e WIll post mine tomorrow when I've got the time. I will say that I played pathetically, and want to apologize to Austria for totally screwing him over. We had a plan to go after Russia in year one, and I backed out leaving him vastly out of position. I think that sealed the fate for both of us. I got played. Will post more cohesive thoughts tomorrow.

Eog (Italy):
1901: The game started pretty well, everyone seemed nice. I was friends with everyone in the East, which none of the other three could claim. I got along well with France and England and tentatively decided on a plan involving killing Turkey because it was convenient and then Austria because it was convenient and I felt like I was getting on a bit better with Russia than with him.

1902: Russia and Austria decided to move on Turkey with me, so everything went great on that front. France wanted support back into Munich in the fall, but I was worried about his size so I told him that I wouldn't be giving it but would be completely open to giving him support the next year if Germany somehow managed to defend himself. France chose to move to Piedmont, which I didn't like.

1903: I talked with England for a while about stabbing France, and he seemed open to it, but then he moved on Russia in the spring and I got worried. I wasn't overly concerned about France regardless, because he wasn't getting past Tunis and I had enough of a relationship with both Austria and Russia to get them to help a lone unit into Turkish centers if need be. I repeatedly told France that he was going to be stabbed in the hopes that England was telling the truth, and everything turned out for the best.

1904: England went hard at France and I elected to let France go fight him because I had no interest in seeing him get big before Russia's coming solo play and I thought that it might be useful later if France were small and he liked me more than England or France. Russia stabbed Austria as planned and I had a long serious of messages with the two of them before the Fall season where I would tell Russia something and about 10 minutes later I would be congratulated by Austria in regards to the "deceptive" message I had just sent Russia. I repeatedly asked Russia why he was telling Austria these things because I saw no benefit for either of us in siding with Austria and I thought that Austria's complete untrustworthiness would push him my way. Things worked out exactly as I wanted and Austria prepared to throw Russia the solo. I also tipped England off to Russia's build to get them at odds with each other.

1905: I was hoping that Russia would wait a year for me to shift towards France before stabbing. This would have allowed me time to re-position myself without tipping off Russia or going so far West as to piss France off. Unfortunately, he stabbed immediately with Austrian support and I had to get to work on stopping the Russian solo. England and France didn't like each other, which, while it was what I wanted long-term, was very inconvenient for stopping a solo. I started talks with Russia and England regarding ending the Russian attempt and eliminating France because I despised France. I didn't actually despise France as much as hold a tiny grudge because of the Piedmont thing, but I wanted a solo and that involved getting France's centers and then mopping up Russia's, so I made it seem like I hated the guy. Unfortunately, Russia wasn't interested initially, so I just fought him off and waited.

1906: Russia claimed that he was willing to stop and then didn't, which made me a bit annoyed, but I persisted. England and France finally started working together, I think at least in part due to me, and we pretty much killed Russia's solo chances.

1907: Russia finally expressed a willingness to back off and let us kill France and we began taking his centers en masse. England and France went back to fighting in the fall, Russia seemed fed up with France, and England and Russia still didn't seem to be on good terms, so things looked very promising for me.

1908: France sent me a message in the spring saying that he wanted to throw me the game because he hated England and Russia was no longer an option. This is exactly what I had been setting up for several years, and when I read it, my joyous exclamation from the back of a physics classroom while most people were still taking the test I had just finished served to show that, confuse the hell out of people, and get my phone taken away. Unfortunately, within a few hours of this, MagicMarx get France to decide to throw him the game instead, seemingly by merely putting up a draw vote. I reminded France that he hated England and that I was the only one who could reasonably solo as a result of his death, but he would have none of it and I had to grudgingly accept that I wouldn't be soloing and settled instead for the death of France and my expressions of feigned hatred had turned out to be self-fulfilling.

1909: Russia hadn't returned to the line early enough and I got a bit scared, but everything went fine and we got the line completely set up, then we just had to wait for France to die.

1910: Nothing of note except England's offer of Marseilles, Munich, and St.P before the final moves and subsequent moves that did not at all match what he said (why did you even bother with that, Marx?). The game ended in a nice draw.

England: Always fun to play with you. I still don't understand how you're so magic. I legitimately thought I had the game in the bag for about four hours, and then you just HAD to come in and ruin everything.
Russia: Always fun to play with you too. Well played.
France: Still disappointed you didn't go the other way. Was it really just the draw vote that turned you?
Austria: Sorry things didn't work out. I did enjoy working with you while it lasted.
Turkey: Tough luck for you. I really don't like allying with Turkey as anyone (Austria and Italy get stabbed and a Jugg just gets ganged up on), so it's unfortunate that you've been Turkey both times I've played with you, because you do seem like a fun guy to work with.
Germany: Wow. I'm glad you left the site. Not much else to say.

EoG's are always fun to read, but I hate writing them... We'll see, I'm out of town at the moment, maybe this weekend...

ghug, regarding StP, Munich and Mar. Russia said he didn't want StP, so even though I said I'd vacate, since he didn't seem to care I didn't feel the need to tell him never mind I'll just stay there. You said you didn't want Munich, so, okay, I stayed. As far as Mar, you could have guaranteed it had you tapped Spain, which I assumed you would have. So, long story short, a three way is a three way, I didn't care if I had 17 or 14 or whatever, as long as I had you two stalemated from eliminating me I was fine with whatever, and you guys didn't seem to care either so I'm not sure why you now do seem to care, though I'm guessing you really don't! :-)

Oh, I was just curious. We had concerns at the time over what dastardly plans you might have been hatching, but you're right that it didn't matter at all in the end.

As for the EoG, mine honestly only took about ten minutes. I thought someone as prolific as you would enjoy the chance to write more.

bump

I'll cut to the chase here.

01: I wanted to do something out of the ordinary while getting my neighbors to fight so that I could get out of the corner. It worked. I got AUS to commit to taking on Russia by moving on Rumania. Then being the chicken that I am, I got swayed by RUS and backed out on the plan with no real plan B in place. RUS pounced on me, and the rest is history. What a disappointing game.

Oh. I should clarify. I was not disappointed in the quality. Just my play. The press was top notch with the exception of Germany.

Hey, thanks for starting this thread. I'll post something soon-ish.

bump

Right, thanks. I had almost forgotten. This will be short, though; sorry.

Okay, so I drew Austria. I love playing Austria. I also love doing things that are a bit unconventional, or that I've never done before. I wanted to try an A/T alliance, because I've never done one from the beginning of the game, and because everyone says it can't work. I really enjoyed talking to Turkey, so I thought this would be the game to try it.

I really enjoyed talking to Russia and Italy too, by the way. And England, and (to a lesser extend) France. The only one who I wanted to attack immediately just because of the quality of his press was Germany. Unfortunately, as Austria, it just wasn't in my best interest to attack him early on. Some gunboaters can play press games well, and some should just stick to the gunboat abomination.

So in 1901, I tried to turn Italy against France, so that I could work with Turkey against Russia. Italy was dead-set against opening west, and wanted to open with a Lepanto, though. I agreed, because the alternative was him attacking me. I told Turkey about Italy's plan, though, and we agreed that after 1901 we'd probably be fighting an I/R alliance, but that we'd do it anyway.

Before the autumn 1901 turn, Russia got wind that I was going to try for Rumania (or he made it up). I had told Italy and Turkey about it, so it must have been one or both of them. I denied it, and then went for Rumania anyway, which bounced, thanks to Turkey, who also bounced me out of Greece. So instead of 3 builds and a Turkish ally, I had 1 build, a Turkish enemy, and a Russia who I just alienated.

I tried to patch things up with Turkey, but he didn't see how the relationship could be repaired, so we agreed to continue as enemies, each petitioning Russia for help against the other, and see who was the better diplomat.

I was.

It was just great playing with you as Turkey, though, Tom. I really enjoyed talking to you the whole time, both as allies and as enemies.

Shortly thereafter, I was really only defending my home SCs with my mouth. I was pretty much vulnerable to Russia and Italy. With Turkey dead, I was torn as to whether to continue the alliance with Russia or with Italy. I had to turn on one of them. Russia made my decision easier, though, by stabbing me in spring 1904.

At this point, I wrote a lot of press to both Italy and Russia. I think that Russia wanted to get the band back together. He even suggested moves to me that would undo his stab and allow us to keep working together. I didn't believe him, though, so I agreed to his plan, and then trusted that Italy was with me and told him everything. 10 minutes later Russia asked me why I told Italy everything, and I told him it was because I didn't trust him, and we should both petition Italy for support against the other and see who was the better diplomat.

I lost. Italy didn't do what he told me he'd do, and didn't do what he told France he'd do either.

I kept my fleets, and hoped Russia could set it up to leave Vienna in my hands to support a forward fleet and help him win, but it wasn't possible. France wanted to get back at Italy too, but in the end, it appears that Italy made the right choice by siding with Russia against me instead of the other way around.

Nice game, all. (Except for you, Germany. If you hadn't CD'd, it would have been a different game.)

Bumping in case Marx does in fact decide to grace us with his presence.

Hey, don't patronize me, I know nobody gives a rat's ass what I have to say, no need to rub my nose in it!

I was trying a "stroke the ego to get it out of him" approach, actually.

So, as England I pretty much focus on my three immediate neighbors, and mostly on France and Germany, since one of us three will likely get double-teamed and I don't want it to be me. I do chat with Russia a bit, though, and he seems pretty reasonable, which, unfortunately is where the good feelings end. Don't get me wrong, Austria and Italy seemed nice, and Turkey too, but I didn't have too much riding on their cooperation early on, so I focused on what to do about F/G. The German was a nightmare, the first 24 hours of the game the only message I got from him was, "disclaimer: I ain't very verbose theses days, no worries ;/" Messages after that left me thinking the German was not a native speaker, based on the following, "The question I raise, the very one you did not answer, or maybe even formulate to your mentation, as to what you are proposing entails exactly for yourself." WTF? Anyway, looking like I'll ally with France... Until the Frenchman speaks! France goes on and on about how he never likes to ally with Germany and always likes to work with England, *and* if I give him Belgium in 1901 he'll support me into Holland in 1902, meaning he wants three builds in 1901 while I gete one build. Son of a bitch! Time to choose between the lesser of two evils... Or, maybe not! There's just no way I wanted to ally with Germany, but I did not care for France's attitude at all, so I took EC in spring 1901 in an attempt to get France's attention and cut the bullshit long term. I'm the sort that will push for equal growth with my ally from day one, and France and I are able to get on the same page, which is helped by the German being himself... That German was aweful, and I very much dislike it when people post my personal press on global (especially when it gets altered a bit!), but that seemed to be what caused the Russia to join me against Germany, whereas Russia was more against me on that point beforehand. Anyway, the German had told me he would support me into Belgium in 1901, but he supported himself in, so I was set with France as my ally come hell or high water.

It was nice that Russia was friendly in 1902, he agreed to support my army in Norway over to Denmark, while Russia vacated StP, thus guaranteeing StP was safe in 1902, and also allowed us to do some trust building, working together. Taking Den from Germany was good, but Germany got Munich from France, so Germany was still even for 1902, until fall where we saw France get Munich back and I took Belgium, and then Germany decided to quit the site, though I think that was officially because of another game.

Germany not submitting orders did speed things up a little bit in regards to killing him off, but with France, Russia and myself triple-teaming the guy, it wasn't that much faster. 1903 seemed more like 1905, things were moving quickly. With Germany dying soon, and based on France not being very talkative, and a bit of a memory of his initial idea of offering me one build in 1901 while he got three, *and* because I had gotten along real well with Russia, I decided to DMZ Sweden with Russia, but then take it, as a way to get France to think I was on France's side, yet to shift on France in the fall... I don't remember why the hell I thought this was a good idea, but it's not like this move would have worked if I had asked Russia about it first, since he would have said no, so sometimes I figure it's okay to force people to trust me and then for me to show how trustworthy I am, in regards to being my early ally and pushing to the end game. Also, this happened quite some time ago, so I'm just trying to remember what was going on in my head, but I just "wing it" most of the time and go with my gut based on press and moves within the specific game, and not so much with logic or strategy. Anyway, when I passed through Sweden, Russia was much happier with me, and I very much liked the name Russia gave it, The Swedish Key.

Sooo, I wasn't really too focused on the southeast, I was going to be fighting France, and Russia was my ally, so everyone down in the southeast could figure it out and destiny would determine who was meant to rise up and take control.

Spring 1904 saw Russia stab Austria, and I really wish I had pushed Italy to not join Russia, but to join Austria against the Russian, because that success quickly went to the Russian's head and Russia stabbed me next, was going for the solo, and I got MAD. Hell hath no fury as a MadMarx scorned. Well, not really, but I don't take getting stabbed real well most of the time, and this was no exception. It made no sense to me. Russia and I had gotten along well, and it was clear to me that Russia could not solo, what the hell?

The rest of the game was relatively silly. I allied with France to stop the Russian solo. France was driving me crazy, he'd typically long on only one time each phase, and it was in the later part of the phase, and even though I'd lay out a decent plan, France would tell me he was doing things differently, his way, and then he'd log off and never come back until after the phase went through. The guy was absolutely horrible to work with, *for me*, I'm the sort that likes to chat and come to a consensus, and work as a team, so for me to be stuck with a guy that barks out what his two seconds of analysis deemed to be the most brilliant plan the world had ever seen and then disappear, well, no wonder I stabbed him earlier in the game, I did not know this was the sort of player France was, but my gut told me something was up with this guy and I'd be better off stabbing him, so there you go.

Regardless, France and I stopped Russia, big surprise, and as I told everyone left in the game, I don't typically care too much between a three-way draw and a four-way draw, it was clear I would not solo, so I voted draw, but Russia (and Italy to a lesser extent) want a few more points and a bit more GR, and wanted to kill off France. France had frustrated me enough that I had wanted to kill him too, especially how I tried to talk him into the fact that I would be a good ally and he just attacked me and blew me off repeatedly, but in the end I followed through with voting draw and I did not try to persuade Italy or Russia to kill off France, I basically ignored the entire topic of my draw vote and allowed France to take control of that issue and give him a chance to get the draw from I/R.

ghug's EoG and saying how he shouted out in class made me laugh out load, or at least smile pretty big, that was hilarious, thanks for that story!

Anyway, France decided he'd try to throw me a solo, to force a four-way draw, and I played along with that, but the single message per phase and France dictating what he'd do was just about enough to drive me insane, so, on more than one occassion, I knew what France was ordering, but I wanted to talk about it more and since he never logged on, I just did what I wanted, hell bent on not giving into his absolutely worthless diplomacy style. I probably should not have been so stubborn about it, but at the same time I didn't really care too much about a three-way or four-way, the interesting part of the game was over and weeding someone out of the draw is mostly a waste of time for me, though I guess a solo shot helped boost my interest, but it just wasn't meant to be.

See why I hate EoG's, how horrible was that!!

It was an interesting game, and I was very excited to play Tom, just sorry we ended up on the opposite side of the map and didn't get to interact much... I very, very much enjoyed playing with Mapu, until he stabbed me, that pissed me off, in a this is all in good fun and just a game sort of way, of course! I also enjoyed ghug and MKECharlie, though I was a bit surprised to see MKECharile get stabbed by Russia, I thought they were good, and I think they both told me they planned to kill off ghug, but as I said, I wasn't paying too much attention down there. The German was absolutely terrible, and the Frenchman was just a difficult match for me due to very different personalities. I'm sure the Frenchman gets along well with many, many people, but I'm the sort that gets a read on people and if they are about to stab me by talking with them, so the less someone talks, the less I can predict their actions, and if I can't predict your actions, you're better off dead to me.

Sorry again for just rambling on, but it's getting late and I need some sleep, and I didn't want this hanging over my head this weekend! :-)

They may have said that they were planning to kill off ghug, but ghug doesn't let people plan to kill off ghug.

As for the elimination of France, know that I wanted it entirely because I thought I had a chance at being thrown a solo. I don't give a rat's ass how big my draws are.

Thanks for the EOG, I'll let this thread die in peace now.

Very interesting game, and EoGs. Thanks for sharing them!