Yeah, I thought Austria cutting Italy out of the draw was a cheap and risky move. You put up a good fight to hold the line, Stressedlines.

Thank you, France! You played admirably. I was hoping Italy would hold you at bay, which he did pretty well for a while. I waited until the last possible moment to stab him.

Since I'm still inexperienced, I get lost in the endgame, without any idea where the armistice lines are supposed to be, so if you and Germany really pressed for it, I would have certainly lost together with Russia. After all, Germany was the best player in the game in my opinion. But I suppose nobody wants to play till the 1920s.

Link?

I don't think I played a particularly great game. I didn't solo. The main reason I survived England's initial onslaught was thanks to the delightful willingness of France to gut him like a sea bass.

gameID=87153

Yeah, I probably should've cancelled that draw vote :~P

Sarg, i really was shocked he stabbed me. I only went after france, when after the first builds, I saw that fleet in marseilles, and he put a fleet in the western med in spring 1902. He messed up any chance of me going after turkey then, since I had to drag EVERYONE back to deal with that, and since I brought them back to face france, I was not going to move them back again to fight turkey.

Zmaj, with your fleet in Ionian, he would have been hard pressed to push me back much more if you helped me hold tunis. I would have got an Army in venice in the next build (since france could not grab it before the build stage),

Really, SEP should have pounded you badly. he had 5 fleets and 2 armies in theatre, you would have lost all of italy and the landings in teh balkans would have begun and Turkey, and all he had to do was reinforce vs Germany, and easy solo.

Really, shocked SEP didnt go for the kill there.

Good game guys.

@Stressedlines, I think France kept the draw sign up to indicate to Austria his willingness to fight me if I moved hard against Austria. At least, that's how I took it. Then, as soon as it looked as if France was going to start picking of Austrian SCs, I drew before he could undraw.

When playing France, Russia or Germany, gutting England is always a sincere pleasure.

Well, I stabbed you because I calculated you'd have to retreat regardless of my Ionian fleet. Still, I wouldn't have stabbed you even then if I hadn't begun to lose ground to Russia in the east, and I needed the builds.

I might have been wrong, but these were my reasons. I didn't move blindly.

Oh, I assumed that also, but as Austria there, I do NOT take out Italy. he is my navy, and a HUGE buffer for Austria there. Austria needed only commit a fleet and army to help keep italy up, while he mopped up Turkey.

SEP is a great player, and he probably kis kicking himself for not kicking down that house of cards now...lol

LOL. After the last Genghiskhan's post, I feel like a "political puppet" again.

You were too quick on the draw there for my tastes, Bob.

I had a naval edge on him up north and could get armies there relatively quickly. I was aware of French possibilities at soloing, and other than drawing, my plan was to start making him refight his conquest of Britain.

Zmaj, the stab only worked because SEP did not press the issue. If he had, there is nothing Germany could have done to help you. 1 fleet in Eng channel, and 1 more coming over the top is all France needed to keep the border with German secure.

Again, you played well (thanks to our NAP...lol) but, if you do that stab in 10 games, I think in 8 or 9, you get clobbered for it, and hand the solo to france.

Remember, before your stab, I would have built an army in Venice. So, i would have had 3 fleets, and an army, with your fleet also helping. He had only 4 front line positions to attack me from. Not sure how i would have been pushed back much more than that.

Perhaps, but I did not see how easily it coudl have been done, and it would have given you a free hand to deal with Russia.

Thanks for the kind words, Stressedlines. But a great player would've remembered to undraw. Sigh.

You mean given my situation as Germany? I probably was.

Bob,i think the solo was only possible after the Austrian stab. before that, it would have been really difficult.

I was counting up there, and saw you had 3 to 2...1 more fleet in brest would have probably kept it even.

Really though, I did not expect an Austrian stab.

Honestly, that last spring season, I thought long and hard about doing the swivel maneuvre to bring force to bear on France, but he was such a good ally all game long, I didn't want to screw him. I get sentimental that way sometimes.

My big problem Bob is, I like to put myselfin the position of the other player a lot. I put myself in Austrias spot, and thought "no way he stabs. he has no navy to speak of, and I am the entire navy. He stabs, France solos" He stabbed, SEP didnt solo...lol

SEP, I like playing in games with you, you keep me on my toes.

The French build in Brest would have been the automatic trigger of me taking the North Sea. 2 on 2 fleet battle means I still get the ability to convoy to Britain.

Stressedlines, I'm sure you're right about the strategy in this case. Me and Sargmacher just got lucky. And there's something I already noticed in earlier games: in the latter stages of a game, if I play a move that is stupid but very unexpected, it can bring surprisingly good results.

Indeed, I did expect the other shoe to drop in the North Sea. Perhaps I could've picked up enough quick victories in the Med and the East to more than compensate for a grinding conflict in Britain but it would've messy.

gameID=87168
The Czech's Challenge
143 point WTA gunboat in 1 hour.

Sorry about posting this in the EOG My mistake.

Thank you, Stressedlines. The feeling's mutual.

143? Is it a subtle message from the Czech to me or am I being paranoid? Lol. Anyway, I'm going to bed. Good game, everyone.

It was a good game though. SEP putting that fleet into my back door (western med) really got me angry. lol

I had to drag my whole fleet back to maybe stop that, and once there, I decided "he screwed up my first 4 turns, so I am going to at least fight him here". I figured it woudl give austria time to decide things in the east, and I could at least fight near spain and marseilles for a bit.

Heh, the only reason I moved to the West Med, was because you had moved a unit into the Tyr the previous turn. LOL.

Well, i put that there, becasue of the build in Marseilles. YOu had a fleet also I think in MAO at the time (or spain) and I saw nothing good coming of that, so I had to move that army back from Tunis over if you were atttacking me, and so I moved that fleet to Tyr in case you moved down from MAO and into GOL also.

really, my move was a reaction to your build.

See, I saw the two French fleet builds as an anti-English thing, right off the bat.

easy for you in germany...lol Really, I thought it was that ALSO, but I could not take the chance.