because you were still a threat to solo.

you had to push back from StP in a convincing way. leave mun AND ber and you should have moved off the med quicker.

it was too much a of a risk for him (and for me) to give you that shot. you can't be sitting ready to take mun and stp back with a unit in pie ready to hop into #18 and expect others to hand you a solo shot. that's my read.

Well, I understand that, also on the other hand turkey have waited a lot, to even take italy.
About STP I was afraid you might suddenly build a ship there and mess up thing.
About piedmnot, you guys could have easily eliminate it...

Also I moved out ove berlin, and was going to debuild denmark, but since turkey show no intention to even attack austria in the future, it seemed pointless for me, to wait for him further.

Anyway, I get your point of view

Russian EOG.

The game started off awful for me, with no builds in 1901. I tried to play as defensively as possible so as to not provide anyone an easy target. I tried to take my piece of AH and get Turkey to realize I would be a long term ally, but around 1905 he started getting frusterated without advancing so he took a shot at me in Rum. I tried to show I was not pissed, but in the south, the mistrust reigned, while I still had to deal with a french unit in sil and the english taking shot at my holdings in the north. by 1907, I had secured scandenavia and thought there was a good peace in the south with Turkey. though France was a massive danger, he still was a far cry from a solo so I tried not to hurt England too much as he was doing a good job of slowing France down.

by 1908, it seemed obvious that the path now was to stop a French solo, but for some reason Turkey kept attacking me in the south instead of moving out to the med. he took rum and sev and I did not defend. I'm glad Turkey finally got the point and stopped there, or else I think the northern defense would have dropped. I knew I was weak in the north and did not have enough units, but I think I used my lone fleet very effectively to slow France down long enough to get turkey to move to gal and ukr. without those turkish armies in gal and ukr, the stalemate would not have meant anything.

I made a massive boo boo in the autumn of 1911 - i pressed 'ready' by accident when I had not put in any orders. this got france into sil and almost cost us the game. I really do not know why France decided to retreat the following Fall (1912) but I think if had kept pressuring he had a shot at taking war. in gunboat you can't count on all the players knowing what the right orders are - and it could have been that instead of tun, he could have gotten war for the 18th. but he moved back and we were in the all clear.

from there till 1920, really not much. the French withdrawal seemed half-hearted. had he moved all the way back and really removed the danger of a solo, then maybe it could have been a 3 way draw. but I'm doubtful because at that point, the rest of us would have had to be quite foolish to give him that shot.

very good game. thank you Frank for getting the stalemate line and for not moving past sev. I do wonder if I had retreated OTB and built in War instead of retreating to Ukr (from rum) if you would have stopped earlier and left me alone earlier. but in the end, it did work out, so no worries.

good game all. and a great draw for Sarg who really saved himself in an uncanny way. good job rokakoma, you did well but I'm glad you didnt' get the solo haha :)

"a great draw for Sarg who really saved himself in an uncanny way."

Haha, yes indeed. I quite enjoyed ending the game as Austria having none other than all three of Italy's home centers. He stabbed me and it did him nothing so when I saw that the game had turned from protecting against a Juggernaut to finding a stalemate line against the French solo, I was quite happy to mercilessly stab Italy and get my place in the draw.

rokakoma: Thank you for finally drawing, I was getting close to emailing the mods.

I actually emailed the mods twice ;)

French EOG:

I started with my usual french opening (support into bur) and I was hoping to get Munich. I knew I cant keep it, also I knew, I can retreat to sileasia, making germany's life pretty tough. It turned out to be the right decision.

Keeping england out, and making Germany uncomfortable was hard, but after taking munich, I know it's just the matter of time, until I can put all my units into position and still keep england away.

Germany made a huge mistake, so I got 2 of his SCs, game was done for him. Also england lost turkey, and while he was taking care of london, I could convoy my army into clyde. I was patient with this move, I was protecting London, because it was autumn, and attacking licerpool, so i can convoy at spring for 100%. Having an army in england, is the death sentence for england usually. So was it this time as well... 1907 spring

I made a huge mistake in 1970 Autumn, by giving wrong orders and bouncing myself in Berlin. I think that cost me a lot, in losing position, for going for Warshaw.

I round later Russia secured the stalemate line, I knew my only chance for the solo is tunis. (I knew i cant get out from marseilles and/or berlin and/or STP.

Getting STP is 100% always, so I really didn't worry aboput it, my focus was on Tunis, that would have been my 18th. When turkey moved into adriatic, instead of Tyrr, I thought I will win. 1908 Spring.

The best thing has happened, 4 countries fighting with me, at the very same area, giving me the perfect chaos amongst them. If I had taken tyrrhenian in 1910 Spring, I would have won, especially since i was thinking, if england is clever, he is moving to Tuscany, I was planning to bounce him, but for some reason I cose differently. When I saw he got into tuscany I knew I will not be abe to win.

All the rest was pretty easy, I wanted to trap the Russian ship, without blowing it up, and trap one of his armies, and blow up that one. I almost did it, but I couldn't.

About my retreat from boh+sil.
I just figured out I'm unable to defend them, but here I made my 2nd big mistake, which cost me the solo. I was sure russia will bounce himself, and I had the order put in to supportmove silesia into galicia 1911 spring, opening the space for me into warshaw. I didn't take it. I retreated because I thought I'm unabe to hold the stalmate line, if you two attack me properly. That was a mistake.

About the last years, I was desperately waiting for turkey to take over italy/austria, so I retreated. But Italy didn't move at all, even moderators were emailing me, to draw the game. I was really pissed at turkey, and so am I now :)

But I understand I didn;t retreat enough, tough Turkey didn't position himself against austria at all...

Bottom line: I'm not happy not getting the solo, I put a lot of effort into this game. But I made 3 huge mistakes (not supporting sil->gal, retreating from there later, and not taking tyrr) Each mistake cost me the solo, So I guess I deserve the draw. But not a 4 way, definiately not. :)

I wanted to keep Italy in the draw because I thought he deserved it, he wedged himself in nicely. After Roka indicated (by pulling out of the Med) that this wasn't acceptable to him, I took Tunis. I wasn't going to go for Austria because I thought it was too risky. I also didn't want to scare Russia or Austria into throwing the solo. For me to have tried to knock out Austria, I would have needed to see France pull back much farther.

I thought we all did a great job building the line at the last moment. And not just Sarg, Babak and I but also Tekteltektel and Lando. Babak, I took Sev in 1908 because (a) I didn't think the solo was that imminent and (b) I thought I might need another fleet build to create the stalemate line. It turned out not to be so necessary.

All in all, a very fun game, even if it went on a bit too long. Roka, I'm sorry the mods were emailing you, I dont think that should happen in this type of game, where there was still a somewhat dynamic situation. I just never felt comfortable eliminating Austria; the marginal benefit of a 3 player vs 4 player draw didn't outweigh the solo risk. I'm sorry you are mad at me!

I agree completely with Babak's first post...your withdrawal never looked genuine.

Frank: I totally understand you point. Next time I will pull back more directly.

About Sevastopol, I agree, it was useless for Russia to have a fleet there, you can use 1 more unit more efficiently.

Even more, I thought you would give back sevastopol to russia, to be able to build an army instead. All I was hoping that you guy will not have enough armies there, to hold the lines.