Hi All,

I'd like to start out by thanking Stephen for running this game. It must have been an absolute ton of work, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This was my first FOW game, and I spent pretty much the whole game expecting a massive invasion force to appear out of the dark and annihilate me. I decided that if I was going to get attacked at any moment, I might as well play as aggressively as possible. And I did. I credit my final standing in this game to a lot of risks paying off and my fellow players' apparent ignorance of just how large I had become.

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I started by exploring to my South, finding the Temple and the Black Rock. These would form my home SC's.

I continued to explore and expand on my own until the Spring of 2006, when I ran into Mike, Fredrik, and Trout. Pleasantries were exchanged all around; borders were established with all three, and I even exchanged some map with Fredrik.

It was the Fall of this year that I entered the Ruins. The Ruins allowed me to release the Monster, while the Temple allowed me to protect myself from it and see what it saw. Without hesitation, I released it. How could I not?

So, things were going well, but space was running out. Fredrik, while making friendly noises, began to move armies to our border. Fortunately for me, Mike was also indicating his desire to move against Fredrik. In a fortuitous confluence of circumstances, Fredrik committed an unambiguously aggressive force on the same turn that Mike attacked him and the Monster broke free. Fredrik told me that he'd back off if his planned attack was hopeless and if I would attack Mike. I GIMP'ed a map to send to Fredrik (map is attached; space 19 was actually empty), lied to him about my ability to control the Monster (I had no control over where it moved), and agreed to attack Mike. Fredrik retreated, and I moved to attack him. With Jorge's help I was able to take his Camp, but nothing else was available.

By this point I had also met Sam and Drew. Sam liked to explore, but was making me quite nervous. I told him so, but I wasn't really in any position to keep him out. I wouldn't hear back from Drew for several years, so I started to hatch plans against my silent neighbor.

Mike agreed to join me in an attack against Drew. This seemed good to me, and I was interested in co-operating more with Mike. However, because the Monster had entered Mike's territory and was feeding me info, I could tell that Mike was not moving against Drew. My feelings on this matter were made more imperative by the fact that Drew had sent a single unit into my very overstretched territory and had actually occupied one of my SC's. I ejected him and, knowing that he was in conflict with Frank, suggested that he disband the unit rather than retreat further into my territory. Remarkably, he did just that.

With Drew off my back, Mike's honesty in question, no idea where Jorge's SC's were, and an offer from Frank and Jorge to take out Mike, the choice was clear. I helped Frank take the Cave under the condition that he immediately cede it to me (which he did!) This was the start of a very fruitful relationship. With the help of Frank and Jorge, I took three SC's from Mike.

During this time, Frank and I were trying to convince Drew to attack Mike. Drew wrote back to us around the same time: Frank received a strongly worded reply to his strongly worded query, and I received a curious but non-committal reply to my offer to stab Frank. With Mike out of the way, it seemed that I had a choice: move against Drew with Frank and Jorge, or move against Frank and Jorge with Drew. The former allowed me to continue working with two trustworthy neighbors, but would leave me stretched across the width of the island. The latter was more uncertain, but would hopefully allow me to secure a corner position. My decision was made when Trout and Sam declared their desire to attack Jorge.

Stabbing two allies at once sounds like a terrible move, and I expected it to fail miserably. Instead, it turned out to be the most profitable move I made all game. I took four SC's from them by the end of the game.

I must admit that I panicked, though, when I saw Trout's armies moving into my territory. I immediately assumed that he was stabbing, and asked Drew and Sam for help. Trout apologized, said he was just moving for the front against Jorge, and moved through. Not wanting him to see the extent of my territory, I directed him to Drew's territory and started moving armies North.

I was losing momentum to paranoia... Looking at the map, I see that if I had kept my armies in the South, I could have picked up several more SC's from Jorge and Frank. I might have gotten them, but as you can all see, I had started moving armies away from the front in an effort to defend against that stab that never came. Sam now says that he was thinking of stabbing, but I was at that point able to defend against him. If Trout or Drew had stabbed, though, then I would have been in deep trouble. If that had happened, I probably would have begged Frank and Jorge for a second chance, but I leave it up to them to say how that would have went over.

Anyway, that's probably enough. I had a great time playing this game, and I wouldn't hesitate to play another FOW game. Thanks again to Stephen for designing and running it, and thanks to all my opponents for a great experience.

Cheers,

Matthew