I was doing OK till I got the hit from Russia. It was a desperation grab tho, all it did was put his units out of defensive position and it killed him as well as me

ok here we go:
1901:
Standard opening for Turkey, and luckily I landed the Black Sea, by convoying into Rumania I was getting rid of that annoying Russian fleet. I was also lucky in that Austria was getting attacked by both Italy and Russia and didn't have the resources to bounce me out of the Balkans.
1902:
I was worried that Russia would try to sneak around against me via Armenia, (as it turns out Russia seemed like a defensive player, but I wasn't to realise this until several seasons later.) I also set up my fleet in the AEG to allow for a convoy, whilst keeping Austria out of Serbia.
1903:
Italy had made inroads into Austria in 1902, and I was keen to push the advantage whilst Austria was otherwise distracted. I increased my presence in the Eastern Med, and held my position to consolidate my position.
1904:
Taking the Ionian, was a calculated move, I felt that by having a 'rogue' unit distracting Italy, I could focus my attention on the more pressing matters, of gaining territory north. I had no intention on holding the Ionian, knowing/hoping Italy would over-react and allow me to retreat forward. I feel that this was my first 'mistake' in the game, in that I could have retreated to Tunis, and thus threaten France whilst he was engaged in the north... oh well.
1904:
Expanded into Budapest and Sevastopol
1905:
At this point Russia was making gains against Germany, and I needed to get a unit into Galicia. Leaving Sev. open (I made sure I could retake it) I chose to squeeze through the gap, into northern Austria, hoping to surround Italian advances, (in the war I was committed to, through my retreat to Naples as opposed to Tunis several seasons before)
1906:
I found myself with a fleet in the Adriatic. which I was to use to great benefit, espc. given that Italy had no fleet in which to cut any support that it might be offering. France had ordered to GoL this year and I started to get concerned about his gains in the north against Germany and England.
1907:
I really needed an extra army at on my Western front, so here was the convoy to Venice. Deliberately sacrificing my unit in Naples in order to do this. I would have liked to have pushed further west, in the Med. but I felt it was more important to get the upper hand with an extra army on the front, (as it turns out this could have been a mistake)
1908:
Inroads against Russia and Italy, following the logical conclusion to using my armies to there best advantage, I was particularly concerned with the French army in Tyr, but nothing could be done about that at this stage.
1909:
Another mistake was made in ordering A Con - Bul (it should have gone to Rum thus providing an extra unit against Russia)
1910:
the trap was laid in the north. I felt sure that France would attack Vienna, and thus maneuvered my units so that there would be no chance for him to hold either Berlin or Munich. Unfortunately I didn't anticipate a certain convoy to NaF (this would win the game for France (well done!)). This was particularly galling, initially I had ordered:
F Tun s F TYR - WME
but felt I would be better by covering a worrying A Mar - Pie, which in the end didn't eventuate.


So thanks everyone for the game.
Russia: There was a number of times you could have broken through, but chose to focus on Germany instead.
Italy: good game, although why you didn't ordered in Autumn 1904 F ION s F TYR - Nap, remains a mystery to me.
Austria: a good fight, thanks
France: again a good game, hope to cross swords again sometime
Germany: initially I thought you were going to be the main player in the game. France and Russia beat you down I guess.
England: Never really made an impact in the game, starting from the misordered convoy that didn't work, better luck next time.

Well, I did order F ION S F Tyr->NAP. You cut the support from Greece.

My first Gunboat game. I was trying to signal to Turkey to ally and take Austria out, but apparently Turkey didn't feel he needed my help. Heck, Russia even pointed it out!! I wanted to say YES!

When Turkey ignored my help and turned on me, I really didn't know where else to go.

...I screwed up. Haha. I hit the wrong selection for the convoy and everything went downhill from there. Oh well.

Sorry jbalcorn,
I really didn't realise that was what you were trying to do! :~
I think a stronger signal would have been a support:
F Tyr s F Nap - hold etc...

Great game all. I really like the way Kaner structured the comments above, so I'll do something similar here:

1901
I decided to try a somewhat anti-English opening, more as a defensive move than an attack (I preferred to bounce the Channel rather than see England move in for free). Germany's opening makes me a little nervous and doubtful about getting Belgium, but that leaves me floating in the Channel when that move fails, so I can keep pressuring England - that gets especially good when the convoy fails. Italy is taking Tunis and looking at Austria, which is also nice.

1902
The move to Burgundy worries me, but I'm willing to bet that Germany is more concerned with England right now because England is getting pressed by France as well. This ends up being a good guess and the Belgium grab works out.

1903
With England going NMR and only having one fleet in the area anyway, I decide to follow Franklin Roosevelt's strategy: "Germany first." Spring is essentially a positioning move, and fall lets me retake Belgium. The fighting between Russia and Germany on the eastern front looks good for me, and the surprise London disband in retrospect isn't hugely important (it was never capable of dislodging the Channel), but is still nice and opens up London.

1904
Following the "Germany first" strategy, I decide to bounce him out of North Sea until England can take over rather than take London in the spring. I take Ruhr as an important step towards a German offensive, then use it to help retake Belgium. With the Liverpool grab, this leaves me in my best position so far, as I have regained Bel (again) and now also hold Ruhr.

1905
I take a spring move against England that will let me recover in the fall if England makes the right (wrong?) move. Fortunately he doesn't, which sets up the autumn move that basically ends England's power. Support for Russia in the fall also takes away all of Germany's home centers.

1906
I've been keeping my eye on Turkey and am getting concerned that he's taken out Austria, held off a strong Russia, and is now aiming at Italy. I realize that the only way to help Italy is to move towards him, which will look rather threatening in a gunboat game, but try it anyway. I try to signal to Russia that I'm willing to ally in the post-Germany world, but Russia doesn't finish off Germany for some reason.

1907
Russia still doesn't finish off Germany in the spring, so I postpone my attack and hope he finishes in the fall. I try to signal to Italy that I want to help him against Turkey, and go out on a limb hoping he will try to retake Venice; he doesn't. I'm now caught in a point where my only way to expand is to attack Russia and Italy, but my long-term goal is to stop Turkey. This is reflected to some extent in my schizophrenic support/attack switches against Russia.

1908
The army in Tuscany disbands, and I decide that this isn't really a problem, since Italy didn't seem to pick up on its support and it was probably just distracting him from the fight against Turkey. Russia's disbands are nice as they give me an open avenue and present a front against Turkey. Russia is now basically a feeding frenzy; I see that I'm basically guaranteed StP and Turkey is guaranteed Mos, but I could get War if I race there before support arrives.

1909
Not thrilled about Turkey's Warsaw grab, which is pretty much unbreakable. Naples falling so quickly also isn't great, and a draw looks pretty appealing until Russia shows up again about an hour before I log on to enter the draw order.

1910
Vienna looks like a fun grab; I've got no intentions of holding it, but hopefully it distracts from any Turkish attempts to cross the main stalemate line. Apparently Turkey planned it deliberately (although I'm pretty sure I still could have held the German centers), so it doesn't work. But the North Africa convoy does work, which means that I don't need the draw any more.

England: The early missed convoy was the main factor that made you a target, and once you're the target of 3 powers simultaneously, things can get tough.
Germany: Great early play. I think a key issue for Germany is that it's very difficult to survive a joint attack by France and Russia, and during a gunboat game it's hard to make sure that one won't attack while you're focusing on the other. Once Russia attacked, I was able to launch an effective counterattack whereas I had only been holding off in a defensive line before.
Russia: The slowness in finishing Germany was the main thing that turned me against you. We had been effective allies against Germany, but as long as we could tell he was effectively finished, the alliance wouldn't hold up unless we found a new common enemy. As long as Germany was alive but weak, it made Russia the next major target for me, while slightly quicker work could have brought the hammer down on Italy instead (I showed I was ready with the 1905 build, but Russia got bogged down with Turkey instead)
Austria: I never really got the chance to interact with you much, since I was just crossing the Rhine while the Italian/Turkish alliance was marching into the home centers.
Italy: I was hoping for more cooperation against Turkey, but I think that my decision to support a (non-existent) move rather than a hold (and therefore have no arrow show up on the map) made that intention a little unclear. By the time I was ready to send a second wave to Italy, Italy was already dead (that influenced the decision to go to NAf instead).
Turkey: Great game. You frustrated me at various points by taking out Russia and Italy a lot faster than I would have liked. 1910 was really a tossup, as I could have moved towards Italy or Tunis. It really did have to be a guess at that point, and it just happened to be wrong. Looking forward to another game.

@grcton - I was so focused on anti-austria and pro-turkey, and frustrated on how it wasn't working, that I just saw we had a DMZ and left it at that. I really should have been more flexible.

I haven't figured out how to play Italy in a regular game - I tend to decide whether I'm anti-austria or anti-turkey and go with it. I was hoping my first gunboat would have put me as England, Russia or Turkey, where I've had more experience.

I'm not sure I'll try it again, but thanks for the game, guys.

Based on my experiences as Italy, which admittedly are limited, I've found that the best thing to do is something like what you said. Unfortunately, that requires a lot of communication with the other players. I think Italy might be the hardest country to play as in a gunboat game.

Italy and Austria both.
Thanks again everyone,
and cheers grcton for the EGS.

I dont have much to add since I was the first one out... in fact, I've pretty much been the first out in 3 out of 3 12hr gunboat games this month (its going to KILL my Ghost rankings). but then again, A and G are really hard to play and particularly master in gunboat.

as for Austria's end-game...

I started out with a modified hedgehog... moving to ven to cover a potential Italian stab... surprisingly Italy did not move to Ven despite moving to Tyl.

I never had any intention of being at war with Italy - so I moved Ven to Tri in the fall instead of bouncing in Tri (which I did consider strongly). but I thought that Italy would see my voluntary pull-back from venice as a sign of good faith.

not so much.

so then I just got raped 3 ways from sunday by Russia/Turkey/Italy... not much to report really lol ;)

my biggest error in that game was i was off season, I kept making the important moves in the spring, only to lose them again in the fall.

I really had expected that russia would stay to protect his southern border from Turkey and so was unprepared when he did move against me.

This was my first gunboat game and I really did enjoy it, I am working on two more at the moment