oops, broken up for readability
France EOG- Well, I decided to push to get this one out today rather than waiting until I had more time. It probably won’t be as lengthy a tome as my Russia solo
EOG, but here goes:
01-04 Know thy enemy as you know yourself- Sun Tzu
01
This initial stage of the game was by far the most critical for me. Very quickly I established myself as an almost sure candidate for a 3-way draw and could begin to move towards a solo. Pulling France in a big pot game like this is obviously a stroke of luck. Currently, within the 1000
game standing, France leads by a significant margin with 2 solo and 3 draws. So, I was pleased to have drawn France and was determined to not squander this bit of luck. A related trend has been for England to do very poorly. At this point, England has only made it into the draw once. England is not usually such a poor performer. I’d have to click through all the games, but my hunch is that France’s superior showing has been at E’s expense. Knowing this, and after blundering in a Lando’s Tourney with a F(Brest) build that resulted in a drastic reaction from Jmeyersd’s E, I wanted to be very circumspect about how I launched any attack on E should I do so.
The game opened with some room for concern. Germany attempted to bounce Burgundy, an ineffectual albeit hostile move as I supported myself there, and Italy moved on Piedmont. I decided to make the safe play and dropped Bur to Mar and picked up the Iberian centers. Italy’s move to Mar was a blessing. I understand why he tried this as often Italy does not move on Mar so as to ensure that it is occupied during F01’s build phase. However, I’ve seen a couple France’s call that bluff and pick up the 3rd center anyway. So, in any case, Italy struck which left Mar open for a fleet build in 02. This was ideal for me as I wanted a pretext for building up a navy without drawing myself into an early conflict with E.
To the north, E was making aggressive moves on centers in the Scandinavia and Russia was applying pressure to the beleaguered German as well. This bode well for me in Belgium as both G and E would be willing to court me to their side.
02
E continues to make a strong play in the north. In the east, a juggernaut is emerging and I could sense that Italy really wanted to pull back. With E and G fully engaged, Italy would find no easy centers in the west. Italy is in an awkward position I believe. The 5th center is the difficult center. One that usually requires at least 3/4‘s of Italy’s units to take it. This obviously is a logistical problem should Italy have to change directions as the shifting of units from one side of the med to another is time consuming. Italy has more time than most countries to make inroads, but as Italy started to attempt to swing east I could sense the nervousness that he felt. A 4 center Italy is an Italy that is waiting to die later in the game. As predicted, I picked up the free Belgium center virtually uncontested. The turn ended with me in the MAO and W. Med. (a convenient spot for either projecting power on Tunis or shooting up to England’s back door. An additional Mar fleet build (again justifiable by some skirmishing with Italy in the W.Med.) gave me a number of options going into 03. In the north, E’s aggressive power play was paying off with a German center falling to E’s swarm of fleets. E’s F(Edi) build indicated to me that he was planning on pushing his gains further in 03.
03
So, this is the year that I made my biggest move: the successful blindsiding of England. England, like Italy is a fun, but challenging country in gunboat games. A 4-5 center E is in a very precarious position. The need to protect the home island as well as project power on the mainland often causes there to be a unit short fall somewhere. Once Scandinavia is subjugated though, E becomes a very different beast. This region (especially if all of R and G fleets have been disbanded) can be held with minimal amounts of units and E’s position of being stretched thin at points is replaced with a power that has several units to spare in the hunt for additional centers. I believe that this is what Sarg was playing for I and I have a hard time blaming him. I, like him if I may so, have a tendency to at times play big or go home. He was making a big play to secure the north as rapidly as possible so as to emerge from the awkward vulnerable stage into the northern power house stage as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, I read this intent too. So, this, combined with a distracted Germany and an Italian who had already shown some indication that he did not want to continue are engagement, led me to launch the attack on Liverpool.
The attack played out perfectly as England rushed to secure St. Pete’s. Italy seemed to have read my intent, despite my 2nd fleet build in Mar, and swung East. The only down side was Germany’s decision, which somewhat surprised me, to swing all his armies south and threaten Belgium. I decided that the advantage of landing a unit in Liverpool was worth more than Belgium (even if it meant losing out on a build). I won’t go into it much here, but for a number of reasons landing an army in England adds a significant strategic advantage to the attacker. Landing an army in Liverpool even more so as it simultaneously occupies on center and threatens a 2nd. Meanwhile in the south, I decided to encourage Italy’s move to the east by pulling my fleet from its defensive position in the Gulf of Lyons back to Spain- which was more symbolic than strategically limiting. As I entered 04, I had some concern that E and G might ally against me, but, because of the strategic peril he was in, I guessed that E would probably take the easy Danish center so as to not disband. And he did.
04
This year saw further gains in England. The army in Liverpool earned its keep and enabled me to pick up another English center. The German’s fleet build and choice to shift out of Ruhr in taking Bel the season before gave me hopes that I would have peace on that front. Only Italy remained for me to consider. As we entered 04, I knew that the Italian, especially with Austria crumbling, must have been getting anxious. It was time to gamble and gamble big rather than wait for his inevitable demise a couple years later. As I said before, usually Italy must leverage 3 out of 4 units to achieve this. So, I predicted that the Italian would make a big play on the Turk now (time also being against him should the Turk pick up more builds (Serbia). This led to my 2nd blind side. My Spanish fleet slipped into the W. Med. and sailed unopposed into the coveted Tunisian center. Now, two out of my three neighbors were in significant trouble with primary centers taken. England was faced with the choice to make a doomed effort to recapture England or hold on to his precarious hold of Scandinavia. Meanwhile, Italy having flung 3 centers to the far east, faced the frustrating conundrum of having his home centers under attack.
Barn3tt's Bigger, Better and Badder Challenge
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