Let me be the 2nd to say gg to Oskar and the 1st to place blame with Sargmacher for Oskar's solo.

I was attacked by France and Germany almost until the last years, when it was obvious by some point that the key to stop the russian solo was in the North...
But never had the chance to get there in time... or did you think that I was going to turn my back to France in the Irish sea and in the Channel to save the rest of the board?

In 1908 France was attacking Edi and Lon while having a fleet in NAO and another in North Sea! By this moment Russia had already Turkey, Austria, Norway and Sweden and just entered Munich...
Something clearly didn't work in the west.

By the way: congratulations Oskar :)

The Czech:
it is true that Sarg didn't act very well, but as I said... the key was in the north and I don't think you realized that in time.

East was trouble too, to be honest. I had a good relationship with Russia which was born out of necessity - Italy somehow was trying a lepanto while being in TRI. Austria took back TRI but then gave up fighting Italy. The lepanto kept pressing while he was also biting out of AH. I cannot begin to understand why AH with his last units was still trying to take my centres.

Meanwhile, Italy was hammering me hard and getting nowhere. He realized way too late that he could not continue this route and instead of helping me defend from Russia he went after France which allowed Russia to finish the conquest.

I thought Russia's play in this situation was perfect, and even with AH trying to stop his real threat and Italy changing strategies a little sooner I still think Russia would have come out with an excellent solo opportunity.

My reading of the game is fairly consistent with Lando's.

Starting out, my strategy was to move against AH and with regard to the rest of my neighbors, stay as defensive as possible and try to behave as nonthreatening as possible. I'd point to three factors as contributing to my solo.

First, AH got out of position when it moved its fleet to the SC of Bulgaria which allowed me to hold the southern SCs with little effort

Second, Italy's decision to move against France and concede the Balkans to me. I was surprised that Italy took so long to abandon his foray against France.

Third, prior to 1905 I was ordering all sorts of nonsense convoys with my army in Norway. I was hoping folks would be confused by what I was doing and maybe discount me as a threat. In 1905, I figured it was time to stop screwing around in the North. So, I moved an army to Silesia and cycled my Scandinavia forces with the goal of making them able to retreat without disbanding. I was hesitant to initiate hostilities with Germany but figured it was inevitable that he'd attack Scandinavia. Ultimately, I figured having my army in Silesia would slow him down enough to allow me to consolidate the Balkans and redirect some of my forces to the north. Fortunately, my instincts were right.

And I'd be remiss if I didn't thanks everyone for the points. This is by far my biggest win ever. Hopefully I can use these points to keep myself out of the low-point games.

In 1902, even though Italy was in Trieste, I took his fleets moving into Eastern Med, and Ionian from Adriatic as positive signals that he wanted to work together. I felt it made more sense to work with him than with a hostile and quickly expanding Russia. I saw Bulgaria as my next logical center in this approach but Russia and Italy both hit me simultaneously in fall of 1904. After that I struggled to survive but I guess I didn't do a good job.

@Lando: The reason I still went for your center (Bulgaria) even after Russia and Italy stabbed me was that I only had two units left and I thought my only chance to survive was to have my two units in centers that could support each other. So, I knew I needed my fleet in south coast Bulgaria and my army in Greece. Unfortunately, I never got Greece. The last bounce in greece in autumn 1908 was just bad luck, I think.

Congrats Oskar - well played. I played Germany. My hope was to work with either Eng and/or Russia and not so much with France. I thought Spr 01 kiel-hol; ber-keil, mun-burg signals I'm friendly towards Russia and have designs on Bel instead of denmark. I was somewhat surprised that Eng didn't walk into den instead of bouncing me in bel and I think this one move was cruicial to the whole game. With Eng and Germany only having 1 build each and Russia having 2, we were on the back foot from early on. Russia played his hand well, I thought at the time that France was slow to react to my olive branches, I tried to support him to Norway and support held him in other locations, and I thought his and England's tustles missed the bigger picture that Russia was growing huge. Italy taking French centres and leaving russia to get even bigger was puzzling too.

As always no criticisms are intended in my comments, I know how hard it can be to read others' minds. Enjoyed the game overall.