Yes, it was a blast! A ton of turn around a mischief going on. I'm just glad France and I got on the same page at the end or abge would have solo'd.

As Turkey, my initial plan was to ally with Russia, assuming the rest of the board wouldn't have enough time for elaborate communication, allowing us to sweep the board as the struggled to produce an effective defense. Russia, unfortunately, was not very responsive to my press and Austria was. I figured an AT was almost as good, so I went with that instead.

Things with Austria were going very well, but in 1903 I needed to make a decision. Take TUN and allow Austria into NAP and WAR or bounce him NAP and take SER and WAR for myself. Sticking with him was very tempting because I knew I would need TUN to win and I wasn't sure I could take it without his help. Ultimately, though, I decided he wasn't going to leave himself so open and with the North in such a state of disarray, now was my best chance to blitz for it.

Unfortunately, both Germany and France reacted a bit quicker than I had hoped and I ended up losing not only most of Italy but most of Russia as well. At this point, though, Germany was becoming the solo threat, so France and I banded together to slow him down.

Supporting France into MUN in 1907 was the real turning point, as it forced Germany to defend his home centers, allowing me to reclaim Russia. With Austria's generous help, I was able to push further into Italy as well. Had Austria continued to help me take TYS, I would have kept him (until he was my 18th center), but I fully understand why he didn't.

Unfortunately, France and Germany made peace just in the nick of time, because if Germany hadn't gotten the build in the Winter of 1910, I would have won. But, the stalemate was reached, so we ended in a draw.

Very fun game all around. Thanks to everyone for playing.

So, I don't quite recall my full mental process here. It starts like this, and I am sure of it:
"Holy shit a Full Press Non-Anon Live Game with 5 min phases, this must happen"
Next, the game actually happened. This is where I stop getting proud of my predictive and convincing powers.
Spring 1901
England clearly doesn't notice that we are playing Full Press, and promptly takes the Channel to no opposition after failing to respond to my press. I have moved to Picardy in accordance with Germany's request of DMZ Burgundy, which he honors (first pleasant surprise), and Mar is sent to take over Iberia. Me and Germany decide to kill England.
Autumn 1901
I decide to take a chance with England, and move to Brest with only Picardy, taking over Spain with MAO rather than self-bounce. It works (second pleasant surprise), and I get a fleet build, and an army to ward off Germany, who got three builds. Fortunately, Germany builds double fleets, because he's more interested in Scandi and England than in me (third pleasant surprise).

Spring 1902
I decide to advance as much as possible, and so ensure my fleets positioning in Brest and MAO, in order to seize the Channel eventually. I move units to the German border to avoid losing Burgundy. Germany is honest though (still the third, I guess), and it annoys him. England manages to run all the way to StP after making enemies out of France and Germany. Observation of the board reveals nothing too interesting. I make a plan with Germany - he'll help me into Channel, I help him into North Sea. I make this plan with the knowledge that I might not be able to help him, actually.
Autumn 1902
The plan works, I am in the Channel, and in a position where I can and should help Germany into the North Sea. I also find out the Irish Sea is free to take (fourth pleasant surprise). Good relations with Germany are reinstated by the re-DMZ of Burgundy, which goes well.

Spring 1903
What a year. Germany gets into North Sea, because of worst efforts of England, who easily could have stopped it. I decide on a course of action with Germany, where I am guaranteed to get a build, and England to lose one. We observe the A/T with a mix of fear and surprise.
Autumn 1903
The plan works very very well, and I get two builds, because England is downright incompetent(sixth pleasant surprise). This is where England died, really. The A/T ends up the way it was always going to end up, yet Austria seems surprised. I build fleets to make sure I'm involved in whatever happens.

Spring 1904
Positioning, positioning, positioning. Turkey keeps the upper hand on Austria, DMZ extended with Germany to include as much as possible. Germany keeps promises again (seventh pleasant surprise).
Autumn 1904
Austria behaves in an unexpected manner, which sort of screws up my plan, but he offers a replacement. Turkey lobbies in favor of a stab on Germany a lot.

Spring 1905
To my surprise, the Austrian plan works (for those still counting, this is eight). I assume a good position in Italy. Germany gets an upper hand against Turkey, and I resolve to attack him to avoid a solo.
Autumn 1905
I achieve pretty much bugger all, though I get into position to stab Germany.

Spring 1906
I don't stab Germany, and achieve absolutely nothing whatsoever.
Autumn 1906
I get around to stabbing Germany, and screw it up. Germany no longer likes me, Turkey hasn't liked me since a bunch of Italian stuff. Austria is being killed pretty fast.

Spring 1907
I start to get somewhere with the stab of Germany, but he assembles the defense even faster.
Autumn 1907
I get pretty far in Germany, taking over Belgium and Munich. I don't get to finish Austria, because Turkey doesn't support me. This will become a thing later on.

Spring 1908
It becomes obvious just how stupid I am. In total, I traded Lvp and the trust of Germany for Belgium.
Autumn 1908
I lose Rom for good measure, and piss Germany off a little more for no good reason.

Spring 1909
Turkey expands fast enough to frighten Germany, and we unite against the solo threat.
Autumn 1909
I build what I think is a workable stalemate line, it turns out not to be perfect, but that doesn't matter. The idea of the StP Syria convoy pops up here, and dies a season later.

Spring 1910
Turkey is pretty damn big now, but can't expand much further. Germany hates me, but hates losing even more.
Autumn 1910
Austria dies, everyone weeps at the funeral.

Spring 1911
Repositioning, building a backup stalemate line when I find out the current one doesn't quite work. Turkey promises to Draw in a year.
Autumn 1911
We fuck around in Italy, I reinforce the backup stalemate line, Turkey almost breaks through the original.

DRAW

Now, for my impressions of the players themselves:
France: Very lucky, got tired towards the end. Not to be trusted
England: Completely incompetent.
Germany: Competent, loyal, trustworthy player.
Italy: Dunno, didn't interact with him almost at all. Bland though.
Russia: I had one sentence of press with him at the start. No answer.
Austria: Fun player, if a bit too trusting for his own good.
Turkey: Very very clever player. Dangerous.

I would recommend these games to all players. You'll learn a lot, if there's something for you to learn. If not, you'll have fun. I often found myself under time constraints, but not too crippling.

The moral of the story here is that I'm super trustworthy.

But really, it was a great game. I was just mad at the time that France stopped my solo, I might have said some mean things to him that I now take back. But all in all was good.

If England wouldn't have been making those stupid faces in global and instead played, we may have had a different turn out to that game. The same can be said about Russia who didn't respond to press, and he missed his first build phase.

Yeah, next time it would be super if everyone played fully, and played Full Press. I suspect Turkey would have had much better prospects if England hadn't died pretty much instantly.

If England had defended a bit better and/or if Italy hadn't CDed, I think it would have been very likely I soloed.

Also, next time I think I'm going to call the game something like "This is not a gunboat".

That is very much possible, though I expect we would have built a stalemate line at StP, Ber, Mun, Mar, Spa, MAO anyway. Germany was already afraid of you, and we wouldn't have fought, and England was on his way out anyway. Still, you would have had much better prospects for the solo.

If England had held on just a bit longer, I could have held him in STP, which would have given me a much better shot of taking it for myself. With Italy still around, I think I could have gotten into TUN as well.

There's one thing I'm super curious about though. If I hadn't stabbed Germany, what would have happened? Would Turkey have been able to build a line?

I dunno, StP is a lot easier to take from the top than from the bottom, and Germany had essentially nothing but fleets, all of which can take part there.

If you hadn't taken Bel in 1907? I would have probably lost VIE, but kept everything else. You could have pushed into ION, but that would have given Germany the win.

Right, yeah. But if I had just built a line around my territory, it probably would have ended the same way and a lot sooner.

Spring 1901: Austria, great. I totally don't suck with Austria.
Whenever I play Italy the I/A works so I plan to go with that, but I make overtures to all the surrounding players, Turkey in particular.
By the end of Spring 1901 it's beginning to look like Turkey's the only one who wants to talk, so I decide to throw in with him.

Fall '01: Standard stuff. Building things with Turkey.

Spring '02: I set up for an attack on Italy, who is proving to be an incompetent player. I make gains against Russia and continue to run things with Turkey.

Fall '02: Italy drops out, which was disappointing. Not much more exciting happens. At this point I decide I'm going to try to play the A/T as far as it can go. I've never seen it happen, but it must be beautiful when it does, so I start talking to Turkey about pressing into Iberia and Germany as we go forward. I've lost sight of playing to win and start playing for the alliance.

Spring '03: Just taking up positions against Italy, prepping for a drive on Germany. I toy with the idea of shuffling into Silesia to guarantee myself Warsaw over Turkey, but decide against it since it would box Turkey out of the North German front. Big mistake

Fall '03: We're all set to clean up Italy and begin driving in on Iberia, but I get stabbed. Not really surprised that it happened (it's an A/T after all), but disappointed we couldn't continue on together, I was really pumped about making an A/T work. I begin to backpedal furiously, inviting France and Germany to come on in with whatever meager support I can offer.

1904: Not a bad year to be quite honest. I've given up on my homeland and am only fighting a delaying action, but I establish myself in the Med. in preparation for later years.

1905: Not a terrible year either. With limited French help I secure myself a home in Italy. I'm still talking to Germany hoping to get into Moscow but I'm not holding my breath on it. Despite a decent defense in the fall my home centers are now a lost cause.

1906: France falls off the "save Austria" bandwagon. More likely he just stopped pretending he was on it, but meh. I'm essentially gunboating (outside of dicking around in global) because I feel like everyone hates me.

1907 onward: At this point I'm down to 1 center, and my hope of holding Rome/Naples is entirely gone. I'm just grabbing onto people's coat tails begging for survival.
To my dismay I'm eliminated 1910 and we all pretend to be surprised when it really should have happened years ago.


All around a fun game, even if I never got above 6 centers. There was a lot of potential there if Turkey had wanted to play along, but I guess they weren't thinking the way I was.

It was a very difficult decision. If you had been just a little less generous, I would have stuck with you, as ironic as that sounds.