Austria is IMO probably the only country that can realistically sometimes solo without building any more fleets than the one they started with, but more fleets sure do help. :-) Besides, unless something very surprising is going on, he's gonna need them vs France shortly.

I'm impressed by Austria so far

Lookit you little suck-up's. ;)

There's still plenty of time. ATC may stab him yet. ;-)

Go Go A Tin Can, If He Won't Do It, No one can!

Goooooo, TinCan! *shakes pom poms*

Yay ATC!

Well, it's about time someone has Tunis, to say the least.

Not bad at all Team RAG.

@TrPrado Ahem. Tunis is still neutral. Technically. ;-)

@everyone:

Looks like Italy aten't ded yet. Just mostly dead. Anyone got Miracle Max's address?

Fancy footwork up North, that looks like a tactical mess and a half. :-)

Do you expect it to stay neutral after this turn? Let's see. France, how do you feel about leaving Tunis?

No, I totally don't. Hence the "Technically. ;-)"

The only outside possibility is that France vacates it in favour of Italy, which I also think is extremely unlikely.

Spring 1903:
Interesting season! Looks like Austria and Italy reached some kind of deal there. I don't understand what the Italian army is doing in Apulia though. If Austria and Italy did reach a deal, the logical target is France, and Rom - Apu is moving in the wrong direction. Perhaps Austria and Italy didn't reach a deal, and the Italian move was meant to block a convoy.

Nothing unexpected on the western front this time around. England and France continue to attack, Germany continues to defend. I think Germany did well in taking Denmark, though it doesn't look like it will be enough. The Russian moves imply that Russia is going to join the conflict on force, probably on the German side, though some ambiguity remains.

Russia played this season well. With Turkey mostly sealed up, it was time to turn his attention to Scandinavia, and leaving some ambiguity as to what you are going to do is always good.

Fall moves in 16 hours.

It seems likely that both Constantinople and Munich will fall. For both cities the big question is who is going to get it. Austria supported Russia earlier, so it stands to reason that this is going to happen again. I'm guessing Austria will want some of the Turkish pie, so if Russia does get Con I assume there will be some shuffling later.

The situation in Munich is more interesting. England needs the build more, but Munich being French makes more sense geographically. Whoever gets Munich will also be in an excellent position to slip armies into Boh or Sil, which is huge.

Also, it should be noted that France is once again in an excellent position to stab England. Move Bur to Bel and suddenly England breaks one, possibly two units. No English builds means nothing to defend the homelands with. Of course France has nothing to attack with either, at the moment, so it's not perfect, but still quite strong.

Apologies for the late commentary: I was on holiday in Germany last week and haven't got around to it til now.

England: Congratulations - sort of. Losing Denmark is unhelpful, and you're once more reliant on someone else to get back into prime position. Going to Ruhr is quite the risk. However, France has committed southwards, meaning you have a solid flank you don't need to worry about. Russia seems to be setting himself up for another STP fleet build, though, and if you can't patch things up with him soon, I don't think things will go that great for you. Taking Germany out entirely will be difficult if Russia props him up. France opening up to you could give you a way out, though. Good bedstone to build from, and your fleets are in useful positions. No cookie, no detention.

France: The war on Germany is going pretty well from your perspective. England is taking all the risks, and you're just enjoying yourself in the sun. Not bad, not bad. Taking on Austria directly is a risky move, though. He already outnumbers you in the Med, and could take Piedmont if you go for the Tuscan convoy. He could also just block your convoy, and leave you unable to build in Marseilles. Both of those are very bad for you right now. The fact Austria hasn't gone for Rome could spell an Italian puppet of his preparing to attack you, too. Something which would be even worse for you. Work to do to make that attack count, but, like with England, a solid base to work from. No cookies, no detentions.

Germany: Well, you've thrown your last dice. Going all out to screw England so that France is his only option to grow in is probably the only thing you can do here; hoping that Russia doesn't gut you from behind. Good job keeping F-Ba - that makes Russia gutting you far less appealing to him as you can still kamikaze him too. As I'm feeling generous, and Cologne was quite nice, I'll give you a cookie. Though technically, you don't own Cologne anymore, England just took it, so I'm afraid England just stole your cookie, too. Bad luck!

Italy: When I flew back from Germany, I probably saw more land out of the window my aircraft than you actually own in this game. Still - it seems you've prostituted yourself to Austria to try and stay around. Probably a smart move; as you never know when you might get a chance to grow again. You really need Austria to push France back a little; and then Russia to stab Austria before Austria can kill you. If you can orchestrate that: great!

If not. Well, at least you stuck around a bit longer. I can't give you a cookie, but you can have a sympathetic garden gnome for your troubles (it represents you sitting there watching on with a fake grin, whilst the big people do all the real work).

Austria: Good, good. I continue to enjoy you. France is clearly trying to stop you getting anywhere; so blocking the Tuscany convoy could prove necessary. If you have got Italy as a new sex slave - good move. Anyone who can mess with France is good for you right now. Looks like you were considering the convoy to Apulia too - not sure that's on now. You really need to get Turkey out of the way soon, so you can focus all your fleets on the West. But otherwise: good stuff. You can have another cookie.

Russia: Excellent, excellent. Everything from the Constantinople convoy conveniently not succeeding and leaving you in Rumania for another turn, to the manoeuvre to free up STP for a build is some high quality stuff. Germany will soon be utterly and totally reliant upon you; Turkey is nothing more than a rotting carcass, and Austria has total trust in you. A very pleasant situation to be in. On the other hand, there is really no more excuses for further A-Mos builds. Last year better have been your last of those, because if you build A-Mos this year then I'm going to hit you. Have a cookie :).

Turkey: Hey! You worked out you needed to work with Italy! Great!

Sadly, it's all too little too late. You're a little bug flying through the air that's about to make a not-even-very-impressive splat on the window of the A/R train; and there's nothing you can do about it! France can't save you quick enough; you have nothing to offer Austria, and very little to offer Russia either, given how short-sighted him stabbing Austria now would be. Still; enjoy the ride. There's no shame in your total and utter humiliation that you've suffered against such top players.

Just kidding, there's lots of shame. You're going to die before an Italy that's never even had a build. As the most defensible power on the map. Good god how did you manage that?

Just a quick comment before the fall moves :)

France stabbing England is even worse now than the turn before. England will have no disbands, be able to move Nth-Eng and Nwg-Nao, attack Hol & Bel, and Germany, Russia and Austria will all profit. Diadem, you get 100 lines of "I will not stab my allies for a single center".

ATC played this turn perfectly. With a bit of luck, A/R will have units in Stp, Fin, Nwy, Ska, Den and Bal by the end of this year. That's pretty close to a stalemate, so E/F will have to find ways to make progress elsewhere. If Munich falls this year, they'll be able to go through the center, but otherwise Austria and Russia will reinforce the area with some extra armies. So, lots of guessing to do, but it's clear who's benefiting the most from the current standoff.

Agreed with Bas. The moment for a French attack on England has most definitely passed - he'd leave himself utterly alone, fighting on 3 fronts, with a monster AR train rolling into him.

Italy gets a jar of cookies for opening up the option of disbanding both his units and rebuilding two fleets!

Enough cookies to share some with Austria ;)

@bas and lo your prediction re Italy came to pass... :-) (Or was that comment after the turn processed?)

Builds around the board seem fairly obvious, F Mar, F StP/nc, F Edi, F Rom, F Nap? (Slightly less sure about Edi than the others.)

Both Germany and Turkey have very ugly disbands though, and unless something surprising happens I'm expecting them both to disappear shortly, even though I suspect Russia would probably like to keep Germany alive for a bit longer.

But what's it all mean for the board? Is this going to turn into a 5 way draw? Will Italy come back from the brink and solo? Is there a double rainbow somewhere? What does it all mean?!

(And yes, WTF, France stab England for one dot and zero disbands? Terrible idea.)

No, that was totally after. I'm good, but I'm not peterwiggin good ;)

@bas Hehe, right. Ah well. Let's see what yon Italy does with his shiny new units. :-) Sadly I don't think he's got much chance of cracking Tunis, but you never know.

Pretty straight-forward stuff this round, so i'll forego the feedback until things pick up as it's starting to feel a little smug/mastabatory to preach from the sidelines at the moment.

Looking good for both power alliances. Given the choice i'd still like to be Russia at the moment, but any one of those four has a decent chance still.

@basvanopheusden: I fear you can't count. Had France moved against England, England would have lost Belgium and not gained Munich, meaning 1 break. Had France additionally supported Germany, England would have had 2 breaks, and fallen back to just 3 home supply centers. I'd call that a pretty strong stab.

Of course strong doesn't necessarily mean good. It's clear that it's very dangerous for France to stab England as long Austria and Russia remain allied. Perhaps if he could be certain that both Germany and Italy are on his side, but even then it's very risky.

And if that window to attack England wasn't already closed this year, it's certainly closed now. Neither of the two blocks can now afford to break their alliance for fear of the other side winning. Which means the game is over. It's a 4-way draw between England, France, Russia and Austria.

So I'm afraid I have to confiscate all cookies from all players, for giving us such a boring result after just 3 years.

(Ok I admit, I'm overstating the case a bit. There's still some room. Italy for example is in an interesting position where both France and Austria probably want to convince him to attack the other player. A skilled Italy might be able to leverage that. Germany also isn't out yet, thanks to Russian and Austrian support, and he too might be able to leverage his position of being between the two major power blocks, with skilled play. So there's plenty of room still for interesting developments.

I'm basing my assessment that we're heading towards a boring 4-way draw mainly on what I've seen so far of the play styles and skill level of the players. But I am hoping I'm wrong.)

So; that turn went mostly how I expected it to. Not very many surprises.

England: Good show. Getting France to net you a build is great; so well done there. The two of you are now pretty strongly locked into the E/F - but you have far more flexibility for finding ways out of it than he does, so you're now back into the 'top dog' position in that alliance. I'm unconvinced that either Russia or yourself is going to gain much of your war, though. I have to wonder at what point the peace overtures will be coming in - it should be soon. Have a cookie for getting Munich.

France: All pretty standard. Ensuring England takes Munich to give him a build is kind of you - maybe a little too kind though. You're now heavily locked into an E/F where he has more flexibility than you do - the war with Austria will be very difficult to get out of here; whereas England and Russia can make peace far more easily if they want. You're going to have to work hard to ensure that doesn't happen. Work to do ahead. No cookies or detentions.

Germany: A little surprised you didn't see the Munich attack coming. Munich -> Kiel supported by Berlin and Denmark could've rescued you there. Now, with the upcoming disband, your position is dire. Russia will soon have little choice but to take Sweden "to stop England getting near you", and holding on in Berlin as a last outpost that hopes to get to the stalemate line or hopes for a miraculous rebirth later is probably your only hope now. This is what happens when you hold your armies - you soon find you don't have any left.

Italy: Well, you engineered yourself options. You can now choose to side with either France OR Austria, by building armies or fleets respectively. Who you think your best bet is depends on who you think you can convince to make the stab on their ally first: England or Russia. You want to be working with the one who's getting stabbed; so that they can't take you out as soon as your work is done. Have a cookie for making yourself an opportunity; but you'll still have to pull a miracle out to actually take it.

Austria: You took the risk of leaving Tuscany open, and it paid off as you got Apulia. Ionian Sea is yours, too, and with the Turkish disband, it seems likely that you'll be able to focus entirely on one front now. Allowing Russia the opportunity to take the entirety of Turkey for himself is a big risk, though. After the STP build this year, he's unlikely to be able to put future builds up North. That means they're going to be near you - and if you aren't getting builds as well, things could go south for you fast. You need to persuade him to give you Constantinople or Ankara (via convoy) when he takes the rest of Turkey - else you're going to be little more than his bitch, at best, in a few years time. And even then - Constantinople is not very defensible against the 3 units he has down there. You and France look likely to stalemate up soon, too. Which isn't really good for either of you - but it'll be very hard to disengage there. No cookie this turn.

Russia: Excellent stuff! You're overtaking Austria as the best placed person on the board now. You and England may be close to stalemate, but it'll be far easier for you to disengage from him than it would for Austria to do the same with France. This gives you many options. Austria is going nowhere fast, so you have plenty of time for biding before you choose to stab him, should you do so. Engineering a break in the E/F might prove more difficult; but France is horribly open to England when the time comes. Have a cookie, and think up your masterplan.

Turkey: Well, I might as well just post a YouTube link to the funeral march at this point. You're dying. Farewell. The only lemons life is throwing your way are being juiced directly into your eyeballs now.

Turkeys can always bounce back :) gameID=156309

Yes, well, I'm not commentating on that one. Probably good for Russia and Austria that I'm not. ;)

I read the post before I saw who made it, and just assumed it was VillageIdiot mentioning that game again. I see he's recruited you.

Be curious to see how much longer the two main alliances can last.

VI and I are basically the same person.

*spittakes coffee all over screen*

Awwww man..

Poor Valis has to clean his screen of coffee now?

Question: what do you guys think Turkey will disband? Aeg to defend his home centers as long as possible, or Ank to become Russia's puppet? Or Con to do something I cannot imagine? :)