I played Turkey. 1901 and 1902 were the most difficult years for me. Russia and I discussed The Juggernaut. Austria proposed a triple alliance AIT...not really feasible but I was willing to go along with it until things became more clear. Italy and I had a good discussion about how the Mediterranean should look like and my desire to work with him if he didn't setup for a Lepanto. Before the end of the first turn, Austria was lamenting about how aggressive Italy was being toward him. Imagine my surprise when Italy takes Trieste on the open...so I know there is a Key Lepanto going on. But I can't convince Russia of it...he thinks he "talked Italy into it". Then Russia mentions that there is a ART alliance, which was the first I had heard of it. So I immediately was suspicious that Austria was proposing triples with me and Italy and told Russia that he was tripling with him and me. By the end of the first year, I had Italy set to Lepanto, Russia lied about the Black Sea and Austria seemed to have thrown in his lot with Italy. So I was already petitioning France to enter the Med in the first year.
The beginning of 1902 didn't look much better. Russia offered to support me to Serbia, but was concerned he still wasn't onboard to Juggernaut. My gut was telling me he was looking out more for himself than the alliance. I was really surprised that Italy didn't advance on me. He was perfectly positioned to kill me, but he wasnt really coordinating with me. I did get the sense that Austria was really regretting having the Italian unit in his homeland, but still nothing that I could work with. I got the break I was looking for in the fall 1902. Italy offered me Greece...but being surrounded by his fleets didn't seem appealing to me, but I agreed to accepted the support. But I immediately took it to Austria because I needed someone who needed me...so based on that move I was able to capitalize on an alliance that lasted the game. Plus I figured if we did really well, Austria is at a disadvantage for a Turkish stab.
In 1903, Austria and I had success against Russia. I took RUM in the spring and followed up to SEV in the fall. But the funny thing is that even though everything went according to our plan, I looked at my position at the end of 1903 thinking I was not really in the position I wanted to be. I was the point of the spear and somehow Austria was behind me. So I sweated that for a few turns.
Germany moved south at this point and Austria and I worked hard to sway him toward our side. Which in the end worked against him. England falling so quickly really made the board off balanced and France was able to capitalize on that.
For the endgame we knew we had to stop France from soloing, but Austria and I struck a deal for a 3 way draw conditional that France pull back and allow us to establish a stalemate line. That went well until the last move when France tested our resolve, to which Austria and I agreed that we needed all remaining powers in place to stop the solo.
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Dune!
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