Bump, phase went through

Not feeling well, so this round won't be particularly insightful, but here we go:


Turkey:

Things are progressing well for you. I would have really liked to see you in ION, but I don't think France will be much of a problem, now that he needs to deal with England. Stay on your guard, though. You should probably make sure England won't support SEV, perhaps by working out something with Germany.

Austria:

You're in a tough spot, but things aren't over. It looks like things are going south with EF's relationship and you can benefit from that. This turn, your prerogative should be to defend against France so he realizes he can't afford to lay siege to you.

England:

Your alliance with France was eventually to come to an end, but I'm not convinced you're in a great position. You can't take any centers this year and France will get at least 1. If you want to get the upper hand on France, you're probably going to have to coordinate with Germany.

France:

Things are looking very good for you. Even with England bearing down on you, you'll likely get a build.

Germany:

Now that England and France are going against each other, you may be able to find a way out of your difficult spot. England needs your help more than France, but you can more easily take England's centers. Ultimately, though, England is the only person who can slow France down, so working against him may not be wise.

Bump, new phase

I apologize for missing a phase with my commentary. School is starting and I've been in my classroom prepping it for the coming semester. As a new teacher to the school, there's a lot to get done and this school is a super-fan of meetings that last all day.

Anyhow, I will comment on the year as a whole:

1906

#1 France: Looking at the Spring outcomes, there's clearly an issue going on with the EF. Not surprising. Such things can occur when an old enemy is dead or close to dead. What often happens in this game is that as an opponent gets close to being defeated, the aggressors begin to think about decisions. Ultimately the choice comes down to either maintaining an alliance or turning on an old ally. For the former, the allies continue to kill the target while both mutually focusing on a new foe. This would have meant you spend more time in the south while England hopes to push past Germany into Russia. In terms of the latter, turning on an ally means that you have to jump before he does, and it's often a good idea to talk to the person you've been beating up on because they are often more than willing to accept a change of heart and a chance to remain in the game and lend you support against the former friend. After I look at the fall moves, things seem to have been patched up, strangely enough. I mentioned that you would see a slow down of your builds, and naturally this has indeed occurred. Next year could be a 2-build year again. Looking at your moves as a whole, I would have preferred to see the order F ION-ADR and F Nap-ION. This would have gone a long way to ensure that you control Tri with an army in the Spring of 07 and make further headway in the fall. Austria's disband is going to be one of two units and it will take some time to continue to dig him out. At this point, you need to be thinking about the solo and where you need to be in order to get it.

#2 England: Looking at the Spring, I really anticipated something different. At that point, you had some ability to put pressure on France, even with him getting a build. I'm not criticizing you on your end choice, but here's some food for thought: one option you had for your fall orders would have been to use the ENG to support the French MAO to Bre and simultaneously moving the NAO-MAO. One trick move is to anticipate when an opponent will use a self-standoff to prevent you from taking a key location (such as Bre). In most scenarios, simply supporting yourself into one of the zones is adequate enough. Here, however, issuing support for F MAO-Bre would mean that he would have succeeded with that move and you'd be sitting in the MAO with your fleet. The bonus (and this is how it differs from simply a support order for NAO-MAO) is that with the fleet sitting in Bre, he CANNOT build there. That would have allowed you to build an army in London, convoy it to Spain in the Spring of 07 and subsequently take Portugal before he had any power to prevent it, and THAT is the type of stab that really hurts. Austria would have been more than happy to see you perform those moves because it gives him a fighting chance, and all of a sudden you have the chance to be the top guy and solo threat in this game.
Mind you, this is a more advanced form of thinking and really requires that a player learn to think like his opponent and be willing to make a risky move at the chance for something great, and not everyone can think like this and very few are willing to take such risks.
Anyhow, you gained a build, you'll have another coming in next year, and you're making progress. Not bad.

#3 Turkey: Not a super cap to a year where you should have seen a build. No offense. The spring was alright. I'd have gone with A Ser-Rum with double support while moving to Arm as you did. I wouldn't have assumed it to succeed, but it was marginally more likely than what you had (and here it definitely would have worked). You could have also issued a move to Ser from Gre and a move to Gre with your fleet to cover any holes. It's not usually worth it to issue a support order to a unit that can be cut. It's almost always a better choice to issue that unit a move order and issue supports from any zones that cannot be cut (such as Bul and BLA).
In the fall, you had an even better opportunity because you could have put 2 units toward taking Rum and 2 toward taking Sev as follows:
A Ser-Rum & F Bul s A Ser-Rum
A Arm-Sev & F BLA s A Arm-Sev
couple this with a move to Ser and Gre and you've got the chance at taking 2 centers instead of 1. This is what Austria assumed would happen and why he moved the way he did. Always try to think about these double tag-team moves like this because it min-maxes growth (earns you the maximum growth using the minimum amount of effort). Eventually you'll have to think about getting your fleet in Bul into waters somewhere.

#4 Austria: Nice play this year minimizing your losses to one center. I liked Rum-Ser with Bud support. It was a standard but useful counter-move to what should have been a Turkish attack on Rum. In this case it helped a lot. My recommendation to you is to pick a player, defend against them entirely and work to ensure that you get someone as an ally. There are several players you can threaten in this game by threatening to give centers to another player unless things change. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. The big thing to remember is that if you say it, you have to mean it and be willing to follow through with it.

#5 Germany: Not bad for moves. It's looking like this next year will be your last. I really thought you had a chance when I saw the Spring moves unfold with a E-F war, although it was not to be. This is a time when I simply pick the guy that has done me less harm and offer to simply give him my last center and if he chooses to keep me around, he may order my unit as he pleases. Some players bite at the chance to use your unit as they want when there are no strings attached, especially if you're in a spot that can really help them. WHat have ya got to lose?

Any questions from the audience?

Autumn 1906

Turkey

Taking SEV was good, but what was up with that SER move? You knew SER was going to be taken, so why not have BUL support SER to RUM? That would have cut support from RUM so you could take SEV, but given Austria's moves, you would have kept SER. France is positioning himself to take almost all of Austria; you really can't be making mistakes like that at this point in the game.

Austria

You made it through this year much better than you should have, but things are looking bleak. Tapping RUM with SEV was an excellent move and really saved you. Goes to show a unit can still help even if it's about to be dislodged. The reality is that you can't defend against Turkey and France. Personally, I would defend against Turkey and force him to decide if taking you out is worth risking giving France the solo.

England

I'm afraid I don't understand your moves at all. Taking on France would have been rough, but it isn't going to get any easier. You did manage to get a build, which is impressive given your positioning. If you don't build a fleet and move against France, though, he's likely going to solo.

France

You've been doing an amazing job. You are positioning yourself excellently in the South to make major gains against Austria and you were able to convince England to hold off his assault.

Germany

Unfortunately, it seems the EF was just too much for you. It looked last turn like you may have had a hope of redemption but it wasn't meant to be.

bump!

TO THE FIRST PAGE!!!

End phase

Spring 1907
In a lot of the sense of things, this season was a pretty clear-cut season. As there was nothing *really* unexpected or poor, I will have less to say than usual. I will try to fill in with some helpful general tidbits that applies to Diplomacy games as a whole instead of this particular season.

#1 France: As predicted, you stand a good chance of taking your 1 center this year. Most of your moves looked pretty good, but I'm curious about two of them:
F MAO-IRI
F ION-AEG
These two fleet movements are strange simply because of what they would have meant going into the fall. The move MAO-IRI is a decent counter-move to what could have been a potential attack on the ENG by England from the IRI since it would have guaranteed you a home center in Lvp, but it would have meant sacrificing Bre in return and exposing Spa and Por to future losses had the move succeeded. Not a valuable trade off. The other move that was suspect was the move to the AEG. Why? This gives me the impression of a cheap attack on Turkey, although I'm sure there's more than meets the eye where press is concerned. Ultimately, if you planned a possible solo well, you wouldn't need Turkish centers, so the move there is fruitless if it was meant as an attack.
To the positive, what I liked most were your movements around Italy. I love the convoy option of the army in Apu, the move to the ADR, and your success in creating a solid front "three" in Tyr/Ven/ADR. This is the most likely location for a build, although not your only option. I'm curious to see what happens in the fall.

#2 England: Not a bad season, but I don't see fruit in your movements. This season you're really going to have to think about your options because not gaining anything this season could mean losing ground next year. When I say "not gaining anything" this doesn't directly imply center growth. What you need are some of the 'intangibles'. What I mean by this is that you really need are a series of counter-measures. I've found that in order to be successful in this game, it's very helpful to always have something in your pocket that allows you to keep other players doing what you want. This may include units in the right zones (especially the powerful non-center zones including places like Tyr, Ruh, Ukr, Pie and Gal), it may include having players that will work with you if things go badly or having someone that has your back, and it may include a simple DMZ even if that DMZ isn't specified. Having non-center locations that can serve as warning signs of an impending stab are worth their weight in gold. Some of my favorite things to do are to leave zones empty and simply test the trustworthiness of a potential ally. One example of this is that France and Germany can agree to DMZ Bur in S01. If one of them moves there, it becomes evident that you don't have an ally there. Arranged bounces do not signify this. Other such zones include Pru/Sil between Germany and Russia, Gal between Austria and Russia, and Pie between Italy and France. Less common ones are the ENG, WES, and BAL. When I talk about having players in place as a counter balance, I like to talk to everyone and simply try to set up an alliance that isn't proactively working together but are of the sort that if someone moves in a way that isn't favorable to either of us, that we both step in and keep that guy in check. This can be more helpful in the midgame than the early game because the solo threat is higher and can often be a motivator for other players to stop what they're doing and band together.
The only move that I really think wasn't the best choice was your convoy from Swe-StP. It would have been much better placed sending it to Lvn. That convoy would have given you Warsaw this year. You don't need an army in StP because there's no one nearby that is threatening Moscow with enough force to warrant anything. I do like the push you have going on there, just try to cut down on unnecessary movement.

#3 Turkey: I almost put you at #2, but England having a 3 center advantage over you is enough to warrant keeping him there. You stand to gain a center more than anyone else on the map, and you could easily gain two centers depending on negotiations. You'll also need to think about that nagging fleet that pushed further inward instead of out towards the sea. Having a fleet in Rum is nice for taking the center but not as nice when it comes to inland gains. Think about things like this:
most players don't really think deeply about the ideal roles of armies and fleets. Players simply move as a matter of convenience instead of moving in a way that capitalizes on each unit's capabilities and general intended purposes. What I mean by that is fleets should generally be utilized by convoying and supporting while armies should generally be employed in being convoyed and attacking. If a player is more frequently taking centers with fleets than armies then they are not fully maximizing the potential of his or her units. If you look at the map, more areas are barred to fleets than are barred to armies. In addition, ask yourself what other centers you're NOT able to take while a fleet is in a given location. What you'll find is that when fleets are occupying centers, you're missing out on a lot of potential.
Case-in-point, look at Rum. With a fleet there, you have less access to taking Serbia and Budapest because a fleet in Rum cannot support movements there whereas an army in Rum could. Therefore, we can think of this as a loss of 2 centers that could otherwise be yours. Now, with French support, this isn't entirely the case, but it's enough to illustrate my point on how much more slowly things go when we don't use units to their intended capabilities.
Don't read this as me saying that fleets should NEVER take centers, merely that if you have the choice between taking a center with a fleet or an army, you should almost always choose to take it with an army.

#4 Austria: This is a rough year. You may get some flak for not being more aggressive, but I don't think that your movements this year were an issue. I think that your position is going to change because you can convince others to do something other than what they currently are. Since I can't see your press, it's hard to say what you're doing well and what you're not doing well where that's concerned, but I can say that knowing your TA, I feel comfortable that if you're listening to him, then you're on a pretty good track of doing the right thing, even if it doesn't pan out. People have a stubborn streak. They don't want to change what they're doing until something is directly affecting them. They tend to be more reactive than proactive because being proactive in many situations can mean fixing something that's not broken.

#5 Germany: Based on the moves this year, I really hope that you're able to get some people's attentions enough to make use of you. If I were in most people's situations, I'd be more than happy to extend a warm hand toward a 1 SC German if I were able to see something tangible from it and with your units in their present locations, you have varying levels of commitment that you can offer to several different people. Keep that press up. I know it's hard to talk to people. Sometimes it means that you don't talk about the game, but find some fluff to talk about. It can ease tensions and get people to clear their head of a situation, look at you more favorably, and allow them to come back after some light discussion to examine a situation in a less-biased way. Simply because others tell you to keep talking when you're down doesn't mean that press has to revolve around the game, because there are plenty of situations where you may have nothing to say to someone game-wise, but you can keep things friendly by diverting conversations toward something more mundane and personal to get someone's mind off of the game for a while that allows you to have a friendly conversation whereas forcing press about the game means that your press is less than friendly.

Tru:
1. You mentioned that France's moves to iri and aeg were questionable. What would have been some better moves for those fleets?

2. Given that the Turkish fleet was already in bul/ec with another fleet in bla, is it that much worse for it to be in rum, especially since doing so allowed Turkey to put an army into bul? Obviously, the ideal situation would be armies in both rum and bul, but that wasn't possible in this case. We could critique the build of f smy back in 1904 because, in hindsight, that would have worked out better as an army, but in the moment, the French fleets moving east had to have been pretty intimidating.

@peterwiggin:

Let's tackle France first and Turkey second.
France: The moves are questionable because of what France is trying to accomplish with each of the moves. A single unit attacking what appears to be an ally is really a questionable move. France's options are really based on what he wants to get out of the situation.
From where I'm sitting, it's hard to see the press behind things so I don't know whether there's an E-F war or a very tense EF alliance (I tend to believe the latter). If there's a war going on, France doesn't need to move to the Island without some means of doing long-term damage and also allowing England to do long-term damage. A better move might have been to simply move to the ENG.
If there's an alliance still in the works and France is just looking to keep England from turning on him, a better move, in my opinion, would have still been the move to the ENG for the same reasons:
A move to the ENG prevents England from moving a single unsupported fleet there. If the move to the ENG succeeded, this would leave one of only a few outcomes: (a) the English fleet stayed where it was in the IRI (we will only look at IRI options because the NTH is negligible)
(b) the English fleet moved from the IRI to the NAO as a retreat meant to ease tension
(c) the English fleet moved from the IRI to the MAO.
In two of these events, there's no harm and no foul--(a) and (b). England can still cover London, France can move back to the MAO, and we are all happy. In the event that (c) occurred and England is sitting in the MAO, France can still cover Bre (a home center), leave himself future convoy options or move to Lon/Wal. Sure he will be down a center in Spa or Por by the fall, but this is much more easily sacrificed than both Bre AND Spa/Por in future years. Losing home centers sucks. Also, the likelihood that (c) would have come about was far less plausible than England moving to the ENG being successful

With the AEG, again, it begs the question as to what France will gain out of it. To me, it only adds stress to a positive relationship between Turkey and France. The last thing France should want is war with the whole map or even to strain every relationship that he has. If I were Turkey, I'd be asking questions about French intentions, and it's not a fun question to answer. France has to chalk it up as either an accident, which makes him look less competent, or on purpose which makes him look aggressive and less trusting. Neither is positive.
If the move was agreed upon by both parties, then it begs the question as to why there needs to be a French fleet in the AEG.
Next, look at what would happen if it succeeded: Turkey is on the verge of gaining two centers this year, one is guaranteed. France could negate one build by taking Smy, but in the process he burns an ally and makes an enemy at a time when he doesn't need more enemies.
Here, a better move would have been to Alb. It's one more unit on Tri. The move to the AEG could have been an accident intended to move to Alb, but again, it makes France look less competent when it comes to making blunder-free orders.


Now to Turkey: This move is less of a complaint, because I agree that there had to be a fleet in either Bul nc or Rum with an army in the other and having armies in both isn't possible. I'm not entirely complaining about this move, but it goes back to my comment earlier about having his fleets in open waters. Currently he has two fleets surrounding the BLA. One of them really should have aspirations toward going out to the AEG where it can be a bit more useful. I think the army in Rum is a good idea, so my comment was more intended to get him thinking about (a) how to reduce the number of fleets in zones where they aren't effective and (b) getting another fleet out into open waters instead of lounging in locations where they have limited use.
If we go all the way back to 1904 to look at the fleet build, the fleet was built in Smy with the intended purpose of pushing out to sea, not inland where it ended up. But that was then and this is now. The bottom line is that he needs one of those fleets to eventually hit the AEG/EAS where it belongs, and spending another build to build the fleet to accomplish that isn't going to cut it.

I will post Fall commentary later on this evening

Bump....

Well, maybe my commentary will come on Saturday instead :)

Fall 1907

This is probably the first time in the SoW that I really don't have any suggestions for the players. I felt that this season was played out with sound moves. Everything that happened was done with careful planning.

France: Kudos to your choice to know England would self-standoff again, which is why I generally tell players to mix things up instead of doing the same thing season after season when defending. You become predictable. On the flip-side, you can't let your opponent get too comfortable with knowing you won't do the same thing twice in a row or you become equally predictable, so you need to find that balance (which is hard). Between your build and the fleet in the WES, you'll have shored up England's fleet in the ENG pretty well from doing any damage. That plus the possibility of Kie will serve nicely to your plan.

England: You're going to need two things: a build (not a break even or a loss) and an ally. Gaining both of these will be immensely powerful for you. Gaining one of them will keep you stable but not improve your situation, and not gaining either of these goals will only mean you will begin a downward spiral. I liked your movements around the BAL, especially with your fleet. Again, it showed that you can predict what your opponent will do and act accordingly. Placing yourself in your opponent's shoes and using that information as the basis for your moves is a higher level of thinking in this game. As such, it's not an easy task to do repeatedly, so good work there. My guess is that you have Austria you are working with, so the rest comes down to your press with the other nations. Keep up the press you have, because even in this stage, those that talk more frequently are the ones that do well.

Austria: Not a bad set of moves. Clearly at this point, you'll have to find some location to snag a center just to keep you in this game. If you can strike a bargain with a player into giving you a center so you can keep a critical unit on the map, then you're in business and may even see this game end as a draw with you at 1 or 2 centers. Players that end the game in a draw with only a few centers really showed their diplomatic might, and I might even be so bold to say that their diplomacy at the end of the game was better than the top dogs that relied more on military might instead of finesse.

Turkey: Great work this year nabbing two builds. This will keep you in the game until the end and will make you a key player in ensuring that there will be a draw instead of a solo for another player. Also, if the game goes on long enough and things can change, you remain in a position to still come out with a late solo run, although it's far too early to stake those sort of claims with any real merit. I've got a build idea in my head and if it differs than what I see, I'll add some commentary at the outset of the spring.

Germany: Still not a terrible year. The EF *and* the presence of an Austrian army in Boh will help you out quite a bit. Since there's no real stalemate line threat, your units aren't as critical as if there was an opponent trying to solo that hasn't crossed the line yet, but you're still in a very valuable position if the right people make the best use of you. I would talk to everyone and hold out for the best offer. You should have more than one coming to you. Be cautious because I've been in many games in your situation and players will want to throw a false offer at you hoping you'll take the bait.

I'll start my regular commentaries again this year. Sorry for my absence.

Turkey, I hope you're finally understanding the importance of ION and why I was so insistent that you take it when you could. At this point, you simply aren't going to beat France to the rest of Austria and you do *not* want Austria throwing his remaining centers to France. You'd be much better off working with Austria and focusing on getting your navy out to Italy.

Basically, if you're France, you're doing awesome. If you aren't France, you need to really start paying attention to what is going on and stop fighting amongst yourselves.

back to no 1

phase end

Bump

I will get to commentary soon. Sorry about the delay.

bump

Spring/Fall 1908

Sorry for the delay. I had typed up my commentary and the computer shut down (its what I get for finishing it during a storm)

When I started this commentary a few days ago (while it was still Spring), I was congratulating you on your successful choice in deciding to work with Germany. A lot of my press was hinting at the fact that *someone* needed to work with Germany because his units were in VERY useful positions. To this end, it could have been England making the choice to back off of him and gain 2 units to his side, but you were the first to jump on the opportunity. This will pay you well. When I looked at the fall moves, I was SORELY disappointed. Munich supporting an order from Ruh-Kie and then having Ruh simply support a hold on Holland. Tsk, tsk.
What I've found in my time playing this game is that a great many solos occur when one of three things occurs: (a) the gap between the top player on the board and the second place player on the board is incredibly high (5+ centres), (b) one or more players go into CD or (c) there are a lot of little powers remaining on the board that would have normally been eliminated. The third is where I thought you were really going with things. The reason this tends to produce solos is because players get attacked. When they're attacked, they become alienated from any help on the board. Once they're down to just a center or two, it's quite common for one of the aggressors to switch sides and work with the little power and get the upper hand on his former ally. This effectively gives the player control of another unit or two that he would otherwise not be able to do, and especially at a time when he would not have them. More importantly, the units are frequently in a position to really put a hurt on the former ally. As games go on, the more powers there are on the board, the more opportunities there are for error. Each player remaining on the board in the end game contributes the opportunity for a misorder, miscommunication, disagreements about how things should be handled (especially when multiple people have that 'leader' personality) and there are more people to get angry and exploit in their anger in your favor. Germany was in that position.
Ultimately, there was little reason, in my mind, to support a hold on Holland. Germany would have wanted to keep Kie and try for the chance for a build. Knowing this, you could have easily issued a support hold for him so that England doesn't see progress (or sees less of it). That's what I would have liked to have seen.
In the south, you're looking great.

#2 England: Much toward my commentary to France, YOU should have been the one to patch things up with Germany and gain an ally, especially with the gap between you and France so high and you're in the #2 spot. You need all the help you can get preventing France from soloing and fighting Germany only furthers the French cause. Now you're facing a very strong French solo possibility so that you could take the last of 2 German centers. Not really worth it. Also, you had a really bad botch moving Yor-Lon. Now, instead of building 2 units, you can only build 1. London wasn't in any danger whatsoever, so the move only served to hurt you.

#3 Turkey: Not a great year. As of the Spring, I would NOT have been helping France. Again, it goes back to what I've been reiterating this entire season country-by-country: you want the little players to be working for YOU, not for the other guy. One thing to think about is that it's really hard to work with a player that has double your units, especially this late in the game. You currently have some things to work through with Austria, and who gets Serbia isn't one of them.

#4 Germany: You're in a spot right now that I'd be offering things to England, France and Turkey both, and taking the most genuine offer that gives you a center. I wouldn't take any less. At this point, you can throw the game to France or help England and Turkey prevent a solo, so it's your best opportunity to turn things around. You're going to be part of the key in holding France back from winning. Therefore, I'd say that a center is worth helping stop the French. If players don't listen, then give up the solo. Either way, you stay in this until the end, either part of a draw or as a survival and you let others determine which is a better option.

#5 Austria: I really really disagree with your decision to disband Bud instead of choosing to retreat it. The likelihood that you lose Ser is pretty darn high, so camping an army there isn't worth it. Had you chosen to retreat Bud, you could have remained in this game to help prevent a solo. At this stage, England and Turkey can ill-afford to snub their noses at any help they can get in stopping France, and having your army in Gal would have been MUCH more beneficial than having one in Serbia. If Turkey loses Ser and Greece, whoopty-doo, he disbands the BLA and then stalemates the French. Your Gal army could have been better served stalemating the French along Germany's territory. Plus, when you disband during the Fall retreats phase, you lose a lot in the way of diplomacy. France and Turkey both would have had some means of negotiating with you on which unit to disband. If you disband it early, all of that goes away and players don't need to factor in your disband into their build decisions.

Question for Tru :

You mention Austria having an army in Galacia and disbanding Serbia. In the Spring and Fall phases of the following year : Where would it go to stalemate the French? Assuming Serbia fell the next year, he would need to eventually park it in an SC but I dont see one available. Could you expand on this "what if" scenario?

It's a good thing I have tenure, eh?

1908

Turkey/Austria:

It's a real shame the two of you couldn't work things out. Without seeing the press, it's hard to tell exactly what went on, but based on Austria's moves in the Spring, it's clear that he didn't trust Turkey to hold the line with him. Understandable from Austria's perspective, but unfortunate for the board in general. This is why it's important to maintain good relations with countries even when you are at war with them. I suspect towards the end AT communication had seriously broken down and so there was no way to reestablish trust so late in the game.

Turkey, though, you still aren't using your units well. That sh of GRE, for instance, was unnecessary and cost you SER. AEG was held GRE and both ION and SER support was cut. How was he going to take GRE? He couldn't. If you had realized this, you could have supported RUM to SER and you would have taken it. You need to pay closer attention to the board. At this stage in the game, it will be the difference between a draw and a French solo.

England/Germany:

Another missed opportunity here. England took WAR, but it almost cost you a home center and gave you another puppet for the French empire. I would have loved to see you send and army north to scandinavia to show Germany you were serious about peace. It also would have allowed you to convoy an army onto your island, allowing your fleets to maintain control of the water. It also would have been better to self bounce in LON. England would be in the channel, but at least you would have been able to use all your builds. Like Turkey, you need to work on your fundamentals, because mistakes like this are going to cost you the game.

France:

Amazing job. You're either doing a great job listening to your TA or really shouldn't have been in this game : ) You've done a great job using the smaller players on the board.


If G/E don't make peace, France will likely take the rest of Germany. He'll then be at 17 centers.