It was the game everybody wishes for. No CDs, everybody fighting everywhere, with fortunes changing in the blink of an eye.

I played France. Right from the start, Germany and England went against me, while Italy mercifully did a Lepanto. Austria disappeared in a flash in 1902, quartered by Italy, Russia and Turkey.

In 1903, after losing Brest to England and watching Germany go into Burgundy, I recovered everything with some inspired guesswork. England was pushed from Scandinavia by Russia, while Germany took the North Sea. Reduced to two SCs, England promptly left.

Germany took over the British Isles, but Russia pushed from the east and took Berlin. In the meantime, I took Belgium and reached a stalemate with Italy in the Mediterranean. The Balkans were a chaos of shifting powers, with Turkey slowly gaining ground.

In the end, Russia didn't have the nerve to go on and accepted the draw. I was a nice guy today and didn't push for a three-hour solo.