This was, for me, a very fun game, probably the most fun I’ve had in the Master’s so far, but definitely a game where I felt like I was always a turn or two (or more) behind where I needed to be to have a shot at winning.
The players that survived to the draw with me, France (THM), Germany (ckroberts), and Austria (gantz) were all a pleasure to play with and against, as was the eliminated player that I had the most contact with, Russia (bo_sox48, although he may have a different view!). I definitely hope to play all of them again.
**1901: I draw England, which is exciting for me, as far as I can recall, I have not played England in a regular phase full press game excluding one or two of my very first games on this site about a year ago. I’ve drawn Russia, France, and Italy a disproportionate number of times in FP games so I’m a little excited to be doing something new.
France, Germany, and Russia are all pretty friendly in pre-game chat. I get the sense right away that France is probably a top-notch player. Don’t really know what exactly it is about these early messages that gives me that impression about France, but given that it turned out to be The Hanged Man, who is currently winning this tournament (IIRC), I’m going to say that I’m pretty happy about my instincts here. I get the sense that Russia and Germany are also no slouches. I have very brief exchanges with Italy and Turkey that don’t amount to much. Italy strikes me as sort of silly but I figure he’s just playing his cards close to his vest.
As far as alliances, Germany proposes a WT, but France isn’t interested. The strangest thing about this year, from my perspective, is that after talking about Belgium with both Germany and France, it becomes pretty clear that I’m probably going to get it without working too hard. I don’t fully understand why this is before the spring moves, but neither seems to want it very much.
Then the spring moves happen. They are basically all uninteresting, except that Italy opens to against France, moving to Piedmont and Venice. I don’t want to exaggerate how big of an impact this ends up having on the game, and I’m sure Germany, France and Austria have their own views, but IMO, Italy’s early assault on France had a huge impact on the game.
1902: Russia builds F StP (nc) in response to my convoy to Norway, while I get a fleet in Bel. Russia had wanted the opposite arrangement, and his reaction was probably fair.
But that basically seals the dynamic for the next two years...its EG vs R, AR vs T (sort of),and I vs F for the next little while.This whole time I’m talking to France and Germany a fair bit, Russia as well. France is confident that Italy will go nowhere and hopeful that I’ll help him against Germany after Russia is toast. I don’t know, but I wonder, if Germany and France are having the same conversations.
1903: So after every turn at this point, I’m watching Italy try to get a leg up on France, and seeing how France responds. I send France my thoughts on the outlook for his fight, since I’d already decided France had to be someone who knew what was up and wanted to hear more about how he was thinking. Surely, he’d always respond to my thoughts with something more tactically sound and generally just more accurate. Admittedly, I was sending him my first impression, and he probably had more incentive to think things through, but I was usually impressed by what I heard.
I was less impressed by my own moves. Germany and I are definitely going to get through Russia relatively easily, but basically, I lose every 50-50 guessing game, I’m more cautious when being aggressive would have been better, and I’m less aggressive when caution would have been better. It’s not a disaster, but it’s not exactly like slicing through butter with a hot knife either. And I end up in StP **with an army** by the fall anyway, so it’s looking good.
1904: This year is almost the same as 1903. Germany and I are maneurving to get me into Moscow, and in the fall Russia sends me a message saying, “Moscow is yours, heading out”. I decide he’s lying and move to Livonia instead. Mistake, since Moscow was free for the taking.
The bigger story this year is that I decide it’s time to attack France. Germany, of course, has been saying all along that we have to attack France but will wait and followmylead, and is, by my reckoning, being very patient. But with Mos and StP basically in my pocket, I’m worried that hesitating to commit will make Germany nervous. So I guess moving on France now is basically my idea, but it’s, in my mind, more of a precautionary move than anything else.
After putting the moves in in the spring, which ensure that I’ll get a fleet in Brest by the fall, I message France saying, “Sorry, but if I’ve screwed up here, I’m sure you’ll tell me how.” To my surprise, France’s (honest, as far as I can tell) reply is, “Nope, been living on your whims already so far. When I have an offer to make, I will. For now, you’ve got Brest and that’s how it is.” Or something like that.
It’s pretty cordial and I’m glad, because at this point, I very much want to preserve the option of working with France later.
So I get a build from Brest, and miss an opportunity in Moscow. Meanwhile, Austria has loaned Italy Trieste, and has more or less taken out Turkey. Germany starts saying we’re going to have an obvious EGA draw, and it’s hard to argue with that.
1905: I take Moscow and the new dynamic continues. Germany, oddly, proposes StP-Mos, which I find surprising since I imagine he would want my army out of Liv ASAP. Perhaps too generously, I suggest Liv-Mos instead.
In the west, I get into MAO. I tell France I want Tunis and will let him hang on to Por and Spa for as long as it takes, thinking to myself, well, with Mos and Tun as England, there’s got to be somewhere good I can go.
1906: And then I get duped by Russia. Russia tells me he wants to screw Austria, he’ll support me to Sev, damn that Austria. I totally fall for it and Russia supports Austria to Sev. Meanwhile, Austria gets me to agree not to move to Ukraine, which I totally would have done if Russia hadn’t offered support to Sev. Russia, admirably, was trying to keep anyone from getting in solo position, despite his certain death. After this happens, Germany and Austria are both pretty insistent that Ukraine remain empty. Drat.
Meanwhile, Italy bounces me in North Africa. Drat again. Two moves that could have put me in an awesome position, both thwarted on the same turn. But France supports me into West Med in the fall, so I’m getting somewhere. Austria starts attacking Italy, which I had said I wanted, but in retrospect probably ended up hurting me. Meanwhile, France has an army in Italy that’s doing a lot of damage and probably causing a lot of confusion.
At the end of this year, Austria breaks both DMZs on Germany in Ukr and Boh, but quickly backs down. Not totally sure what happened here. Unfortunately, I never really get a good dialogue going with Austria.
1907: I get in position to take Tun, and help push France’s fleets forward. France is egging me on to go for the solo, has been the whole. I think it’s pretty tenuous, but, hey, stranger things have happened and it is the Master’s. So we begin batting around ideas.
At the same time, I make a mistake that ends up benefitting me. I misread a message from Germany, thinking we are agreeing to bounce in the North Sea. However, we are actually agreeing to bounce in Norway (which is mine). So I end up in NTH, bewildered that Germany moved to Norway. The confusion is quickly resolved: Germany agrees to move out, but suggests bouncing in Bel (also still mine) so he doesn’t have to worry about Holland. I’m thinking, sweet, I just lucked into NTH putting me in prime position to move on Germany and I had absolutely nothing to do with it.
At the same time, I take Tunis, and France and I go through about three different ways of stabbing Germany and pushing into ION. It’s tough, because, well, I know austria’s position is closer to 18 than mine, but he is more easily stalemated, I think. We agree on a plan which, critically, involves convoying a French army from Rome to Marseilles (German now), and the next turn supporting a French fleet into ION (guaranteed to work).
France also comes up with some advantageous ideas for how Germany and I can “stabilize” our border so that the move sequence is easily exploited by me. Unfortunately, Germany is smart and suggests a modification which makes his life a lot easier. The original idea is swapping Sweden and Belgium, parking his fleets in Den and Baltic, which conveneniently leaves Holland wide open. Germany decides they should park in Den and Hol instead. I don’t think to say,”Well, maybe we should worry more about Austria,” but I probably should have. I could have gotten Holland for free.
1908: The swap goes as discussed, and the fall turn is stab time. Everything goes according to plan. France and I talk tactics a lot, and I decide I have to convince Germany to play for a 2WD to maximize my chances. Maybe I should have done this before stabbing, but I honestly don’t think he would have gone for it, and solo greed can be a powerful motive when you’re worried about your position.
He doesn’t seem like he’s biting. France, perceptive as always, tells me Germany is unlikely to lie to me, while Austria is more likely to agree to a 2WD but screw me as soon as he can. I basically agree with his assessment, and am too worried about Austria’s prospects to offer him a path across the stalemate line.
1909: Basically, everything falls to shit for me.
First, I fucking misorder. I almost want to laugh. Misordering this turn saddles me with a disband for sure, although maybe not a consequential one. Germany moves Brest and it’s his, because I move my new fleet in Lon to NTH instead of the channel, and my fleet in north is convoying an army to Denmark, so that really sucks.
Second, wow, Germany gives everything to Austria. None of his centers,mind you, but I knew Moscow and Naples were toast, I just figured Germany would obviously insist on them for himself, or at least Moscow. But nope, both to Austria.
So I tell austria I’ll draw if he supports me to Marseilles, and Germany the same. I move to Portugal, but I’m really not expecting Austria to follow.
And so, third, in the fall, Austria pulls the trigger and takes Warsaw from Germany, as you do when you have Moscow, Ukraine, and Galicia. My moves don’t really matter this turn because Austria is on 16 and I’m thinking, well, I gave it my best shot,and I didn’t have good odds to begin with, so it’s draw time. I communicate as much to France who, from Marseilles, can make it at least a little difficult to hold the line, and Germany, who agrees that we may as well keep France around.
I did figure that Austria would probably eventually get up around 15-16 centers if I went this way, but I figured he would wait until I did and the stalemate lines had been degraded a bit. He didn’t wait, basically ensuring that neither of us has a shot. But I never tried making a deal with him, so I can’t complain. I’m also not sure how much France and Austria have been talking at this point, but I figure they must have been having some conversations. Even if not, France's play with me was (more likely than not) going to end with him surviving to the draw to stop *someone* from taking the solo, so kudos to France for that.
Ironically, I take ION in the fall this year (from France), and after retreats, Germany notices that France’s retreating fleet really could cause Austria some headaches. Which, of course, totally was the plan. But France disbands it and we decide to just make the very easy stalemate line.
1910-1911: Germany, France, and I talk and figure out where we need to be for the line. It is a very easy task. Germany and I initially do not realize that we don’t need either Pru or Liv for the line, but France does, of course (at this point, I have realized that France does not get tactics wrong often, if ever). Germany and I both notice that there are three or four multiple tenable stalemate positions in the med, and Germany himself has his line after one turn.
Austria leaves France’s fate up to me, and at this point, I figure, well, he could have made things harder and he didn’t, so it’d be kind of a dick move to cut him. Plus, I don’t really care about cutting the draw when there is a power on 16 centers. So France lives.
As I said, this was a really fun game for me and I would gladly play again with anyone in it. It was also pretty fun to play England for the first time in a quality FP game. I’d love to read what the other players in this game thought.
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