The game had a textbook perfect Sea Lion, but then Germany got all wishy washy and took his foot off England's throat. I think he just had an off game because the Narrator is a better player than he displayed in this game. Fortunately, France and I maintained a good relationship throughout the game so when it came time for Austria to get solo aspirations after agreeing to a 3 way draw and then stabbing both of us, we were able to quickly contain him. I enjoyed this game a great deal.

You are right about that Mapu. I was originally presented the idea of a Western Triple, but as I don't like those, I had pressed hard to get a Sealion. When Germany betrayed the Sealion, I brought in the person I had originally tried to orchestrate the downfall of. As much as I had hoped to solo in my invitational, drawing France almost guaranteed me draw instead. I admired Austria's attempt to solo, but I didn't see it as possible for anyone at that point of the game.

I drop the threadID in the game chat, but some of the players may need it sent to them via PM.

Not my best game, to say the least. I was getting vibes from both Russia and France that I was next on the chopping block after England. I don't recall my exact reasoning, but I believe it boiled down to Russia knowing things he couldn't have known without France telling him, things which I thought I'd communicated in confidence. Really, though, I think the main culprit was the distraction of finals at a climactic moment.

I'll be honest, I fully intended to let you and Russia fight it out while I went after Italy with Austria, however your moves swayed me to work with Russia instead.

My EoG:
I drew England, which I normally like.... But Germany and france wanted to kill me off the start... So, in conclusion, I lost-though I survived longer then I expected :)

Italy's EoG:
Fall 1901 both Austria and Turkey backstab me at once. From then on Austria just shoves units down my throat as me and Turkey could never quite cooperate and Russia helped Austria with Turkey.

So I drew Austria, which is something I was actually quite happy about, given that I find it to be an enjoyable country to play as and one that can get better results than people acknowledge.

From the onset I thought I would have to deal with Italy. It was nothing personal but I just didn't get the right vibe for an A/I and it's my opinion that Austria and Italy have to be best of friends or fight. Similiarly I didn't want Turkey in Greece, feeling that it is key to Austria managing a good D. This made me gravitate towards an alliance with Russia, who I actually got on really well with throughout the game, by and large anyway. Germany were really nice, and from my understanding helped with facillitating my partnership with Russia. I talked to France a bit in the early years, and although they seemed nice enough I was always wary of them - they didn't help me in Italy when I needed it most (which to me seemed opportunistic/denied me scs i wanted/needed), and I knew that a strong France would really damage my solo chances if I got that far.

Germany told me about their idea of going after Russia, and I was actually supportive of it just to keep the two of them weaker, and I thought that this would be my only real chance to work with someone against Russia, but they moved too early/ineffectively and at this stage I was still too distracted by all my own worries. From this point I, regrettably, accepted that Germany only existed in my world to slow down the growth of my adversaries until I could take Munich.

A lot of my worry in the years before my stab of Germany and after my stab of Italy was around the idea of a Russian stab. I think they feared me stabbing them too, but thankfully we both managed to keep the A/R going.

The rest of the game was simply, for me, based on thinking how I could solo. I like to solo and think about it a lot. Maybe too much. Anyway I knew I needed both Munich, Tunis, and a good stab of Russia, or at least that would be the easiest way of doing it. I sacrificed Tunis to France in exchange for Munich (on the basis that I thought I could probably take it back later if England held them off and I built fleets). I was tempted not to support them in and just take Munich but I wanted to stab Russia and this way I thought perhaps I would just have to fight one of them initially. I almost stabbed Russia the turn they gave me Smyrna but I didn't think the stab would be strong enough or overly succesful so waited. A mistake? I'm not sure, to be honest my solo was always a longshot (one I'd definitely go for, but probably wouldn't get), anyways, stabbed them in spring which is rare for me, but I had many units not doing much. Looking back now I kinda wish I stabbed France for Tunis then, I think I didn't because I was worried about my German SCs and wanted to cripple Russia first? I don't remember, regardless, the crippling blow I tried to inflict turned to a longdrawn out and ineffective affair.

Probably made a few more mistakes at the end, maybe should have kept Germany around longer, moved a few units differently - that said I just think my situation was untenable with it being so hard/impossible to hold on to my scs in Germany indefinitely, whilst holding Italy and pushing into Russia. Maybe could have soloed if I did everything perfectly, but France and Russia got on well throughout the game (seemingly), and both are skilled players so I'm not too surprised.