http://webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=80848, for those wondering.

I drew England, and recalling the thread I saw a few weeks ago on this strange opening Lon->ENG->MAO, I thought I would try it. It worked rather well, all things considered, except that Germany decided to pick a fight. sigh.

From about 1903 onwards, I was embroiled in conflict with Germany. I tried to tell him numerous times with support holds to Sweden that I wanted to be friendly, but this never took. I also threw up my draw flag to match his as a sign of peace, but again, this never took.

Russia, meanwhile, was dying, and for some reason, Austria allowed him to have all of Turkey and to regroup in his home country. By now, it's 1906/7 and I have held off Germany rather well, but due to a misorder when MAO held instead of move to Brest and because he finally outguesses me and secures both Norway and Sweden for himself, I have to destroy two units. I decide to give St.P back to Russia while leaving Finland present to help him into Norway (which never happened).

Now Austria is pounding on the Iberian peninsula. He goes to Gascony and I think this is tremendous, until I see his retreat Pie-Mar. sigh. I offer him support holds in both Gascony and Marseilles, and he offers nothing in return. Hopefully that's just unfriendliness and not meanness.

Nope! It was meanness. At the same time he secures Iberia, my island is under siege by Germany. I am ultimately left with one center, London, and prance my way into the Med hoping to grab Tunis. Italy allows me in (perhaps he noticed the Austrian holds in Portugal and Marseilles and the empty Spain?), and Germany jumps up from 12 centers to 17 centers. I do my best to keep him out of the med, but Austria is picking a fight with Italy, so I try to stop that, but now Germany is crushing Portugal. -__-

All in all, a very frustrating game because Austria and Russia refused to use signals or read them. Perhaps they did not refuse so much as ignore, but nothing was ever reciprocated even for the purpose of a stab. I also found the occasional holds that had no rhyme nor reason (like in the end game, when Austria performed Por H and Mar H with an open Spa, so the better move would have been Por-Spa, Mar-Spa).

@Germany, good game. I thought we were pretty well matched tactically. I wish we could have allied instead of fought. With my massive number of fleets, I really hoped you would pick up that I wanted to take the med while you ran the mainland.

@Italy, good play. I am surprised you held on so long.

@Austria and Russia, learn to gunboat.

@France, sorry you drew it twice in a row. I didn't pick a fight with you intentionally, just the opening I hadn't tried before. Good play though. You outguessed me a few times.