"At the start of Spring 1910 the remaining Powers in Europe, having gone through months of extensive diplomacy, decided to acknowledge a Russian victory by accepting the proposed Russian Solo.
People throughout Europe rejoiced at the prospect of a lasting peace. No more sons and daughters that would go to faraway countries to never return. No more tax increases to fund fighting in places that no one had heard of before."
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Congratulations to Jorge Saralegui for taking Russia to these heights. Jorge took over from Joao at the end of 1905 with a Russia that with 9 SCs was already 2 ahead of the second-placed player. He never gave his lead away and ended the game with 16 SCs but more importantly a SOLO win.
Also congratulations to everyone that managed to survive this brutal war and the scheming of the nations' rulers. Players that were in it from the start: Max, Doug, Joshua and Stefan.
My hat-off to Max for consistently continued to play even though he saw his English units reduced to 2 already at the end of 1905 - after a brutal beating by the Russians - and never seemed to have recovered from it.
Stefan, you were next on Russia's path of destruction whne your units were halved by a major Russian invasion in 1908 and further reduced to 1 in 1909.
Jerry, my special thanks for stepping in for Italy in early 1907 so the distribution of power in the Mediterranean wouldn't be upset. Not the easiest start with an Italy that had just gone from 5 to 4 SCs.
Doug, being furthest removed from Russia, you played it well with your neighbours and survived with 7 SCs incl. London.
Joshua, with the Russian aggressor as your neighbour you must have extraordinary diplomacy skills to survive the game with 7 SCs incl. two in Italy.
Attached is the map as it exists at the end of the game.
I enjoyed it a lot to master this game. It had some interesting situations like the Russian Fleet in the English Channel and later the Italian army in Berlin.
For those of you who copied me in on their comments or sent me their often humorous remarks, thank you very much: this makes the difference between just adjudicating the game and living it.
The administration around the endgame and the scores will be updated on the website soon.
Meanwhile I would welcome your feedback on this game.
Frank
