Enjoyable game, guys, especially for the first stab at a "workday semi-live" format. It was my first game with most (maybe even all) of you and had some good twists. I'll get my specific thoughts together and be back around ...

You all suck, especially you Eden and Crazyter! You snowed me good with that whole 'Western Triple' thing, though - I fell for it like a ton of bricks

1901: I had a pretty solid plan with Turkey. We would fake some conflict and then go for a juggernaut. I thought I had a deal with Austria, but he was lying. I wasn't sure if I could trust England, so I tried to leave my options open.

Italy and Austria failed miserably at the Key Lepanto and Austria finished the year with no builds. Had he gotten any, this would have been a very different game.

1902: With Austria and Italy still planning to attack, I decided to work things out with England and helped her and France move against Germany. At this point, Turkey and I still had a solid relationship as we worked against the AI alliance.

Despite his claims otherwise, Austria continued to attack me. I tried to warn him about Italy's stab, but he refused to listen.

1903: I now had a very solid relationship with England and Turkey. But, England was starting to worry me. Where would she go when Germany was finished? I knew that moving on land through Germany would never work and I was worried she would chose France over me. I made it my number 1 priority to get England on my side.

By now, Austria was willing to work with me, but I was also becoming concerned with France's potential expansion in Italy. I felt I couldn't let Italy fall to France, especially since I didn't know who's side England was on. So, I helped Italy into Austria instead of Turkey, as I promised. I also moved into BS.

1904: When I stabbed Turkey, he went nuts. I had planned to continue working with him and I was eve going to help him against Italy once England turned on France. However, he was so full of venom at my stab I decided I wouldn't be able to work with him.

At this point, England thankfully decided to stab France. Had he not, I'm pretty sure France would have won.

I continued to work with Italy to take out Austria and Turkey, being very generous with the centers I gave him so he wouldn't fall completely to France.

1905: By now, Austria and Turkey were all but dead when France and I completely messed up our orders. I failed to take ANK because I misordered my support. France supported Austria into MAR.

This really messed up my plans. I had planned on France putting up more of a fight, giving me time to deal with England. But, France was now collapsing from the inside out.

1906: For fear of France giving England the game (as he threatened), I decided to move against Italy and England. I moved against England so she couldn't simply walk across France. I moved against Italy to calm down France and show him he had some chance of survival.

1907-1908: I continued to move against Italy, occasionally with France's help. England and France were still at odds with eachother and I thought I could keep them fighting one another.

1909: Unfortunately, France must have reconciled with England and Italy as he joined forces with them and prevented me from getting the win.

I could have continued playing hoping to drop down to a 3way and perhaps trying for the solo again. I felt, however, that this game had been played out. It was supposed to be a live game, but it had been almost a week since we played at a live game pace. Overall, it was very fun, but there was no reason to keep it going.

Well, it was fun but it did lose the live game charachter; I was obviously happy to draw it when we did.

Spring 1901 - Austria immediately discussed with me the Key Lepanto. I fully admit not knowing what it it was but then googled it and figured it out pretty quick but played a little dumb about it. Suffice it to say it did not work very well. I was truly tempted to stab Austria in Fall 1901 as I would have ended the year with 6 supply centers and a very weak Austrian neighbor. Still not sure why I didn't stab then ...

I'll give some more reflections in a while

@abgemacht - just so you know, I was sincere in working with you (I was Turkey) even after your stab. I got over my pissed, but you refused to believe I had or it could have been a very different game.

Who wants to try this again?

Yes, I think we both could have handled things better, but such is life.

I might be up for it again, but it would need to be non-anon and people would need to be a little more serious about finalizing. This last week was brutal.

Just a few thoughts now, more later

1. I like the idea of a live game but I suddenly got way too busy at work, plus my grandson's birth was a huge distraction!
2. We should try this format again, but we only need a 24 or 48 hour phase.
3. I'd also be interested in playing a weekend live version, so I wouldnt get so interrupted at the office ;)
4. ANd I highly recommend that it not be anonymous, so you can see who is online and ignoring you on purpose and who is just not online at all-see next item
5. I was thankful R drew at the end instead of prolonging things. I actually reconciled with France a few game-years earlier, but after waiting 24 hours for his response, I got scared that he was ignoring me and secretly working with R against me, so I attacked him again. If that hadnt hapenned, we would have drawn this game about 2-3 game years earlier.

When I hear enough interest, I'll create and distribute All Things... II.

What parameters?
Non-anon has been requested.
WTA or PPSC?
What buy-in?
Want to go with 25 hour turns and treat weekends/holidays as a 1 day game?

Oh God, I just realized I only have 2 weeks of classes left! I'll probably have to sit this one out.

I would like to play the next one.

I'll do it again

I'll pass on the next one. Turns out a layabout college drunkard actually can be busy enough to mess things up. Ha.

As for an EOG, I've a brief summary of my thoughts and can give more detail as requested.

I opened with what is, for France, an unusual opening. As one might have suspected, I wasn't intending to place two units on Belgium -- I arranged a bounce with Germany and was surprised to see myself in. (The bounce, I fully admit, was as duplicitous as it comes, because I totally meant to shaft him out of Belgium the first year; him reneging violated the letter of our agreement but was a fair response to my rotten spirit of it.) England had been sweet enough, Italy and I were chill, things were good.

Then there was talk of a Western Triple. While I don't remember the specifics of why it sounded fishy to me, I recall something about one of the three members not being informed at the same time as the other two. Anyway, Germany was the culprit in my mind for it (I dunno who ACTUALLY was responsible, but I remember thinking it was Germany), so England and I attacked. Quickly. And pretty decisively.

Then I turned toward the Mediterranean and went after Italy. England stabbed. I was not pleased, and I tried to broker a deal with Italy and Russia to get everything forgiven while I turned to stop the English, who appeared they would steamroll through me otherwise and might even solo. Italy took my olive branch and dumped gasoline and a lit cigar on it (and who can blame him after I screwed him like I did?). I threatened to throw the game to England, and that got Russia talking.

I started working with him, figuring that one of England or Russia would solo and that I'd rather it not be the one who stabbed me. England and I had some miscommunication, the fault being mainly on my end, and hostilities kept up for a REALLY long time. Longer than they should have, for sure, as it appears both of us were ready to reconcile long before we actually did. The irony of this draw was that I was still helping Russia scheme until the very last turn. I had expected him to solo that year. I submitted a draw vote just to see who would bite, and when England and Italy both voted for it too I knew they were serious about the draw. Russia voted draw pretty quickly afterwards, too, so there ya have it.

Hey, wanted to say that I enjoyed the chance to play with some good diplomers here. I am new (4 mo) to online diplomacy, don't know why I waited to discover it, but I have been playing face to face with knowledgeable players in Ohio and Virginia for 30 years. It can be a little tough to find or get in with experienced players here, so this was a good opportunity. plus, my work schedule is such that usually, except maybe a day a week, I can usually find at least a little time to talk and finalize.

It was a pleasure playing with you as well, Rancher.

1) congrats Crazyter!
not seeing any of the messages, I saw a Russo-Anglo 2 way draw. Why did you decide to allow France and Italy in?

we bribed them with Bordeaux and Chianti

I enjoyed it as well. Nice playing with all of you.

@mongoose: Russia would have taken the win. Killing me (France) off wouldn't have been too difficult -- killing Italy would have required refocusing a substantial amount of units really far away from the Russian-concentrated northern areas of the map, because Italy had a land stalemate and Russia didn't have fleets to break in the Mediterranean. I imagine the temptation would have been too great.

Reading other peoples' commentary reminded me of a few things: (an questions at the end)

1. There was a lot of lying going on in 1901 and I was pretty sure G was the liar, F seemed to agree so we ganged up on him. Later I realized R might have been the real liar there. Unfortunately, my memory on it is too foggy now to remember-1901 was a long time ago and I am in several games.
2. I liked both R and F and couldnt decide which to stab. I was really on the fence, and honestly I didnt want to stab either of them. They both were compatible with me style-wise , both were direct, chatty, shared tactics and strategies, and would make great long-term allies. I debated long and hard. I suggested we do a EFR triple and I would have followed through with it, but I could tell that neither of them wanted to, or maybe they didnt believe it could be done. In the end, I had to stab one of them, and France happened to have the bad luck right then of being the one I could stab most easily.
3. After the stab, I was on a roll, and hoping to solo. Then I got really lucky when France misordered. At that point, if France hadnt threatened to R that he would throw the game to me, I might have been able to pull off the solo.
4. I was getting less and less happy with R. His stab of T was a warning sign of things to come. Once R attacked me, I had no choice but to reconcile with France, but our communication got screwed up, as I said above. From then on, there never would have been enough trust for R and me to do a 2way draw.
5. I was surprised and relieved to see that the game had drawn. France-what was your scheme at the end with R? Russia-why did you vote for a Draw, when you still had a chance to solo? France-why were you still working with R at the end-you were ready to reconcile but did you still not trust me?

1) Yes, that very well could have been my doing : )
2) I honestly don't believe an EFR could work. There was just too much tension trying to give you enough land to move through the middle.
5) First, the game was getting a bit tedious. And, as this is a game, I didn't see the need to drag it on past its point of enjoyment. Second, when I drew, I didn't think I could win. The North was locked up and France clearly wasn't on my side anymore. With France and Italy working together, I couldn't make any more progress in the South. I could have tried to get someone to turn, but it didn't seem worth it.

I too thought that France was not on R's side anymore (finally I thought we had regained some trust and good communication), so I was surprised to see France's comment that he was helping R until he very last turn.

If France was on my side, he would have gutted Italy that last turn. Since he didn't, my only other option would be to try to get on your good side (a hard task, indeed) and try to get you to take him out. He then, probably would have given me the win. So, do you think I could have gotten you to go against France?

No, although it was a close call, due to communication problems. Thanks abgemacht for recognizing the situation and not trying to stretch it out into infinite tedium.

1) squeeeeeeeeeeeeee that was me :D I started the Mos -> StP rumor that ended up becoming fact ^.^ But Germany caught me -- whether by accident or not -- with Burgundy, and my rumor turned out to be true, so I managed to save face and blame stratagos. Sorry, buddy!

2) I was down for an EFR 3-way if things ended up that way -- I liked both E and R and didn't want to stab E until it was necessary to win if things ended up that way. But it didn't seem feasible actively to plan and execute that.

5) I was, frankly, rather fed up given that I had been deceived multiple times and there had been a bad miscommunication. The way I saw things, we would end up at a 4W stalemate, but I'd get squeezed out because I was the easiest kill. I was going to pop Burgundy to help him into Munich, and there was something else, too.

1) Oh that's right! I forgot all about that nasty rumor! Damn, you Eden! TBH, I really wasn't going to STP, but everyone on the board was convinced I was, so I figured I had no choice.
5) Wait, so why didn't you take TUN and NAP?

something else?

@rumor: trollface.jpg

Because at the very very very very end, England and Italy promised a 4WD, and I figured I could give them a turn to show they were serious; if they weren't I could always screw them over anyhow. They apparently decided they were, and I voted draw as a test to see what would happen. England and Italy jumped in on it, I knew they meant it, and I suppose you did as well, abge, since the game ended soon after.

God I thought France was going to snag Tunis and Naples from me at the end and there wasn't a damned thing I could do about it; obviously I was welcoming of the draw

It had become a very tedious game, though, beyond what any of us wanted originally