Game specs: Classic, full-press, WTA, 36 hr, 1,111 buy in
Country: England
Result: 3-way draw (E/R/A)

Thank you to everyone that participated in this game. I wanted to put together a large pot, highly competitive game, and this group was awesome. I appreciate ya’ll giving it a shot with a no-name like me. ;-) I hope that my EOG will guilt some of you into writing one as well. I find them to be very helpful in learning and improving at this game and this was a stellar field to learn from.

When I saw that I had drawn England I was pretty happy about that. I am fairly comfortable with England and I was happy to not be a central power against this kind of competition and with this much cash on the line. This was the largest pot and by far the best GR game I have played on this website.

1901:
I came to the game to find messages in my inbox from everyone but Turkey. Uh oh, better get to responding as others had last night to start discussing things already. My main focus was of course with my immediate neighbors R/E/G. My goal was to find someone that I would connect with and to ensure that no sea lion business went down. France had left a nice message detailing what he looked for in an ally and requesting an EC DMZ. Russia had reached out and inquired about my experience in any E/R alliances and basically wanted to split Scandinavia early on and reassess from there. Germany expressed his tendency to like an E/G alliance and was forthcoming about his opening moves. And Italy was direct to the point inquiring about a 3 way attack on France.

As opening negotiations progressed I had become very comfortable with Germany, Russia, and France. France was having a difficult time negotiating with Germany and Italy had come right out and declared if I intended to move on Russia or France he would attack France while if I favored hitting Germany he would move east. After proposing a fairly detailed plan to Germany for an E/G we settled on the 3 way attack. I was very comfortable in Russia opening south so I opted to break the DMZ and open to the channel. At this point France had started to see the writing on the wall as Germany insisted he leave burgundy open and Italy requested a bounce at piedmont. He was reaching out to me, but I had already settled on my plans with Germany.

After the spring, France reacted very well to my betrayal. We chatted for a long time about why this had happened and whether I would consider changing course to an E/F. Before the game started I had asked Mapu about his experience playing some high quality (GR) games and one comment that ringed 100% true was “they will make it so painful on you to choose sides”. This was so true as France was such a pleasure to talk with and very persuasive. However just before update I let him know that I could not change course this turn. I ended up with Brest, and Norway, a great start.

Another thing that happen this turn that may have ended up being quite significant. Germany was going to let Russia have Sweden. This went against the plan I had proposed to him for our E/G and I let him know that I preferred Sweden be bounced. He made his arguments for why it did not matter and I ended up just saying that I would trust his judgment on the matter, however before update he changed his mind to my way of thinking and switched orders to block Sweden.

1902:
At this point I was under tremendous pressure from Russia and France to change course. Russia was furious with Germany for blocking him at Sweden and building army Berlin. I had spent significantly more time talking game-play and shooting the shit with France. However I was still looking to continue my E/G alliance at this early stage in the game. I wanted to avoid lying to Russia but Germany and I intended to put him in Sweden and then snatch St. Pete as soon as possible. Italy was still coming full steam ahead at France. After considerable time discussing Sweden with Russia he ended up changing my direction with an offer I could not refuse, support to Sweden. I knew Germanys exact move sequence, so with France seeming to spend the majority of his time working on changing my course and our good rapport despite my aggression towards him I proposed a way for me to back off and of him to protect his southern border and get a build. Since I knew where Germany was going I was able to get Belgium to France. France agreed to allow me to keep Brest for this year and turn it over the next in exchange for me changing course. There was also the look of brewing CPA alliance that pushed me towards this decision or perhaps Russia just planted that thought with me. But I was worried that after this 3 way attack Germany would help Italy into MAO and they would tag team me.

I moved into heglio and position to take Denmark as well as Sweden that year and the E/R alliance was in great position. Italy and I had not chatted very much and he was not happy about my moves. But my hope was to keep him moving west in the thought that we could both keep France occupied while Russia and I made gains on Germany. For the fall I opted to try and share the wealth and leave Russia Sweden double supporting myself to Denmark, but he was blocked from it. I think the gesture went a long way to let him know I’m a team player.

In the west, France was still trying to figure out how he could lock out Italy and get his feet back under him. He ended up half way proposing that I move to MAO, this was wonderful news. However Italy was demanding that I support him to MAO, which was not going to happen, but I did want to keep him moving west so I explained how I felt I could get MAO with permission and this was a much better option. This is where I made a major mistake. I made competing promises to F/I and knew I would have to break one in due time. I would definitely take that back. Also France decided he would forgo the Belgium build and move to burgundy to lock out Italy…okay, awesome, I’ll borrow Belgium then. I ended up with 2 more builds and control of MAO. I don’t think there is a better English position to have at the end of 1902.

1903:
Germany was very angry with my stab at first, but he collected himself and started looking for survival. He proposed that I move to Norway and then support him to Sweden while taking St. Pete and possibly leaving him Holland. This happened to coincide with the exact spring moves that Russia and I had already planned so I went with it. His plan worked and I had the option to take St. Pete and keep Holland netting me two more builds. But I had not intended to take him up on his offer the whole time, and while those short term gains were tempting I did not feel it would be a good idea to make an enemy out of all 3 of my direct neighbors. At the same time in the west I made another big mistake. I decided to fulfill my promise to Italy and convoy him to Portugal. This proved to be a major mistake as France was irate and threatening suicide, which once the moves were done I completely understood how I had written his death sentence. He was now promising the world to Italy and there wasn’t anything I could do but hope that Italy would be true to his word.

Italy was not true to his word and I was ejected from MAO. However, I still had Russia as a really tight ally and this allowed me to shift my units west and deal with the threat.

1904:
I moved the majority of my units west trusting that Russia would not be making a move on me. He was receiving the suicide treatment from Germany and his builds early on were hard to come by. I convoyed to the mainland and then in the fall moved to bring 3 fleets against MAO while I lost brest in the spring. However I was guaranteed to take kiel so there were no disbands to be had. I let Italy know that his betrayal would not go un-punished and he was getting frustrated that I would not work with him while I’m sure that Russia had declined his attempts to propose a stab on me. It was also at this point that I first started having meaningful talks with Austria. The 3 of us (R/E/A) had planned together to split Germany and set a general course for a 3 way draw.

1905:
At this point France and I had started talking again, talking a lot. At the same time Austria had built a 3rd fleet and Italy was much more interested in discussing peace as well, especially since he needed the 2 holds it would take to keep MAO to play defense against Austria. I negotiated with Italy to keep MAO DMZ if he was to support me to Paris. This all happened at the same time I was negotiating with France to change course and help me, but he wanted a guarantee of being included in a draw which was a promise I would not make. Italy came through true to his word this time and I was in Paris.

In the east I had a fleet in kiel and an army at Denmark. Russia wanted support to Berlin in the spring, but it just made the most sense to swap my units position first as there was no way he would not get Berlin in the fall anyways. At some point in the spring Russia said what if he supports Baltic to Denmark to jerk around with Germany. I responded that I did not like that plan :P. This may have been the first time I had not agreed and complied with the planned/proposed moves between us. He ended up supporting Germany to Denmark and I was perplexed. Now Russia and I have since discussed this move over and over and he swears it was not a stab. But the fact that he had initially wanted me to stay put and support (which would have created a disband while giving him berlin, and that Germany supported berin to Kiel the next move. And that after the move he proposed some suspicious moves like he was supporting kiel back to denmark, and that France was oh so proud of his work in getting them to work together on me and sure it was a stab….you get the idea. There were many factors that lead me to believe this was in fact a stab.

Austria and I had extensive talks about the Denmark move and whether Russia may be setting up a solo attempt. He did have E/A turning their backs to him and basically no targets/growth opportunities left after this turn. We discussed potentially taking Berlin from him and Rumania from him as insurance. But we decided to trust him and move to a more diplomatic resolution to have him voluntarily concede Rumania to make everyone comfortable. This sent Russia off the deep end and we both received irate threatening messages about bringing hell to our doorstep. In the end nothing happened, Russia came through with the moves he said he would in the north and him and Austria went through with their moves in the south. But there was damage done to relations for sure.

In the west France had now been stabbed by Italy in the spring and was back in my corner. Italy was expecting support to Brest and for me to move east on Russia. I did move east on Russia to ensure that if this was a stab that I had the pieces in place to stop any advance. But now that I had France pledging his services to me I could send him to MAO at the same time I covered the east. I also received support from Austria to put my army into burgundy.

1906:
Italy was about on the ropes at this point and he decided to disband his army retreat and shore up his defenses against Austria to lock him out of any gains. France and I were trying to push forward and get me Tunis and a shot at the solo. I was definitely looking at how could I turn this position into a solo at this point. Austria and I were still having discussions about Russia and our fears that he could solo this game since he was basically demanding that I turn Norway over to him and he wanted Austria to turn over Munich to him as well. This did not make a stable stalemate position in the north while the south was wide open to him. Austria and Russia were supposed to swap Smyrna for Munich in the Spring and with Austria’s fears of a Russian solo attempt he almost agreed to have me snatch it from Russia. I think I likely botched the press on this one as I was way to excited/interested in getting Munich. I felt I could likely take Berlin in that situation and hope for Italy to throw me Tunis or something. Something happened that spooked Russia and he called it off. I still felt that the prior year Russia had stabbed me (I say still because we talked this over and over and over again and I now believe he did not intend to stab) so opted to move to Baltic. He moved on me as well with armies going to Finland and Moscow. Now we have another shit show. Russia muted me for about 36 hours or so and Austria declared that he was pulling off Italy and we would just 4 way the game. This was not good, as I really had no path to a solo sitting at 9 units.
In the fall I moved to appease Russia and Austria and further my stab on Italy, I still hoped that an opportunity would show itself.
1907:
I finish up stabbing Italy and I conceded Sweden to Russia. R/A/E had all come together and pushed all the crap of the prior year in the past and were now on the same page of a 3 way draw. Munich and Berlin were locked up, so I would now need Naples and Rome…but Austria made a great guess and he would soon have the whole peninsula locked down.
1908:
The only shot at a solo at this point was a 2 way turned solo race. Austria and I discussed it and he decided he wanted to go for it, which to me meant he thought he could out race me. He moved in the spring to stab Russia but I kept to my word with Russia ceding him Denmark. The north was much more locked down than the south and I thought my chances of Russia getting loose with Berlin or throwing it to me would be better this way (which BER is what I really needed to make sure that Austria didn’t solo and to make a run of my own). I also did not expect Austria to bounce me at Tunis, I suspect Italy had said he would put him there which is why Austria wanted to even try this in the first place. I don’t think either of us really wanted a 2 way just for the sake of the points, as we both enjoyed playing with Russia early on before all the drama bombs, but both were hoping for a solo opportunity. However, Austria called it off after one turn, I never stabbed Russia, and we settled on the 3 way draw a year later after taking out Tunis.

Overall:
If you made it this far thanks for reading and I apologize for the rambling. I thoroughly enjoyed this game (which isn’t hard when you have such luck).
Martinck1 – Sorry for turning on you. You were a pleasure to converse/plan with and I really like your style. I don’t know if there really was a CPA or not I’ll be interested to hear.
Cachimbo – Thanks for playing, we didn’t get to plan with each other but we did chat for awhile and I can see that you are a strong player, unfortunately your neighbors kept you down and out.
Julien – Sorry for turning on you. Nah you turned on me first, that one I didn’t feel too guilty about. ;-)
Ghug – Great game. You were basically silent for the first 5 years and I couldn’t get a word out of you. I was surprised you were doing so well because everyone on the board seemed to agree that you didn’t talk much. But we had some good discussions once it really mattered.
Uclabb – we talked a ton and I really enjoyed playing with you. I learned a lot from you - about how to react to aggression, proposals. I really admire your style of press.
Madmarx – what can I say, I feel like I’m signing an ex-girlfriends yearbook. ;-) Likewise I learned a lot from your press style from your game play that I will carry with me. We had our rough time but I really enjoyed allying with you and getting to know you.