Thank you, Michael Penner for GMing this one.

 

Congradulations to Michael Sims for his solo.

 

As many of you remember, I came into DC287 to replace Sahara.

As the new Sahara, the first issues I saw was Russia advancing through Europe, Quebecan-Mexican War, Oceania advancing into China, and Congo advancing on Amazon and appeared to have recently stabbed my predecessor.

I originally attempted to arrange an alliance with Europe to attempt stemming the Russian tide while I dually attempt to seek peace with Congo and form an anti-Congoian coalition with Oceania, Persia, and Amazon. With Persia's appearance of defensiblility, I felt that Persia would be willing to defend while using Congo as a building platform to form an offensive force to use at his discretion.

1. Europe and I were unable to form an alliance, so I opted to approach Russia instead.

2. My method to dually approach Congo for peace and test his willingness had failed. In fact, the entire exercise proved to counter productive for either Saharan survival or any chance I had at bringing Sahara back into the game.

3. Although Persia, Amazon, and I had managed to form a coalition against Congo, it was incredibly short-lived.

 

After it became obvious Persia, Amazon, and I weren't going to be able to stem the tide on Congo, which my aid to Russian expansion into Europe likely didn't help matters with my relations with Persia, it became clear I'd have to divert Congo to survive.

I suspect Congo sensed this, and he used it to advance his expansion into a position where he could better dictate terms with maximum consequence. It was definitely the right move since I continued to seek a backup strategy of forming a counter alliance to push Congo back, but those attempts failed utterly. My last ditch effort towards countering Congo included convoying a Russia army into Tri while attempting to get Quebec to bottle the Atlantic but neither worked. Due to this, I believe my suspicion Congo placed me right where he wanted me.

At the same time, I've resigned myself to attempting to using my units to best aid Congo while attempting to survive. The strategy seemed to be paying off, but I believe Congo saw what I saw. Congo could potentially solo this one by eliminating Sahara and moving on Persia/Oceania or both.

Russia struck me as Congo's principle rival in this one, and Congo's determined strategy prevented direct Congoian-Russian conflict.

 

Well done and Congradulations Michael Sims on your solo.

 

Good game all.

 

from Sean