You know, I'm starting to suspect that Lando doesn't like me very much. I haven't been around much (real life and all that), and the first time I play a live game in many months... :)
Strauss, I replied to you in the global chat on the game you refer to, but since you put this on the forum, I'll do so here as well.
I set cancel immediately upon the German NMR in S01, as did you and every player ultimately but Russia. I appreciate that you did so, and as you could see from my own flag, I agreed with you that cancel was the fair result. If you want to know why the game wasn't cancelled, I'm not the person to ask.
At some point, it becomes clear that the players won't agree to end the game due to CDs. It's unfortunate, but that's what happened here. The only time that Russia set his draw flag was at the point when he wanted to stop a solo. He never agreed to cancel, and I don't know whether I would have taken him up on that offer in 1906, but I would have considered it, while I wasn't going to consider granting him an undeserved draw after he tried to profit from CDs and failed.
If the CDs threw a solo, I would not have taken it. But, they didn't. The CDs meant that Russia and I were both going to be major players in the endgame, but the solo was earned tactically against four powers that all submitted orders every turn, and simply didn't submit orders that were able to stop my growth from 10 to 18+. In particular, Russia made the choice to continue south instead of shifting north, while Italy decided that carving a center or two out of Austria was important before shifting west, and those were decisive. I realize that it's frustrating as Turkey to sit there and watch this happen, and I don't think there was anything you could have done to change the outcome. But, if you're going to be honest with yourself, you'll conclude that the CDs granted me a strong position, not a solo.
Perhaps you would have drawn anyway at that point. If so, I think I disagree with you, but I also have a different view on draws than many people on this site. I believe that a draw is something earned over the board, while a cancel is, well, intended for a situation like this when the players think the game should be nullified. That's why I immediately put up a cancel flag, but never set draw. I realize that mine is a minority view, and I won't object if you want to yell at me about it. But, I'll point out again that Russia set neither draw nor cancel, so my views on this were irrelevant to the outcome.
In short, I'm sorry to have disappointed you, I understand your frustration, but I think it's properly directed at Russia, not at me.
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