Hi
All,



First off, thanks Christine & Mike for GMing.  Great job over the long
haul without missing a beat, thanks for making it possible.  Here's my
jaded perspective....



Openings:

If I recall correctly (and am reading the game history correctly on DC) there
was something of a Western Triple alliance out of the gate with Dirk going for
the bold Barbossa. That allowed me to swipe both Hol and Nwy in 1901 despite
the fact that Paul had a Northern opening.  So a good start for Jolly Ole
England.



Next Steps:

All of that left Bel and France in general open to attack and I saw no reason
why I couldn't do that and step into Stp from Nwy as well.  My attack on
Nick was also behind what I thought was a fairly strong GE alliance with
expected help from Dirk in Bur/France too.  All of that went as planned to
our profit and I was feeling quite safe in my corner while Dirk and Ray seemed
to be mixing it up too.



The Mythical 2-Way Draw

Dirk and I were talking 2-way at this point which would be a common theme
throughout the rest of the game.  Of course, now that the game is over, I
can honestly say that at no point did I ever desire a 2-Way draw.  If ever
a crack appeared I would have made a lunge at the solo. More later... To Dirk's
credit he never allowed me that crack and in 1921 I wasn't about to offer it to
him which led to the final impasse.  Though I think at several points
earlier he could clearly have gone for the solo and possibly succeeded, but not
in 1921.  But my spidey-senses weren't tingling and in the end I genuinely
believe that Dirk was willing to forgo the solo and the WB championship and
keep his word to work toward the 2-Way draw.  That led to the late game
trust and I left England completely undefended.  Those were the years he
should have pounced IMHO.  But I have to hand it to Dirk, he's the kind of
guy I'd like to work with again, so maybe that's his edge.  Maybe.



Headless Nick:

It's hard to underestimate the influence of one of my other games that I was
playing at the time (the DCI) in my decision to break into the Med to eliminate
that last French unit in Tun.  It had little to do with attacking Ray
but  knowing that leaving even a single hostile unit alive can have
horrible consequences, something Hamish taught us again this game.



The Holland Incident of 1907:

A HUGE turn of the game came in 1907 when Dirk swiped Hol without asking when
we had a fairly clear and open GE alliance up to that point.  I'm not sure
he could have talked me into giving it to him out right, but it's possible I
might have relented.  We talked nice over the winter and I tried to be
offended but willing to move on with the GE.  I really expected that was
the beginning of the end for the GE, and Dirk was about to launch a full scale
attack as he also gained Mos that year.  In my defense... wouldn't you
have thought the same?  So fully expecting Dirk to do the same I turned on
him in 1908.  Ironically Ray would pull this same stunt twice on me later
in the game, passively-aggressively swiping an allies SC and still expecting
things to go just fine.  I still remember his opening line to me after he
took Tun "Yeah, yeah, so I took Tunis.".  Classic, as if it was
my fault!.  Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself.



Enter the Dragon:

I'm not sure what Ray's game style has to recommend itself, but he does possess
great tactical prowess and intuition.  He did exploit both of these
strengths to the max and he deserves every piece of the 3-way draw.  At
the time I stabbed Dirk, Ray and I were talking AE vs. G since, as I recall but
I thought I could then stab Ray and make inroads into the Med as well. 
Through Diplomacy I kept Ray's fleets builds to a minimum and then struck out
against him.  Clearly it was taking on too much (or as Jim Collins says,
the Undisciplined Pursuit of More) and my northern front became imperiled and
Dirk and I slugged it out.  I think that's when Ray and I patched it up
and formed the AE again against the growing German threat.   But in
1911 just as the new AE alliance was going to help me turn the tide in the Nth
Ray goes ahead and helps himself to Tunis.  This left me one unit shy of a
reasonable defense in the North and I was still on my heels but looking to get
out of this horrible AE marriage.



Back and Forth

Eventually Dirk and I would patched up at that point and then Ray and I aligned
again vs. Dirk and I believe that time even Hamish was on board with an ATE vs.
G to stave off the German solo.  And not a moment too soon in my
opinion.  That was to close for comfort.  But hold Dirk off we did
and Ray and I started to make some progress when he pulled out his old trick
and took Spain from just as we were making progress against Dirk.  We were
working well together at that point, deleting English fleets in the med so I
could rebuild at home and breaking an Austrian army through Mar.  While it
was true that Ray did need that defense at home, the same was true for
me.  And given the fact that I had to endure his presence in Mao when i
asked him not to go there, that was enough for me.  And Dirk and I were
back in bed.  Ray had made a lot of progress, but 2 usually beats 1 and
the tide was moving against Ray again and we were in the three-way cycle. 
And that's where it probably should have ended.



Diplomatic Hell

Then of course came my "favorite" diplomatic season which will be the
mark of this game for me.  Dirk, Hamish and I were back on the same page
and it looked like a natural 3-way should set in with Hamish happy to get out
with survival.  But Ray was arguing something about how he only votes for
draws under this scenario or that and none of it made sense.  It had to do
with honoring a promise to Hamish, whom BTW he had stabbed repeatedly and
clearly was no fan of Ray's.  Unless I discover otherwise everyone voted
for the GEA draw in 1916 except for Ray despite the fact that a clear EGT had
emerged.  Dirk and I talked 2-way again at this point and I really wanted
to hand Ray his hat so I would have pressed as far as I could have while
looking for solo opportunities along the way.



Hamish and the Two-Way Draw

What made a 2-way possible of course, in my mind, was that we still had Hamish
in the game and Hamish seemed to be willing to vote for it (why wouldn't he...
at that point).  While I wanted a solo, a two way draw was possible and
vastly superior to a 3-way if it could be attained, this would also allow us
the pleasure of eliminating Ray.  But only feasible (in my world, maybe
not in Dirk's) if 1) we eliminated Ray; 2) kept Hamish as a growing buffer so
that neither of us would be in reach of a solo, and... and this is key... 3)
Hamish would also vote for the 2-way draw.  Before I go on, three-cheers
to Hamish for staying active and in the game for so long when other lesser
players would have quit.  As I put myself in Hamish's shoes he played it
perfectly (at least in the end, I'm not quite sure how he got in the hole he
did since I was focused on myself in the north).  If I were him, and the
game progressed further and conditions 1 and 2 above were met, I would have
then sued for a 3-way EGT draw.  And I am eager to hear if that was his
plan all along.  Clearly at some points, like the end, he should have
settled for a survival.  But if Ray had ever been eliminated, he had some
genuine cards to play.  But, of course, we never got there.... 
Hamish, any plans along these lines?



My Friend, The End

Fairly straight forward.  Dirk was unwilling to move forward with GE
equality and wanted to maintain the upper hand (clearly correct since I would
have undermined him completely given the chance) and I was unwilling to let him
get close to a solo, which he was close to being able to force (though he
claimed he never would... I'd claim that too if it helped me get the
solo).  Here's where Ray's stuff of my fleets around Nap for 3 or 4
straight seasons really saved the day for him.  All proper kudos for his
outguessing of me at each turn there.  It never turned the tide as I had
more coming, but it slowed me down enough that England remained open to any
possible German aggression and I got nervous enough to draw a line in the sand
for Dirk.  He crossed it and we all agreed on the 3-way.



Dirk's Solo

Again, at several times Dirk may have made a run at a solo, most notably in the
1918-19 seasons I believe, but didn't.  We could have played it out and
maybe Dirk (and Hamish!) would have been satisfied with the 2-way.  But I
still think, given what he had said in the past, he might have just walked
through the Balkans to the solo.  And we didn't really get a chance to see
how Ray was going to disband since his only late disband was forced.  I
would have like to see how Ray would have played it toward the end.  But
that was another wild card I didn't want to see played.  A three way was
fine with me in the end.



Great game all, a classic in my mind!



Dan