AUSTRIA EOG
(Warning: I spent a LOT of time on 1901-1902, sorry!)
What a joy this game is going to be! "Join only if you're talkative", right? Well, sure, I can talk. And I don't have to deal with gunboaters, hopefully no CDs either. Yay! All I have to do is not draw--
Austria! FFFFFFFFF--!
Yeah, I have an okay record with Austria honestly, but I just hate being surrounded by everyone like that. So I'll be straight with you, I thought I wasn't lasting past 1903.
As might be expected of an Austria player, my 1901 diplomacy was largely focused on sounding Italy, Turkey, and Russia out to see who might not want to kill me right away. France sounded me out right away, just for well wishing. I replied, that's all well and good but we can definitely talk about what we'd like to do with each of the countries in between us, Germany and Italy. Neutral to Italy, fine, war would at least mean I wouldn't have to worry about him but he made a good point about A/I needing to stop a R/T. And I wasn't unfriendly to Italy at this point either.
Sounded Italy out properly now that I had finished talking to France. Sounded England out, no response (all effing game). Germany: Live long and prosper, and what are you thinking about France and Italy? Turkey: Thoughts about Russia? Russia: Vice versa? You get the idea. Pretty standard.
Russia tells me he's opening north to beat England back from Scandanavia. Italy says he's happy with an alliance. I offer Lepanto and hedgehog options, he accepts the Lepanto but then decides to go with the hedgehog. I'm okay with that. Germany gets back to me and promises to pressure Italy against moving against me. I can afford to leave Russia alone and there's a decent chance Italy will play it cool. I talk to Italy about bouncing in Trieste so I can defend against a Russian move to Galicia. France corroborates the intel I got from Russia, Germany keeps offering to help me diplomatically, threatening to bounce Russia out of Sweden if Russia moves to Galicia.
Maybe I'll survive 1902/1903 after all, just hope I didn't screw up on the moves...
I decide to take a small chance and open more south, so I can get a shot at Greece (but of course I cover Trieste, since we had agreed on hedgehogging a bit). Italy holds, yay for me. Now I am in a safe position and have a decent shot at 2 builds for 1901. Not bad! Russia opened really weirdly, though, moving to Livonia. I later learn that this is due to clever diplomacy on Germany's part-- and I hate to say it, but probably a hint of inexperience (or worse) for the Russian.
Germany's press is interesting to me-- he did sound rather belligerent against the Italian, which struck me as a little unusual, so I challenged him to tell me who his ally was that he could afford not to be "diplomatically correct" if you will. And I was still hoping for answers from France. Both were pretty coy in that regard, and I think that was probably the right thing to do.
Italy forgets to bounce me in Trieste, which he later says was just flaking. I'm a little upset at this point, because I was talking to Turkey about surprising Russia in Fall 1901, but now of course I can't do that. But Russia didn't open to Galicia, so at least I'm still safe. I wasn't about to cry over spilled milk at this point, but of course this meant I couldn't really attack Russia. "Damn that Italian," I say to Turkey-- here I had a ready-made excuse not to go to Russia.
At this point I had two real options-- Lepanto with Italy against Turkey, or an A/T against Russia and keep encouraging Italy to Lepanto so I didn't have an I/T banging down my door. Now my hand was forced. Sorry Turkey, but I had to pursue the best strategy I could.
Okay, so I tell Turkey I'm gonna try to get back into position to move into Russia-- what a terrible opening, right? Better jump on it! And I'm working with Italy to figure out that Lepanto, and working with Russia to try to figure out why he opened like he did and try to help him avoid getting owned up north (which I didn't completely want because then Turkey had a good chance of steamrollering him and Italy and I would have had a harder time against him). I was literally three-faced in Autumn 1901, not gonna lie.
Then the moves came. I get Greece. I do a good job of prodding Italy, as if hoping for a quick stab. Oh yeah, 6 center Austria, what an idiot I must be to try it. Oh, except Italy and I agreed on it, so no big deal. Italy convoys to Tunis, good step towards the Lepanto. Turkey gains Sevastopol easily. Russia... NMRs. Well, okay, this is excellent, now I wish I were Turkey so I could completely own Russia. I'm in no real position to take advantage and anyway I'm still working on that Lepanto with Italy even though it looks like I'm trying to stab him prematurely.
Builds... nothing surprising. Fleet Constantinople is a little worrisome, I really wanted Aegean Sea in Spring 1902 but there's a good chance Turkey's just using it to provide convoy support. And he didn't build Fleet Smyrna, thank God. We can still make the Lepanto happen, I think. Italy builds Fleet Naples, no worries. I build two armies, no surprise. Germany builds two armies, England builds Fleet Edinburgh, no surprise. France gets three builds, two of which are fleets.
That's a small surprise to me, and not a completely pleasant one. I need to know where they're going. Spring 1901 I was okay with an attack on Italy; 1901 adjustments, and now I wanted France to stay the **** away. I immediately try to probe him; after a long while, he reluctantly tells me they're for England and I promise not to pass that on. (For the record, I stuck to that promise. I was happy to just tell Italy that he was safe.)
I bring up to Turkey the notion of a controlled trade in centers, in the hopes that I can conveniently misunderstand him later.
Russia won't listen to my advice, and he offers to help me take Bulgaria. That would almost be a good idea, but I'm trying to keep appearing friendly to Turkey and I also don't really want him alive any more, so... "sounds good" I say, "but not really" I mutter. Turkey so kindly offers to support me to Rumania. Great. "Where's that Con fleet going?" North. Awesome, better and better.
Spring 1902 are where everything gets interesting. Italy and I had been bouncing, I didn't say anything to him this phase, he assumed it was still on. Or so he says. In my mind I'm stabbed and the game is suddenly going to hell. Maybe. (Remember my prediction about 1903?) Now I have either a ready-made or a REAL excuse about why I moved to Aegean, that Italian swine, I'm gonna kick his ass.
Naturally, I talk to him, what the hell is this, he tells me his story... Okay. I figure either he's lying and I'm basically screwed no matter what, or I can trust him and get him to move to Albania, puts him in a really good position to convoy into Turkey, and he can keep going with the Lepanto. He did move to Eastern Mediterranean after all. And I can support him into Smyrna. Turkey probably wouldn't see it coming at all.
Well, you all know the rest. Italy repays my trust, and suddenly Turkey is in MAJOR trouble. I'm going to remember this game for a while-- this is probably my favorite stab ever. I'm biased, of course, but I feel that the 1902 year was a work of Diplomatic art.
The game turns a little more tactical from then on, for me. Italy and I work together to dismantle Turkey, Germany and I are on good terms, Russia is unable to do anything about my taking Rumania. Not a lot to say for the next year or two. Greece falls in 1903. I'm at 7 centers and Italy is at 6. R/T are becoming irrelevant. Not bad. France builds 2 fleets, and somehow I doubt they're meant for further pillaging of England. He doesn't have a great position to stab Germany. So he must be moving south.
1904, I slowly realized that my only way forward was through Italy. Autumn 1904, with much regret, I take one of Italy's centers to get a second build. As Germany pointed out, he couldn't really mass against me, so he had to convince me to move more fully against Italy. I build a fleet, ostensibly against Italy but figuring I might need it against France later on. It's also a sign of good will to Germany.
1905 is a good year. Solid tactics against Italy in Turkey, gaining me two more centers. Oh, make that three, I got Venice too. I was afraid I was about to acquire Tall Poppy Syndrome, but I managed to get Germany to stop at building a wall. I build another fleet instead of an army, and the two armies are well positioned to defend against Germany. I can set up a line against either France or Germany and I'm pretty much guaranteed to come out with a draw. But I wasn't sure how to go about soloing-- I needed to get France to back off of Italy, so of course I had to encourage Germany to go after France. But he was reluctant, putting it off for one infuriating phase even after moving to Burgundy. Finally he at least built a fleet, but by this time we had a good stalemate line.
Oh, except it had a flaw in Warsaw. Of course I'm happy to try to see if France and I can break Germany somehow, so naturally I go for it. But France keeps playing defensively in the Med and I can see that he doesn't trust me. If I moved against him I knew I had no chance of a solo at that point, and honestly I was happy to draw. So in Spring 1907, after missing adjustments for 1906 (sorry all, I was on vacation and forgot to tell everyone/request a pause!), Italy is finally down and I decide to go with the 3-way draw.
In retrospect, I wonder if I could have gone for the solo by building one less fleet and focusing on armies a little longer. But unfortunately, when I inevitably would need to crank out fleets, I'd be disadvantaged by having the one port.
I think I have to credit my lack of solo to two things. One, of course, was moving slowly against my former ally Italy-- maybe I could have gotten more of a jump on him if I'd waited a little longer and gone for a bigger stab. But as I said, I was already afraid of Tall Poppy Syndrome, so in another sense I *had* to be slow every way I could be. I think I did a pretty good job in balancing my alliances with France and Germany at the end, but unfortunately for me they were both really smart players and were very careful not to let me get too much of an edge. I tried really hard to get a broader conflict going on, too.
Maybe if I'd moved against France properly, and not bothered with setting up a stalemate line, perhaps Germany might have kept his word and moved west with me. But I had no way of knowing, and he was holding his own against France very well already.
GERMANY: Would you have kept your word if I didn't militarize the borders? Or would you have stabbed me?
FRANCE: Am I right in thinking that you didn't really trust me?
ITALY: I'm really sorry about the stab. You were a really good ally and we pulled off the most artful stab I've ever been a part of against Turkey. But as I said, I didn't feel I had much of a choice if I wanted to keep growing. I'm sorry.
So quiet
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