Pre-game:
I draw Turkey, and I’m just coming off another game where I played Turkey, allied with Austria, and had it work splendidly for me, so my first instinct is to try it again because it’s often unexpected and my theory is that folks get nervous as Austria and will accept offers of an alliance when they come. But, to keep my options open, I talk to Russia about a juggernaut, too.

The long and short of is this: talks with Austria go fairly well, and they go pretty well with England, too. Germany and France want to attack England, and Austria is happy to steer Italy in that direction. I have a decent conversation with Italy, too, and he seems to be happy not to fight me or go lepanto as long as I don’t build F Smy.

My negotiations with Russia are pretty disastrous, though. I try to sell Russia on the RT opening I did in one of the ODC games recently (where I played Russia) and the main effect of that proposal is that Russia (Valis) figures out who I am right away. He also hates the opening, but the alternative he proposes has a lot of my units doing nothing in S01 to achieve the slingshot, so I decide to just open against Russia and deal with the consequences later. Russia is opening north at Austria’s request and I lie to Russia about wanting a DMZ in the Black SEa.

Spring 1901:

I’ve opened to the black sea and Armenia, and I get a lot of angry press from Russia. I mostly send him BS in reply, although I do explain I decided to attack him because I hated all his proposals from before moves went through. Meanwhile, Austria and I are discussing potential moves to keep Russia from getting any builds in 1901, and we settle on a plan.

In the west, Germany and England open against France, but I believe Germany told France there would be a Sealion, so England doesn’t get the channel. Pretty good start for Germany, shame it falls apart so soon after this.

Fall 1901:
This is the turn where I start to get a little incredulous about what’s happening around me. The A/T alliance is going to become very obvious as Austria supports Bul-Rum while I support Arm-Sev, continuing our plan to keep Russia from building this year.

Germany and Italy are both happy discussing plans to attack France with me, and this is the main source of my incredulity. It seems to me they really should be worried about my alliance with Austria, but I guess they figure we’ll come to blows sooner or later. Fair enough, because I’m in relatively constant conversation at this point with England and Germany about whether or not I can really trust Austria not to attack me.

Also, in a big twist, Norway is left neutral because England goes to belgium! England was in a tough spot to get a build after having one of his fleet moves get bounced, but I had expected Russia to take Norway since he had to be reasonably sure England wouldn’t.

But he doesn’t, and the year ends with Russia down to 3, Austria and I both on 5 (but Bulgaria is still neutral by design)

I build a fleet and an army, honouring my agreement with Italy not to build a fleet in Smyrna. Italy had moved to Tyrr Sea in the spring, so I know a lepanto is not coming anyway.

1902:

This year is primarily about Austria and I continuing to kill Russia, England and Germany’s tenuous alliance coming apart, and Italy attacking France.

Austria and I had been exchanging a lot of messages last year, but starting this year, he becomes much less available. We basically exchange just 2-3 messages each turn for the rest of the game, almost only discussing moves. And our position is almost always so good that it’s not really that hard to find winning moves, so these are easy conversations. But Austria’s inattentiveness becomes a factor later.

In the fall, England stabs Germany and it’s...something. There is a proposal to give England Sweden and Germany Belgium, and England just reneges on his part of the deal, and tries to take Holland to boot (although the second part doesn’t work since Germany supports Hol-Bel). Just two turns early, Germany had told me he was pretty sure England would stab him eventually, and I had told him he was probably right. England had also told me he was going to stab Germany in 1903/1904, so I wasn’t giving bad advice.

At the end of the year, Russia is closer to death, Italy and Germany’s attack on France has basically gone nowhere, and England has kind of weakly stabbed Germany. It doesn’t much matter, though, because Austria and I are planning to hit Germany and Italy at the same time next year. England and I keep talking about to kill Russia, although this thing about killing Russia becomes a sticking point between us later. There are also some more funny hints about how no one thinks my alliance with Austria can list, from England and Italy in press. I’m sort of planning to run with the alliance until I can’t.

1903:

Spring 1903 is a great turn. Austria moves to Silesia, Bohemia, Italy moves Ven-Tyr and...Austria moves Tri-Ven! After this happens, I get a message from Italy, who basically points out that my neighbour has just exposed every single one of his SCs to me and I could just start taking them all. A bit self-interested since Italy dies if I don’t do that.

Germany sends me basically the same message. England had a slight advantage over him, but Austria attacking him means he’s done. Unfortunately for Italy and Germany, I don’t see that stabbing Austria now gives me a decent chance to solo, and this attack is pretty much everything I had wanted. There’s some confusion from the others, too, since I move Rum-Gal and for a split second, it seems like italy thinks I might already be stabbing Austria. I’m not, though.

Italy uses his dying breaths to cripple all the other minor powers. Instead of defending against our attack, he puts all his unit to use taking SCs from France and sneaking into Munich while Germany can’t defend against him because of England. At the same time, Austria and I take Warsaw and Moscow.

1904:

This year brings the death of Germany, as Austria takes Munich and Berlin (with my help in the latter case), but for me, it’s mainly about Russia. In the spring, Russia, who is now down to two centers, curiously leaves Sweden and moves his fleet to GoB, and just keeps his army in StP. Meanwhile, England is too encumbered to cover Norway so I’m thinking Russia has hatched a devious scheme to get a build.

England basically spills the beans to me that, yes, he’s going to let Russia get into Norway with his army, and it’s up to me and Russia whether or GoB and Mos bounce in StP (allowing Russia to build), both hold (allowing Russia to build) or one of us holds but the other moves (keeping Russia from building). I don’t want Russia to have a build or England to have a pawn, so I make a deal with Russia to bounce in StP with no intention of actually moving there. At this point, I’ve lied to Russia all game.

England knows what my plan is, and so does Austria, and it goes as expected. Russia orders GoB-StP and can’t build. Somewhere around this time, I propose a carebear deal to Austria, which obviously I end up breaking later on myself, but I was at a pretty big disadvantage when I proposed it.

1905-1906:

I know this game goes until 1912, but it honestly more or less ends here for me. Russia and England have some huge blowout that I still don’t understand, even though they hash it out in global after the draw. Russia starts making me offers, and at the end of 1905 I’ve got armies in StP and Finland. Norway is impossible, though, and the way I’m set up in the Balkans, I’m a million miles away from everything I own if Austria stabs me. So I’m pretty nervous about what Russia is suggesting I do.

So I give up on Norway, tell Russia there’s no deal, and pull back a little. Russia mutes me and England, and by the end of 1906 Italy and Russia are eliminated. I also resume two-way draw talks with England, since it seems like it’s impossible to solo.

1907-1910:

I stab Austria in the spring, without telling England first, and the next four years I’m just slowly but surely taking all his centers and setting up the stalemate. Austria basically has Iberia, Marseilles, Germany’s home centers, parts of Italy, and his home centers at the start. I figure I can very safely get everything without risking much since England is pretty far behind me in SC count, and I can make it safe for England to eliminate Austria on the line later.

There really isn’t a lot of effort going into these years for me. England and Austria actually have to cooperate, and England never solidly commits to the two-way since a part of their talks are setting up a line so that Austria feels secure about not being stabbed. They probably have interesting things to say about this period.

1911:

I’m only including this year to make fun of basva. It is very possible for the last 6 or 7 of Austria’s centers to fall this year, without there being (much) chance of me taking the solo. I send him some moves that wouldn’t really leave the door open, and consider going for it by throwing all my units towards Marseilles, but England makes it pretty clear that he won’t be taking everything off Austria.

So Austria is left with one center (Paris) and one unit (Tyrolia) after this turn.

1912:

We ready up to turns and draw after Austria is eliminated. For laughs, Austria and I try Sil-Mun in the fall, but it basically has no chance of succeeding since England has a stalemate.

Anyway, fun game, but pretty cut and dry for me for most of it. The early phase, from 1902-1904, was basically just me and Austria making good moves that were easy to agree to tactically, and the endgame was basically just me taking Austrian centers as fast as I could without risking England getting past the stalemate line. All the exciting diplomacy for me was pretty much confined to 1901-1902 and 1904-1905.