GG all, that was a fun game. I opened against France by getting Mar in '01, but should have taken Tunis with the fleet, the army was useless for a long time.

I really enjoyed pottering around in France with my lone army. It was a nice win, very close to the stalemate line.

That ending was really frustrating.

You played really well though and deserved to win. I enjoyed your competition!

I'm mostly happy that I survived the game after being attacked on both sides by England and Italy and then living to see them defeated.

@The Czech: Why couldn't you just bounce moving Norway-Finland and Barents Sea-Norway?

You could have supported Berlin with Baltic Sea and we would have stalemated that turn.

What The Czech did in Finland seemed okay to me. The way he played there I could never break through (although he did gamble on Norway once).

The decisive moment was when I could take the Tyrrhenian sea. If you had mobilised your fleets earlier, this wouldn't have happened.

I was actually toying with the idea of voting draw a long time during that ending. Only when I saw I had a chance in Tunis I decided to go for it.

It wasn't clear you were going to hold Tunis until that last turn, and getting StP back might have been necessary.

The Czech's final moves made no sense, all he needed to do was move Norway-Finland and Barents Sea-Norway. That would have been fine.

Baltic Sea should have held Berlin.

As for my fleets, I wanted to move south but Czech couldn't decide whether his fleets were coming after my English centers or not. I wanted to take London so that I could build an extra fleet in Marseilles - which, I must basvanopheusden, you read brilliantly (by preventing my bounce to leave Marseilles open and supporting Spain back to Marseilles) but unfortunately The Czech, again, did not. That is why my fleets were slow in getting round to Tunis. Although, I did admittedly, in the penultimate year, mistakenly send Irish Sea to NAO instead of MAO.

And that's not true gramilaj - my move to Tyrrrhenian Sea clearly prevented any attack on Tunis and I had that corner covered.

damn, those are some giants slain

GG basvanman

@gramilaj: It was fun to play with you.

You really know how to annoy a player! First the whole business in Paris. With just one army you managed to completely disrupt France's strategy. Then on the other side you decide to attack me with just a single fleet, thus delaying me for a turn or two.

I have to agree with Sarg here. I was follow the game and Czech's final moves just had me shaking my head. He had a perfectly good stalemate line. The moves in Scandinavia seemed a needless risk to me. A needless risk that cost him the game.

Had Germany worked better with me, I think we could have stopped Austria. But it wasn't too glaringly bad. I stopped paying attention once I died though.

Eh, happens to the best of us. Just wait for the Babylon EOGs... or look at the Suicidal Tendencies EOGs. The best players have the most spectacularly bad moments sometimes.

Sarg is right, Czech messed up the last turn. Just gotta move on and get 'em next time.

"Baltic Sea should have held Berlin"

come to think about it, you are right.

Tunis wasn't stalemated until the last turn. There were only a couple of ways to get to it, but it was accessible (at least until Lon came down to play).

Thanks guys.

Actually gramilaj, London did not need to come down. If you look again, you will see that it was stalemated down there, although, it did take some wrangling. I could have had that finalised sooner though - in my EOG I did admit that I made an error by accidentally sending Irish Sea to NAO instead of MAO, that 1 turn cost me by allowing Austria taking Gulf of Lyons, although I managed to reclaim that by the end and reinstate a stalemate line in the Med.

*technically* he could have gotten fleets into Pie/Tus/TYS, so you might have needed to rotate the fleet south -- but it's water under the bridge now, I think you'd have done it before he'd have moved the fleets about

Good game all.

@sarg: England never attacked France. I never once moved on any of your units.

@jcb: You entered English Channel in Spring 1901 - that is of course a direct provocation to France. You followed that up by moving into Picardy a few years later. In my eyes, I was as much defending against you as I was Italy. :)

A provocation is not an attack. I still believe your earlier statement Of being attacked on both sides to be an exaggeration and your joy in seeing me defeated while we both lose to a solo to be misguided.

No problem :)

So I messed up the last turn. Boo freakin hoo. France kept dicking around. If he had sent his fleets south instead of trying to take Lon from me we would have had the stalemate line sewn up 2 years earlier. Look back at the board. When France moved Lvp-Iri, Eng Cha could have moved to MAO. The turn before I clearly sent friendly gestures. I could have played better, but was multi tasking. I'm not doing anything now so if anyone wants a live game...

"France kept dicking around. If he had sent his fleets south instead of trying to take Lon"

I don't think that's fair England. I was trying to get another build to build another fleet in Marseilles and I had attempted a move to London before you had control of it. I let you in to try and communicate my friendliness to you. At that point in the game your idea of stalemate still seemed to be replacing my units with yours to form a 2 way stalemate line - so I was still concerned about leaving units in the north and not sending every unit I had south to the Med.

basvanophuesden ultimately deserved the win. Good game to him.

Yes, it's not fair to blame Germany for the loss. He played very well, and in the end he had the north stalemated. He shouldn't be judged for making one minor mistake.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the south was not actually stalemated at all. I didn't notice the Bal S Ber option, so I decided to try for Marseilles. However I could also have moved Gol-Pie, Ion-Tys, Adr-Ion. Then I would be able to launch a triple attack on Gol, or a double on Tun. So Gol falls, and then I can just move Gol-Wes, Tys-Tun.

The only question was whether I could have accomplished these moves before Germany forced me out of Stp.

@Sarg: You quote "France kept dicking around..." and then say "I dont think that's fair England."

I think it was just a typo but I just want to be clear that you quoted Czech who played Germany.

Although I'd agree and extend it to the time when France decided to stab England instead of establishing a hold in the south first. That's based on two thoughts: 1) it ought not to take much for france to hold an austrian navy, and 2) england had already shown that he was willing to play nicely to survive and could be soundly defeated by germ/fra cooperation at any point thereafter. But hindsight's 20/20.

@bas You had a few options for breaking the stalmate in the south. I liked double or triple supporting Gol to Tyr, 2x support if you also Ion-Nap, Adr-Ion. 3x if you're trying to pop the fleet there right away. Either way, you chould have popped that fleet in Tyr and the fleet London would have become vital.

It's still 50/50 guessing game at that point if you were going right for Tunis or supporting yourself into the Gol, (your hopes are kept alive by a sucessful GOL move) but you had a strong shot at Tunis in S14.

Actually, the 3x support would have allowed a retreat to Naples. Which is much trickier, but still workable

Hmm. That's also a good plan. Force a disband, so France has to rebuild the fleet in Brest, where it's useless.

I think the correct conclusion is that the southern defense was not strong enough to hold on to Tunis. The only question was whether I could break it before The Czech broke through to St. Petersburg.

So maybe he was playing it right up there.

can i just say this game had an awesome title.

Yeah! Next one should be "Provincializing Europe" :-)