Fellow players,

What a roller-coaster of a game this was for me. I mean it started slowly ratcheting upwards like the beginning ascent of the coaster (typical gains of Denmark and Holland) only to collapse quickly (losing Denmark with a foreign army in Ruhr) to have a nice satisfying slow ending with my steady growth closing the game.
 
In the beginning, I wanted to foment war between England and France while keeping my Austrian ally safe from attack. Germany can never succeed without a strong Austria (in my opinion) so I tried to bring peace to my south. France and England eventually began fighting while allowed me to send a strong force east against the quiet Russia alongside an Austrian army. I wanted to gain a corner position on the board and the northeast seemed the easiest to obtain.
 
This decision didn't look that smart though when England began hammering Scandinavia while eventually gaining the all-important Denmark. This left me with a tough decision of continuing my war in the east at the expense of losing centers closer to my home. I felt like gaining the corner position was more important so I carried on and the builds gained from that campaign were fortunately placed back home protecting the Rhineland just in time.
 
England correctly sniffed out the Aunchluss early on and no doubt tried to rally the board against us but the eastern powers were subdued before they could do anything about it. The mid-game ended with Austria being the dominant player on the board with a strong Italy and weakened Germany taking on England and France.
 
Austria then acted in a way that was unfamiliar to me. He did not stab me when I was weak. He left me alone and actually held his forces allowing me to collect myself against a now isolated England with a France fighting for his life against Italy. It was this selfless act that decided my endgame strategy. Germany reached a dominant position in the northeast corner with its eye on the British Isles when peace was reached. Naturally I did consider the prospect of going for the solo but I could not bring myself to stab such a loyal ally. Truthfully, my abilty to survive was directly because of Austria's decision.
 
Enough of gushy stuff. Everyone played great and I especially enjoyed the successful testing of the Aunchluss. I learned that it is more difficult than the Western Triple or the RT Steamroller but it is very powerful in the mid-game. Plenty of trust is needed since our home centers are so close to one another.
 
Thanks to everyone for keeping this game going without much delay. Special thanks to Mike for keeping us on pace and for being prompt in the results distribution.
 
Wladimir




On Tue, Sep 7, 2010 at 8:23 PM, Alex Maslow <blueraider0(at)gmail.com> wrote:

Friends,


This has been a particularly bizarre game.  On the one hand, I hate when one nation collapses quickly (Russia), and yet, such things are possible in the real world, so I gotta deal.


Ger and I were allied early and when Fletch missed the build I of course went for Lvp and held it like a knife to Fletch to hit Ger because of the Rus collapse.  Things looked good except for that misorder to Spa where I forgot to specify the coast that allowed Italy to get in.  I thought I could win it back, and depend on Austrian pressure on the other side of Alfred, but I misordered against Spa AGAIN and Austria wasn't being much help, and when I lost Mar, I knew that front was done, and when Fletch came against me with his righteous fury, well, there wasn't much more to be done.


I will say I think much of this was my fault, as egotistical as that is to say.  First, my misorders were sadly clutch, and embarrassingly repeated.  Also, Fletch kept alerting me to the central alliance, and I kept insisting it was just coincidence they would move against each other in time.  Mmmm, yeah I feel pretty darn stupid about that.  I took no interest against the east until it was absolutely too late.  But, you know, props to the east for being so stealthy about their grand alliance, which seems to have been well planned....



Ah well.  Good job to all and hope to play with you folks again.  Esp Theodore.  We made some plans but no chance came to make them work.  I hope next game together we get to actually interact.


Regards!


-Maslow



On Tue, Sep 7, 2010 at 5:01 PM, NICOL, Alfred (AMN) <AMN(at)benenden.kent.sch.uk> wrote:


Hi all
Well done and many thanks to Mike for running the game, thanks to my allies ah and ger and of course all those players who kept issuing orders etc right to the end.
Some interesting things turned the game for me. I had no plan to go for ah but couldn't get the deal on gre I think is vital to Italy, so I risked early war and threatened tri, it worked and after that we got along fine. The second gamble was to go west, again not in my initial plan, but the missed build in liv let fra in and I feared a fra dominance that I had to curtail, it worked and the balance of power was restored.
The great strength of Italy usually is to be able to wait and see, but this game I didn't feel that was an option.
I think ah had a decent, but not sure chance, to go for a solo, probably when ger were snared up with the last rus unit and I was bogged down with fra. He didn't; fair play to him.
I enjoyed the game and look forward to playing with you all again
alfred
 

From: Michael Sims [mailto:mike(at)fuzzylogicllc.net]

Sent: 07 September 2010 21:03
To: NICOL, Alfred (AMN); Blueraider0(at)gmail.com; jmc66(at)mac.com; tcooperstein730(at)att.net; tfletch33(at)yahoo.com; rk(at)giorsoine.dk; wmysonski(at)gmail.com

Cc: dc320
Subject: dc320 f08 Game-End Draw!!
 

5 yes votes equals a 3-way AGI draw!
 
England and France squeak by with survivals, and the big 3 declare world peace.  Congrats!  And so, our summerfest comes to a happy end, right on the day after Labor Day - the traditional end to summer.  Was it fate?  EOG's are encouraged from all!  It's been a pleasure and see you next game...

 
-mike
 
 

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