bump

Sorry for the late commentary. I am away for most of the weekend and am on my phone. As such mind will be very short but will try and do a yearlong one after this phase.

Frances retreat to Tyrolia would have been great had he the army build in Marseillas vs that stinking fleet (we wont let that go huh). But as you have a very fleet oriented assault on the Med, doing anything you can to eliminate Italy had to be the priority and Apu would have likely done that.
Tyrolia does have possibilities - Trieste or Vienna with German support. Both stretches you and with Burgundy moving south

Fucking phones :)
With Burgundy moving south, you have to decide if you move into Marseilles or save it for a build.

Next up is Austria/Turkey/Russia/Italy - Real interested to see how this shakes out. Austria with a build puts him back in the mix as a real player. I bet Turkey and Russia may have been more satisfied with him passively holding the line. Excellent play this round Austria/Italy. You are on a short play clock and you are using that time very well.

Wow. Hell of a round. I wont do commentary til morning...but wow.

Right?! I'll probably write-up later tonight (maybe tomorrow morning).

I admit I have played this poorly. Bully to germany and turkey who have revealed my weaknesses.

What an interesting and exciting season! A couple big stabs this Fall which always make things more fun. As always, I’ll take the nations alphabetically.

AUSTRIA: Dyager was right in his mini-commentary. A build would have put you back into the mix as a power in the East (not a dominant one, but a power nonetheless). Russia and Turkey clearly had other plans. That’s not on you (unless your press just sucked). You played the season as well as anyone could. VIE might have been able to stand-off the stab, but how could you have known where it would come from. Russia in BUD? With or without support? Turkey in BUD or TRI? With or without support? Then there’s always the German unit in BOH (and wouldn’t you look silly if there was no stab and VIE just let the German walk straight in!). No disbands, which is a good thing, but it looks like you won’t be getting the big build that Dyager was talking about either.

FRANCE: Hey! Great news! You found something to do with all of those extra fleets! I for one like this stab. You’re only netting one build (you gained two new centers but lost one to Austria) but it gets those fleets involved somewhere, which should be a very good thing for you. And, although it may sound strange, I liked your support order helping Germany into NWY. You made sure that the German would be out of EDI, giving you the option to try a move there next year if you want. The Turkish stab on Russia could be very good news for you, or very bad news. Since he has just stabbed his neighbor and long-time friend he’s going to be looking for a new buddy. On the other hand, the Turkish attack on Russia might make it easier for Germany (your new enemy) to make peace with the Russian so that he can turn and fight you. You’ll want to get on that press right away (if you haven’t already). As far as your build is concerned BY GOD DON’T BUILD ANOTHER FLEET! You probably have plenty. If your attack on Germany is going to net you anything you’re going to need land power.

GERMANY: You finally got into that last Scandinavian center and you have WAR surrounded. And then you got stabbed, and that sucks. You lost a home SC, and that really sucks. But you also broke even so you won’t be disbanding, and that’s wonderful. You are also in a fairly good position defensively on the mainland, which is good news. Although I think that France made a good decision with his stab (as far as timing and such), I think that you’re still in a fairly good position here. He doesn’t threaten anything that you can’t cover, and you also threaten one of his centers (BEL) so that should keep him in check at least for a little bit. You’re probably going to want to make friendly with Russia, but that shouldn’t be too hard. He has another enemy to worry about. I’m sure he’d be happy to patch things up.

ITALY: Well, losing ROM might be the end of it for you. You could keep the fleets but you can’t hold ION without Turkish help and Turkey seems to have higher aspirations. He may let you stick around for a while, but probably just long enough for him to replace your fleets with a couple of his own. If you intend to survive this thing you’re going to have to buy yourself some time or make yourself useful to someone.

RUSSIA: The addition of the French fleet in NWG made holding Scandinavia all but impossible but all is not lost. You held out long enough that France broke off his friendship with Germany. That may be as good for you as it is for France. Downside is that Turkey also took the opportunity to help himself to one of your home SCs. You lose RUM, SEV, and NWY all in one season. Make your disband choices carefully and work the press hard before you finalize. This is where that bit about not holding grudges and working with former enemies comes in. Talk with Germany. Mending that relationship will be the difference between life and death.

TURKEY: Where the hell did you come from? Could this possibly be the same Turkey who was the target of a Key? The same Turkey who was bottled up in 4 centers for the first several years? Your patience is definitely paying off and I have to assume that patience was accompanied by some really good press. Two builds and a world of possibilities. Russia, Austria, and Italy are all tremendously weak and France and Germany may be too busy fighting each other soon to pay attention to what’s happening out East. Work the press before you decide on your builds. They will likely determine how your neighbors react to you in the near future. I’d also work on finding a friend in the West.

This is as exciting as an episode of Big Brother!

AUSTRIA - You did what you could, you were getting squeezed on all sides. I was concerned you were doomed from the East when you took Venice. But its not all doom and gloom for you. Now you have a chance to become useful in the newest conflicts which now surround you, but whatever you do make sure you get something for it (position or SC) because your current situation isnt sustainable.

FRANCE - Hey Hey Hey! Looks like someone knows where his 18 SC's are going to come from and you made a play for them. Your stab at Germany had alot of grace to it. The best stabs I find come when you are able to dangle a wonderful gift (Norway) in exchange for them giving away an advantagous position (England).
To be honest, I didnt think you had the stab in you. Curious if this came about due to his abandonment of your Venice army. I viewed his move from Tyrolia as the ending of the end of the southern aspect of your alliance (and this the end of his being useful to you).
You are not out of the woods yet. I suspect you were counting on Russia to continue pressing on Germany from the East, and this may or may not happen with the Turkish situation. Munich does have some exposure and England is still a bit of a guessing game. Germany did not lose any builds.
Curious you went for Rome and not Venice. If Italy support held, as he had always done in the past it wouldnt have amounted to anything. I probably would have tried Venice on the offchance he tried to use Adriadic to cover Trieste (he had two threats there --->Serbia and Tyrolia). But hey it worked so WTF do I know?

GERMANY - So here is what happened - Your alliance outlived its usefulness and you probably should have seen it coming, because the professors have all been expecting it for 2 years now (many writing exclusively about how France should stab you sometime). An alliance is only solid when it mutually benefits both parties and you were not bringing anything to the France's table anymore, especially when you left Venice high and dry to drive into Russia.
Good news is his stab leaves you out of position but isnt devastating as it would have been last year. And Turkey kind of came to your rescue by giving Russia something to think about.
So now you have a few big questions -
1. Make a friend of Russia or keep driving into him?
2. Can I make a friend of Austria somehow?
3. Where will France strike next?

ITALY - Its easy in hindsite to say you made an error but the move to Tyrr Sea would not have accomplished much. Assuming you thought the West Med would have been populated, you would have disbanded one of his fleets of which he has a zillion, then gotten pushed back in the Spring. But you made a move as I think you know your clock is ticking so I cant really fault you too much for trying something.
Your disband options are interesting to me though.

RUSSIA - Scandanavia with armies is a nightmare huh? Then St Pete with a fleet blocking any chance of shifting stuff around to make a controlled strategic retreat when you saw that French fleet show up.
Turkey was coming for you or the Balkans but unfortunately your situation with Germany (and his extreme trust of France) caused you to hopefully believe he would go for the Balkans. Turkey knew this and fed that hope. If it makes you feel any better, I would have believed him too.
So now you need to try and get Germany to respond to France and give you a chance to respond to Turkey. Like Italy, your disband options are not as obvious as they may seem.

TURKEY - Did you know about the French stab of Germany?
I ask because the risk you may have had with moving on Russia so hard would be a complete collapse of Russia and a monster of a Germany who then stabs the hell out of France. A R/T was your best shot at stopping the F/G alliance, so jumping at Russia could have posed game balance issues unless you had some inkling that the F/G alliance was about to hit rocky waters.
The great news with your stab, is you eliminated the one person who realistically has any chance to directly threaten you. You are surrounded by hobbled countries which cant really threaten you.
So I would say your pretty solid right now. But keep in touch with Germany especially. His success is your success at this point.

Just by way of correction, Dyager, I don't think that Italy ever used NAP to support a hold in ROM. He's been using that unit to support ION. With the Turkish fleet in AEG to support ION it would have been plausible to think that Italy would use NAP to support ROM (and thus kept France out). However this is not what he had "always done in the past." I agree with the French move. I would have suspected that ROM would be more vulnerable than VEN.

I like the comments on the French stab on Germany and the Turkish stab on Russia. I liked both stabs but for different reasons. If I have time today, I may post a more general commentary on what it was that I liked about these stabs, what makes them different, etc.

Crap, your right. Rome wasnt always held in the past as it wasnt always exposed. My mistake, I should have checked it deeper but rushed the writeup to print before I had to get the kids out the door.

In that case, I think I still would have leaned towards Venice but its alot more of a crap shoot than I thought it was

Great move by Turkey. First of all, tactically it is gorgeous- every unit had a purpose and every unit is in a position to be successful next year. It also is very strong tactically. France's stab on Germany was coming, if not this year then next year (or last year), and it was important that Germany could put up a good defense. if Russia and Germany were just bashing their head against each other, France could divide an conquer and likely take the top 17 centers + Tunis for a solo. Now, Germany can put up a credible defense and a French solo seems fairly unlikely.

In general, there were a lot of good ideas with everyone else's moves, but they left a lot to be desired (perhaps with the exception of Germany). To be clear, though, this advice applies to all powers.

Austria, you should be ending this turn with 4 centers. Never hold when there is a move that isn't a hold that is strictly better. You had to know that Budapest was going to be hit in some way by Russia, as Russia needed fuel for his Germany fire. In fact, I was expecting him to support himself into Budapest. But even if him supporting himself into Budapest was your guess, it is still better to move there, in the off chance he doesn't, as was the case here. Moving to Budapest was guaranteed to be equivalent to a hold in Vienna at worst and would have ended up with Austria having 4 centers. Holding was a really bad move.

Italy- in general, I like that you were aggressive- small powers need to be more aggressive, not less. However, in this case your aggression was unwarranted. France had 4 fleets in the area, most of which essentially had nothing to do. You weren't going to push back France with your two fleets. You should have either just support held and then either shifted to Apulia with your fleet and invited Turkey into Ionian Sea (after a Turkish fleet build this establishes a stalemate line) or gotten Austria to stop ordering a bunch of holds and start cutting potential French supports, giving you some wiggle room.

Russia, obviously it's not great that you were stabbed, and there were some strategic signs that it was going to happen (as I mentioned above), but everyone gets surprised by a stab every once and a while, so just reflect and think about how you could have known it was coming, and you will be better next time. However, it's worth mentioning that you made a mistake that didn't end up costing you but should have. Never support a move if you don't care whether or not that move succeeds. You didn't care whether or not your move to Warsaw succeeded- you just wanted to make sure Germany couldn't waltz in there. In fact, you would have preferred to be in Silesia OR Livonia (think about why). So not only did you waste Silesia's move, but you got a sub-optimal result, with the army now in Warsaw instead of Livonia. It would have been better to support yourself into Budapest or move to Silesia.

Germany, I actually think you played this year really well overall. I have to assume you had a hand in convincing France to build two fleets, and then you likely orchestrated France convoying you into Norway, which was a good way to force France to help you get another center this year even if he wanted to stab you. The only move I don't like all year is your move this fall with Bohemia. It served no purpose except to help everyone who isn't you. Even if you slipped into Vienna, you wouldn't be able to hold it long term and would essentially just be easing Russia's takeover of Austria. A better move would have been Bohemia to Galicia (although it wouldn't have made a difference here, it could have with strong Austrian and Russian moves), or, even better, an arranged bounce in Munich. The French move to Burgundy paired with his strange retreat to Tyrolia should have set off some alarm bells that a stab was possible, and simply setting up that bounce probably would have been enough to dissuade it.

Finally, France. I was *sure* that you were going to stab after that retreat to Tyrolia, as I thought that was the only possible reason retreating there was justified. And you did stab, but you didn't actually use Tyrolia! Tyrolia to Munich, Burgundy to Ruhr would have been a much, much stronger stab. The way you did it here, you likely only have one build coming next year and a rocky path forward after that. You could have broken Germany's back. Now, with your weak stab, it seems almost impossible for you to get Berlin, so your 18 likely has to include at least 2 centers in the south (like Rome and Tunis) which means you won't be able to fall back to the easy stalemate around Tunis only. You have a tough path to the solo, but it is still possible. You need to leverage the powers who will be eliminated if the game ends in a draw.

Does it annoy anyone else that Uclabb is so much smarter than us? Great write-up Uclabb, especially in regards to Tyrolia which I overlooked since it played a roll in succeeding in Rome. Your scenerio is much better long term.

Regarding Vienna - How large of a roll do you think R/T press played a part in that Vienna hold? How would things have changed if Austria had requested a bounce in Budapest as a safety manuever?

Seems he may have been convinced to take the slightly less risk protecting against Bohemia which was definately attacking (all indications were Germany wouldnt cover Munich).

Builds Bump.

ITALY - You went with the Disband that 95% of people would have gone with. However, I would have disbanded Ionian. WHAT?!?! Here is my reasoning :
Apula gave you a chance at getting back in Rome IF Austria was ameniable to assisting with that (Apula/Naples/Venice vs Rome/Tuscany assuming Tyrolia is busy in the north)
Your Ionian Fleet is slightly useful to Turkey but is quickly becoming less useful than the Greece SC would be to him. However, if you give up the Ionian, what is Turkey going to do? He cant afford letting France into the Ionian so he would :
Aegean bounces Tunis in Ionian in the Spring.
Aegean/East Med bounce Tunis/Tyrr Sea on the Fall (and forever til one gets a 3rd fleet in position). You basically tie up 4 fleets of people, including making Turkey take Greece with an army which he would rather not do.

Russia - It was the fleet or Finland. The fleet was just going to stay parked and be of no use in the south. Finland, if it can get somewhere could concievably be of use later this year.

Incidentally, the only way France gets a 3rd fleet involved is if he takes Naples. And with an army in Apula, the only way he takes Naples is if Turkey takes Greece (thus forcing a disband in Apula in the Fall)

So even if you dont get back into Rome because Austria has other issues to deal with, you would have strong armed Turkey into keeping your two units alive.

Re: the retreat to TYR a season or two back - I'm not as sure as the other prof's that France had determined his stab yet at that point (if TYR had moved to MUN during the stab, that would be different). I think the retreat to TYR instead of APU may have been an oversight. No way to tell for sure until EOGs.

Not much to say about the builds. Going to wait until retreats to comment on the Spring. I would also still like to comment more about the differences between the French stab and the Turkish stab. I hope I can find the time to do that this weekend.

Game progressed to retreats.

Thanks, ATC. Waiting to see what Germany does before I comment.

Unbelievably weak moves by Germany there.

Bump

Game progressed to autumn.

Spring 1906

FRANCE
Your 6 fleets are certainly coming in useful this year, but this is largely due to Germany's willingless to leave all of his SC's open to you. That said you are making very wise choices with your fleet positions and have really made the best use of the fleets.
I very much liked your move to the North Sea. Alot of people would have just started taking shots at the open SC's but you wisely realize that position is worth a hell of alot in a Solo run. You need to get to the forward positions before people can get them covered.
Similiarly, you moved to Kiel from Munich. Most would have just tried to hold Munich but Kiel gives you a few options (including just walked back into Munich).
Your moving like a man who knows where is 18 SC's are coming from. I hope my earlier post helped about finding your 18.

GERMANY
I think your moves are part of a 2 phase plan, so I am going to not discuss specific moves you made, and will reserve judgement until after Fall Phase.
The one thing I will say is - You disbanded North Sea? Why Why Why? England is lost so retreating there would have been pointless but what about these options :
1. Belgium - Take a French SC? Thats got to be worth more than a disband
2. Holland - Assuming you want to take back Kiel (which you may or may not be planning), it would be an integral part of that.
A disband simply means you have fewer options and France has one less thing to worry about.

RUSSIA
Finland getting into St Pete was crucial.
The good news is Germany didnt attack you this phase. The bad news is he didnt exactly give you a free pass. Your in a really tight spot and I dont see a good way out of it.
You need to think about what people want out of the end-game and if I am part of those plans and make your diplomacy and unit decisions based on that. Ask these questions : If I was Germany, does my quick death help or harm his game? If I was France, does my quick death help or harm his game? Am I integral in stopping France's Solo run and do I care?
Your primary function is to survive now. Find a way to do it.

TURKEY
Not much to say to you except -
Keep thinking about the Ionian.
Keep your diplomacy up especially with Germany. The two of you are best buddies now and should be conferring on eachothers moves in a manner similiar to a TA/Student. Two heads are better than one.

ITALY
Your losing Naples so your down to 1 SC but your the stopper in the drain at the moment so you will continue to live.
You also have a danger which you may be aware of but I will mention it here. Your useful until France is stopped and people discuss draw options and the 1 SC guy often gets cut out unless his SC is the one which makes or breaks someone winning. (which is why last build phase I would have preferred a Naples centric disband).
So now you need to keep up diplomacy with Turkey especially. Make them appreciate the time and effort you put in pressing the hold button for them, instead of just throwing up your hands. I know I appreciate it when someone does that and would often let him in the cut of the draw.

AUSTRIA
Not much has changed for you. Venice is very relevant now as I suspect its one of France's 18 which makes you a useful tool to some people.
So I ask you questions similar to Russia - Who cares about Venice's relevance? Who cares if I live or die? Am I in on any end game draw as the board stands now? Can my units be in a better position to make myself more important and relevant? (I wish I was a TA right now on this question)

I think there is a high chance that Germany is going to NMR.

I emailed the mods. Not sure if it will be paused or not as I am not sure what the protocol is for a SOW game in this circumstance.

Looks like he got his orders in with a couple hours to spare

I keep an eye on the game for NMR's. The mods gave me tournament director powers over this game, so I can pause/unpause games to prevent NMR if need be.

Writing my commentary for last season and this season right now. Will post it in a moment.

I’m going to write-up and post the past two seasons separately (even though both have happened). I’ll try to keep my knowledge of the Fall out of my Spring commentary. Here’s the first bit.

Spring 1906

AUSTRIA: A fine attempted to make all your units count. The support hold to protect VEN from ADR was a must, but I thought your other two orders were also very well thought out. The move to TRI protected that territory from a possible hit from France and the support for Italy into ROM (even though he didn’t take it) was also a good idea. You’re playing the sort of tenacious game that we all wanted to see from England earlier on. Keep it up and you may find yourself as an important part of a stalemate line.

FRANCE: I think I said this before, but you found in your stab of Germany a use for all of those fleets. Excellent. All of your units made very smart moves overall. I wasn’t sure whether you’d commit the army from MAR to the northern (anti-German) or southern (anti-Italian) campaign but I think that either choice would have been fine. Knowing how your choice turned out (since I’ve already seen the Fall moves), I’d say it was more than fine and puts you in a terrific position. The attempt on VEN was doomed to fail so part of me wonders if there might have been a better use for those units. I also really like the move from MUN to KIE. At first I wondered “Why not just stand your ground and retreat to KIE if needed?” The answer, of course, is that Germany could have moved BAL to KIE and PRU to BER. Combine that with kicking you out of MUN and you would have been left with no German home SCs. Great call on that order for sure.

GERMANY: There were some bright spots in what was otherwise a pretty dismal year for you. I liked the concept of the convoy order. Getting an army into YOR would have made defending/retaking the British island much easier for you. I also liked the move to DEN (getting that fleet in position to hold NTH the next season). It would appear that you did your work in the press to get Russia to back off (which probably wasn’t too hard). But there were some glaring errors here and it all comes back to what we’ve been saying from the beginning – USE ALL YOUR UNITS. What was PRU doing? You could have backed into BER (which would have allowed you to hold MUN in the Fall). What was BAR doing? You could have tapped NWG (should have tapped NWG) and you would have gotten that army into YOR and would still hold NTH. Understand – this is not a “if I only had extra units” scenario. It’s not even a “I’m already using that unit elsewhere” scenario. These were two HOLD ORDERS that could have completely turned your season around. Also, why not retreat? Unless you expected to be able to rebuild (a longshot) why not retreat into one of your English centers, or HOL, or even into BEL. You could have occupied one of France’s centers with your retreat and forced his hand a little.

ITALY: There was no reason to waste both your units taking a shot at TYS. You were outnumbered 3-2 and France literally had nothing better to do with his time than to take that sea. There was no way you were going to win. Why not accept Austria’s support into ROM and force one of those fleets to disband? Adopt some of Austria’s tenacity or you’re out.

RUSSIA: Peace with Germany was a good call (and was probably the easiest negotiation either of you have had so far this game). Pulling your northern army back south is likely going to take you longer than you have, which is too bad. This is exactly the danger of playing Russia in two theaters (East and West). I don’t really like the decision to pull out of BUD. I don’t see where you’re going to get that center back this Fall and dropping from 4 units to 3 may just be the end of you.

TURKEY: It’s hard to believe that you’re the same Turkey who was targeted by an early Key and was then stuck at 4 centers until 1904. A patiently played early game had you on the fast road to success. Your decision to hold up Italy is a good one that you shouldn’t neglect (spoiler – you do…more on that later) and it could be the relationship that makes the difference between you as the top loser in a French solo, or you forcing a big draw, (or even – dare I say it – you taking the solo win yourself?). Timing and patience have been your friends so far. Keep going with that.

Fall 1906

AUSTRIA: This season and last were pretty much carbon copies of one another. Your move on VEN was essentially a support order (in case France attacked from TUS and TYR) and you moved to RUM instead of Italy this time. Would have been better if he had taken your help last season but nothing can be done now. Not sure if you were lucky or smart to get the standoff over VIE. You live to fight another year, just as strong as you were when the game began.

FRANCE: I don’t want to take away from the glory of this year for you (feel free to bask in it for a while) but you may be the poster child for “better lucky than good” right now. Consider, you took EDI, LON, HOL, KIE, and MUN from Germany, and you got into ION. Now – IF Germany had submitted stronger orders last year (particularly ordering his two held units), and IF Italy had kept ION still so Turkey’s support would have stuck, you would have likely acquired zero of those things. Lucky for you, Diplomacy is not a game of “what could have happened” and when we look at what DID happen, you are on route to a solo and quick. From 10 to 14. Trouble now is you’re going to have to wait on one of those builds until next year. Oh, and you’re now everyone’s favorite target, so you’ll have to think defense and offense. Find out what centers you can take without making any of your current holdings vulnerable, then build based on what you need to take those centers. The next 4 will be much harder than the last 4.

GERMANY: Turns out you and Russia couldn’t bury the hatchet. You hit him (to keep your SC count up) and he hits you out of spite. I don’t really have an opinion on that, frankly. Hit Russia. Don’t hit Russia. You’re feeling the price of inactivity now. Maybe this will be a good thing. You had two inactive units in the Spring. Now you’re going to have to disband two units. You weren’t using them anyways. Speaking of disbands, you have another opportunity to retreat. I’m not going to tell you what to do but recall what I said about your last retreat that became a disband and use this one wisely. No one likes to retreat but make this one count.

ITALY: You killed yourself. Why would you choose to move ION? “Because I wanted to cut possible support from TYS to ROM.” Why? Again, you had a 2 vs. 3 scenario in your enemy’s favor. Cutting support made it 2 vs. 2 which is still not enough to dislodge. The energy you wasted on that attack cost you your place in ION which, if you weren’t aware, was VERY important to the stalemate position. You are no longer useful. Good bye.

RUSSIA: As I said to Germany, clearly your mutual disdain runs deep. He takes StP from you (so he has fewer units to disband) and you hit SIL…for…? At least Germany had a good reason to take StP. You seemed to hit SIL to help France. A hint: you shouldn’t help other people solo in a Winner Takes All game. I’m going to guess at this point that the standoff in VIE was not coordinated but was the result of you and Turkey both vying for the same spot. My question for you, why not take a stab at BUD? If he moves to block your acquisition of VIE again, you take BUD back (and you were in desperate need of SCs). This could be lights out for you, but keep working the press. Luckily for you the two centers you have CAN fall on a stalemate line. Not so lucky for you, France already has two centers on your side of that line and has units in some other key positions, too (ION and TYR specifically).

TURKEY: I take back the mean things I said to you about bailing on Italy. I hadn’t looked at the orders or the full-sized map. I thought you had withheld support but it was actually Italy’s move to TYS that was the issue. However, you’re not completely off the hook here. What were you doing with EAS? If you wanted Italy to keep ION and also hit TYS, why not support yourself into ION? Your attack (2 units) and France’s attack (2 units) would have cancelled each other out and Italy would still have ION. Using all your units. I also feel like I should clear up a misconception – you ordered a support hold for BUD but then ordered BUD to move. That doesn’t actually work. Even if BUD bounces and doesn’t end up going anywhere, that support hold is void. Perhaps it was that sort of misunderstanding that caused the debacle in ION. If so, consider yourself informed. If you order a unit to move (even if it doesn’t) you can’t support its hold. Still, you get a build. If France should be building towards his solo, you really should be building to block it.

Interesting year indeed.

Bump

Fall 1906

GERMANY (Spring and Fall)
I passed on commenting on your orders last year because I didnt want to give away your plans for the Fall although it was blatently obvious. You convinced Russia you didnt want to fight him. Then you pull back some units to defend against France while keeping units in place to hit Russia. You know the problem with that plan? Russia knew you were going to attack him by unit positioning (and their lack of movement) and he threw a F-You at your face in response.
France and Turkeys big stabs this game worked so well because the victims didnt expect it. Your stab of Russia didnt work because he did expect it.
In the end, France's stab of you felt devastating but it was not a game ender for you. You needed to circle the wagons around the stalemate lines (see my post a couple years ago). In the Spring had you moved Prussia to Berlin, Sweden to Kiel by Baltic, Bohemia/Silesnia hit Munich, you would have had very good positioning on the stalemate line.
In the Fall you would have been in position to take back Munich had he support held there or have bounced Kiel but taken Munich. You could even stab Russia in St Pete if you really needed the SC count.
Also had Barents not sat on its ass, you would still own the North Sea. I know, if France attacked Edinborough then Barents wouldnt have been in position to stab Russia. But then it would be in a position to attack Edinborough with that successful convoy to Yorkshire.
Sorry man, but this last year was a disaster of proportions I havent seen in a long long time.

FRANCE
You took supreme advantage of the openings you had. I am a little surprised you took a shot at the Ionian when you had Naples dead to rights. That attack stood no chance had Ionian not moved. You also stand no chance of actually holding the Ionian (2 vs 3)
I had thought some about what I would do with the North Sea now that you owned it. Try and hold it or take Holland. Position versus SC. I think you made the right choice because there was a better than average chance Denmark would actually bump Kiel to help hold Munich. You also have sufficient fleets to take it back...however that retreating North Sea German fleet can be a bastard.
You have three builds and Germany has 2 disbands. You have 4 SC's to go. Do you know which ones you want and the units needed to take them and protect what you have?

RUSSIA
Last phase I asked you some questions. What I was getting at is : Germany and Turkey dont give a shit about you. They give a shit about Italy and Austria because they are on The Line. The best assistance you can give them is to die quietly and let them eat your SC's in the name of the Good Fight.
So here is where there is some disagreement about how one can play the game. I will admit, I find this tough to swallow but I see it effectively used often. I call it the "Prick" strategy but others call it "unbalancing the game". Spring 1906 : In your negotiations with Germany and Turkey :
"Dear Turkey. I am an asshole. I do not give a shit if France solo's if I am dead. So here's the deal. Keep attacking me and I will attack the hell out of Germany allowing France to solo. I at least get a survive on my record. Its better than a defeat which you and that prick Germany seem to think I deserve"
"Dear Germany. I dont want France to solo. However I recognize you may want my SC's to feed your defense. Here is the deal, if I do not see every unit of yours heading West, so help me God I will spend every unit movement attacking everything you have and supporting France into every center."
Bottom line, if they want your help to stop France (in the form of you not attacking Germany) they need to give you some breathing room in return.
I support the spite attack on Germany in Fall. If they are going to treat you like you dont matter, make sure they know you do. Now they can deal with you or get more of the same this year.

ITALY
You are still useful. You get to retreat and be integral in taking back the Ionian. Problem is you still lose Naples (which you should have lost this phase). You may find your way into a large draw yet.

AUSTRIA
Still there. Still relevant. Hopefully in direct contact with Turkey all the time...plotting scheming and coming up with plans. You may also find your way into a Draw if the big boys dont screw it up.

TURKEY
At first I was real surprised by your move to Vienna. Dont you know how important Austria is to The Line? Then I said "Yager, Tin aint a fool. Think deeper". Turns out I bet you decided that Russia's best move was to shoot for Vienna and you bounced him. Risky but a solid risk. It also explained the Rumania support hold (you originally intended for Budapest to sit).
By far the best move of the phase for me. Well thought out.
Shame about Italy keeping the Ionian a secret from you.