Just wanted to work with Russia got Lucky that Italy choose to stab Austria (or reversed I dont exactly remember.)

Bump. Others?

This game wrapped up a bit quicker than I expected, that's for sure. After the initial moves I saw England might have too much to deal with (after England opened into the Channel and with Russia moving to Scandinavia in force), so I decided to pile on. I took Belgium and then the North Sea, and with what I thought was a pretty slick move slid my fleets into position in the Norweigan and North Seas in Spring 1903 and took Edinburgh in the Fall. These moves led to the total collapse of the British defenses and France was able to snag Liverpool and London.

At this point I felt like I was in a pretty good spot. My hope was that France would move around into the Med and attack Italy while I could mop up Scandinavia. I was envisioning a 3-way draw between Austria, France, and myself. For whatever reason, however, France decided to slowly but aggressively come at me. I saw I was at risk of getting crushed between Austria and France and decided to simply defend Germany. I figured both of them would need to go through me to win the game and both might be afraid that I would throw the game to the other. It seems this strategy worked? Seriously Santa, I'm glad you voted Draw because I really was ready to just throw it to Austria if you kept attacking me :D

i continue my track record of pretty poor play in Gunboat games, but i'm a glutton for punishment so will probably try again soon.

England tried to signal to Germany that there were gains to be had in scandenavia and france if we worked together, but as twa said, he chose the 3vE scenario rather than taking the help. there really was no way to defend. i could have extended my life a few extra seasons but I chose to give up the french facing centers in order to scare germany into stopping the 'french solo' threat, but no go, he just had his mind made up.

i'm very surprised it ended so quickly - and kind of hope it had stayed unfinished for a couple more days... I would have had a better July GR had it not finished only a few hours before the results came out haha.

good game i guess, just not particularly well played on England's part (though not badly played either I don't think)

I wish you didn't signal Germany to move to Sweden. I would have moved south to fight Austria then...

I didn't have a choice. I had to show him more explicitly what he'd gain by working with me. but i guess I was too enticing a target by that point.

the thing is, I feel like I HAD to move to Ech as England in the spring of 1901, can you really NOT do that in a gunboat? I guess, but it just seems like too big of a risk. almost like austria NOT moving to gal... or turkey NOT moving to black. its almost a must no?

"At this point I felt like I was in a pretty good spot. My hope was that France would move around into the Med and attack Italy while I could mop up Scandinavia. I was envisioning a 3-way draw between Austria, France, and myself. For whatever reason, however, France decided to slowly but aggressively come at me. I saw I was at risk of getting crushed between Austria and France and decided to simply defend Germany. I figured both of them would need to go through me to win the game and both might be afraid that I would throw the game to the other. It seems this strategy worked? Seriously Santa, I'm glad you voted Draw because I really was ready to just throw it to Austria if you kept attacking me :D"

I was trying to stop Austria, I felt an attack on either you or italy was giving austria the game so i tried to take the minimum from you necessary to open a front against Austria. Austria put draw up I think as a ploy, I realized at that point that you were going to come at me and italy was going to fall, so i accepted the draw.

Frankly I thought my play against England was quite good after an embarrassing start.

Geez, don't ask me, Babak. I'm just a noob trying to learn the game.
Though in my opinion, North Sea and Norwegian sea are safer openings as long as Liv moves to York. If France takes to EC, York can bounce him in London and you can still get at least one build. Upsetting France in the early game seems a bit fatalistic.
But then I'm also the guy who let Austria into Warsaw...

Yea that Austria into Warsaw thing cost us any chance at progression zultar.

Yeah, yeah. It was 7am, and I was going to change the damn moves.
But that's not really excusable.

well, i'm not the best gunboat player... but maybe you are right. then again, had he tried to move to ech, my move would have seemed genius.

the issue is with england you have much less sway in offering up supports as well to communicate with.

but yes, France did kick my butt tactically but really, when Germany decided to take north and showed he was not content with Bel, the jig was up. like I said, I tried to give France more of my centers so germany would try to use me as a shield, but that was just a long shot anyways at that point.

Babak, my apologies for not taking your support. Honestly, in large part my decision in Spring 1902 to go after you instead of pushing into Scandinavia was based on just wanting to try something different; I had recently played another game as Germany and had benefited from an Anglo/German alliance. I knew my builds would make it look like I was going after Sweden and I figured if I played it right you'd collapse right away. I was, however, hoping for a different reaction from France afterwards, but obviously the situation in the south-east part of the board was understandably on Santa's mind. Santa, I definitely understand your point of view on it, I may too have decided to move on Germany if I had been in your shoes. From my perspective, I'm just glad I was able to not get totally crushed afterwards.

no apology needed, you saw an opening and took it. both options were appealing for you.

Just noticing this now. Good game here, I was surprised it drew when it did.

I was working with AH but was finding it hard to crack TUR and noticed AH gaining faster than I was. I figured I would take TRI to prevent him building Fleets for at least 2 subsequent years. It worked, and he even almost forgave me but eventually he came down against me. I just tried to fiddle around and take pieces from him until a draw could be amde. I guess it worked.

@Babak, in gunboats I will never open to the channel as either England or France. I will always open to BLS as Turkey and soemtimes open to GAL as AH. I think the EC is more of a safe DMZ than the other two. But that's just me.