Yay me!

First off, many thanks to Trout for running a fun, prompt game with no
rules controversy and a pleasant demeanor.

Second, thanks to those who stuck through the whole game, to the
(sometimes bitter) end - your dedication is both commendable and
greatly appreciated.

Third, thanks to those who came in to pick up abandoned positions - we
couldn't have finished without you!

Now that that's out of the way, time for me to yammer on a bit about
how the game went as viewed from Moscow. This was my first Diplomacy
solo (FtF or online), so please forgive me if I get a little giddy.

Initial diplomacy, naturally, was intended to make nice with everyone
and see who was planning to attack whom (and, especially, who was
planning to attack me). Thankfully, I was able to establish very good
relations early on with two natural Russian allies - Kevin as France
and Babak as Italy. Both seemed like (and turned out to be)
experienced, intelligent players with a good attitude and diplomatic
skills to match, and I had high hopes that one, if not both, would
prove excellent long-term allies. In this, I was mostly correct.
Germany's early diplomacy was sparse and rather vague, and his
explanations of his actions didn't make much sense to me. England,
Turkey, and Austria all seemed nice enough; Austria's emails weren't
always clear, though, and this was probably a contributing factor to
his selection as the first victim in the south. (Italy's Bohemian
Crusher helped a lot, too.)

Austria's quick collapse enabled Italy and I to start working against
Turkey; my pretended indecision seemed to keep Turkey from viewing me
as a direct enemy until too late, though I may be overestimating my
skills. Germany started to look like he was getting his act together,
then elected to stab France out of the blue for minimal gains, which
sealed his fate. Thankfully, he was disorganized enough that both
France and I could split our attention between Germany and another
target (England for France, Turkey for me) and still make progress. I
held no grudge against England, but France and I were committed to
working together and France was deeply involved in a war on England,
so England became an enemy by default.

By 1906, Austria and Turkey were out, England was on the ropes, and
Germany was in a bad position; I was able to keep him stalled in
Scandinavia long enough to get armies into mainland Germany. Italy and
France, my two best allies, were fighting each other, and it was clear
that I'd eventually need to take sides. Both allies had done right by
me, but communication from Babak (Italy) had become very erratic and
frankly, he was in a better position to be stabbed, so I stabbed him.
(But I felt really bad about it afterwards!) This was also the point
where the NMRs and abandonments started becoming a severe problem in
the game as a whole; that's a pet peeve of mine, but I won't dwell on
it here except to once more thank those who took over an abandoned
position and/or played it out to the end.

Come 1907, England was gone, Germany was clinging to life under new
management, and Italy had changed leaders. At this point, it was clear
that I had a reasonable shot at a solo, and I decided to go for it. To
my utter amazement and gratitude, France elected to stick with me
rather than ally with Italy to stop the solo. (Thanks, Kevin! I don't
believe in cross-gaming, but I certainly owe you one!) At that point,
it was really all over but the tactics; the new Germany was a good
diplomat, but had been given nothing to work with by his predecessor,
and the new Italy didn't have the troops or positioning to fight
France and I by himself. As long as I didn't make any dreadful
mistakes, the game was mine to lose, and thankfully I didn't.

Much as I'd like to attribute my success to superior diplomatic skills
and tactical acumen, I can't; I had two unexpected (and unforeseeable)
assets that swung the game for me. First was Kevin as France, whose
willingness to stick by me on my way to a solo is the only reason this
game isn't still going on. Second was - well, I'd call it luck, but we
all know there's no luck in Diplomacy, right? Anyway, it seemed that
almost every time I had to guess about an opponent's actions, or
select from two equally appealing sets of orders, I made the right
choice. Even a few very unorthodox, oddball moves paid off handsomely
in this game; it seemed like I could do no wrong.

Well, that's enough out of me. Thanks again for the game! Borscht and
vodka for everyone!

Best,

Brian/Russia