Lets hear how bad I screwed up. I was planning on Austria hitting Venice which would have aloud me to keep Trieste for the win thinking rum would have hit Serbia to cut support. Very disappointing. France was hangin tough & I saw me losing ground or just staying even.

In that respect, I think much respect is owed to Lando for his very classy final movement. He could have hit me in Trieste or even taken Marseilles but he chose to hold so that we could force a draw. I don't think I've ever seen a player martyr themselves like that before.

Sargmacher
I think you almos t gave the game to IKE when you took greece and serbia from me...
That just made it impossible for me to hold his advance because I didn't have enough units...
In the end we were lucky to get a draw...

I was specilly lucky with that one CON unit...Very good outcome for me after all.
IKE... once again great show from you.

greece and serbia = greece and bulgaria

Troodonte, I don't really take that point about Greece and Bulgaria -when I took Greece, France was still attacking me and whilst you were holding a line against Germany - it was not a line to prevent Germany from soloing. Therefore, my actions were in no way giving the game to IKE because from my point of view, France and Germany were sweeping the board and I took your open centers to get some builds to fight France.

When France was attacked by Germany, I did my best to communicate to you that we could work together and that eventually happened for us.

If you were worried about France why did you disband piedmont and kept both ankara and con (1907)? They were doing nothing...

Then, when Germany stabbed France you decided that you should also take bulgaria... no keep all your units holding it... I don't see the point of doing this... It made it completly impossible for me to stop the german progression.


Another thing that I didn't understand: after all this you were continuosly supporting supporting sevastopol to armenia...why?

In 1909 Germany stabbed France
In 1910 you attacked bulgaria (that was mine)... that's really not communicate to work together is it? :P

And, when you took greece, you din't want to get units to fight France,m because that fleet holded in greece and, guess what... the other fleets went to aegen and ionian...

When you took bulgaria you moved:
rom - nap
ion - gre
gre - bul/sc
aeg s gre - bul
(those units were not used to do anything else besids holding each other)

If you really wanted to work with me ans stop France in the med:
Rom S ion - nap
Gre - ion
aeg s gre - ion

Did you really want to work with me?
My point is that I think you didn't read well the board and wanted to put me out for a 3 way draw... That almost costed you a survive in favour of a solo from IKE.

I would like to hear other opinios on this.

Ok. I've just come back and read this quite lengthy tirade! :)

I think you fundamentally misunderstood my actions - but that is ok and understandable, it is a gunboat after all. I shall try to explain.

1. You're right, my units weren't defending against the French invasion. This was deliberate. I was moving east to take some centers to replace the ones I was unable to protect against France.
2. Moreover, the reason I threw myself so vehemently to the East was because I wanted to let France have an open field to my centers. There was no way I could hold a line against France while Austria was stabbing me in the back - which, may I remind you, took place in 1907. In 1907, the German and French alliance looked solid and I was being squeezed on both sides so your line against Germany was the least of my concern.
3. This being the case, I decided to leave my centers open to France, hoping that Germany would think France was getting an easy ride and thus decide to stab him.

4. When I took Bulgaria in Spring 1910, France was still in Tunis and the Tyrrhenian Sea and I wanted to cement a position in Turkey in case he carried on moving against me while defending against Germany. You're right, up to this point, the thought of positioning myself for a 3rd place in a draw was on my mind.

5. However, come Autumn 1910/Spring 1911, France was moving away from me and it then became a clear France/Italy/Russia/Austria against Germany.
6. My support of Sev-Armenia was the only thing I could do at the point to communicate to you in some way that I wanted to support you. No other unit could do that. I can appreciate that such a message wasn't the easiest to decipher though.


I think your criticism that I didn't read the board well is unfair and I hope that you are now able to consider my point of view. You might not agree with the way I played but I don't think my actions were wrong.

Just noticed this and will write later. My last move wasn't a hold, though, I don't think.

Just checking in to find the game over! I almost gave the game to Germany by letting it go too long, but was fortunate to come back anyway. I also should probably have taken Rome for one more army build in Paris, which could have sped the recovery up a bit. At the end, I think Germany still had a chance by moving around into the North Atlantic and hassling me down the coast. Italy's move eastward was very strategic. I'd like to know if Germany was motivated to stab at that time because of that.

It was a pleasure to play with such a distinguished group of players!!

Lol Lando, I just checked the movements and you're right, you didn't die selflessly as I thought! Lucky me your support didn't work!

Pleasure playing with you all as well.

@mujus I stabbed because it was time. I thought if you got another build you would turn on me. I should have played it out. I wonder how it would have gone if I did not take London. Next time, no stab from me. As disappointed as I am, it was still a fun game.

C'mon IKE...
you did what you had to do...the stab was in that moment and even mujus knew it... He bounced you in burgundy in your 1st try...
I would hav played a little more turns to make sure that I could or not get the solo, but you did a good game, as ususal.

Great to play you all :D

Sarg: I'm not conviced yet about your arguments, but I understand that at some point Russia (me) was the obvious target to reduce the draw to 3 players... I believe that is the key point.
Ironic that I managed to stay with a single, useless SC :) Nothing anyone could do about it ;)

Troodonte: That's your agenda to not be convinced. I tried. I certainly did not want to bar you from the draw. If I had wanted to do that I would have bounced you from Con and Ank when you were down to your last fleet. I think you're looking at the game only from the perspective of your position.

IKE: Would you say, then, that it was me leaving all my centers open to France that helped in your decision to stab France at the moment you did?

Ok, so this game was tough for me. It started off fine for me. As Austria, it is always nice when Italy plays nice. This was good. The lepanto worked wonderfully. However, as Austria, I don't think I really liked playing out of the Aegean Sea. It sort of forced me to help Italy and not so much help myself. So I had a tough fight with Turkey in Bul/Serb area. I also kept getting outguessed by Troodonte which made matters worse.

I started to become annoyed with the Italian's play. He was working hard to finish off Turkey but made no effort to help me gain centres to fight Russia. I realize it is tough in a gunboat to do that. Eventually I was Italy support hold a russian piece and I knew I was toast unless I could find a useful place to hole up. I figured I would retaliate against the Italian for jumping ship so quick and go all-out after him, thinking I might just steal his little peninsula.

Overall it didn't work and then I went on vacation so I don't know what Frank did exactly while sitting for me. I was back in time to make one final move. I didn't spend enough time looking at the board so I wasn't able to help IKE like I wanted to. I offered support when I should have just tapped Venice.

To be honest, I wish he had pressed on. I was annoyed that I never stopped getting attacked but I guess it worked out for my aggressors. Looking forward to the next installment. Good game to all and congrats to those who survived.

@ Sarg no your position had nothing to do with me taking London. I just thought it was the right time to do so. France was totally committed south. Sorry I only took 2 from him.
@ Lando a tap would have been great. I never thought you would support me into Venice. I was thinking you would try to survive. Had you took mars I probably would have pressed on. Italy got enough around Trieste to hold it, so I thought itvwas over.
I did not go to NAO because I would lose N Sea.

I enjoyed the game a lot! Not predictable, most of the time, which makes it so much better. Thank you to all for a great time!