France, eh? A solid draw in a Gunboat. I hoped that Germany and I could avoid the stalemate land battle and focus on a quick destruction of England, but that was not to be. Germany bounced me out of Burgundy while England opened north with his army in EDI...this had potential. At this point, my hunch said Germany was coming for me, and he would end up being my target...at least England looked to not want immediate aggression with me.

Wrong again. England bounced me out of Belgium and while convoying to Norway, and I let Germany take Burgundy while picking up spain with MAR, because I knew I could just force him out in spring 1902. I was expecting three builds, however, and taking back BUR meant getting two armies, and forgoing the fleet...I HATE doing this, but I took the gamble hoping England would continue north.

He didn’t. He built fleet London and moved to the channel, but I set myself up to self-bounce in Brest, but he ended up moving back to wales with the fleet. Thankfully, I took Belgium in the same turn, and built my fleet. England was in the North Sea and SKA and I hoped he would take this opportunity to attack Germany, as Belgium was not completely secure, and I certainly couldn’t push through Germany by land.

The next turn was the most pivotal moment in the game, in my opinion. I was able to hold onto Belgium by outguessing Germany, and I also got into the channel because Germany’s fleet in Brest cut England’s support of wales into the channel. Things were looking up.

In the fall of 1903 (the next turn), I figured England would have to cover London and wouldn’t cut my support while I got my ground army in position to stalemate Germany on the ground. I simply held my MAO fleet for two reasons: 1) if England instead tried to move to the channel, I would just retreat into London, and 2) more importantly, to show him that I “had my hands full with the German” and wouldn’t be trying to wage a two-front war.

He took the bait, and covered London with Wales. After seeing me stay idle with MAO and not moving to the Irish Sea, I assume he felt comfortable with me, and he moved North Sea to HEL and London to North Sea (which was bounced by Germany) as I then moved NAO to the Irish Seam guaranteeing that I’d be able to walk into York in the fall. I convoyed in, and when England decided to take Denmark from Germany (because he had no unit in Kiel to defend it). This proved useful, because not only did it weaken Germany, but this guaranteed I could also wake into EDI unopposed for another free build. England then walked into Kiel in the spring and I tapped both Holland and Ruhr so the German lost it (and another unit).

At the same time, though, Russia was getting scary. He took Norway and Denmark from England and was just crushing in the East, making it up to Italy’s back door. Although we were the same size, I worried I wouldn’t be able to Fight through Germany and take him down before he got enough centers to oppose me. At this point, it was something like 10-10-5-4-4. Good news for me was that Turkey and Italy were fighting a real close fight in the med, so I had some time before I had to worry (defensively, that is) about the south.

By the same I finished with Germany, I knew Russia was no longer a solo threat, because even if he conquered Turkey, he had no way to get to 18th (I had an army in Pie to support Venice, he was locked out up north, I had him out-gunned in the middle of the map, and, of course, he had no southern navy). I was almost positive it was only a matter of time before I picked up the solo, as I had Russia vastly outnumbered in German lands, had Scandinavia surrounded, and would be able to stalemate Italy/Turkey the Med. Even if I wouldn’t have been able to take Tunis, I would be able to take enough centers on the mainland to get the 18.

Russia saw this as well, and after seeing I was not going to accept the draw, he decided to CD and sped up the rest of the game. This pissed me off because I wanted to take the solo with them fighting to the very end.

So there you have it, my first “real” (WTA) solo. I feel I played a pretty good game (I guess you usually have to to solo), and just wish it would have been a bitter fight to the end. Good game to those involved, and hoped you like my wall of text.