I wrote up some player-specific comments:

Ayreon (Turkey): I really appreciated how you were able to put our initial differences aside and work with me against Austria, at least until I reconciled with him and coordinated moves with him against you. It seems that you have a strong grasp of the tactics of the game, but also you play full press games kind of like a gunboater. You sent me the least and the poorest quality press of anyone playing, but I did appreciate your pragmatism.

Superchunk (England): You were one of my favorites, and not just because of the #TeamRussa hashtag. I thought our press was great, and I regret that my crazy northern opening I tried necessarily was directed first of all at you. I especially liked how you were able to keep sending good press and not get upset when I explained that I was taking Norway, and why, and I appreciated how you listened to my counsel afterwards to attack France. You did change direction about 2 too many times, or things may have been different for you, but I quite enjoyed having you in the game.

KingJohnII (Austria): What a great player you are! I really enjoyed your press, and loved coordinating moves with you and planning for the future. We pulled off some outstanding moves agianst Turkey, I think, even after our little misunderstanding in Rumania. Once Turkey was eliminated and the I/R alliance turned against you, there was a chance for you to keep a supply center behind my front lines supporting a shock troop unit ahead that would have been under my control, helping me to solo while getting you a "survive" instead of a "defeat." You ultimately chose to fight me rather than take that deal, and while it did indeed eliminate your last chance to survive until the end of the game, I respected you more for fighting me, right to the end.
For future reference, your unwillingness to attack Italy once Turkey was eliminated made me incredibly wary of your true motives. As I see it, after a triple-alliance takes out Turkey, you can have an I/R alliance crush Austria between them, or an I/A alliance turn their backs towards each other, or an R/A alliance do the same, but your suggestion that we continue the 3-way A/I/R alliance…I know you were being sincere; I just thought you were trying to pull the wool over my eyes.
Also, I intended all along to attack you with Italy after Turkey was defeated, but plans can change.

gryncat (Italy): Man, I just loved that convoy to Smyrna after Austria tried to rally everyone to stop me from soloing! It was really a fantastic move, and certainly stopped my momentum. My respect for you, which to that point was high, went up a notch for deciding to actually play the game rather than be content to survive to the end.
You send excellent press, and were always fun to coordinate with (and fight against). I didn't know when I'd have to attack Germany to try to solo, but when you told me that he told you that he was never going to attack me, I knew that I had to fight you instead, and you understood, and the level of understanding and cooperation between us is something I really appreciate in a player.
Now, when you decided at that point that it was a matter of time before I got to 18, so you might as well throw me 6SC in one turn and end the collective misery, of course I agreed with you, but in your place I would have tried to keep talking to Germany, myself. Did you threaten him with throwing the game to me? I wonder how things may have been different. (Probably not much. I'd have actually given him Edinburgh and worked towards a 17-17 split with him and stabbed him at the last minute for the solo, so thanks for speeding up the end.)

bo_sox48 (France): One thing I love about you is that you're almost always online. I also was very impressed several times with the gutsy moves you make, leaving home supply centers vulnerable because of course your rivals will assume that you'll defend them! You really know the tactics of this game, probably from playing so much gunboat, and unlike other gunboat-aficionados, you regularly send press, and lots of it!
The things you say, however, tend to rub people the wrong way, and I was able to capitalize on that, I think, by turning popular opinion against you as much as possible. You kept talking about stalemate lines as if they mattered, because I know that what really matters is whether people like you. They didn't like you, and they did like me, and that's what made the difference, I think. This is what I meant when I told you "sometimes I feel like we're playing different games." Your response to me has now gone on my profile page: "If by different games you mean I'm playing Diplomacy and you're playing Uno, yeah, that's kind of how I feel." Hilarious!
The thing is, I thought that _I_ was playing Diplomacy, and you were playing gunboat, plus sending condescending messages to your neighbors.
I liked talking to you, though, and was always glad that you wrote back so quickly.

Argento (Germany): You're going to get a lot of hate in this EOG thread from other players, but not from me. This is not just because (as they will say) my solo can be placed on your shoulders, either. I honestly think that the others could have done more to get you to work with them against me, or at least see me as more of a threat. I think your play was solid. Early in the game, you knew I was using you as a buffer against the E/F alliance, and we talked about that. You violated our DMZ by moving into the Baltic Sea not once, but twice, and both times we were able to come to an understanding and an agreement on how to work it out and move forward. I think maybe that second time, you should have demanded more than just Sweden before we got the band back together, but it was fun to watch France's reaction as you took Belgium that turn.
You should have given Italy hope that you'd attack me eventually, so he didn't throw me the game (but again, he should have threatened you with throwing it to me as well, so this isn't all on you). Aside from that, though, the only thing I wish you had done differnetly is to write more often. However, with a 2-day phase, it was workable. I enjoyed your press and the rapport we had going throughout the game, but it would have been easier to cooordinate with you (for others as well as for me) if you had cheked in more often.

Nobody else?

Great write-up. Thanks. Anybody else in this game have a different view?

Nice write-up MKE. I'm sure Bo has 2c to post! :-P

Nope.

Solid write up. I'm on vacation, but I'll add to it when I'm home.

Thanks, gryncat. Just saw your post now. Would be curious to get KingJohnII's perspective as well.

bumping to keep alive until gryncat gets back. (And, you know, for anyone else who played and who cares to contribute.)

Good write up.

My biggest mistake was to not follow my instincts early on based on your opening. I let you sway my decision which resulted in my bad decisions to switch allies and ruin my chances.

Fun game, wish I could do it again.

btw, Russia, you play a great diplomatic game. While it should have been pushed to a draw if late game peeps would have pressed you, you clearly deserved the lion's share of the SCs.

I really enjoyed MKECharlie's write-up. I also like the honesty in the press ratings. I don't feel many of us, or at least I am uncomfortable doing so, call other players out in the EoGs. Maybe it happens and I just haven't noticed. I've played against some real assholes and I've glossed it over in the EoG.

I took a look at this game, and I honestly find it hard to believe that this was a top 200 GR game. MKECharlie is a fantastic player, who has soloed against me on occasion, but just the mistakes made here were so numerous that MKE soloed because he didn't make any mistakes.

Austria blew perhaps the greatest opening I've seen out of Austria in a very, very long time. You could've kept the I/A going and knocked Russia out before he had a chance to move the armies back. You would've blown up into a huge power very early on.

France, while coming back very well from possibly the worst first two years that I've seen from France, had most of his units tied up and ineffectual against the German for a majority of the game. A waste, really.

Italy tied up Austrian units unnecessarily with the bounces in Tyrolia leading up to Russia's stab. Moreover, why was Austria even caring about Tyrolia? Besides, you don't stab Austria when Russia is already parading around England. Its just not a thing you do.

England and Turkey just had some tough luck, but Germany stuck around with Russia for far too long, to the point where Russia didn't even need to stab him to solo.

As an outsider, I may be coming on too harsh, but....really guys?

Goldfinger, your analysis is pretty good from an outsider's perspective, but you haven't played with me in a while. Perhaps you forget how charming I am. ;-)

Thanks for your post, Superchunk.

Also, regarding how you "find it hard to believe that this was a top 200 GR game," I think future GR challenge games should separate the full press list from the GB list, rather than using the combined "all time" list. They're completely different games, and there aren't a lot of people who do them both well.

Finally back from vacation. MKECharlie, you played a great game, and as everyone has been saying, you earned the win.

Let me start by saying I am not one to normally throw games away, and I admit that it was a move of frustration rather than tactics. While this might be a bit petty on my part, I'll accept it. I get very involved in Diplomacy (as so many of us do) and find myself gazing at the map when I should be doing other things (namely my job). As such, this game was taking up a lot of my time in trying to figure out how to save it, but with little reward. Thus there came a point when I saw my tenuous Turkish holdings failing, and saw Germany as hopeless, and I decided it was time to end it.

Argento (Germany): Too little, too late. Not only did you never respond to the Russia threat, but you actually supported him into better position against me late in the game. You constantly stated you could not attack him because I was helping France, but I never helped France. I attacked him once, but mostly we both left each other alone because that fight in the western Med takes a lot of units, and neither of us could afford to spare them. I assume you wanted me to actively attack France, but you could see I had too much trouble in the east. I could not work with you diplomatically.

KingJohnII (Austria): I would have loved to keep the I-A going, but you didn't trust me. I admit that the move to Tyrolia was not in your interests, but that was where I had hoped we had established some trust. I consistently did not attack you in Greece and took no centers for quite some time, to the point where I was even putting myself in a disadvantaged position. I wanted Tyrolia to be an influence on the map, to have something to do. Again, frustration. Winning isn't everything; I like having fun in the game, and I was bored stiff waiting for your handouts for a center, even to get another fleet so I could consider a western push, which is my role in an I-A. When Russia approached me with a more interesting game plan, I took him up on it. I knew it was risky, but I was counting on more help from Germany than what happened.

Ayreon (Turkey): I agree with MKECharlie. Your press was too vague and general, and I couldn't get a good sense of you, hence I couldn't rely on you. Sorry.

France and England, I was never really sure what was going on with your diplomacy, and I never really got out of my theatre to be an influence.

MKECharlie, for more specific critique, your tactics are solid and you have very involved and detailed press. I also appreciated your honesty when it was clear we would have to fight. There are some moves I would take back in my play, particularly your offer to attack Austria once I made landfall in Turkey, but again, I was counting on a better rally from Germany. I also agree that I could have tried harder to save the game, but as I said in game, it had lost its luster.

Thanks for the great write-up, gryncat.