EoG by Turkey “Grève” + Departure redhouse

GAME SUMMARY (I’ll write a long summary rather than a full EoG; I have some places to go and people to see)

Classic, WTA, full-press, 1.5 day phases, anon, 150 , PW protected
Pre-game agreements: special anonimity measures, particularly pre-1903 (see my profile)

Result (drawers from high to low SC count, defeated nation from latest to earliest defeat):

FRANCE (Drawn 1914, 15 SCs, Bad85): Manche opening (Spain/Picardy)
GERMANY (Drawn, 10 SCs, Sandgoose): Blitzkrieg opening, Dutch variation
TURKEY (Drawn, 9 SCs, redhouse1938, game initiator): Balkan concentration
Russia (Defeated, 1914, gregoire): Ukraine system (Southern Defense)
Austria (Defeated, 1909, semck83): Blue Water
England (Defeated, 1906, Fasces349): Pure Northern
Italy (Defeated, 1906, LakersFan): Classic Obriani

Having gotten to know Bad85 during a French/Italian alliance in the first game I played on this site, I was happy to learn he came back to the site, so we could play together another game and I could beat him again. Two players I’d gotten to know in earlier games, Fasces and Sandgoose, were keen to join and after recruiting Gregoire and Fasces, the final player to join I believe was Semck, who already told me in advance that he wouldn’t have as much time to negotiate as he normally would during a game of this type. Semck did negotiate, but indeed it was less than I’d hoped. Thanks for helping me out on filling the slot just before the deadline.
The game started with Italy/Austria joining in a very complex alliance that determined much of the board mechanics, but ended because Italy left his homeland too undefended against Austria, who profited temporarily from its takeover and at one point was actually reduced to owning only Italy’s home centers, to the amusement of the board. France played a very independent game, Russia and me allied in a Juggernaut and Germany’s strategy I believe was pretty much dominated by the events that occurred to his south.
With the Juggernaut effectively advancing west and taking out Austria and Italy, and France cooperating with Germany to knock out England, a situation arose in 1906 in which F/G stood against R/T with Austria in the middle, but both blocks essentially competing for dominance on the board, a struggle won by F/G.
Efforts to change the board dynamics such as simulating war between R/T failed, and Russia, having made some tactical slips that involved such events as not ordering holding units to support their neighbors and attacking rather than defending English Nwy in 1906, promised me in the period 1906-1909 to try sacrifice his empire to my advantage. Who am I to refuse such an offer? I took it, but perhaps too enthusiastically :-)
Russia subsequently stabbed me, for a reason still mostly unknown to me, in autumn 1909. This is a major setback, as the plan at this point was for me to take over Russian terrain and disequilibrate F/G to get them to attack each other, eventually finding a survive site for Russia and go for the solo. I would have followed through on this promise, Russia’s loyalty being very sincere in the pre-1909 period and not wavering once.
It is during this same period, 1906-1909, that I can finally break through to the Ionian and set up a defense against France there. In the beginning of the game, Italy had left a Lepanto left-over fleet in the Eastern mediterranean (1904-1906) turn after turn, blocking my expansion, but to no advantage whatsoever to Italy itself. Italy, Y U no get the **** out of my pond, hmmm?
After the 1909 stab, I send a message to France that whatever happens on the northern front, the three units that at that point are defending the Ionian Sea will be the last line of defense to fall, since I’m betting on two things: first, that at this point in the F/G alliance Germany is growing too fast, causing an unbalance in their alliance that is favorable to me and second, that I still have a chance for Germany and his new ally Russia to start fighting each other, rather than me.
This plan works and Germany grows much larger than France does, and France and me finally go to war with Germany. What’s a little frustrating about France is the extreme staticness of his western front. It is clear that France isn’t really into the game, as he evidently hasn’t made a defensive agreement. The strange thing is that Germany, in the years 1909-1911 is obviously preparing a major attack on France, but France doesn’t seem to have a clear definition of what a German attack would be. No good DMZs or bounces were agreed on and this eventually leads to the spring 1911 message from France that I found extremely funny to read – and I don’t remember the precise formulation – but it came down to that « Germany had really crossed the line by taking Edinburgh and could expect a declaration of war ». No shit.
I start supplying tactical advice to France, involving full activation of the French units in the period from 1911-1913, but the plan works a little bit too well, with France becoming a serious solo threat.
I try to negotiate an anti-leader alliance with Germany, but Germany insists on being very vague on exactly what his end of the deal would be and sometimes changes his end of the bargain during the negotiation. I ask France permission to balance our alliance by me building a fleet and taking some of his Italian centers, but France doesn’t agree. If I would have reached an agreement with Germany that turn, I would have definitely invaded Italy, using – at the center of my tactics – the bounce in TyS that you see in the last screen. This bounce was sold to France as « delaying my alliance with Germany » while really it was supposed to keep the Mar-Lyo-TyS corridor clogged up until I could station a fleet in Aeg and set up a convoy line from the Turkish mainland, that was overly occuppied by armies, to the Italian mainland, of which Apulia would have been a spring convoy target. I was planning to blitz through it.
I’m pretty sure I could have taken the solo, if Germany and me had managed at that point to stop the new solo threat, which was France, but I’m not sure whether we would have managed, in 1914, to effectively stop the solo threat, although with vulnerable Italian centers and only 15 SCs, I’m pretty sure we had a decent shot.
The game finished in 1914, when Germany and France were sort of war-fatigued, and I was the junior power and didn’t feel a three-way draw was too much of an embarassment, my wanting to check out of the site also played a role in putting my draw flag up.

I’ll finish with some advices and commentaries on individual playing styles:

France: I believe you need to start playing a slightly more active defense. As an example of what I mean, you could take a look at the situation in 1907; your defense of England consists of Edi and Lon holding, while a German convoy to England in Yor would have been crippling (that unit could have pushed to Lvp and supported an attack on Edi from there: devastating). You should just bounce the two units into each other every now and then, effectively defending three squares with two units. Also, in 1907/1908 there is a Paris unit that just stands there: give him a job! Also, I believe you need to make solid agreements on where your boarders are, and how to defend them. But this is just a side note, as always, it’s been lots of fun playing against you and you have a talent for cooperation. It seems, just like last time, that once I get an alliance with you going, the only danger is of that alliance becoming too productive.

Germany: Also, it’s been a lot of fun playing against you again, but you need to get a little organized in your messages. Sometimes, they were slightly emotionally charged and not always sufficiently structured for me to understand what you wanted. But, I stand by the endorsement text on your player profile. Also, a draw is an act of despair, not a goal to work toward from the beginning of the game, although I also made the mistake of aiming for a draw rather than a win in one game and the forum taught me a good lesson about it when I put up the story on that game. In this game, I believe you put up your draw flag a little too early. I also advice you to write EoGs, you have a lot of potential as a player and EoGs can help sharpen your style, because you’re forced to think about what went wrong and right. Mucho love.

Italy: You essentially invited Austria to take over your country. Be sure to leave behind some units to defend your country, even if you feel you’re in a really strong alliance. Austria did nothing wrong by stabbing you, you asked for that stab.

England: It was a lot of fun having long-distance communications with you and I don’t have any advice to you, since you were too far away for me to really understand in depth what was going on on your side of the board.

Austria: Had fun playing against you, but like you said before the game, you wouldn’t have a lot of time communicating, and with me being a communicative player, that meant I allied with the others. Sorry if my attack against you looked like a stab. Also, why the mute? :-)

Russia: You were my game long ally with a small pause. Your stab infuriated me to the point where I had fantasies of slinging objects through the room, although I didn’t actually do it. The fact that you didn’t answer the question as to why you stabbed me and when you did, the answer was a little bizarre, made the fantasies stronger, but I could luckily restrain myself. Anyway, you were a clearly a very nice guy. I hope your concert was fun!

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Anyways, that’s it for redhouse. I’m taking an extended site holiday (several months).

I would like to thank in particular the following players on the site with whom I played several games and always had a lot of fun with:

@MrcsAurelius, congratulatios on winning the invitational! It was a lot of fun playing with you in the, what was it? four matches? that we played together. Be sure that next time you say that « you’ll take a rematch any time » to actually take the rematch when it’s being offered. I love how you’re very self-confident in this game, but I’m still the better player. lol. Just kidding. Not really.

@Bad85, I’ve also known you from the start, you’re a great diplomat. I heard you’re also taking a break, good for you, this site is very bad for one’s mental health.

@Tasnica, you’re a brilliant player. Playing with you probably taught me the majority of the crucial lessons one needs to learn to go from understanding the rules to becoming a decent player. I’m very much hoping to play you again in the future, negotiations with you are never a bore.

@TheUnforsaken. Always a pleasure playing with you. One day, you were just sort of gone, I wonder where you’ve been and how you’ve been.

@President Eden, scribble scribble. Lol.

@TruNinja, we also played more than once, and it’s a pity we never really could get into an alliance, I’m curious how it would be to ally with you.

@LakersFan, always a pleasure playing with you.

Also, despite the fact that I only played with them once, I particularly want to thank @jmeyersd, @Nerevatus, @FreeThing, and @ll the others whom I played with during the last months.

I also want to thank the people on the forum for their brilliant, revolutionary ideas and sense of humor. I loved the fierceness of some of the debates.

Webdip.net, I salute you.