DC302 Russian EOG Statement
 
Thank you Michael for GMing this one, it was very fun.
Thank you again, Frank, for filling the German position in this one.
Congratulations to Simon and Mike for their part in the draw.
Thank you, everyone for playing this game. It was a lot of fun.
 
The Russian prospective:
 
In the opening of this game, I had predominantly explored options with the powers of Europe to try to determine my best possible alliance agreement. I ran into a few snags.
1). German-Russo communications didn't do well, and I had to double check my DC302 e-mail fail to double check if we had exchanged any communication before Frank had taken over the helm of Germany.
2). Austrian-Russo communication had been sparse at best.
3). The most receptive countries appeared to be England, France, Italy, and Turkey.
 
        Since German-Russo communication non-existent, I agreed to help Anglo-Franco to dismantle Germany. I had agreed to attack Sil, and I had tried to establish it as an arranged bounce but communication remained non-existent even though he did bounce me in Swe.
        At the end of the first year, I found myself bounced in Swe and building for Ber and Rum.
 
        At this point, Frank had taken the reigns of Germany and immediately began making maneuvers to re-establish the German position as a formidable force. With France and Germany cooperating, it made little sense for me to maintain Ber. With an anti-English Franco-German alliance, I didn't see how I could maintain my position against Germany, and I was fighting a second front in the south. I tried repeatedly to get Turkey to move on Austria, and Mike did a good job allowing me to believe I had some measure of success. I felt that if I could help Italy against Austria and turn Turkey against Austria; I had a fighting chance wrapping up the southern front. In the end, my southern strategy utterly failed, Nice job Mike.
In the north, I was much more successful. Frank had offered me peace by vacating Ber, and I had used the Franco-German alliance to re-establish myself in Stp by supporting England into Swe.
At this point, Turkey's successful stab left me bleeding heavily. I was literally on the ropes here. I felt that my best chances at this point were maintain my northern influence, so I could play with the western balance of power. As a result, I disbanded my southern armies with the exception of Mos.
I suspect that my saving grace with Turkey in the south was predominantly Austria's continued civil disorder forced him to dually use his AA Bud as a defensive measure against Italy and work around him to expand into Russia giving me a chance to diplomatically gain footing. In my mind, I believed that I needed to pick a front and focus my military on that front. "When confronted with a two front war, concentrate where you can do the most damage" was something heavily ingrained into me by my Diplomacy teacher.
 
I felt that I needed to keep England and Germany counter-balanced while I attempted to form friendly relations with Turkey who predominantly would determine my fate in this one. Initially, I thought that I was at best playing a Kamikaze strategy. I tried to strengthen Germany to prevent France from being able to seize the moment and stab him. It served to prevent Germany from contemplating moving an army or two eastward, which would have spelt my doom despite any headway with Turkey who was looping around a continued civil disordered Austria. In hindsight, this failed attempt was what had brought me back from the brink to help Germany into both Swe and Nwy had been the biggest turning point for me. I was able to arrange support into Nwy, defend War, and I was able to effectively increase my influence by helping France cripple England and Germany at the same time. This had dually brought me back from the brink, and France's growth allowed me to try pointing an inevitable Anglo-German alliance at France.
 
At this point, I was able to establish negotiations against Anglo-Germany with France, and Anglo-German negotiations against France. I felt that if I could get Anglo-Germany against France; I could buy myself enough time to get Turkey to knife through Italy who at this point remained stalemated against one another. Since my aid to France boosted his chances of a solo, I felt; I had some avenues to work with. Franco-Russo strategy had been formed, so I felt that I could use it indirectly to use Anglo-Germany to slow his expansion down. But, I ran into two predominant snags.
1). I felt that the predominant Anglo-German strategy placed too much emphasis on moving on Hol and Kie while leaving England to his fate. I strongly believed that the German strategy was to attempt to survive by allowing France to loop around him.
2). I believe that Frank saw through my strategy while I believe; I saw his.
        At this point, I maintained my agreement with France, which was blind luck that Italy didn't successfully use negotiations between England, Germany, and I to increase his position with both France and Turkey.
        It was incredibly close though; I had to change my orders between classes during the day of the deadline. I suspect that Italy did pass Russian movements to Turkey whom moves two armies into Russia via Ukr and Sev. Had I went gave in to German demands, I would have been caught completely out of position to defend against Turkey's anti-Russian movements. In a way, the breakdown of Anglo-German-Russian negotiations had saved me from imminent collapse. My grandfather literally had always said that sometimes it is better to be lucky than smart; my resulting orders left me taking Swe and leaving War and Mos in defensive postures. Or, as my teacher put it, "When in doubt attack your enemy/attack something".
 
        Towards the end of the game, I nearly made a fatal mistake that I'm not entirely sure what happened. The W06 NBR caused me a major disruption in strategy. Turkey and I had agreed to stalemate France at this point, and I had aimed to bld A Stp, so Turkey wouldn't be tempted to try filling the stalemate line himself on the off chance while it would have allowed me to order War-Sil and Mos-Lvn. I felt that if Simon wanted to solo this one; he'd have to stab me in Scandinavia and Ber-Pru to effectively do it. Until that move, I had no idea Italy would NMR, and I suspected Simon would want two to three options for his 18th supply center. Unfortunately, I made the brutal mistake of not sending a second winter build e-mail since I hadn't uncharacteristically up to that juncture received confirmation of my build orders. (This was definitely my error, Michael T, I should have sent a follow up e-mail to try avoiding this NBR. [When will this count towards my NMR in my profile anyhow? It hadn't registered since I last logged into DC] I admit that the NBR hurt my pride more than being stabbed 4 times in the same game counting France's non-assault on Mun earlier in the game).
Swe-Pru and Bal C Swe-Pru/Swe-Ber and Bal C Swe-Ber were perhaps one of my best tactical gambles I made in this one. It kept France out of Pru, defended Swe, and may have played a role with Sil. I'm fairly certain it caused Simon more guess work, which may have played a role in the 3-way draw vote.
 
My assessment of the players:
 
England (Matt): Definitely a formidable diplomat and strategist, you definitely had me backed into a corner, and you probably would have penetrated deeper into Russia if the Anglo-Franco alliance remained intact a bit longer.
 
Italy (Brian): What diplomacy we had was very good, we worked effectively together; unfortunately, we both quieted down during the middle until being included in forming a coalition against France/trying to get me to move on Turkey. It's definitely a weakness of mine diplomatically to fall silent when I'm not sure what to communicate. I'm honestly not sure if or how being ADHD played a role here. You have my apologies here; I should have kept communication up throughout gameplay.
 
Germany (Frank): You did a splendid job bouncing Germany back from the brink. If Austria hadn't went awol and left Turkey to stalemate Italy, I probably would have been forced to continue my policy towards strengthening Germany up just to try surviving this one. Your diplomacy was very eloquent and your strategy and tactics would have definitely allowed you to gain a winning seat if things turned out differently.
 
France (Simon): Again congrats for attaining a winning position, your diplomacy, strategy, and tactics definitely brought you to the brink of a solo here. I'm not entirely sure if I could have prevented you from penetrating into Stp, but I would have did my best to make you work for it.
 
Turkey (Mike): Again congrats for attaining a winning position. Your stab against me was a thing of beauty; I honestly didn't see it coming. Between Matt and you, I spent most of the early game simply trying to survive. I truly believe if Austria hadn't went into civil disorder; you two would have dually pushed Italy out of Austria and used Russia as a building platform. Your absence from the hobby definitely didn't dull your dagger and diplomatic skills any. I definitely lost the ability to move on Sev in the late stages of the game; I was convinced that I needed to fortify Scandinavia to prevent France from breaking through especially at a rapid rate. I also needed to plug Sil and Pru as fast as possible. I wonder how close I came to Simon ordering Ber-Sil while he defended Den and Kie.
 
Austria (Steve): You definitely had a good opening, but I think that you lost interest after being reduced to a single supply center. I don't think that Turkey would have deprived you as his smaller ally, and it probably was the biggest reason why I was able to stage a comeback. Even with your one unit, you were very useful to Turkey, so it would make sense that you could have staged a comeback yourself. I hope to see you again, and I hope that you remember comebacks are possible. I wouldn't worry too much of being eliminated; it happens (I've been there before; in fact, I'm probably one of the few who are willing to be eliminated and replace a player in the same game only to be eliminated a second time in one game). I hope that you continue to play and that you had fun.
 
(Forgot to make sure the DC302 diplomaticcorp address was attached.)
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