S01: Austria, England and France want to be friendly. Of all the suggestions France's sounds best, maybe too good? Austria wants a DMZ for Boh/Sil. Opening F Kie - Hol and maybe bounce England in Belgium.

A01: Complicated negotiations around Belgium, with France and England. I suppose we all try to play each other, which is awkward if there is to be three way alliance. I suggest England to take Denmark and hope to turn England and Russia against each other. France supports England into Bel as diversion, so it is free for me to take. Before the builds the suggestion of a WT comes up. WOOT. I'm all for it.

B01: England objects to a fleet in Kie, ok, so F Den, A Kie, everything set for the WT against Russia ... Or not, E builds F Lvl, F Lon, apparently without telling everyone. Great, no WT then, thank you very much indeed.

S02: Well, E wanted the WT after all, pity. Luckily I started talking to Russia about going against England before the builds. A lot of talking and explaining, but at last an agreement on coalition against E. Norway to Russia, Denmark to me. If everything goes right, England will attack Russia unprovoked, proving my trustworthiness, ... well sort of. If Russia does as suggested an added bonus is the locking up of StP.

A02: France promises support into the North Sea, and a self-standoff in Burgundy as reassurance. Still, moving Holland to Belgium leaves the former open for a retreat and this is why France and I agree on a double standoff. I am trying to convince England to attack Sweden, but to no avail. Russia does a sensible move and gains Norway but is still blocked up in StP. However, Russia also gains Bulgaria and has now 8 SCs and a prime position to gobble up Turkey on its own. Something has to be done.

S03: Russia can only loose 2 Scandinavian SCs with English help, which means a lot of talks with England and France. The idea is that England gains as much Russian SCs as it will loose to France. And I may gain Sweden. Why England prefers Denmark over Sweden I don't know. The plan worked, and now France can take two English SCs and I certainly get one and maybe a second, if England plays along. Interesting developments in the South, if I am lucky the 2 Turkish units bind 5 Russian ones, and the North of Russia is open for attack.

A03: I offer England support against France and Russia, but only the latter is genuine. In addition I will take Denmark off England. That's not very nice. Russia wants me to vacate Sweden by attacking Norway, I consider it for a while, but Russia with its divided forces is probably my next endeavour, so I decline in a vague manner. This all worked, and I have two builds to celebrate.

B03: France advocates an all out attack against Russian and Italy. There is only one problem, we are not guaranteed to get Edinburgh and Norway respectively. Also rumours indicate that a F/G alliance would bind the other five countries in a grand coalition. So we are working on a great deception, with builds that can be interpreted as hostile to each other, that 2 French armies and a fleet in Kiel and army in Berlin for me. I work on England to let me land in Yorkshire, either to get France into Edi, or to stop the French advance should all of this have been a trick. England offers support.

S04: The deception worked, the professors decry the clash of France and Germany, people are very susceptible and offer help and advice. Denmark is in Yorkshire, the NS is secured and Sweden supports Norway in case of a Russian attack. In the South I am talking with Austria about moving into Bohemia, and Berlin to Munich; extra pressure on Tyrolia, either to help France or to block. Surprisingly Italy takes Vienna and Austria is in Silesia, it would have been nice to know that.

A04: To stab France or not stab France ... In the end I decide not to stab, as 1905 might prove more devastating, when France's fleets move out. I am also expecting Russia to hold Norway, so I don't bother attacking Sweden, but rather support hold Yorkshire, just in case. Turns out I could have taken Sweden and now France is a build up. Austria asks for support into Vienna and I'm happy to give it, but I still cover Berlin with Munich and move Ruh down. Should Austria move to Munich, I can at least kick him out next year.

Emperor Maximus takes over while I move from what is Wales to Silesia on the map.
----

B08: I take over from Emperor Maximus again. France nicked Belgium, which means I have to disband a unit and as I am shifting momentum east, I decide to disband Ruhr. France promises to build in Marseille.

S09: France has build a fleet in Brest, but makes it sound as if he is surprised that I have kept my word. In the East I'm poised to take StP, Russia warns me about doing so, but there are no real alternatives. What is more, in apparent fear of the Juggernaut, France proposes a move towards a draw, for which StP is necessary. I also plan to take London, France and I squabble a bit about London, but in the end we decide to be pragmatic about it, and see how needs it for a build.

A09: Ouch, France took Holland and moves into the Ruhr to take Munich, so no builds despite taking StP and Edi. In my opinion, France is endangering his chances of a draw if the Juggernaut continues, but France thinks differently and he seems bitter. I talk to Russia, explaining my move, but of course he would like StP back. I'm happy to compensate, but would prefer his fleet to be gone.

France's attack on Britain is surprisingly uncoordinated and I don't loose any ground there, but Munich has fallen and I chose to disband.

B09: I decide to build an army, a fleet might be more useful, but an army threatens Munich and so I promise Russia support into Munich which he declines.

S10: I cannot keep Berlin forever, so I decide to attack Holland, and leave London open. This year France is repositioning rather than attacking, which is more like him. Oddly enough, Russia is attacking the North Sea unsupported, so this makes me wonder how closely France and Russia are working together. I send a note to Turkey pointing out that if the Russia was primarily his ally Russia's moves are a wee bit strange.

A10: A tricky year and difficult to decide what to do, I am hoping France assumes I would defend London, so I don't move there anyway and decide to attack Holland. This leaves Kiel open, but I am gambling that neither side is willing to concede it to the other.

Not quite the miracle of the House of Hollenzollern, but for some reason Russia and France do not get their act together, and Kiel remains open, and I take Holland, but loose London. No builds, but it could have been worse, much worse as France informs me in case Russia would have agreed to his plan, which would have put a French fleet into Kiel!

Elsewhere in the world confusion reigns as well, a support for Italy to attack Triest, a Turkish thrust into Rumania.

B10: None. Russia offers the olive branch because he is concerned about Turkey, but wants me to put a fleet in StP. I agree and I implore him to take Munich but to no avail, but he promises to move the fleet. Still I decide to go along and shuffle the units around, maybe I can keep Kiel that way. Turkey offers me survival if I help him to solo by not giving his intentions away and slowing down France. Should he think I betrayed him, he will move towards a 3-way draw and hence my elimination. I point out that Russia might be aware of the danger without my interference, and then I would gain nothing. There is no answer to that, nevertheless I inform Turkey that Russia contacted me about a ceasefire for redeployment, but I also tell Turkey that this might be a trap, as Russia is a bit too concerned about who is moving first.

S11: I move away as promised, Russia however takes Kiel, leaving Berlin undefended. Still, I receive an apology and explanation: France commanded the attack. In Britain I make moves to swap London for Liverpool, maybe Russia would help me there, instead of giving more centres to France while keeping the entrance to central Europe open. Elsewhere, Turkey moves towards Russia in earnest, but does not get very far. Still Russia looses a centre to Turkey, which means no build for Russia.

A11: With the Russian fleet in NAO I am asked by Russia what I would like it to do. Very funny, how about attacking France? Not bloody likely, so I say what I really want but also that I think Russia is much more likely to do France's bidding than mine. Maybe it makes people think that this is not what I want, but it is a bit desperate. I am in danger of loosing Holland so I decide to give it up anyway and convoy the army to Denmark.

France has taken the North Sea, but I took London and kept Liverpool, still, with the loss of Kiel and Holland I'll have to disband a unit. No unit is comfortable, so I decide to disband StP. I won't tell Russia as he has no builds but I let Turkey know what I'm planning to do, but I don't get a reply.

B11: Disband StP from me, fleet build Smyrna from Turkey. So, either Turkey distrusted me or he is planning to stop his attack on Russia. Eventually I do get a reply, which basically assumes that I'm privy to Russia's plans which I'm not. The deal is the same, if I help Turkey solo I might survive, which is undeniably true. Unfortunately I cannot help Turkey much, though I hope that the disband in StP will draw Russian units from his border, or preferably, out of distrust to Turkey, it won't, so I be able to keep StP. Anyway, at this moment, I think France has the greater chance to solo, so I try to rally him, without apparent success.

S12: Not really sure what to do, I think France won't defend the North Sea, but rather convoy Belgium over, so I'm only using one support, and I hope that Russia will not be persuaded to support France into Edi. I'm moving Yorkshire to Edi and Edi to Lpl.

The result is not ideal, I have the North Sea, which is good, Belgium is open, Holland isolated, but Edi has fallen, and a French army is in Wales. I retreat to Clyde, which is the only possibility. Also Italy has not shown up, which gave Turkey an advantage as he could enter Tyr unopposed. At the end of the year Italy will be down to 2 SCs, so I might outlive one more country, huzzah! Also, France chose not to stab Russia, and has therefore forsaken his chance of a solo.

A12: Things are moving fast, Russia considers a deal helping me into Edi for support into Holland. Turkey contacts me again, with his plans to stab Russia, the idea is that I get Russia to move to StP and Sev, thereby securing neither as both will be bounced. It is quite tricky as Russia takes me up on the Holland support despite me arguing against it. In the end he does not offer any prospect of survival or draw or anything while Turkey's solo does. I therefore use a mess-up in the planning to not support Kie - Holland and move Norway to StP instead. Russia attacks both Munich and Kie, France finally takes Liverpool and Turkey stabs Russia by taking Budapest, gaining 3 SCs to total of 11 in the process.

There is an argument on how Italy's CD benefitted Turkey in the global channel and the forum, I put down my view, yes it did benefit him, certainly by giving him Tunis, also maybe by giving him 2 Italian SCs rather than one, though Turkey disagrees here, and a good shot at the rest. It may be enough in the end for Turkey to win the solo.

R12: No retreats for me, but there is a lot of press between Turkey and me, trying to convince me to throw the game in his favour. At least I have to explore other opportunities and I talk to Russia. He harbours hopes of a draw either with France alone against Turkey or with France and me against Turkey, but makes a diplomatic blunder by not promising me a position on the draw outright (again!), and apparently my SURVIVAL depends on my usefulness!!! Well, what about being useful by not stabbing you both in the back, because there would no reason do to so if I had a place in the draw. But apparently this is not what Russia wants and in fact France, as I suspected, has no intention to work on a draw together, but he will rather play until the end ... his?, Russia's?, mine? ... who knows, certainly not Turkey's!

B12: Two disbands, the problem is I don't know who I have to defend myself against. My TA points out the necessity to disband Clyde as it could have been destroyed, the other one is Denmark. Denmark is quite a nice disband, it can look friendly to Russia, but at the same time takes away the possibility to hold Kie, which may tempt France.

S13: Not sure what to do at all, Russia wants me to move into Den, but if I move SKA, Norway could fall to Russia, which is something I would do if I was Russia. I think that London is lost anyway by the end of the year, so I might give up Edi just as well, and move NTH to Den, SKA supports Norway and Edi to NTH, or not, as is turns out as this order gets lost with all the changes.

Russia has lost Kie and France makes moves to take London. Both Turkey and France urge me to take StP, well it's a good move no doubt, but highly predictable, I only hope that my crap moves from the spring would make Russia think I lost it completely and wouldn't think of moving there.

A13: Norway takes StP and SKA covers Norway. Russia asks me to tap Kie and I am happy to do so. I also support London into Yor, about the only sensible think London and Edi can do.

France has taken London, but I have Yorkshire, and StP. Russia has taken Munich, much to the displeasure of France.

B13: No disbands for me, but a lot of heated press in global chat. Russia wants to know why I took StP, well otherwise I had little to do in a stalemate line, as France aptly puts it. Turkey things he's won already, but not quite, not if the West acts in unison.

S14: Apparently the little event from last year cleared the air a bit, and press is again more friendly. I offer France to move the army in Yor off the island, because I expect him to disband and rebuild to secure his southern flank. To me this seems the only way if he wants to retake Munich and Berlin, to secure the draw without Russia, but apparently now France is fine with Russia in the line and draw and there is still a French army in Britain, which threatens Edi.

Once again I have to square the circle, helping Turkey agains Russia, so that a Turkish army is in Moscow as soon as possible, but I also have to make moves to secure Berlin, and in case France is still wishing to attack me I have to secure the North, so that I have a chance of survival until Turkey grabs the win and lastly avoid any disbands if possible

Instead of tapping Moscow, I am in it, which is unexpected, but easily reversible. Nothing else untoward has happened, only Liverpool and NTH remain to pose a threat, but no moves to take my centres.

A14: Moves to complete the stalemate line. Discussions between Turkey and me and France an me about the possibility to kick out Russia from the draw, but so far we would lack the armies to secure the stalemate line afterwards.

S15: I am moving my units around because I can (Moscow is still free) and because it would give me a better handle to kick out Russia. I have now 2 armies in StP and Liv and fleets in Norway, Baltic and Prussia. In principle I could convoy Livonia into Berlin, and France could take Mun, but that leaves Liv open and hence endangers Prussia which would mean that Berlin's support for Mun could be cut.

A15: Neither France nor I have strong feelings about kicking out Russia, and so neither of us moves in that way, I do however move the fleet from Norway to Sweden with destination of Gulf of Bothnia. Once there it should be possible to kick out Russia safely.

S16: Well, a short communication from France about kicking Russia out, but we are thinking along different lines. I'd like to wait for the fall and my fleet in GoB to cover Livonia, France has different ideas, probably involving a convoy, how this can be done safely I don't know. So, I don't tell Turkey anything about it although he suspects things ... by comparing time stamps!!! Anyway, I am hesitant about supporting Turkey unbeknownst to him into Mos, to force another Russian disband, but in the end I decide against it, if something goes wrong with the moves against Russia there is one SC as buffer.

The move went alright, sort of, France apparently misordered his fleet to Portugal, but no harm done. Russia is disappointed, understandably so, and then it's over ... Turkey has put his draw vote in.

Many thanks to my TA, goldfinger, who always had very helpful and clever suggestions, most of which went like ... Get E/F/I/A/R/T to so something .. SHOUT at him AND DON'T STOP SHOUTING until ... I think every recipient of my press could clearly attest that I failed in that respect miserably ... I am clearly not the shouting kind ... But I have learned a lot about the way Goldfinger is thinking about the game, which will come in handy in the future. I think it is great that there are experienced player who offer their time to do the job of a TA. Because we live in different time zones we were not often online at the same time, but we still we exchanged ~100 messages, I'd say.

It was thoroughly enjoyable game, I know that you, Yonni, had some bad feelings towards me in the end, but as I already said in global chat, I am glad that it came this way and that you were included in the draw. I am not going to say that I tried to play Cachimbo, and get him to draw by kicking you out, but if that was indeed France's plan than it was brilliantly executed. If France and I really had strong feelings about not including you in the draw, we would have cancelled our draw vote. And I wanted to see if you would recant your position of never throwing the game into anyone's direction.

Thank you Cachimbo for taking the risk of a solo, which kept me in the game and more importantly which increased our press drastically and it was a very enjoyable communication/ If there was no other reason for me to cooperate with Turkey, this would do.

Thanks to Scmoo for a great game, I did miss our pre-stab press a lot, you seemed to go against Cachimbo's grain right from the start, but I found our press very and our actions in the West very entertaining. Afterwards I sometimes did not know what you were up to, which was intended no doubt, even right up until the end. You say it was diplomacy and it worked, fair enough, but maybe it helped that there was a clear common goal.