Unlucky. Good game though!

Out of interest, I don't play this many gunboats, and very few with such experienced and successful players. So I have two questions:

1. How you you guys think I got on? How was my play in general?

2. In the last 2-3 years, I pretty much surrendered Scandinavia to Russia and my only aggressive moves were against France. Does anyone/everyone understand why I did this?

Don't let russia have scandi. That's not good for england,
Going for belgium is useless in the early years, you can never keep it. The only purpose could be to disband your army and build a fleet instead.

You have attacked france (you were hostile at best), you have attacked germany, and you let russia have scandi. Who was your ally???

Make allyances, not enemies!

It's always tough with england, but either germany/france should be your ally, the otherone your enemy. It's sometimes hard to construct, but having everybody as an enemy is certainly not good.

I attempted to make Germany my ally but he didn't seem responsive and was soon doomed anyway. Russia was my ally to start with but then he stabbed me. The reason I surrendered Scandinavia at about that point is important to me, though.

Basically, at the same time as Russia turned on me, I could see Turkey absolutely smashing through Italy and I thought "oh no, here comes a juggernaut ending in a 2-way draw which won't include me. I need to stop fighting France so the two of us can hold back the jugger and force a 4-way draw!"

So with that in mind, I immediately stopped any hostile moves against France, I pulled a unit back from the North Atlantic and gave the French fleet at Brest a little "support hold" to show that my attitude had changed, and moved other units towards Russia. I hoped that France, appearing to be an experienced gunboat player, would understand my signals and stop attacking me in order to turn attention to the approaching juggernaut.

To my considerable surprise, France ignored my change of tack, and continued hungrily attacking me.

Your opening is very anti-french, shouting for a german alliance. Sadly, most players playing germany doesn't react well. The good reaction would be sg. like this, gameID=88274, where germany immidiately joins you against france, and keeps russia out of scandi. It's a very risky opening, don't try it low pot games, I suggest.

Every other gunboat I can remember in which I got England, France has moved to EC straight off the bat. That was the reason for my opening. Once I was in Belgium I also threw a "support hold" at the German unit in Holland but he didn't react to that either. He then attacked me so I gave up and took Denmark...

''To my considerable surprise, France ignored my change of tack, and continued hungrily attacking me. ''

Speaking as France:
1) A move to the English Cha in Spring 01 requires a lot of patching up later, if an Anglo-French alliance is to be initiated.

2) You signaled support in Autumn 1905, as I recall, and followed this with a support of Russia into Kiel against me the following spring! Were you upset with my build;hardly it was army Marseilles!

''a juggernaut ending in a 2-way draw''

Not really on in an honest gunboat, as this one turned out to be. Sooner or later the jugger must break, as we saw in this game. Your moves only served to make Russia the nailed-on favourite for the solo, IMO of course. I think that Turkey would probably see it this way too.

Anyway good game all.

Yep, I had the order to move into the defenseless and empty Budapest, I just didn't finalize it on time :( My mistake, but the jugger would have been broken in that round when I NMRed.

@ Fulhamish:

"A move to the English Cha in Spring 01 requires a lot of patching up later..."

So you would have been unwilling to work with me to prevent a juggernaut (or a solo not involving either of us) because you were still upset about my opening move? Letting your emotions get the better of you a bit there, if you ask me.

"You signaled support in Autumn 1905, as I recall, and followed this with a support of Russia into Kiel against me the following spring!"

Actually I withdrew from NAO in Spring 1905 and adopted a completely unaggressive stance towards you in that move. As gunboat moves go it was a massive change in my posture towards you and in my (obviously limited) experience of gunboat would be a very clear signal. At the same time, the juggernaut was thundering towards both of us. Your response was to continue attacking me.

That's the beauty of gunboats, the constant misunderstandings and finding the right path among them :)

You can't DEMAND JUSTICE who made the right moves. If you can't express your intentions clearly to the other party, then it's at least that much your mistake. If he reacted differently, as you expected, maybe you communicate not good enough with your behaviour.

Hmm. Perhaps. Thanks.

The other thing that made me wonder is why Russia accepted a draw when he did? Was he just being sportsmanlike because of your NMR?

I don't think so, I think he has realized everyone is against him, and that I can defend myself, france got back the stalemate line territories, there was no chance he could have won.

@ Jamiet9uk. I think that I have nothing to add to what I have already written. Sorry that we do not see things the same way. Probably best not to start a fire war over this. If you want me to respond privately then please pm me.

Who's starting a fire war? I haven't insulted you or cursed at you or anything. I'm just discussing the outcome of the game. There's no hatred or bile in anything I've posted - calm down.