solo position.

Shouldn't have given up Livonia- that was a mistake.

Podium did a fantastic job pushing to the stalemate line and maintaining a good relationship with Germany. My expectation was that as Germany disbanded there would be a hole in the transition as Turkish units moved up that would be easy to exploit. As it was, s 1914 was the only point where I had a shot and I'm not really sure that I could have anticipated that move. Anyway, Troodone, I enjoyed battling it out with you. Podium, well played.

As it was, s 1914 was the only point where I had a shot and I'm not really sure that I could have anticipated that move. Just read Podium's post more carefully. I didn't notice Germany's offer of support to Silesia. Dang, lol, got sloppy at the end I guess.