EoG by GERMANY: “Defying Ivan the Terrible”

A little while ago, there was a discussion on which neighboring countries you’d most like to see as stable, competent players. Most people voted for either Germany or Russia, I myself voted for Germany.
I believe Germany can’t afford to simply choose a strategy and go for it, he has to consult all other nations first and somehow distill a strategy from what he hears and sees.
If I play against a Germany that is unreliable, I set aside all other priorities to defeat him first: I insist the Central nation takes his responsibility as neural center of the game or I eliminate him or assist another more reliable power to do this: see also gameID=69549, the predecessor to this game.

So I got Germany, but a little episode happened before this. While recruiting for this game, I received a message from one Balaran, that stated something like “Okay, send me the password”, like his participation was a fact of nature and boardered on being a favor to me. I was amused and sent it to him immediately. But I was also alert, this guy could potentially have a temper.

The game started with the usual exchange of platitudes on how we were all going to be friends until the end and how an alliance between me and the other guy was obviously the one time had proved to be the most valuable.

The first notable exception to this was Austria, who sent me a little letter with three short paragraphs that included the proposal to ally and to form a DMZ with Russia on our eastern boarder.

I took the bait and decided to join in negotiations on DMZing the boarder. I like my partners to be good communicators with a plan. I immediately noticed from the communication that aforementioned Balaran had Russia and the communication was civilized, but tough. I told him I’d give him Sweden, if the Warsaw unit would remain on Russian soil in S01: simple as that. Of course this was a horrible formulation diplomatically, but strategically I don’t think it was all that bad a deal, and since Russia wasn’t so diplomatic himself I thought he wouldn’t mind.

S01, The Invasion
Well, it looked like he did. Russia was not amused and with Austria clearly going south he was too far off to help me. The bounce in Bur was organized, the fate of Bel not definitely determined. My relationship with England was good and I’d honestly told him I’d move to Den beforehand, so he’d know where I was standing.
In retrospect, I regret not having bonded closer to France from the very start, given my northern opening. We could have started the alliance we developed much later in this stage already and it was mostly my fault that we didn’t.
This is because in my last games as France and Germany there was a Franco-German alliance and I wanted to change pace a little.
There was one little problem with Russia’s invasion: he seemed not to have recruited allies to do it…

A01, The Nightmare.
Russia had decided to jump on me with everything he had.
England landed on Belgium instead of Norway
France had taken Bur by force.
Austria was expanding south and clearly growing closer to Russia.
Turkey had ordered all units to hold (a bizarre strategy, I remembered Turkey from gameID=69549, and he was a nice and competent player. I’d recognized his style immediately, but “all units hold” is the worst decision possible in A01 for Turkey).
Ow, and I’d guessed the wrong home SC to protect.
In a word, I wasn’t doing very well.

1902, 1903, The War
I’m not very sure of what happened during these turns. France, England and Russia were attacking me simultaneously by S02, but England’s play was very confusing. He was hard to pin down on a strategy and he kept breaking word with all of us and in my memory glossed over it all by sending and/or accepting new proposals. His word was losing meaning very rapidly.

I made several deals with Russia in this period, some of which were respected, but most of which were disrespected by Russia to advance on me. I’d sold my soul to the devil hoping for a break.

1904, A Split Empire
I remember from this period I was getting increasingly frustrated with England’s play. It was more and more erratic and not at all inspired by the strategic possibilities and threats the board had to offer.
By A04 my empire was cut in half by Russia, partly due to England’s style.
At this point, I believe I tried to make an anti-Russian alliance with all small players (Italy, Turkey, England and myself) and Austria as leader, but that didn’t really work out.
The advantage to having ceded 2/3 of German mainland to the Russian was that everybody had declared me dead at this point and didn’t really mind what I was doing.
I myself was trying to keep my head cool and my first priority was to get Kiel back.

1905, The Tide Changes
France started with what seemed like an offensive on Belgium. Although we’d worked together, he was possibly among those having declared me dead and rushing in for some of the spoils of war before it was too late*. I convinced him that Hol was too important in the defense of Kiel and that Bel could be taken without Bur’s help, asking for assistance to get Mun back instead.

And then… all Christmases came at once:
For some reason completely unknown to me, Russia invaded France in A05. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to find out what on earth could have prompted an incursion into Bur when I was still alive, but this fixed the alliance between me and France for the rest of the game. For France, a purple colored Burgundy is usually not a good sign.

1906, Austria attacks Russia
And that was not it, in Spring of 1906 Austria (prematurely?) stabbed Russia, despite having a very effective alliance. The 1906 constellation, with me, France and Austria entangled in war with Russia and all of us at the same time concerned about an Austrian solo marks the remaining five years.

1907-S09, Preventing the Solo
The constellation described in the 1906 paragraph solidifies, with fear of an Austrian solo taking the upper hand and the board freezing their conflict with Russia. From my side, I am still aggrevated with Russia’s invasion at the beginning, particularly because of a heavy-handed comment on my play that he later apologized for, but that bugged me all the same.

I didn’t want to invade him though, as the stability of the board was more important to me and I’d been hoping for a draw ever since the very start of the game.

My policy at this point was to force France to put the draw flag up by threatening I’d open the gates to Munich for Austria and grant him the win if he wouldn’t. I was very diplomatic about this; I started asking if really it wasn’t time for the draw, then I insisted a little further and tried to sound desperate rather than aggressive.

France eventually put the draw flag up, but Austria refused to draw with four players, insisting we eliminate at least one of the three of us, whichever one it was. In retrospect, I thank Austria for this position, it proved he was right and true to his word that he would draw.

Crucial at this point is that not only Austria had converged to a stable 14 sc empire, but was occupying a so-called “hold-out position”** that would guarantee his defences in eternity would we choose to attack him. He’d clearly done his homework on this theory.

My plan was to freeze the board then and there, in a four-way draw and I hoped to form a strong symbiotic alliance with Russia. The mechanics as I saw it were that I was the most vulnerable player during this period, but that I could control access to Munich for Austria and hence could force the others to draw, as I would insist on a board freeze against Austrian incursion, while at the same time being able to escalate such an incursion to a solo.

A09-End, The Three Way Draw
A series of bounces in Sweden managed the peace in Scandinavia and France and I agreed that whatever his politics on a war in Russia would be, I could continue to move to Sweden if he would take Norway, which he did. I did however disagree with the war, which is why I moved units to the French boarder. I’d told him clearly I didn’t want an assault on Russia, what I didn’t tell him was that I was prepared to go to war with France if he did start a war.

To my surprise, and this probably rescued me, Russia decided to attack me AGAIN. His reason was that I was attacking him by letting my Skandinavian unit trail the French advance. This trailing was simply the price I felt France had to pay for continuing his war on Russia, after all, it was me who was in grave danger during this war, as an alliance between Austria and France could eliminate me after it disposed of Russia.

France successfully convinced me that he was aware of my possible role as kingmaker and would never risk a war with me.

Russia’s second offensive against me started in A09 by the destruction of Ukraine rather than Silesia. I was planning to come to Russia’s rescue, not because I liked him (I didn’t), but because I felt the war would escalate into a full-blown race for the solo by Austria.

He then insisted (1910) he desperately needed Berlin to be able to build in Warsaw and restore the line. Why he didn’t simply go back to Warsaw to keep the peace he never explained.

I explained to Russia that I would retaliate if he took Berlin. He didn’t understand “my logic”. Fair enough, but if he didn’t understand my logic, I hoped he would understand the presence of four German tanks in his face. I’m not the kind of person to make threats or talk in a high pitched voice, but after he took Berlin I became furious. The guy was stabbed by Austria, who held his southern home SC, attacked by France who held his northern home SC and for the second time, despite having respected every single agreement I’d made with Russia from turn one and having already pushed him out of my terrain, he attacked me. I sent him a message yelling he was out of his mind which I later apologized for. I then took Berlin back and France and me orchestrated a repeated series of bounces in the North Sea area to keep the peace and we continued to attack Tyo, which I hoped would continue to sour French-Austrian relationship and prevent a war against myself and possibly even destabilize Austria completely.

Austria finally asked for Moscow, which France and me agreed to and I insisted I have Warsaw in exchange, marking the final configuration of the draw. This result I believe is more or less consistent with the competences of every player. It was very pleasurable to play with France, he was a very solid, reliable, calm and self-assured player who was very open to debate tactical possibilities and who just worked his way to the Three-Way Draw almost as though it had been his plan from the beginning. My experience with Austria was educational because he cunningly showed me a real life implementation of a single-power hold-out position that until that point I’d always considered a rather abstract phenomenon. My apologies to the other players if I didn’t reflect your game accurately, I simply write down what I remember having thought and felt.

This was a very nice game, I thank all players for playing with me and hope everybody had fun.

*Although it has to be said that I consistently overestimating the hostility of France’s attitude toward me, boardering on the paranoid?
**A hold-out position is technically the same as a stalemate position, except it can still be beaten by a solo as it contains less than 17 centers by definition.

Great EoG, very livid. I can imagine the horror you went through the first two years. A less experienced played would've dropped out, you managed to get back on track.

Completely agree with Ursa.
Superb EoG, redhouse, and what a game.

An excellent EoG, and an entertaining game to go through.

I always love seeing a weakened nation claw their way back into a strong position, taking full advantage of each and every opportunity that comes their way (as well as creating their own!).

I would be quite interested in seeing EoGs from other powers, particularly Austria and Russia.

@all thanks for your comments! Notice also the last grand attack on Mos and War: this was orchestrated between the three remaining powers, locking the units in their given positions.

I'm sure my "quintessential mentor figure" would be pleased to see my comeback.

I hope to see many more comments and EoGs by my sparring partners, beside the two mentioned from France, as he was my ally and could supplement my story.

I was out of this game quite a while before, but just briefly, I started out trying to work closely with Austria & Russia to take Turkey out.

My major problem came around Christmas when to be perfectly honest my press was lacking with Austria, although I also felt that he promised a few things and didn't follow through, perhaps understandably.

At that point I had to pull back from Turkey without really making any gains, I was trying to push Russia into stabbing Austria (sadly for me this failed) and I got wiped out pretty quickly. No hard feelings to him, he played well, I just regretted we didn't finish Turkey off together which may have given me a bit of a hold!

Anyway congrats to the winners, hope to play you all again soon.

Pj

Hey thanks redhouse and pj! Nice read those eog's. I will put up my eog monday as i am caught up in RL.

I found it a very, very pleasant game, had nice tactical exchanges with almost all powers and really enjoyed this one!

EoG by France

Pre game diplomacy
I started the game by discussing alliances with both England and Germany to see who I could work better with. Two things persuaded me to go with England initially. England's initial message was better than Germany's and secondly, Russia complained about Germany's outrageous threats and demands for Sweden. It was clear that there would be trouble between Russia and Germany so it seemed safer to side against him.

Spring 1901
For the first turn I arranged a bounce in Burgundy with Germany, which I think is an excellent idea as I used Marseilles to do this and Paris went to Picardy, giving me the possibility of 3 builds. Unfortunately it didn't turn out that way as Italy moved into Piedmont and England heavily demanded Belgium and I didn't want to deny him at this point. Playing it safe, I ended up with just 1 build and moved into Bur to attack Germany.

Autumn 1901- Autumn 1902
Russia was in Munich after A01 and I moved into Ruhr in S02 to help finish the destruction of Germany. That's when it started to break down between England and me. Instead of moving out of Belgium to take Holland and letting me take Belgium, he instead tried to convoy into Holland with support from Belgium. Of course this failed, as I was moving into Belgium which broke the support, the units all stood still and so Germany got to live another day.

Spring 1903
England said that he had "messed up". I don't really understand this as England knew I was moving to Belgium, so his move would never have worked. After that I tried to talk to England, but he became uncommunicative. I had to cancel plans to move against Italy and instead went for England.

Autumn 1903 - Autumn 1904
I asked Russia for a truce with Germany so we could both focus on England and he agreed. I then joined Germany to remove England from Belgium. I managed to support the wrong unit so we didn't go as fast as we could have but we got there. In Spring 04 I had an army in Wales ready to move uncontested into Liverpool. After Autumn 04 I was in the North Sea and positioned to finish off England.

1905
I then got an interesting proposition from Austria. He said that he was worried about Russia, who was the big power with 10 centres. He suggested that I call a truce with England and convoy an army into Russia's Sweden. I thought this an excellent idea as it gave me a chance to get my armies to the other side of Germany where they might be more useful in the future. I was mistrustful of England so I insisted he convoy from Edinburgh, so that if he betrayed me then he would lose it instead.

The plan went through, except my army went to Denmark instead of Sweden, but that was nearly as good. However, Russia was obviously highly annoyed by this. He had broken the truce with Germany and they were fighting indecisively among the German home centres. In A05, when I took Denmark he took Burgundy, which was a little worrying.

1906
1906 was an eventful year. I got two builds so I surrounded Russia's army and coordinated with Germany to destroy the Russian armies in Burgundy and Ruhr and set up Germany to retake Munich, restoring his home centres.

At the same time, England had become unhelpful again. The truce between us was so that we could fight against Russia. He stopped fighting Russia so I started fighting him again and at the end of 1906 England's only centre was Norway.

While that was all going on, Austria stabbed Russia taking Constantinople and Rumania. This meant Russia dropped from 9 centres to 6 centres while Austria jumped from 10 to 13. Russia could not stop Ankara and Sevastopol falling to Austria.

Spring 1907-Spring 1909
This put Austria close to the win, so Germany, Russia and I united to oppose him. I thought that I might be able to slip a fleet in behind Austrian lines, as there were only 3 Austrian fleets and 1 would probably be tied up in the Black Sea for a while. It didn't happen though and Austria sealed up with no chance of any of us getting in.

Autumn 1909
After that it was just a question of who would be in the draw. Obviously, I wanted myself included and I was at 11 centres, so fairly safe. Austria had to be in it, so that left Germany or Russia or both. Stabbing Germany would have almost certainly lead to an Austrian victory as he was holding the vital centres of Munich and Berlin that Austria needed. However taking St Petersburg from Russia would result in a stalemate line between me and Germany. With Russian armies too far South, it would be easy to take it too. I moved into Norway and Finland ready to take St Petersburg.

Spring 1910
Then it all got a bit strange. Germany decided that he didn't like my plan to take out Russia, even though we had long discussed an attack on Russia. He thought that once Russia was gone, Austria and I would then turn on him. I pointed out the strong position he had controlling the centres that Austria needed for the win and offered to make our size more equal by offering him centres. He didn't go for this though and without much discussion, he launched an attack on me.

This was extremely dangerous as it gave Austria the opportunity to seize enough centres for the win. Also, Russia had turned on Germany too as he could see himself being excluded from the draw. It took a lot of very patient diplomacy to get Germany to turn around and defend himself from Austria and Russia and form the stalemate line that would ensure the draw.

Spring 1911
With the stalemate line secure all that remained was finishing off Russia between the three of us and then draw.

Austria played very well and was the closest to winning. He was allied with Russia at the start of the game but at the same time was encouraging others to attack Russia, so that he grew larger while Russia struggled. It was a pretty good idea that worked until I told Russia what he was up to.

Russia played ok, but could have communicated more as he found himself isolated mid game and also left himself open to a massive stab by Austria which in the end cost him the place in the draw.

England played very badly and seemed incapable of building any sort of working relationship with anyone. He seemed to have broken agreements with me, Germany and Russia and so it's not surprising that he didn't last.

Germany displayed great persistence and shows that even a very bad start (losing Munich in the first year and being attacked by 3 powers) can sometimes be rescued. I found him extremely frustrating to cooperate with though. He is in a different time zone to me and there were a few times when I woke up and saw absolutely crazy moves being suggested by Germany when I thought we had already sorted everything out. His attack on me almost at the end was almost game losing and it took a lot of messages to persuade him of something that to me was completely obvious. I think a look at how stalemate lines are formed would really help Germany's play.

Turkey's misplaced trust in Russia caused him to hold all units in A01, Russia took the Black Sea and he didn't last long after that.

Italy set up for the Lepanto, but then got caught out with an army stuck in Tunis while Austria surrounded Venice and didn't last too long either. It's not the first time I've seen this and it makes me wonder how feasible the Lepanto really is.

Overall I thought it was a good game with everyone playing to the last unit. After a slow start I still had hope for the win until Austria stabbed Russia to take a big lead and then gained the stalemate position.

One thing I didn't like though was very early talk of aiming for the 3 way draw from Russia and Austria. To me this seems either a lack of ambition or limiting yourself later on. For a good game, everyone should be aiming for the win and just ganging up with the 3 biggest powers doesn't make for a very exciting game and is not going to get you many wins. If this was all talk, then this could cause problems for you later on as you might find it difficult to explain your change of strategy. For me, in Diplomacy, building trust is far more important than getting what you want through deception. If you are constantly lying, then no-one will trust you and finding allies will be hard, if you are seen as trustworthy you have hope of changing enemies to friends if you need to. You should only need to stick the knife in once and when you do it, it should be decisive.

Interested to see Russia's EOG... these haven't been flattering reviews of his play, I'm wondering if there's something missing to it from his angle.

Overall, I thought Russia was the second best player. He made some mistakes, mainly trusting Austria too much, but otherwise played well.

An excellent account FreeThing, thank you for your tips to me, I will definitely work on my OPs and knowledge of stalemate lines. I hope to play you again and apologize if it was frustrating to play with me, although you do mention we were in different time zones which could have changed something in that area. I'm in GMT+1, how about yourself?

I'm in GMT +8. I think my main advice would just be to keep it simple and clear. Decide what you want and then tell your ally. Your plans tended to change a lot and had too much detail. Sometimes if you didn't want to do something it wasn't that clear.

Haha yeah I was diploming with an Australian once and we had the same trouble. Somehow with the US players I don't seem to have it.

I don't really see how I could have been /that bad/ though. With a Russia insisting on attacking me just for the sake of it and me still being part of a three way draw, I don't understand how you can say he was the second best player. Neither his diploming nor his result suggest any evidence of that.

Russia:- Apologies for missing this thread when it was current, I havent been online much recently. Here is my EOG:

Pre game: I think it is necessary to say that my home life has been extremely rough during the course of this game. I am normally a rather laid back sort of chap with a long alliance style of play. Recently though IRL matters have meant lots of stress and mood swings which undoubtedly had a huge effect on the style of play in this game. I will attempt to explain my eratic play and sometimes irrational thinking along with a few of the possible causes.

Spring 01:- During a time when my normally obedient and respectful 16 year old son decides he is now a man and his family is now the worst part of his life!!

The usual string of messages from most countries saw me reply with the usual stuff except for Germany whose first and initial message demanded a DMZ in Prussia, Silesia and Galicia. He wanted Warsaw to stay inside Russia territory! After initial talks with Turkey and Austria I had already decided to stick to a DMZ in Galicia but was curious to know why Germany would also insist on a DMZ in Gal so early in talks. I understand the CPA line of thinking but would perhaps have expected a slightly more diplomatic approach from germany towards it. However I decided to push the issue with Germany as I felt comfortable with England and my other neighbours very quickly. His reply again was “I can not tell you exactly why, but this is related to a certain pressure I want Austria to apply on either France or Italy. If I give you more details, I would jeopardize my strategic position.”
I jokingly asked him if it was ok if I moved Sev -BLA and he never replied!

Attacking Germany for me was a no brainer and I opened to Sil and GOB (heading for Bal)

In the fall, Austria and I felt like a strong alliance and we agreed on the initial demise of Turkey, who had done nothing really wrong. I explained to Austria that I couldn't commit many units to the attack as I was set on a campaign against Germany for a few years. Turkey and I agreed to DMZ BLA and also that I would take Rum with a view to supporting him in the spring. I assume Austria also agreed something similar as Turkey stood all his units which seemed incredulous to most but I understood the thinking as he wasn't expecting to be betrayed.

I was confident of support in my German Campaign from both England and France, both of which had been sympathetic to my cause and were happy to jump on the attack of a weakened nation.

02 Germany found himself out of position and in a world of trouble, however in the fall england moved his Edi fleet into the Norwegian Sea and I felt the only reason he would do this was to go for Stp, so I built an army in Moscow to give me a chance to diplome my way out of an attack, whilst still being able to cover Stp or take Norway if my diploming worked.
I had had a day of problems with my son being a typical know it all arrogant teenager, and I failed to put the parent attitude aside when I wrote to Germany. I suggested that he now regretted his demanding of Gal to be a DMZ in spring 01. I suggested that his diploming style in 01 was that of a novice and that hopefully he had learnt from it. Actually it was now me that was diploming badly! I assumed that because Germany was down, that he was now out! Also the failure on my part to put my IRL issues to the side whilst diploming, was only going to make me a permanant enemy! Germany reprinted my message in global, which had little effect i believe in gaining him friends.

03 England duely accepted my suggestions and moved NWG-NAO which started the conflict with France. Germany was down to 3 centers and at this stage I started to talk to him again.
I made a peace with Germany as I didn’t want France getting the lions share of his centres, and I kept my word for several seasons here with Germany, exchanging centres, and felt I had actually earnt myself the time to reposition ready to finish him off.
France took the ENC and I took Norway. England now also had to defend heavily as France looked to overpower him very quickly.
In the south I was content to let my ally do most of the work, Turkey was rarely chatting and Italy had finally made a decision which direction he was heading and joined Austria for a season or two.
I saw the possibility of a stab in the south and built an Army to help defend if the worst happened.

Germany also asked me which players I wanted to take to the endgame. I said it was a bit early for that but gave an opinion. ( I cant understand what Germany means in his EOG when he says he found it dfrustrating that i was talking about it when it is clear in the message history that he started the conversation!)
Germany continued his abrasive style of Diploming by Attacking Turkey in the global channel for his 01 moves and I had to smile at this.

04 Was supposed to be the killing of Germany but England completely took me by surprise and took Barents sea whilst leaving his home centres undefended. In the winter he disbanded an army in London whilst France was in Lpl, Enc and Nth, leaving Bar to annoy me. England was France’s Puppet!
I pushed into Germany to finish the job but realised that France was going to be heading for a solo if England didn’t make some effort to defend against him. My fall04 orders were changed at the last minute as I staggered home in the early hours of New years day. I rarely drink and am not used to the effects. I changed a number of orders just before the deadline and went to bed.

05 Italy then did the same as England had done and destroyed units at home and left his retreated BLA fleet on the board. This seriously stretched my forces, on top of this France was making fast progress towards Scandanavia and was so quiet! I rarely got more than a line out of him each season. France had only 2 armies at home and I felt now was the last chance I might get to slow him down and so made the decision to leave Germany (3 sc) and try to force France to retreat. I took Bur but France took Den off me at the same time as breaking his word with England and taking Edi. This was a disaster as instead of having 2 armies he suddenly had 4 at home.

06 Austria chose this time to stab me by Supporting Germany causing me to get to disbands in Germany and a likely 3sc loss in the south. I can’t say that I wasn’t aware of this possibility, however I felt that Austria and I had a very strong alliance, and as France was engaged in the north that he would be better heading to Iberia for further growth. It is what I would have done had I been Austria. Anyway it made me look a bit silly, something Germany later chastised me for, in his rather aggressive way.

Just 4 players left now and I was becoming the smallest. The rest of the game was spent ensuring Austria didn’t solo. He had said he would take a defensive position at 14sc and then let the other 3 fight it out to a 3 way draw. I feel I have heard many reasons for large powers to get their neighbours into weak positions. His I only want 14sc approach was just another to me and I knew he would take a win if I didn’t hold a line against him. The rest of the game played out with France and Germany playing to get to the Stp stalemate line and unfortunately the geographical position of my centres relative to the stalemate line, meant that I wasn’t needed. I realised this and late on made an effort to encourage Austria into Munich if I took Ber, but again he didn’t keep his word. I found this a little strange as I was offering him another centre. Still he refused to take it and that meant that my game was over.

Summary
This gameplay for me was dominated by the only players who were regular with messages: Germany and Austria. The rest were very quiet for long periods of the game, only generally responding with one liners. This spoilt what should have been a very good game. I enjoyed playing with Austria and feel he played a strong game but lacked ambition at the end. I found Germany’s style very abrasive at times, although mostly sound strategically. The others I felt were just far too quiet.

Thanks for the game all.

Hey Balaran, thanks for EOG. We've had some good games together anyway. I was sad I couldn't talk you into an attack on Austria but I could always see your reasons. The fleet in Black wasn't an anti Russia move, it was merely my last chance at trying to stay in the game, when I knew Naples was gone it was worth a shot.

So, I owe an EOG to this thread as well. It will be here today.

Guys thanks for the game and especially thanks for the EOGs!!! This is my EOG, I grinded it out quite fast so dont mind the error in language please :(


Pre-game:

So my first goal, given I'm austria, was to survive ofcourse and resist any coordinated attacks and austian 'sandwiches' :) in the early game. Main strategy was to ally with Germany and at least one other power in the east, while coordinating with one of my counter points in the west, e.g. England or France.

01Spring:

After the first round of messages I either found myself in an Austria nirvana or an Austrian hell, as al the powers around me wanted to wok with me and DMZ all the areas aound me. Now this means you are either one lucky austrian, or people are just wanting to DMZ to violate it at the first chance and run the poor austrian over in a coordinated three way.

G and R:
I asked Germany to help me with a Galician DMZ, as this would also be in his interest, by pressuring Russia that if he'd move there he wouldnt get sweden. Germany agreed and interestingly Russia took a lot of offense at Germany's request to protect another nation, he even mailed me about his annoyance. Later in the turn he even told me he would attack Germany, I hought this might just be bluff, but he went through with it. Now in the beginning I was kind of nervous about this, as Germany is an important partner for Austria, but during communication with Russia I found him to be a very pleasant ally and I became less worried.

Italy:
Incredibly willing to cooperate Italian, he told me he would go west immediatly. This made me very nervous in combination with the DMZ request of Russia, I was suspicious if they might be cooperating. They werent and Italy went west with his army and promised to help me with Turkey.

Turkey:
As everybody was willing to work with me, I decided Turkey would be my fall guy (sry mate :) ) and I tried to steer everybody into his direction.

France and England:
Just exchanged pleasantries.

Moves: I was very suspicious of both the Italian AND the russian agreeing to a DMZ so easily, so I decided to cover my most vulnerable side with a vie -> tri and drive south with the rest.



01Autumn

Well all went very well, interesting move by the russian, I havent seen that play before, but as it is so unexpected I think its actaully quite powerful. Interesting start. Bounce over the Black sea, that was a bit of a downer for me, as I wanted T out asap. Italy took a little offense that I didnt trust him to go west. Germany was in teers, as the russian made an all out attack on him and asked me to deny Russia Rum. I had no such desire as I found russia very reasonable to work with and his focus to the north was also a relieve for me, as long as he assisted me abit with Turkey. France and England were pretty quiet.

Russia and me talked to Turkey about cooperation and somehow Russia got Turket to DMZ black sea. There was some discussion on NMR as Turkey just held all his units. Russia moved into the sea and we were in a prime position to take Turky down. Now at this point I couldnt help Germany even if I wanted to, as I need russia to take out Turkey with me and I let the germna know. I tried to stall the italian as long as possible in his advance on Turkey, so I could overrun him later.

Moves went as excpected, Russia got mun, that was interesting.


02Spring

The dissection of Turkey was underway, I wanted to share it with Russia, so I could grab as much as possible. Stalling the advance of the Italian worked and he still was okay with his advances towards the east.

I was hoping I could keep Russia north as much as possible, with minimal units in the south, I didnt want to be surrounded by the russian, I wanted russia to run over the north and I would go south. In this year an alliance between him and me was born and it worked very well.

02Autumn

As things were going so well with Russia, I decided to make my move on Italy already, as I had a good stab possibility. I supported the italian further to Turkey ion > aeg, nap > ion (his army would be stuck in TUN) under the ruse of promising him a piece of Turkey he was just moving away from his homeland. He wouldnt be able to build, just had one army in his peninsula. I moved ven->tyr and build in tri, I was sure I could overrun him in the coming two years if I could keep the russian friendly. As Russia was so engaged in the north and wouldnt be able to afford a war with both me and germany I was confident I would be able to keep him as a friend.


Spring/Autumn03 and 04, and srping 05

The main years of my AR alliance. Russia and me took down turkey and I succesfully conquered Italy during hese years. Russia was waring Germany and juggling with England and France. I was surprised the west couldnt unite. France and me kept talking about keeping it friendly and we did. Now ideally I would have liked to see russia get scandinavia and germnay in these five turns, for some reason he didnt succeed in this.

I kept talking to all powers.


Autumn 05

Now the events in this turn are very crucial to me in this game. Russia decided to move into Bur instead of taking out Germany, antagonizing france and not completely taking out Germany.

Also in the previous two turns I asked Russia if I could help him in the north. I had italy under control and I could send a unit (idle in Tyr) to Mun and help him out and commit there both. I sent several mails trying to convince him he should let me help in mun. I would have my prized 18th sc then of course for an eastern solo, but I also honestly thought it would be the unit he needed to tip his war against germany in his favor.

Another point of concern for me in my alliance with russia was that he didnt free up stp in 04/spring05, even though there was plenty of opportunity, to build another northern fleet and be dominant in the northern hemisphere. Instead because stp was occupied, hehad to build two armies in 04. They were pointed at my lands and a real threat. Now I feel I failed diplomatically here, I should have communicated this better, that I thought he should build another fleet north or delay a build. I didnt communicate this adequatly enough and in retrospect this destroyed my solo chances.

I started to convince France and England that Russia was a threat to solo (given the 04 builds that could overrun me) and I presented them with a plan to counter him instead of fighting eachother, which they were doing up to that point, they accpeted. I still wanted to work with russia, but i wanted to limit his growth a bit in the north and so convinced France and England to unite (at least I like to think so ;) )


Spring/autumn 06

After the spring moves, Russia and France were antagonized now to an extent that clearly Russia was going to need to retreat, he overstretched. Now that would mean more russian tanks at my border (7 in total) and only one fleet in the north for russia, so the tanks would be locked up behind germany, as France was now clearly helping him. Russia wouldnt have anywhere to go and I was getting worried. I wished russia would have told me about the to burgundy move, because if he told me he would move on france, I would have asisted him or told him to wait another year until I was ready as well. If so, we could have two-drawed. Now it was unsalvagable, I was out of position to move on France and he had all three western powers fighting him.

France told russia I was actually the one that suggested England and France unite against russia *ouch* > diplomatic realtions with russia damaged. But the stalling of russia growth in the north and the prevention of his solo chances were achieved

I decided to make a move and partly designed/partly by chance a coordinated move by Germany with me and france participating destroyed two russian tanks. Now I failed diplomatically again a bit in talking to russia. He was furious of my support of course and wasnt really wanting to negotiate anymore. At this stage I should have told him again he should use the destroys to build a fleet in the north, but I didnt get this across, partly because I didnt pay enough attention to it and partly because russia was quite angry.

In the east I also moved into position to stab Russia and in the autumn I did. I realized I could get into the 14sc southern minimal hold out position regardless of what the other powers do and decided I'd go for it, as I was certain it would secure a three draw for me, while still expanding.

Now I sent two of my fleets east to effectively beat the russian in turkey to get to hold out, but I think I made an error by doing this. I should have rushed to France as he was still undefended in Iberia, to secure my 18th sc for a solo and deal with the half beat russian later. Same for my fleet in 1904, I sould have rushed west. But this is hindsight talking I guess.


1907 - 1910
France clearly build two fleets to move on me in 07 and also didnt respond to my messages anymore, I was quite annoyed by his lack of response and saw his attack coming from miles away. And I also saw my ability to move into hold out regardless, from miles away.

Now I noticed that France would be able to grab Tunis, but I would be able to secure my perfect hold out, I also noticed that because I had to defend against france full force I wouldnt have a shot at getting to Mun (I needed either Mun/Tun, or Mun/Stp, or Stp/tun for a solo). Hence I had no chance of soloing and I published this to Russia as early as 1907 I believe. I said I was never gonna be able to solo and if he didnt move on Germany now (Russia made peace with germnay in 06 to stop a solo from me) he might be left out of a draw, as his position was weak, not crucial on the lines and I wasnt gonna help him just beacuase we were allied in the early game, as he clearly stopped working with me for years on end I didnt feel obliged to grant him the draw if he also didnt earn it himself by strengthening his position, instead of fighting a pointless war with me.

I was genuinely concerned that russia wouldnt be in the draw, as I really worked very well with him in the early/mid game and I felt he truly deserved to be in it. Much more than France, he was more in it by chance of his position opposite to Russia and me (we dominated the game together for a good amount of years imo, benefitting as the counter point nation by circumstance), not by good play from his side. So I told Russia my concern as early as 1907, hoping he would either convince Germany to move on France or France to move on Germany, or something else. But Russia misunderstood my genuine concern to be some sort of solo ruse.. It really wasnt, as I knew full well that I could never solo anymore (Tun was lost and both Mun and STp could easily be held by germany and france). Russia refused my offer to help him advance against germany and that was that I guess.


>1910
Then I told Germany and France I wouldnt four draw (if one is to draw it should be maximalized, certainly because I had been victim of a three attack) and they agreed. and we ended in a three way.



End notes
Very pleasant communicating with Russia, great ally to work with. I liked his unorthodox opening! Unfortunately my dedication and communication lapsed exactly at the same time russia's did because of RL, and becasue of it Russia didnt build the fleets in the north necessary to make our alliance work. Thanks for a good game though Russia, hope to play you again and hopefully we can see it through to the end next time :)

Also had pleasant exchanges with Germany and I think he made an impressive come back.

I felt that England and France lacked ambition a bit. I thank england for his help in contaning russia for a while even though he really needed to trust France, who had been his enemy for a long time. Thanks again!

@Italy, sorry mate I also had a good time exchanging thoughts with you and you could have been a very steady ally as well, but I needed to either move on Russia or you. I chose Russia to definetely ally with because of his ability to enage and build in the north. Hope for a better circumstance next time!


Some of you should show more ambition next time ;)

Thanks for the pleasant game and maybe meet you again in a future game!

MrcsAurelius.

Thanks MrcsAurelius: very interesting to see your perspective added to the thread!

Thanks MrcsAurelius - no hard feelings - damn you!!! ;)