Alright, sorry this took so long, everyone!
Firstly thanks to all the professors - interestingly, there seemed to be less disagreement in their posts than in the Fall SoW. I wondered whether this was just because Triumvir and dyager have play styles that differ less than the previous professors, or whether the game was just clearer from the outset?
This was a very interesting game. I'm both very pleased, and very disappointed with the outcome :)
Starting off as Turkey (a country I'm still not really sure how to play) with two neighbours (Scoggle's Austria and RAZ000's Italy) who I'd played with in the last SoW was a bit worrying. Especially as RAZ000 and I had also just finished this game: http://webdiplomacy.net/board.php?
gameID=128576#gamePanel , where our roles were reversed - he was Turkey, and I was Italy. And I'd horribly stabbed him, cutting him out of the draw. Hmm. Let's just say I was very relieved to see Triumvir call out "please make decisions based on THIS game only" in one of his early write-ups.
Spring 1901 started with what looked like a Key lepanto straight out of the gate. Remembering back to the professor commentary from the Fall SoW where this had been suggested too, I thought it might have been a bluff. I was *so close* to ordering Bulgaria->Serbia in the fall, which would have hilariously caused Italy to take a centre from Austria, but decided not to - I thought the Key might not actually be happening. I wish I'd made the order, though. It would have certainly shaken things up!
I spent a lot of the early game trying to break apart the Austrian/Italian cooperation- something which I managed to do partially in the Spring of 1902, turning Austria on Italy. Sadly, he fluffed his orders, and the stab didn't pay off. I like to think that it broke down the trust between Austria and Italy, even though they did continue to coordinate until around 1904. Eventually, France arriving meant that Italy was forced back, and I was finally able to expand.
It was around this point that Germany, France and I negotiated a three way draw, assuming that we worked together to eliminate the other players (props to uclabb for calling this!). I thought this was reasonably safe, as France had played a very cautious game, including moves that were designed to keep his allies happy, and Germany would have to clearly turn around before stabbing France. Unfortunately, France had other plans (spurred on by an excellent "this is what you need to do for a solo" post from dyager). I wasn't expecting him to stab Germany.
I wasn't worried by dyager's post, because I figured the instructions for soloing naturally sat as a warning for the other players. As France stabbed Germany, I started to send Germany several messages suggesting that we work together to work out the best set of moves (and this approach was later recommended by the professors, too). Sadly, I received very little press from him, except to say that things had gotten very busy for him in real life, and he hadn't had as much time to look at the game. He did however return to the game to enter moves - although they were generally very poor (as has already been discussed). This was the most disappointing thing for me - I don't mind the loss (Ogion played well), but I would have liked to see all players present and actively engaging in the game. I would have preferred to see Germany ask for a pause or a replacement earlier, rather than half-heartedly filling in moves late in each phase.
The latter stages of the game were fairly frustrating, as I was mostly too far from the action to contribute to stopping the solo (although I was pleased with what we did make of it in the south). I think my biggest mistakes of the game were:
* I considered ordering Bulg->Serb in Fall 01, but didn't. The opening would have been very different if I had.
* I considered ordering Aeg->EMed in Spring 03, but didn't. I didn't really trust Italy when he said he was supporting me to Greece (or whatever he'd promised, I forget), but chose to give him the benefit of the doubt. This was, of course, a mistake. I was only saved by France's move on Italy.
* As the professors have already pointed out, I should have arranged to move away from Russia earlier, allowing him to better contribute to the defence against the solo. This is probably my biggest regret - we needed to make the defence as efficient as possible, but efficient defence was broken down by distrust.
All up, this game was a fun one. Ogion was a gracious winner, and RAZ000 remains both fun and frustrating to play with :) I'd also like to mention rojimy1123's Russia, who was very easy to coordinate with, even if trust did eventually break down between us. I hope that Scoggle is alright, wherever he is, and many thanks to abgemacht for picking up the German position - from his press and tactical discussions, I think he'd be a terrifying enemy.
I hope to play again with any or all of these players sometime. Good game, everyone! Thanks again to the professors for their time and hard work.
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