I don't think anyone was accusing you of cheating Draugnar after your post congratulating Stratagos. It was unethical and premature, but i don't think it was done as an attempt to cheat.

Thank you. I was referring to the statement to the effect of "what a surprise, it's Stratagos and Draugnar" as more or less implying I was letting him win. I must have misinterpretted that. My apologies (a real one) for that.

I was Italy here, which normally isn't great, but is superb for a Gunboat on some level - everyone is more worried about their other neighbors than poor little Italy.

First moves were fairly conservative on my part. Spring moves made it appear that Turkey wanted an alliance with Russia - and Austria did not bounce him in GAL. I moved to Greece to bounce Turkey, hoping Austria would guess correctly on where Russia would move.

He did not, so I had zero builds, as did Austria. Turkey had a new fleet, Russia had two new units (one of them fortunately way up in STP). Things did not look good.

Spring 02 had Austria retake Budapest, with Turkey taking Serbia with Russian support. Juggernaut! Juggernaut! I had convoyed an army into Greece, but I didn't expect to hold it - I wanted them to kill it so I could build a fleet. However, Autumn saw Russia stab Turkey and Turkey misjudge my moves, which left me with Tunis *and* Greece. Austria was still at three, but we were mutually supporting each other across the VEN -TRI border.

Spring 03 saw some musical chairs in the balkans between Russia Turkey and Austria, while I took ION from Turkey. He either chose to delete the fleet or missed the build phase, so I moved my fleets east in the fall... just in time for France to start deploying my way. Crap.

Spring 04 saw my fleet in the Western Med, but France had not moved aggressively in my direction, more concerned with England and Germany. Austria had lost Vienna to Russia, and promptly took Venice from me in the fall - but I took Greece from Turkey, while Turkey reclaimed Smyrna to even things out.

Spring 05 didn't see a lot of movement for me, as I was setting things up for Fall, where I took BUL and 'supported' Austria back into TRI, which allowed me to reclaim VEN. Two armies up!

1906 saw me finish Austria, but Russia took Serbia to compensate. Fortunately he lost STP at the same time, and his deployments allowed me to reclaim it in 1907, with Vienna to boot. Turkey and I were still sparring in the Med, but an assault by Russia that took SEV along with another unwanted support that allowed me to claim CON crippled him.

In '08 France started moving on me in earnest, but England started moving on *him*, so that flank was given time to stabilize. I took BUD from Russia, which left both of them too weak to present a huge threat.

I didn't gain any territory in 1909, reshuffling my units to prepare for future offensives and protecting myself. France chose this moment to go NMR - which gave more of an advantage to England than to me, as he had many more options available to him.

I was at 12 in 1909 - by the end of 1910 I had 14, with the elimination of Turkey and taking RUM from Russia. England swelled from 8 to 10, but the NMR of France was decisive. I was able to take MAR, POR, MUN, and Spain from France by the end of the game, sneaking in Berlin and SEV at the end as well.

It would have been more interesting if France hadn't vanished - I think I was in a great position, but there's no way to tell when the others would have started cooperating had he not gone away.

Draugnar, that was from Paulg, who was unable to break an alliance we had in a previous game due to poor board position and even worse diplomacy. He's still a bit bitter about that, presumably.

That statement "what a surprise, it's Stratagos and Draugnar" was not from me.

OK. Thanks. When you break 40, your memory starts to go. When you approach 45, your ability to pull an alnighter (work, people, not sex) starts to go. I don't want to know what will go when I reach 50. <grin>

My apologies DJ. And next time I'll wait until the game is actually done to congratulate the winner. I promise.

Frankly Draugnar, as people pointed out in the thread you had started, there were ways you could have tried to stop Stratagos. You should have been supporting France, even though he was in CD. You should have let me defend against Italy, rather than taking St Pete. That extra SC did you know good, and in a WTA, it makes little difference whether you end with 10 or 11. In the end, it may not have made a difference, but we'll never know. when Stratagos got to 15 or 16 or so, your ONLY mission at that point is to prevent him from taking 17 and 18. By taking St Pete, you assured him of Sev.

Also, instead of taking Paris, you should have moved to Burgundy, to support MAR or MUN. Your fleet-heavy military handicapped you here.

Hey, I never claimed perfection or even faultless strategy. I realized it myself when it was too late to change things. I thought I'd try for a race to 18 then saw it wasn't feasible, but was already commited.

Had France not gone bye-bye, we might have had a different game. He and I were working well, but he stopped issuing orders, even though he was logging in. Then he finally stopped logging in altogether.

It wasn't too late to change things. Things still could have been changed when you posted your congratulations.