As Turkey, in Spring 1901, and I wanted to push a Juggernaut alliance with Russia as quickly as possible. As ssorenn mentioned above, they are powerful and often used as a 'threat'-tool to the other players, but they rarely seem to work fully. There is so much risk and trust involved.
Russia agreed to the alliance.
The opening moves involved Russia breaking DMZ into the Black Sea. Not a great start to a Jugg alliance built on trust.
However, Russia's build choices were 1. Fleet in STP, and 2. Army in Moscow. So at least I knew he wasn't planning to wrap around Armenia, and also he was focusing on the north -- which is always good, but still I did not see any commitment from Russia that he was against Austria. I'm sure at this point Austria is also thinking he was allies with Russia.
It's also worth noting that Italy's play was awesome and took a lot of guts. His push of 2 armies into BOH and TYR, and then building a fleet in Naples vs 3rd army in Venice took a lot of guts. Austria built a fleet also, so it was very clear they were allied, and Italy's 2 "northern" armies would be put to use with the Austrian.
After these builds, the board started to form. Italy pushed his army into Silesia even further north to get in a good position on Warsaw to aid the Austrian.
Russia and Austria finally made contact, and I breathed a big sigh of relief.
However, Russia still wouldn't vacate his fleet in Black Sea until a painful Spring 1904. At times I was just cringing and waiting for a stab, but the pressure on Russia's central SC's and the downfall of England on his north didn't allow him the luxury even if he wanted to.
After England fell to F/G alliance, I highly encouraged France to swing down and make a play for Italy, who I remained friendly with. Austria was still a force that had to be dealt with first, so I tried to 'support' Italy as long as possible so that France would be slowed down. This was enjoyable since Italy (Sherincall) was/is very enjoyable to have press with. One of the highlights was the forced disband of Silesia that resulted in the retreat to Munich. That took guts.
But when Germany jumped on France on the same turn that France jumped on Italy, both Russia and I shouted, "EUREKA!" We had it in the bag and were talking about a 17-17 Juggernaut draw to put on our Resume.
Autumn 1905 was my 'big move' that really solidified my independence and made me even think there was a possibility of a solo if I ever got into MAO. However, Italy's brilliant disbanding and defense of the boot made me spend more time than I expected and pretty much took away any solo thought.
But once Russia engaged Germany hard, F/G came back together and patched together a stalemate line. There probably was a long shot that I could have broken the southern line, but probably by that time the Germany NWG fleet would have come over to support.
All in all, a very fun game. I can say it was a very vulnerable game, and I do not envy at all anyone playing Turkey to be in a Juggernaut alliance. It's so submissive in the first years, however if you can get through that, Turkey has the upper hand in the later years.
Good job to both Bayclown and Ogion to get it together at the end and stop, THE JUGGERNAUT!
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