EOG for France.

I thought the game concept was a good one (well done King Strat, lol), with a high point game that was PPSC. Likely to get decent no-CD players, and unlikely to get the WTA "must stop him" approach.

Before the game had even started I was pushed into a difficult decision or two. I was originally interested in working with England, and proposed an equitable arrangement, whereby I'd support him into Belgium, and we'd take it from there. Then Germany started bending my ear about an unconventional opening, with a bounce in Burgundy. I really didn't want to go with that, having already agreed something with England, but eventually felt that this gave the best options for keeping things tight in the beginning, given that a couple of people (Italy & Germany) had mentioned the "power" of France. England, unsurprisingly, wasn't too happy.

I did come to a solid arrangement with Italy about an NAP in the South, which definitely helped us both get a decent powerbase. He did tell me he was going to go for the Key Lepanto, which I could have told Turkey about, but was curious to see it in action.

Autumn '01 saw me with two builds, Bel & Spa. Germany had moved to Ruhr, which put pressure on Belgium. This is where things started to get tense. I once again tried to come to an arrangement with England, expecting the German backstab, and he moved as I suggested, while I took action to cover myself by forcing into Burgundy. The backstab never came, so I'd managed to move England out of position (unintentionally), cover myself, and, through diplomacy, reinvigorated the German alliance. This is where I finally twigged that Italy was trying to forment discord (nice try ;-). He mentioned that Germany had told him I was moving into the Med (for the second time...), whilst we were both in heavy discussion about what was going on in the North.

From there, Germany and I managed to take England down relatively quickly, while Germany moved into Scandinava. This kept things fairly equal SC wise.

Then came the second major decision to make. Turkey was putting up a decent fight, but was starting to lose ground quickly. Do I move into the Med, and potentially get a whooping from Germany, or wait for AH & Italy to finish things in the SE and make the rest of the game a lot harder. I pressed the F-it button, and moved into the Med. From there the game sort of fizzled out a little. Neither side had anyone stupid enough to backstab (though I wonder how close to it AH was really), which would have likely given the game to the other two. General agreement of a 4-way followed, which I think was a fair result. IMO Germany and I were in a slightly stronger position (I expected 18-16 advantage that year, if we'd played on), and could have possibly "won", but it would have taken a loooong time.

i will post my eog tomorrow

Germany *was* telling me you were moving to the Med, and *was* telling me he thought France was powerful. I won't lie that I was hoping for conflict, but I didn't make anything up there.

And yes, you would've gotten Tunis if we'd played it out but I'm pretty sure we could've hit the Pie/Tus/TyS/Nap/ION stalemate line and stopped you there.

In that case, it's amusing that he didn't when I *was* moving into the Med.

Also, I don't recall telling you I was playing Key, are you sure? I'm pretty sure all I said was I was moving east.
As for your move to the Med, you probably could have told me yourself that season and I probably wouldn't have changed my moves. I would've tried to talk you out of it, probably unsuccessfully, but I don't think there's anything I could have done to mobilize against you faster.

Maybe you didn't - it definitely came up in conversation, perhaps it was after the act.

EOG - Austria.

I started this game after ending another one where everyone was *way* too high strung. I wanted low key, and I got it - thanks guys.

Italy suggested a Key, I decided to give it a shot. I figured the odds of getting stabbed were decently high, but I also figured I didn't give a shit - I was (and am) pretty burned out, so if I guessed wrong, I'd get a little revenge by taking Italy down with me and just go do something else.

There never was a decent chance to stab Italy - or to be specific, I didn't see how it would benefit me in the long run to do so. I could have taken three centers from him at one point, but I still would have had Russia and Turkey to deal with, and I figured they'd unite with everyone else to drag me down.

France asked in him EOG how close I was to stabbing Italy as things came to a close; the answer is "not really". I didn't have a realistic chance at a solo - despite what he said I knew there was no way G was going to move on France - but I *did* have a chance of giving a solo to someone else if I screwed up. A three way draw is better than a four way, but - since I don't give a rat about my points or GR - not enough to motivate me to both take the risk and to screw my game-long ally.

Although I freely admit I encouraged Russia to disband the fleet in the Black Sea to keep his army in Peidmont around, just to keep Italy too distracted to consider stabbing me

My only regret is that I gave my word to Russia in the midgame that I wouldn't move on MOS/WAR and I did. I had a plan half formed in the back of my head that would have let me ravage Italy and keep Russia around (for awhile), but I got distracted by work and wasn't able to focus on webdip enough to figure out everything. So, jcbryan97, I offer my apology - I'm usually very careful not to give my word - even in a game - unless I intend to follow through, and I did not do so. My Bad.

I was Turkey, and I got owned by the Key, and I'll be quite honest, I played like shit because I had no real idea how I could counter it. I like to think I took it well enough in stride, though (after all, that WAS the point of this game!). As much as I hated to be on the receiving end of it, I have to give props to anyone who can do an opening like that-- it takes a lot of trust.

Add to that an uncooperative Russia that wouldn't support me anywhere when it became clear that he too was in trouble, and I pretty much had no friends in the corner of the board. That usually means Turkey gets roasted. How fitting with Thanksgiving around the corner, I guess, but it was a slow roast in which I was on the spit for the last couple of weeks. :-)

So I was on the chopping block pretty much from Fall 1901 onward, and I don't really feel like doing a super in-depth analysis on my moves while I'm at work, so I'm going to leave my statement here for now.

I do have questions for I/A (groza, stratagos): As people with a little more experience with that sort of thing, what could/should I have done differently as Turkey?

...Besides talk more. I'll admit I was a little burned out from some other games I was in, plus busy at work, so I probably didn't try as hard as I could have to turn you guys against each other. I guess I'm just more asking, what sort of things should I have talked about and what could I have done better tactically?

@kats - if you can't get Russia on-board, you're kinda screwed. Assuming you fall for the 'support hold me' thing in 1901, Russia could have supported you from BUL to RUM - Rum being a write-off at that point. That at least lets you stalemate the situation - you still have units in your homeland to hold out for a bit - and hopefully either A or I will get bored and stab the other one. Granted, you're still vulnerable to being ground down, but it slows the process up enough someone on the other side of the board may change the balance of power and force A/I to rethink things

BUL being a write-off is what I meant

@stratagos: Gotcha... So if Russia was just not on board at all I had pretty much no chance?

Pretty much, yeah - but that's true for Turkey in general. If you have Italy and Austria beating on you, and Russia is just doing his own thing, you're kinda screwed

If you can detect the Key early enough (i.e. after S01 moves), the proper thing to do would be to bounce Italy out of Serbia. Then Italy is basically forced to "stab" and you can tell Austria it was Italy's idea. In addition, without the support on Rumania, Russia can take that back too and then Austria gains only Greece but loses Trieste, leaving him with no builds and Italy unintentionally playing into a Juggernaut.
So I'd still like to hear from Russia myself... Why was he willing to listen to Austria telling him to beat on me instead of me telling him to beat on Austria (which would have made a lot more sense?)

Wish Russia would post and explain his reasoning...