My first solo came from a France-England alliance with... ThatBuhILarry i think, where i was France and he was England. I wanna see a game like that here, but i still want Yaleunc to solo.

and on another note, why do i NEVER see the juggernaut anymore??? seriously, it is a spectacular alliance, but it NEVER gets done in these high profile games. Kinda sad, considering the Lepanto is also a rare site with Italian stubbornness, (i know i am in that position!) so it seems like it would be brilliant, especially here!

The Juggernaut is really easy to counter against Russia so most Russia's don't go for it.

I'm sure glad you told Yaleunc about the basic French strategy though - I'm sure he's never heard of it before!

As for Italy in Bohemia - in a high quality game, diplomacy is far more important than number of units, and that army gives him influence on basically every other country.

Really though? Bohemia is quite poorly placed in an attack on Austria, and attacking Germany now doesn't benefit italy at all. So really the only thing b ohemia can do is act as a proxy Austrian unit.

I am a bit surprised by France, Austria, and Turkey's builds. I wasn't expecting two armies out of France or a fleet out of Austria.

France's builds indicate a Land Campaign, which means trouble for Germany?

And Austria seems all set to go Anti Italy. {{Save Italy}}

I think A/I is tight. But long term, Austria knows there's no solo attempt with fleets.

R/T better become friends or their lives are short lived.

Without fleets^^

Looks like some firm signals being sent out about both Italy and Russia not being on the radar for F or E (or they're both just having fun throwing curveballs at the gallery for shits and giggles). I'm guessing the Moscow build was negotiated so that he stays out of Stp but is close enough nearby to cover if needed. Pretty wonky build phase all the way around.

An I/A vs R/T looks pretty probable. FE pouncing on G, also probable. Lots of opportunity to still diplomatically sway some sides though.

Don't be surprised if you see Norway in Sweden after this round.

Wow that kind of misorder has *got* to be embarrassing in a game so many are watching, eh Turkey?

I think Italy also had a pretty interesting build, so I'm not sure why no one is talking about it.

So, builds:

England: Pretty aggressive against France (probably). I'm not a huge fan of F-Lon, as I prefer A-Lon and F-Liv, but this way still works. Convincing France not to build F-Bre was a coup, and a big cockup from France. Germany's fleet, whilst probably anti-Russian, could still be used against you and as such is something to think about.

France: I told you not building F-Bre would be a bad idea. Two armies is fairly insane (the only thing Marseilles gives is the encircle Munich route via Piedmont into Tyrolia, and there's zero guarantee that Tyrolia will be empty for it). Poor decision; even if you were going to invade Germany.

Germany: As expected. Going Barbarossa could be easier now that E/F look so likely to fight, but France being in Burgundy still makes it difficult. Sweden really wasn't worth all that effort though - you'll gain a unit but tie one up defending it anyway. Still time to change to an anti-English move with Skaggerack, but France has hamstrung his ability to work with you now.

Italy: Excellent stuff, very inventive.

Austria: Nice call. F-Tri is great, and you can now launch an unstoppable attack on Venice this year and if you're feeling ballsy you can go for Naples too. This is why Italy shouldn't have gone to Aegean, and it looks like you're going to punish him as a result. He's now either your bitch or your victim.

Russia: BOOO. Such a reactive build; this offers you zero in terms of offensive capabilities. When Germany is looking so anti-German, and England will be eyeing up STP, the last thing you wanted was to be the person making reactionary moves instead of proactive moves. Awful choice.

Turkey: Only sensible option, thanks to Italy moving to Aegean.

I firmly believe that builds 1901 is the most important phase of the game, and these builds tell a very strong story. From here on out, france has no choice but to attack germany. Germany is non-committal, but given france's builds, will have to seek help from england. England meanwhile made a deal with russia, given that stp and edu are open. The clear winner in the west is england, who can choose side with france, Germany, russia or a combination thereof.

The winner in the east must be Austria. The fleet build means that austrian-italian relations will be tense for a while. Even if austria decides to play nice and support aeg-bul, where is he going to put the fleets? I don't know what Italy's strategy was, but this cannot be part of it.

Finally, the surprising additional winner is russia. None of his neighbours look determined to attack him, and he has much to offer diplomatically. In fact,if i were playing turkey, austria, germany or england, in all cases i would be looking for a russian alliance at this point. Well done ;)

Just a quick note, all mods will no longer be posting in the global chat of that game. Sorry for the repeated disruptions to it. We'll contain our peanut gallery comments to this thread.


And on that note, I think HR covered most of the key points. Russia, that build is safe but a bit disappointing. Though it might be worth having it there as a deterrent while seeing what everyone does. I don't hate it as much as HR, but do agree other build spots would have been more interesting.

Germany, unless something magical happens for you this turn I think Sweden was a mistake, and forced you into non-ideal builds

France, absolutely atrocious. There are 6 fleets in the west, you have 1.Italy isn't a target for them because Austria can get to him first, and Germany isn't going to let you waltz in before England can capitalize more then you there. So I honestly do not understand what your reasoning for that double army could be. I am going to stop commenting on your moves until you do something reasonable.

England, I dislike Lvp armies, but that's a personal preference, you are still have great position.

The builds from France are still the most interesting to me.

Presumably, France has been told something by someone that make those builds reasonable. A promise of support for an attack on Germany by England seems to be about the only thing that could do that. It is also possible that France knows E and G are coming for him, and just wants to hold out for as long as possible, but I think even then, F Bre would probably have been useful.

So is there a set of moves this spring that would make France look better? Is there a promise from England that redeem France's choice? Could France just throwing all his armies at Germany get England to make a course change himself? A lot of players have commented on the F LON/A LVP split - it seems to me that F Lon is just a slightly more flexible build and gives England this whole phase before committing to war against France, if that is what he will do. LVP can easily move to Edi or Yor this turn in preparation for an attack on Germany.

I am also disappointed that the global chat in this game is so quiet. They should be spending a bit more time entertaining the peanut gallery during these long waits!

Just got to say, England is making a mockery of this group of players. Brilliant

Balki! Balki! Balki!

I'm watching England intently. One of my weaknesses is that I'm always hesitant to go straight to the mainland as England, I always feel like it's too hard to hold it, and I end up taking my easy draw with just going North instead, but it gives up a lot of solo potential. Go England!

Looking forward to HR's commentary this turn. Seems to me the losers are Italy and Germany. France's seemingly crazy gamble has paid off for now, or at least hasn't yet totally exploded in his face.

I might have to join the Balki cheering squad if this continues too, although I also now love Russia's position.

Isn't it a case of good bye turkey, good luck Germany, the Russian is one to watch...

That was meant to be good bye Italy (not turkey yet)

Italy ain't done until he's out of units. If he's working with Russia and Turkey, Austria could still be in trouble in a number ways, and whilst Austria can guarantee to take Venice, that isn't necessarily a good option. Especially not if R/T are working together, or decide to. Whether or not A is worried about R/T, that's the real question. :-)

The mighty Tin Can will grow this year. Woe be to those who stand in his path. Germany and Austria have chosen wisely.

Nice anticipation of the stab by PW though

Wow, you must be a die-hard peterwiggin fan, goldfinger. He moves Tyr-Boh and Ion-Aeg in the fall, most brilliant move ever! Then he moves Boh-Tyr and Aeg-Ion in the spring and still gets your praise?

ATC is the true winner here. I really like the build in Moscow last year. Just pretend you're not a threat to England, wait for them to commit and take advantage. I would be worried about Baltic Sea though...

I bet Baltic Sea will go to Sweden and Sweden will go to Norway. That's the only way to make sense of Kie-Bal + Den s GoB-Swe. Without a plan like that, it doesn't really make sense to move Kie-Bal.

Note that I said PW should've moved to Tyrolia. There wouldn't be any of this stabby stabby nonsense if PW could just threaten to take Vienna with support. Carrot and stick.

But I am an ATC fan, if you hadn't noticed bas. I wouldn't worry about F Baltic at all. Realistically, it will either do what Stack said or try to support hold Den. It looks as though Germany was trying to plan something sly with England, but England just took advantage of the opportunity to stab the everloving shit out of him

Now my real question is this; Does France use this opportunity to absolutely clobber England? By doing so he will probably take all the English isles for himself, and perhaps prevent the inevitable Russian fleet build that would come otherwise. Or does he convoy to North Africa and redirect into Italy?

Very interesting to see what France is up to. If he was going to jump on Italy he could have easily send Paris to Burg and Mars to Pied, so seems like he wants to keep Italy propped up a little to slow down the east. But why the move to Pic? Could have easily just supported himself into Burg. There's something strange going on, it's quite possible Balki is getting set up by both France and Russia.

Also interesting that Turkey opted to keep Arm in place when he clearly could have used the coverage in Smy. Guess he and Russia weren't able to work something out after all.

Early predictions are looking at an R/F/A strong mid-game unless the other four make some fast adjustments to their strategy.

Oh, looks like Austria decided to take advantage of Italy's lack of purpose I was talking about.