Well for a small EoG, when I opened the game, I had the ability to talk to Germany for quite a while before France showed up and began talking. That put a damper on the EF from the word go. I finally got on a few minutes before the deadline, read my messages from France which detailed a plan to change my Southern Opening to a Northern Opening, but the deadline went through before my orders change did. The fall saw me leaving the Channel and France entering it which only continued to hurt any opportunity to work with France.
Throughout the fall and following spring years, I heard from several players that Germany was planning a stab and so I took the opportunity to move on Denmark which turned out to not be in my favor.
From that point, for the next several years, I didn't trust anyone and flipped back and forth between trying to defend against France and trying to defend against Russia and even gain my footing. By 1907 France was back moving my direction and I reached out to Turkey and I let him know in no uncertain terms that I would help him solo if he would move on France. At that point, goldfinger took the bait, posted a forum topic on getting others to help you solo, and moved on France. I had no real intentions of actually helping him solo because it things would have played out in one of two ways: (a) Turkey does not attack France, I get crushed and Turkey likely doesn't solo or (b) Turkey does attack France, France retreats while I gain some breathing room and I move to stop his solo, all the while not attacking France to make sure France is on my side over his. After all, I had Russia to deal with and didn't want to get bogged down fighting an unnecessary two-front war. I sent message after message to Russia with no reply, so when he moved to the MAO from the NAO without so much as a reply, it was a real shocker and at that moment, I really felt that my death had turned around and life was returning.
The game began to look like a Russian support of a Turkish solo which allowed me to talk France into turning around. I gave him London to maintain a slightly stronger fleet presence along the border, got Germany on board for a fight and things progressed for several years, although I didn't really see much in the way of center-gains.
F, G and myself coordinated fairly closely until about 1911 when I finally entertained Turkish ideas about eliminating France to reduce the draw, but it was only when the Russian stab occurred that I worked with G to keep Russia from crossing the line and forcing his current units back across the line. Once that happened, Germany and I took the opportunity to hit Turkey in his open flank to prevent him from gaining any additional ground and in 1914, I agreed that Russia could be eliminated under the assumption that Germany and I could force Turkey back into only 2 iberian centers and we would occupy Mos and War.
Then the game saw the surprise draw ending. For me, it was better than it could have been, so I'll take the 5WD.
Top 100 Game
. It will be non-anon, WTA. gameID=99375 If you have interest in the game, don't hesitate to send me a PM, I don't usually check threads after I make em.
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