I'm copying my EOGs into here for completeness:

gameID=110177
Got Austria, which I like, despite the high elimination percentage. When it does well, it usually does really well. But not this time. The doing well part lasted until 1903, when I decided to disband and rebuild an unit from Warsaw (instead of retreating to Galicia) because Italy looked like about to stab (units in Tyrolia and Venice) Rumania became vulnerable and the castle of cards fell apart pretty fast. I did manage to last until 1908 because everyone else couldn't decide who'd take my final possession in Serbia. Kudos to y2kjbk and AlexNesta for managing to advance in the opposite directions while keeping a nice back and forth battle at the Med.

gameID=110178
Got Russia, which I also like. Had a dream start, with a friendly looking Germany and a southern build that could give me back the control over the Black Sea. England and Germany obviously didn't like my growth, but the fight between Italy and Austria allowed me to keep a decent size. By 1905 I was one of the big powers besides Germany and France, but Italy and Turkey were close in the fight. Germany and Italy pushed East strongly and by 1907 I was a minnow. But France's advances and my decent defensive position stopped the bleeding of centers, and I had time to build the northern side of the stalemate line while Germany (despite a brave fight) was slowly dismantled. Kudos to AlexNesta for nearly winning and to y2kjbk for smartly helping secure the stalemate line in the last year.

gameID=110179
Since I had two Germanies, I decided trying one wild opening might be worth it, so I went for a Barbarrossa. It turned out quite alright despite the slow initial progress, but with 7 centers after 1903 I was equal to England at the top of the count. England wasn't as outstretched as myself, though, and as France was busy containing an invasion attempt by Italy, slowly reduced me to a minnow. By 1908, I was only expecting Austria, Italy and Turkey to stop their fight and come to my rescue at the stalemate line as England steadily broke French resistence in the following years. In 1911, everybody seemed to finally wake up to the solo threat, but it was just a bit too late. Great win by Your Humble Narrator (not me!) anyway.

gameID=110180
I hate being Turkey. It's the only country with which I have a below average performance. And the start of the game didn't look good at all, with a strong Austria on my way until Fall 1902: Italy decided to stab him! The next year I had jumped to six centers with Russia weakened by a German attack, Austria down to 2 SCs and Italy awakwardly posed. I took the Ionian in the following year and decided I could try for a solo all by myself! A thus far friendly Russia didn't like the idea a bit but being busy with Germany, couldn't do much about it. The lack of friends made me struggle a bit back and forth and only in 1908 I did progress in the number of centers again. And then came my big mistake: instead of defending the last Russian unit to stop the German growth, I decided to move West to secure gains against Austria and Italy. Despite getting a bigger growth in SCs, I was further from the win than Germany, who had broken way past the natural stalemate line with the control of Moscow and Warsaw. I still pushed my luck a bit before voting for the draw to try to eliminate Austria and Italy for a 3-way, but Germany was brilliantly defending Trieste and when I realized I couldn't really break past the MAO I felt lucky that Germany hadn't taken back his Draw vote yet! Great play by YHN, y2kjbk and Draugnar.

gameID=110181
I hate being Turkey. I had a moderate success at containing a very strong Italy until Russia (can't really blame him) made a desperate run into my unprotected side and broke what was left of my defence. Great play by CSteinhardt and excellent stalemate line setup by y2kjbk and Fairfax.

gameID=110182
This one was painful. I'm Austria, great start, despite a sneaky stab attempt by Italy; Italy takes it back and goes all Lepanto... but then, Juggernaut! Italy helps me contain it, but in the North Russia is still moving forward. But in 1908, France starts becoming dominant, while at the same time... I go on a crazy vendetta on Italy! Venice is retaken, but I eventually lose Budapest to Russia (who is still strong at this point). But France is advancing fast, and in 1910 we all stop fighting quickly to block the solo - there's a small misunderstanding between Italy and Turkey but no harm was done. In 1911, Turkey tries to move through Rumania (the only way available) to Galicia to help the line, but despite my help is expertly blocked by France and Russia suffers the blow. At the final year, I believe Russia made a fatal mistake trying to salvage St. Pete (which was lost and not necessary for the stalemate and allowing France to walk into Warsaw. But it was a gamble either way. Brilliant win by y2kjbk.

gameID=110183
In this one I've played a "standard" Germany, but couldn't advance against a very well played England and once France joined the attack against me I was done. Meanwhile, Turkey won the East and got really close to winning the game. A pity that y2kjbk was thrown out of the Draw after his great survival efforts with a wandering Austrian army that once retreated to Portugal!

gameID=110177 just noticed turkeys opening in this game....I can't say I've ever seen that one.

I was trying to send a friendship signal to Russia while bouncing with him in Bla, but my build left me too exposed.

But you moved to Armenia the following turn? I guess you changed your mind.

Deception from the get go.

gameID=110177
Quickly on game 1, I hate writing EOGs.
I decided to go against Germany, because I expected Italy to keep France occupied. I had no interest in ganging up on France, since the best I could hope for there was Brest and I would be left with having to deal with strong Germany afterwards. I was pretty successful until 1904, where not only France decided to go after me, but I also misordered, sending the fleet in EC to London instead of Belgium. Which meant I wasn't able to take Holland and didn't get a build, which I absolutely rellied upon to defend Liverpool. It was pretty much over for me after that.

I've been pretty busy, but a few random comments for now, and perhaps I'll write more later:

gameID=110177

I don't understand the British tactics here, not just the misorder you mentioned but for several turns. I'm curious what Russia was thinking with that northern fleet. Russia kept trying to look friendly, while being completely hostile to my Germany, yet ineffectively hostile. The end result was that when I finally had a bit of freedom to act, even though attacking France was the right play and gave me a chance at a really big result, I chose to retaliate against Russia. I suspect Russia might not have realized how hostile he was being.

gameID=101178

The Russian moves in S13 are suicidal in a gunboat game. As a general rule, don't make moves you don't need to if you don't want them to succeed. Germany's 1908 moves have a similar feel, and with a similar result.

gameID=110179

JesusPetry: What happened was exactly what you should have expected to happen. As Germany, opening strongly against Russia and foregoing neutrals is generally a mistake (you can always move that way in 1902), but in gunboat, you don't get to negotiate compensation for surrendering the low countries.

gameID=110180:

This is the better way to attack Russia if you're insistent upon it from the getgo. And, naturally, a better result.

gameID=110181:

Worst late midgame I've played in a long time. I made at least four large mistakes. Unclear whether there was a solo if I avoided them, but either way, inexcusable.

With that said, very well played by AlexNesta; your tactics were the strongest on the board, and you deserved a spot in the draw.

gameID=101182

F11: Mos S War, Ukr S Rum - Gal is much stronger, although really there's no way this should have been anything but dead drawn.

Good gunboat tactics from Turkey -- to respond to the earlier point, there was no miscommunication between me and Turkey, or at least none on my end, and Turkey appeared to be on the same page. I have two goals: stop France (easy, unless Russia fails to count to 17) and stop France only at the last moment, so that I can't be eliminated from the draw (tougher). So, the bounce in ION was expected on my end. As long as France only had two fleets in the Med, I was always going to be at risk -- I needed him to build another. As you can see, we got it right, at least on that end.

Austria: Stalemate lines are something where precision is required, particularly when you have the wrong fleet/army balance in theatre (and we did). In S12, you can survive without Tyrolia but not if France gets a fleet to Tuscany. Thus, Rom S Ven isn't coming; it has to be Rom - Tus to prevent the swap, and so you need to support Ven. Didn't matter because Russia had already lost the game, but worth noticing for the future.

gameID=101183

France's 1908 was probably the best played year I saw in this set of rounds. This is a main reason I didn't push for the 2-way at the end when I could have; even though you then did a couple of funny things later on, you deserved your share in the draw. I would have taken the 4-way if gameID=110177 had ended earlier, since Austria deserved a piece as well.

CSteinhardt -- in gameID=110182 , one could make the argument that you spent one year too many in Aegean, no? You didn't start to react to France in the south until 1910. It's just an outsider's view from looking at the board but I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts.

@Mapu - no problem with the criticism, I've definitely made my share of mistakes both in this round and in many other games!

I actually started reacting to France in 1907. The reaction was along the same lines as the reaction in 1909, though, and for similar reasons.

My thought process in 1909 goes something like this:

France is a clear solo threat. However, in the absence of that solo threat, I am likely to be eliminated. Further, if we stop a French solo, I am the easiest power to eliminate from the draw. Therefore the overriding goal for Italy is to stop France, but only just barely so that I cannot be taken out of the draw without the ability to throw the solo.

To throw the solo, essentially I have to credibly be able to give France either Tunis or Venice (for France to get Rome, he'd be in TYS, at which point he gets Tunis). I have four units on the board, three fleets and an army. So, let's imagine three scenarios:

Scenario 1: I attack France with everything I've got in 1909. I'm never going to take Marseilles, right? France is getting builds. But, if I want to hold a line at GoL/WES/NAf/Pie (probably an Austrian in Pie), and perhaps pin an army in Mar so that he cannot build a fleet there, perhaps I can.

Result: In this case, it's a draw. However, Turkey will end up in TYS (to support GoL) and probably ION (since there's nowhere else for the fleet to go). If, one turn, Turkey convoys to Tun and picks off Gre, Turkey is now holding a stalemate line containing Tunis and I'm not. That's a 4-way draw, not 5-way.

Scenario 2: OK, I'm a bit smarter about it. I pull away from Turkey immediately to TYS/Tun/ION, and sit there. France still has zero fleets in the Med, so I sit in position and wait for him to put fleets up against my line.

Result: Also a draw. However, what do I do if Turkey takes Greece? If I disband the army, Austria snaps something off too, and it's probably a 4-way draw FART, which stinks. If I disband the fleet, then Turkey comes and holds the Ionian, and that probably ends up pretty smelly as well. Turkey might not grab Greece, of course. But, I'm forced to bet that he won't.

Scenario 3: Keep my line against Turkey until France comes into the Med, and only then swing West.

Result: France has no fleet in the MAO, so the closest he is to Tun is ENG (3 turns). The strongest attack he has is to build F Bre/Mar, in which case he's got one fleet 2 moves from TYS and another 2 from WES. Therefore, AEG - ION/ION - TYS followed by ION - Tun cannot be stopped by France, and gives me a line (with A Tus) that I can hold permanently against two fleets. When France sends a third fleet, I can safely send Gre - ION, and now I can't be eliminated from the draw. There are two main dangers here. First, France could send a third fleet (ENG), in which case I need the third fleet immediately. Again, in that case, I get an extra turn of warning. Although ENG appears to be two moves from NAf, it's actually THREE, because Bre also has to move through the MAO. That third move means that I have an extra turn to play with.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The main point here is this: As a small power on the edge of a stalemate line, you have two jobs, not one: you have to block the solo, and you have to block it in a way that you are essential. As a result, it is often to your benefit to see a power nearing a solo become more threatening more quickly, since you are most essential in the face of a truly dire threat. Thus, a bit of brinksmanship was involved, as I was forced to calculate exactly how threatening I could let France get before letting Turkey out of its box. Continuing to distract Austria was another way of enhancing the threat. The moment France looked menacing enough to secure my place in the draw was the moment I could turn around, and I did manage to shift each of my units West at only the last possible moment at which success was guaranteed, so I think I got the timing right. At the same time, if France were not getting larger, I would probably have chosen a more offensive set of tactics, preferring bounces over holds. I didn't do that in 1909 ( because of the tiny risk that I'd unpredictably succeed in a move that would take me out of position to defend when France finally built fleets.

excellent EOG.

Exactly the reason I left Italy alone for that long. His best option was to leave me alone too. I felt pretty confident I could solo without any of his holdings. Taking Livonia and blocking Galicia was all it took. But that's not Italy's problem.

Well that and all the fun I had with Germany and England. Hopefully I'll find time to write the rest of the EOGs this weekend.

CSteinhardt -- thanks for that excellent analysis and explanation. As Italy [at least] 4 times in my group, I found myself in that position 3 times and probably misplayed it somehow in at least 2. But we can save that for the Group B EoG's.

@CStein, @Mapu - thank you for that thought on Italy and defense of the Solo and/or getting a piece of a draw. As Mapu alluded to, there were at least 3 games where Italy was pressured to get cut out, with varying success -- it will definitely be a theme in our EoGs... CStein proves one of my thoughts eloquently -- Italy is a much more dynamically played nation, even if small, with good players...

Thanks everyone for posting your EoGs, I really enjoyed reading them. I didn't do well at all this tournament and got nothing out of 5 games. My only points in the tournament were the result of 4-way draws in games #1 and #2 where I played France.

Game #2 (gameID=110178) developed quite rapidly and it soon became clear that I would not be able to cross the stalemate line, due to Italy's (CSteinhardt) very good tactical play and Germany's (YHN) lack of desire to help me solo when it was clear that he was not going to survive one way or the other.

This made me take a slightly different approach in game #1 (gameID=110178), where I took Tunis from Italy (y2kjbk) before attacking Germany (CSteinhardt) and Scandinavia, but that took the wind out of my offensive in the North as I was forced to keep 4 units in the South to defend against Italy. Germany played flawlessly and eventhough I guessed correctly a few times, it didn't help and I was forced to vote draw as Italy and Germany grew stronger while I was getting weaker with every turn.

Game #3 (gameID=110179) was really frustrating for me, I was France yet again and was doing fairly well, but somehow I was never able to read Italy's (Draugnar) and England's (YHN) intentions, so whenever I moved against one of them, the other would attack my back. After dancing around for a while, I also lost the opportunity to save my only potential ally Germany (JP) and I was going to be England's next victim on its way to the Med and the stalemate line. My only option for a draw was to seek centers across the stalemate line, so I turned my back on England and attacked Italy. I took Tunis and came close to taking Rome, but had to settle for the Ionian. At that point I was trying to throw the game to England, but Austria (Fairfax) had been busy defending against Italy and Turkey (y2kjbk), so it was not prepared to defend the stalemate line in the North and England was able to the game without my help. Very good play by YHN!

In game #4 (gameID=110180) I was Austria, it started out OK, I got Greece, but then Italy (y2kjbk) stabbed me and Turkey (JP) took Greece and Serbia, so I survived in Budapest and Vienna for a while until Turkey and Germany (YHN) became strong enough to divide my two remaining centers between themselves.

Game #5 (gameID=110181) - I am Austria again, Italy (CSteinhart) stabs me in 1901, all I want to do is have my revenge, I get Trieste back after a while and start looking East, counting on the fact that Italy had learned its lesson. Turns out that I was the one who hadn't learned his lesson, Italy stabs me again right when I get what I was hoping to be my 5th center (Warsaw) and I am never able to recover from that blow. I seek refuge in Warsaw and Moscow, Russia (Draugnar) and Turkey (JP) continue fighting over nothing, so I take Sevastopol to try and end the conflict and allow Turkey to focus on Italy, but it's too little too late and Italy is able to take us both out.

Game #6 (gameID=110182) - I am Germany and England (Draugnar) bounces me out of Holland while I also bounce France (y2kjbk) in Belgium and Russia (YHN) in Sweden. That means no friends for me and only one build. I decide to let Russia have Scandinavia and teach England that Dutch is just another German dialect and should always be reunited with the Vaterland. To my complete surprise, England forces its way into the Channel and all out war breaks out in the West - all three Western powers launch unsupported attacks on neutral Belgium in the Fall of 1902 and fail to get it. France slowly eats up England while also keeping me out of Belgium, which stays neutral until the end of 1904, when France manages to take it. In 1904 Russia also kicks me out of Denmark and the game is pretty much done for me at this point; I try to hold my own against Russia and I manage to do it with French support until France stabs me, rolls over me and then over Russia to win the game. Congrats, y2kjbk!

In game #7 (gameID=110183) I get to play Russia, my least favorite country in Gunboat (England is my favorite, in case you are wondering). I try to stay friends with Austria (y2kjbk) and Turkey (Fairfax), go against Germany (JP) and try to make some gains in the North but it doesn't work out because England (CSteinhardt) takes control. Turkey is able to grow because Austria (y2kjbk) and Italy (Draugnar) keep fighting, so it is able to attack me in 1904 and then again decisively in 1906, rolling over me all the way to the stalemate line.

So there wasn't a game in this group in which Ita hasn't attacked Aus early? Or it was one game? Interesting group!

Yeah, that was a disappointment. I was looking forward to play 2 Austrias and certainly didn't expect Italy to open against me in both games. I thought they would know better than this.

Wow, Austria got a total of ZERO points in group C! Italy attacked Austria (Trieste) in every single game, with mixed results:
Game #1 - Italy (y2kjbk) takes Tri in 1904; draws (12 SC)
Game #2 - Italy (CSteinhardt) takes Tri in 1901; draws (8 SC)
Game #3 - Italy (Draugnar) attacks Tri in 1903 and takes it in 1904; loses (survives English solo)
Game #4 - Italy (y2kjbk) attacks Tri in 1903 but never takes it; draws (2 SC)
Game #5 - Italy (CSteinhardt) takes Tri in 1901; draws (17 SC)
Game #6 - Italy (CSteinhardt) attacks Tri in 1901 but never takes it; loses (survives French solo)
Game #7 - Italy (Draugnar) takes Tri in 1901; loses

Italy attacking Austria in 1903/1904 is debatable depending on the game, but fighting Austria in 1901 does not seem to make much sense... CStein was the culprit in 3 of the 4 instances of such an offense... the fourth was Draug, and we can all agree he's just crazy....

The four 1901 attacks on Austria resulted in two draws and two losses for Italy, which is about average I would say.

What I mean is that the results of attacking Austria early are not terrible for Italy (it doesn't do it too much good either), but obviously for Austria it's just devastating.

You should really count game 3 as 1901 too, as it was clearly an attempted crusher.

Game 3 Italy was also Draug, so probably should be considered a tainted sample... Fairfax, sounds like you take personally the mistreatment of your Austrias by Italy... I had Austria twice myself, but with a friendly Italy, the results were much different...

Yeah, I made a mistake - in game 3, Italy attacked Trieste in the Spring of 1902, so I guess the resulting Italian loss should be included in the results of early attacks by Italy.

The results for Italy are not terrible because Turkey and Russia played worse then him.

I really like playing Austria when Italy knows what he's doing. It has an amazing potential.
The problem here is that if Italy attacks Austria, it gives Turkey way too much power. You can see that in these games where Italy was semi-successful, it either pulled out soon enough or Turkey failed to capitalize on that by fighting Russia. I always try to go for a juggernaut when playing Turkey, opening to armenia or similar is just sabotaging your own game. You should always try to keep Russia friendly as Turkey.

Wholeheartedly agree with you, Fairfax, in fact, I am surprised more Italys don't open vacating Venice, allowing Austria to establish as strong an opening position as possible -- for as crazy a move on Trieste is for Italy in year one, Austria moving on Venice is pure suicide. In order to hold Venice against a re-take from Pied/Tusc and Apulia, Austria would have to move Vienna or Bud to Trieste... never see that...

As it turned out, I drew 3 Italys (and 2 Russias, 1 England, 1 Germany -- just about the worst possible draw?), so I'm responsible for three of those attacks. gameID=110178 was intended as opening to give myself the option to attack Austria. While I think this is a weaker opening, I firmly believe that a mixed strategy is correct in the opening, so I'll play something weaker less often but not never if I still think it's viable. I don't think I'd ever play Ven - Tri, but Ven - Tyr, Rom - Ven gives me the option of something like Ven S Vie - Tri, Tyr - Boh. I got the expected result - I didn't keep Trieste (if I really wanted to keep it, it needed to be F Ven/A Rom, and that would have overcommitted me). I was expecting to abandon the attack on Austria, but after the Turkish A Smy, it made sense to continue.

In the other two games, I did something different, and to the best of my knowledge, I haven't seen anybody use this as an opening framework. Although I made the same set of orders in F01 in both games, it was with very different intentions and expectations and very different short-term results. I think that the middle of a tournament in which, having just drawn 3 Italys, apparently I'm unlikely to draw one next round at all, is probably the wrong time to write a treatise telling everybody that they're playing Italy wrong in gunboat games, but I'm happy to promise to write about this framework post-tournament.

boo teaser, boo.