Once I saw 3 draw votes, I figured I needed to draw before France decided to put up a vote and make me out to be public enemy #1 or something.

It definitely was a really good game. I had a lot of fun as Italy trying to prop up Austria. I know there were some really questionable/scary moves and builds in 1903 or 1904 or so, but other than that I think we had a really good alliance.

Sadly, if the game had continue for another year or two I would have had to go for some of Austria's centers... We were beating Russia back, but I wasn't growing too much any more and France was coming for me.

I'm almost glad that it ended as it did. Some people say that the "ideal" end for a Diplomacy game is a seven-way draw-- I don't believe THAT of course, but to me a four- or five-way draw can be justified if there was just that much good play all around. And I felt that we were in sort of a dynamic stalemate with either France or Russia waxing or waning at the expense of the other-- but as each grew stronger, a push against the other would begin to falter. (This was starting to be the case, where I would have had to ease up on Russia to concentrate on France)

I had a lot of fun.