Hi Players,

I'm conflicted.  It's hard to believe it's over already, but I also feel like we've been together a long time.  It has been an intense 9 weeks.

First, let me repeat my congratulations to our four "winners."  I think you all deserve a spot in the draw, and that your relative score accurately reflects your performance in the game.  You can't always say that about a game.

I think there was a little more play left in the game, though.  I'm not as convinced as Mark was that he couldn't have taken the solo.  I kept waiting for F Nwg to NAO.  It is rare that you see a Russia with five northern fleets.  I was looking forward to seeing how far they could get if they kept pushing.

On the other hand, I appreciate the
classy decision to let Austria share in the draw.  Austria is tough, as you all know, and It isn't easy to stay active and involved when you've been jumped on early.  It's a credit to Dave that he was able to convince Mark and Hugh to keep him alive and give him a share of the draw.

I thought the game started very interestingly.  We had an honest-to-goodness Sea Lion in the West, and the East started out as a real free-for-all, it seemed.  To me, the most obvious turning point in the early game was when Germany NMR'd in Fall 1902.  That cost him Holland (to his ally, France) and Denmark to England, and basically destroyed all the momentum he had going up to that point.

France and Russia immediately took advantage of his mistake and from there on it was just a big squeeze from both sides.  As if the Kaiser didn't have enough trouble, England seemed determined to wreak revenge on Germany first and
foremost.  That left France and Russia to wrestle for control of North Sea and the English dots he left behind.  From my vantage, it looked as though France won that diplomatic battle, managing to use the English units to harry Russian holdings in Scandinavia until he was able to replace those English units with his own.

Unfortunately for France, that diplomatic advantage was offset by the superior Russian tactics on the German fields of battle later in the game.  At times it looked as though Russian intelligence was intercepting the French orders to the front.  Every time the French gambled, the Russians had the perfect counter.  Munich, then Kiel, then Holland... each fell in succession to the White Army.

In the East, things started slowly.  After the first year I certainly had no inkling that any of the four countries felt they had a secure ally.  Italy stabbed at Trieste in Spring 1901, and I have a
feeling that is what finally locked the alliances in place.  Hugh and Mark no doubt sensed that once Austria and Italy were fighting that there were easy gains to be made by patching up their differences and heading west together.

Italy probably thought he was Russia's main partner (Mark will have to tell us how true that was from his perspective) but he sabotaged any chance he had by twice failing to submit orders.  That allowed Turkey to break out into the Ionian and grab Tunis uncontested, and once he did that there was no reason for Russia not to stick by him.  Turkey at 6+ just isn't stabbable.

Somewhere in all that Dave did a beautiful job of convincing R/T that he should be kept alive as a junior partner.  There must have been four years there where the Big Two pushed forward and I was thinking "This is the year they eliminate him," but it never happened.

So it happened that Russia was part of the dominant
alliance in both the Western and Eastern spheres, I'd say that pretty much explains how he finished board top.  I know all of us were wondering whether he could take the solo and whether he would try.  It looked like he made a bit of a push starting in 1907, but I just had the feeling that the attempt was somewhat half-hearted.  Was that tournament thinking I wonder?  Take the high-scoring draw and wait for round 2?  Perhaps Mark will share his thoughts with us.

All right.  I've said more than enough, especially since I wasn't even in the game and I'm working 90% on speculation!  Let's hear from the players themselves, why don't we?

Thanks for playing.  It was my pleasure to serve.  I would have liked it if we could have had a cleaner game in terms of missing orders, but outside of that you guys were all good to work with and I look forward to playing and/or GM'ing with you in the
future.

Cheers,
Chris
aka Corrino