So I was waiting for the game to draw all day and so I have my EOG all ready (and sorry for the length). I had a lot of fun, and would love to play with any of you again!

Spring 1901--- So by far the biggest impression I got in the first turn was from Italy. His first message was this:

"(To: You, from Italy) - Spring, 1901: Hey Turkey!

Im thinking a Lepanto would be a great idea. Your thoughts? J/k :)

We can work together for the early game at least and see how things come together. I don't want to get France's attention early on, nor do I want to risk a rapid expansion of Austria through the Balkans, so don't be alarmed by my fleet move to Ionian Sea. It will just be to stay off France's radar and keep pressure on Austria. "

I don't know about y'all, but to me that reads as "I'm going to attack you Turkey." Why apologize for moving to Ionian Sea? Why make a Lepanto joke? So I basically told Italy that I wanted to either see him take Tunis with a fleet or else I would have to build a fleet in Smyrna. Austria was almost as bad. He told me that both he and England were making anti-Russian moves so I should as well, when I had been talking to England who had said nothing of the sort. I couldn't believe it. I did know that Galicia was a DMZ, though, so I hoped that Austria would be moving there, but Russia didn't seem to be at all worried, so i doubted it. Russia asked me about a jugg, of course, and I expressed interest, of course. It already was looking like I may need him for survival. England and Germany both seemed fun. France seemed like he may be a bit of a wildcard.

Autumn 1901- Italy and Austria made this really contrived opening to feign attacking each other (and set up a blue water) and are trying to sell me soooo much bullshit about it... Austria wouldn't have simultaneously moved on Italy and lied to me. Russia said that he thought that it might be an actual attack on Italy, which gave me pause, but I just didn't see it. I'm curious if MM actually thought that. Anyway, I confront Italy about blue-watering and basically predict his next couple moves to take away any potential "deceiver's delight" or whatever you want to call it in hopes of getting him to flip. The other interesting move this turn was France going to Picardy with his fleet. It seemed to me like that could be a source of tension so I tried to make sure it was at least a topic in the west. Anyway, Austria promised me an open Greece but then bounced me when I moved there, making him 2/2 as far as lying to me in a turn. I almost went to Serbia, but I figured if he were screwing me he would move Serbia to Bulgaria anyway. The other event was that since it seemed clear that MM wanted to support his unit into Rumania, we went ahead and DMZed Black Sea to start building some trust.

Spring 1902- Austria says he is mad at ME for talking to Italy and Russia about dealing with him after he already lied to me multiple times... Whatever. He did say that Russia "sold me" which is a little troubling because it is probably true. I also just straight up call Italy out and he says "got me! what are you gonna do about it?" Basically, he is a lost cause. So game plan: Talk to Russia, who (obviously MM by the way) has still been fairly hands-off in the south the simple question: "Are you willing to put your neck on the line for me?" This put some diplomatic pressure on him I think and we both (I think) started getting on the same page diplomatically, trying to get Italy and England to go against France, etc. The main reason it was France was that he had that fleet in Picardy which England HAD to see as anti-English and both of this armies were in Iberia, so he was both vulnerable and a bit antagonistic to England.

Meanwhile, I'm trying really hard to flip Italy with pretty much no progress. I encourage him to talk to England about moving on France and point out that Austria is going to have a fleet in Eastern Med and thus will be incredibly out of position if he attacks Austria, but it is all basically a waste of time: He sends me a message that contains "Italy and Turkey cannot co-exist peacefully in the end" which makes me know that he isn't going to flip unless there is an overwhelming reason to. But in what can only be called desperation, I read back through our messages and realized that I made a pretty glaring mistake in the plan I was suggesting to Italy, so I basically apologized, reworked it, complained about Russia being wishy-washy, and talked about watching Arrested Development (which was a hit), and we started to make progress. He wanted me to move to Black Sea, and I thought i might have enough diplomatic rapport with Russia to get Russia to allow it, so I agreed. I was back on my feet. But then when I asked Russia, he tried to convince me that HE should be in Black Sea. No. I basically told him that he was obviously trying to trick me and that I wanted to cancel our DMZ and switch to a bounce. But luckily that got the conversation framed into who it was better to have in Black Sea tactically and diplomatically and I had all the points on my side: Italy had given it as a condition of working together, Austria had already lied to me twice and so I could hardly work with him, my fleet in Ankara was currently useless while his fleet could support Rumania's hold, etc. I think once it was clear I wasn't going to give Russia a piece of my pie if I fell, it was only a matter of time until he agreed, and he did. He said he "liked how [I was] sticking to [my] guns", which I thought was funny.

Autumn 1902- Italy had fed me Austria's moves, which didn't help me, but I was pleasantly surprised to see they were the truth. I think Italy knew it wouldn't actually help me to know, though, so I didn't give too much weight to it. He just wanted to be able to deal with a hostile France if it happened (and it did). With Russia in Galicia and France moving on Italy and England moving on France, it looked like pressure was going to be released, and quickly. But I had to make sure. Italy came to me with this: "Turkey, I have been looking at some old games and I am interested in a Italo-Turkish alliance. It would require a good degree of trust in me, but I would make sure you were in the game to end and would ensure you were still a relevant player. To be clear, you would probably be down to a center or two for a few turns, but you would be restored over time." Lol. The only thing I knew to say was "I can only take you at your word" and hope that meant he would start looking elsewhere with some of his units know that I was "taken care of." It wasn't a huge deal, though. Austria was supporting Russia into Bulgaria and Russia knew I was defending such a move, so it seemed like a safe bet that he would work with me, and I was denying Austria Greece. Hopefully Russia would guess right and take one of Austria's home SCs.

Spring 1903: He did! Austria was as good as done, and the fleet by me went away. Life was good. I could finally stop acting like Italy's bitch, and I did... I think this was a mistake as I think Italy at least liked to see himself as the mastermind of alliances, but that is what I did. I just figured that I was in the position of power and thought Italy knew that, and figured my only chance of a solo was to get italy going west as quickly as possible, not by me supporting Italy to Greece. This may have cost me and Russia the race with England and Germany later, but it didn't really matter to me that much, if anything, that should have been Russia's concern. Anyway, I also was pretty sure that playing the "retribution" card with Italy would leak to Russia, and I had already seen (and, let's be honest, knew from past games) that MM liked the idea of holding grudges with people who have moved on you. Anyway, we made moves to set up the possibility of disbanding the Russian fleet in Rumania as it was a waste in our alliance.

Autumn 1903: Italy stayed in Aegean. Argh. He was being stubborn (in my opinion), which is my fault. I made the wrong read. Not a huge deal. Italy accepted France's support into MAO which gave England a retreat to NAf and a free Tunis. This made him staying in Aegean even more surprising. Anyway, I talked to England to make sure he would take Tunis and his terms were that I had to move on Russia. How perfect that Russia and I had already planned to have me take Rumania so we could disband his fleet. It's so nice when things work out like that.

Spring 1904: First, I thought I had been dictating moves a little too much with Russia, so I mentioned the clearly worse build of an army just so that he could suggest a fleet and I could agree. He had plenty of his own problems in the north, but I wanted to make sure he felt like he still had input in the south. Plus, since he was choosing my preferred build, he mentioned some moves that could follow a fleet build and they were more generous than I think they would have been otherwise. We talked about things for a while (the question was basically whether I should support myself to Aegean or accept his support to Budapest) and I ultimately decided to give Italy one more chance to move out of Aegean. Slightly more interesting we the E/G dynamic... Germany was promising to stab England, I had already "stabbed" Russia.

Autumn 1904: Germany had accepted Russia's support to Norway while simultaneously supporting England to Brest. He sold the support to Brest as irrelevant since he could take it in autumn anyway, which seemed reasonable. The fact that England had "sniffed out" the move in the north seemed more dubious though, and I figured that even if it was a stab, England and Germany would patch things up immediately. Italy still didn't move out of Aegean (still arghhh) but it wasn't a huge deal. While discussing moves the plan became Russia bouncing himself in Rumania (mine) which was a little scary, so I asked him to explicitly say that he wasn't going to take it. I find that being so explicit tends to work. Anyway, we ended up making good coordinated moves and coming out strong and Germany and England stayed strong, so the game was basically 2 v 2.

Rest of the Game: There isn't much to say here. Russia and I kept pushing but were hopelessly behind. Germany seemed content with a draw, the big worry was England. I tried to get England to pull back from the Mediterranean so that there would be zero risk in the game, but we just weren't connecting. My sell was that it would free me up to move on Russia (which, to be clear, I didn't intend on doing) without any risk to him (which was true... I definitely couldn't solo). He had Italy on his side for a while which was annoying, but Italy was a free agent so it was only a matter of time until we could flip him.

Meanwhile, MM (Russia) was posting on the forum that he almost didn't invite me into the games because he thought I would hold a grudge from a past game we played together (which I didn't even remember). So I looked back at that game and didn't even think our messages were toxic or anything. I congratulated him for besting me in that game and everything. This made me think there was a decent chance that he knew I was Turkey in this game and was trying to guilt me in the forums, and I didn't like that at all. So I ended up stabbing him (in a good stab... It left me, Germany, and England at 11-10-10 or something like that). We talked more, and I thought about propping him up again (I really did), but then yet again he posted in the forum about me holding a grudge for some reason, and twice was too much. It really seemed like he was trying to guilt trip me through the forum, and I didn't like that at all (and if it was a coincidence, sorry, but that is just how it worked out). And so there was a three way draw.

Again, it was a lot of fun, and let me know if you all have any questions about what I was thinking! (And MM, let me reiterate: I hold absolutely no grudge against you... In fact, if anything I would want to work with you more now after having gotten to be your ally for most of this game)