Germany:

I start the game suggesting that France attack England and that he can have Belgium if he opens north. France then responds with an offer to Sealion, which is something I wanted him to propose instead of me so that it looks like it's his plan. I offer Russia Sweden if he bounces in St. Petersburg.

I gain 2 builds and France 2, and seeing Russia's 2 builds I decide to offer a bounce in Silesia while I finish England off. Then in F 1902 Russia decides he wants to try something and hit Denmark, but unfortunately for him I anticipate that and bounce him while moving into Silesia. S 1903 onwards, Russia decides to go all-out on me for no reason. I asked him why, he did not give a reason at all. Austria seeing the opportunity tears into the Russian flank with abandon and sets the ending of this game as a F-G-A. After a lot of manuevers wasting precious turns I remove Russia but by that time Austria was a solo threat.

In the other theater, Italy also goes all-out against France. That didn't do him much good but had the effect of forcing France to hold for basically the entire game. So with me and France unable to progress south and west, Austria snaps them all up. It was clear though that Austria couldn't get past 17 when he stabbed Italy, so the rest was just working towards the 3-way draw (I did take Moscow and Warsaw due to fortunate guesses and some inaccurate defence), 15-12-7.

Good game all.

Italy, you asked us about our opinion of your play. I think the main thing you missed was balance of power. Austria and you were allied from the get-go, all right. But your decision to go hard on France before securing your spoils of Turkey (you should really demand all of Turkey so that when Turkey's done with both of you are at 7 scs and stabbing is harder) lost you the game.

1. Germany was never likely to stab France given Russia was kami-kaze on Germany, so you had 0 chance of gains there.
2. You forfeit your rightful gains in Turkey that could have been used to build fleets against France.
3. Your forces are so out of position that you could not even prevent the raider Turk from taking Naples or Austria from taking Venice.
4. Austria was growing so rapidly from Russia's fall that he was becoming the dominant player in the east and he needed a serious opponent to counter him. You were the only person who could conceivably have done that and you just sat there. As I said, I'm not just going to stab my ally when there's a Lepanto in the south. If you had stirred up some trouble and allowed France to get out of position I could have stabbed him.

Austria: great game. I'm sorry I lied to you about not attacking your side of the line, but I wanted to ensure that there was no chance of a fluke win by you, so cutting you down to 16/15 was justified. Also if I got Moscow and Warsaw I might have a chance of winning, but France's decision to sit there in Mar/Por/Spa until the end basically meant I could not have eliminated him anyway and I needed 2 of Mar/Por/Spa to win.

France: Very astutely played. Defended well against Italy, and left no opportunity for a stab. There was no way I could cut you out from the draw, unlike Italy.

England: Sorry for the Sealion, but I had to attack *somebody* and this time it was England.

Russia: What the fuck? What the hell were you thinking when you abandoned all defense against Austria to attack me with two fleets and three armies (and lose the war)?

Turkey: It's unfortunate that you went down but things like that happen when Blue Water Lepantos work.