Hi All,
First of all, many thanks and kudos to Mike for GMing. Excellent job.
The game was fairly straight forward in my opinion. In the west the RFG alliance got off to a great start hitting Andy. A stab by Ray a few years in made me nervous, but it wasn't until Phil popped into Bur and more dangerously Sean stabbed and turned entirely my way as part of a clear AI alliance. Things also looked very grim as (if I recall correctly) Andy and Ray were also working together. From this F vs. EGIA perspective I am quite happy to have ended in the draw, it was really the dark before the dawn
However, shortly after that Andy, Ray and I were talking a survival alliance against the southern powers as the AI looked a bit too strong. But I didn't like my chances against
an advancing Italy without another area to expand, so I think I made what was for me the decision of the game to turn on both Ray and Andy in an effort to eliminate Andy and claim his corner spot in hopes of sharing in the AIF draw as the smaller corner guy. Things worked out quite well here and Andy was out in a few turns.
At some point in there Phil turned on Sean for the solo, but as we all know came up just shy of the prize. This cemented the FRI resistance for the stalemate.
Now here is where I think it should have turned into a FRI three-way as we could have easily eliminated Phil with the naval advantage we had in the south. But Sean backed off by deleting the army in Turkey and that pretty much was it.
John and I shared a common objective for most of the game and I much appreciated our alliance. Let us forget the ugly incident in the last few moments of the game when I tried to oust him and clumsily
included him in my betrayal e-mail
In my mind it could have turned into a FIA alliance but Phil was understandably unwilling to back off his advantage and was also in for the 4-way.
With no prospects for a 3-way and a certain Austrian solo if I attacked John or Sean the 4-way set in.
Great game all, I had lots of fun. And I'd probably be up for one more if the board is getting back together.
Dan
