This is my first EOG ever, so constructive criticism is welcome.

S01: Germany! As a preference, I would like to ally France, since England always has the upper-hand to stab. A false WT is proposed to E, in order to make him move to barents later on – F proposed the self-bounce in bur, so I tipped italy off about a move to pie, in order to hold F at a one build 01 – I like to keep my ally below me in power, but not too much to prevent a stab.
I have written all around the board, italy was the only one who responded a bit negative to my standard blabbermouth speech, everyone else seems glad to chat.

F01: I convinced E that both bel and hol should be mine, in order to rush austria in the early game. Both F and E does as promised, which means we tricked E to build another army. I bounced Russia under pressure from A, since I want to keep my relations to A and I friendly, plus ”pressure” from E, since I wanted to see for how long I could fool him into thinking the WT is actually holds. Russia is a bit mad, but he will have trouble allround, and I dont expect a kamikaze attack from him into germany – building two fleets and an army.

S02: told england that it was a misbuild, and that I would make the best of it aiding against R, plus the french fleet was only since he could not build in mar – and he bought it! F is still loyal and kept at a minimum level, even though Italy are eager to take him down. Prefer to wait until a E/F alliance no longer poses a threat. I convinced I to run a lepanto in order to avoid a strong I/A/T alliance, while at the same time tipping T off regarding the lepanto – he didnt react, but hopefully he will be friendly later on when I need it. A seems to be my biggest concern at the time, I need to assure that he will be held up with I against T for long enough time to take E out totally, and establish some land units. I dont know for how long I will stick with F, depends on how much he demands of the english centers. I am maintaining a lot of chat with R, and seems to be his only enemy to do so, I am trying to use this in order to gain sweden, convincing him that I am the lesser of three evils.

F02: Russia is friendly and has accepted his defeat, tells me my diplomatic style has made him hate the others more, hopefully I will have sweden. England seems to still buy my false intentions and believes that the stab is french. I am thinking I will convoy to edin once I get north, plus leave both lvp and lon to F, for a later stab once his fleets are gone south. Building another fleet, and asking england to build a fleet in lvp to hold france off – the plan is to convoy to edin and then support france to lvp and lon in the fall, but I am not sure whether I will do so or not – should he build a fleet, the stab on paris is very promising as well… russia and england has proved that theydont have the sense to reestablish alliances against me as a leader, so I might be able to fight all three of them alone… its either this, or hoping that france will leave his back totally open once he heads south.

S03: both F and E build what I told them to do, so I have decided to stab F – this is the exact opposite of what I have been trying to master, not rush into stabbing everyone too early, when they are still strong enough to turn and unite against me, but the missing E/R interaction in sweden has proved that especially E is not capable of doing so. I will convoy to edin, move to bur and hopefully not se F in gas, plus I am trying to convince russia to hit stp in fall, so I can take norway as well, to hurt E the most. I will keep him alive there, untill I reach tunis, or if I need a vital build.

F03: I am convincing R to take stp, since I would rather have a stronger A than E – hopefully I will get three builds, but two is acceptable as well. I might fear that I stabbed too early, but giving F two builds this year would just be too dangerous.

S04: the disbands from E looks good, and T just invited A to dominate the south, so hopefully he will not come my way anytime soon – I just need to get to tunis first, then the solo should be home. I am running a trick on E that might grant me lvp this year, otherwise I might have a nonbuild year, that just gets me into a better position.

F04: I am a bit worried that A will advance across the stalemate, especially if he denies my access to stp. I could have armies in par, pic, bur and mun, but opt to have a long shot at brest, while still securing bur, and holding two armies back if I dont get the builds if they are needed against Austria. I am desperately trying to get T and I to work a bit together, but T dont seem to be willing – Italy should never have retreated to smy, that might have been the factor that gives A the solo.

S05: A allowed me stp, and I told him I would park units in mun, sil and fleet pru, in order to set up some protection – hopefully he doesnt do anything aggresively against this, but I doubt it, since he didnt block me out of stp, and he only build a single unit this year when he got two builds. I just hope T and I can delay him long enough for me to reach tunis! I will move into position against F and E in the spring, planning for brest and london in the fall.

F05: nothing is being done to stop austria, dont know whether the italian moves were a fault or an act to give the solo to austria. I will most likely get both Brest and London, unless they cut both supports which is unlikely to expect. Norway will be peaking out since I really need the fleets, likely I can convoy the army from england to norway once england is totally gone. Hopefully france will opt to destroy his fleet and protect whatever he can in his chance to stalemate, but I might fear he would rather seek revenge – the global chat has been a prefered place for eliminated players to draw attention towards me in a negative way.

S06: I will make sure that the french fleet doesnt get behind my lines, plus I will eliminate england this year for sure – the army in england will be ready to convoy to norway in 07. mun and sil will bounce in boh, so at maximum, austria can only hold two of the three centers, tyr, boh, sil in the spring, which means I will be able to build next year. The only thin line in my position is the mainland of france, where he could send gas to either bur or brest – I fear that it will take some time to break him down, which is why I will start sending armies east via norway next year.

F06: England will be dead now, and edin will be ready to convoy to norway for a strike against moscow within a year. I am taking gas and MAO, hopefully France will retreat to defend his last centers instead of retreating to irish. Austria will get far more builds, but hopefully I can take him by surprise in either the med or the east.

S07: France did the hoped retreat to the stalemate line in por, instaed of screwing me over and giving austria the solo. my chances to solo are pretty much slim to none, and might have been so for a while – but its not before now I want to realise it. I could have attacked Austria earlier on, but didnt feel that I had the units to go against E/F/A at the same time. I will make one last efford sending armies to liv and norway, hoping to gain either warsaw or moscow, but I fear that austria will just move with aid of france in the south as a counter move. I will support italy to spain, and then take either spain or por in the fall, but I prefer to get italy to spain first, then there will only be two loose units to worry about, rather than three.

F07: France dont seem to understand the importance of the stalemate line, and I fear that austria will hold spain, making sure italy is dead, and then he could use France to solo – I will keep advancing in the east, and hopefully get italy to spain, thus forcing austria to back off, if he dont want a 4way draw. My chances are getting worse every turn, and right now Austria has a high potential to solo, if France dont start to act according to the map instead of according to my earlier lies to him. As a last minute change, I desided to keep france at 2 and let italy die, reducing the draw, and showing my intentions to France, since he seems very insecure on his part of the draw.

08: austria insists on trying for a solo, with a little talk about falling back if not successful, to allow me to eliminate france.

09: austria started the retreat in the med, and I have ordered him to park the four fleets in aegean, eastern med, ionian and tunis within 09, so I can take spain and por in 10. my hope for a solo is beginning to return, at least a 2way draw. I will not start attacking France this year, since Austria might try something fishy and change direction here in the fall, hoping for some help from a lone fleet in portugal, if I take Spain from France to soon.

10: Taking france out without any risk from austria – opening up kiel to build another fleet, while sending the army towards finland for an additional fleet – this will give me 8 against 4 fleets in the med over time, and my chance to solo has just risen back from the ashes!

S11: I expect austria to move to western, so I will get fleets into GoL and africa, forcing western in the fall.

F11: hoping that Austria will continue to try and advance against me, bouncing me in tunis and getting a forced retreat in western med.

S12: Austria managed to stalemate me – had I just used GoL to cut support from tyrr, instead of an additional support for spain-western, I would have won the game! Lesson learned, and a happy Austria…

All in all, I feel I played a very solid game, controlling a lot of the tactics around the board, playing others out against each other, while the map looked like I didnt have any influence in those regions. The last couple of years was played out within an hour or so, and right now I am hating my self for doing so, since I didnt give myself enough time to analyze the situation regarding Tunis for the solo shot…