I should like to defend my honour, just a little here... I am dismayed to see this:

"By Spring 1907...We had discussed bringing Penner on-board while taking out Loki, but
then Michael was silent for too long, and that was that. We three would
be the remaining leaders of the world."

I went back to look at what was happening at that time.  I had recently proposed a draw that was defeated in an attempt to start discussion.  I sent out a communique to the effect that if I can't get a draw, then will someone talk to me?  Then Maslow offered me something.  Said he admired my aggressive play in the face of elimination and he was going to convoy me to get revenge on Loki for taking Kiel.  Shortly thereafter, Hoffman said that in these circumstances, silence is NOT golden.

My next email out was this:

"I was under the impression that the deadline is tomorrow."

I was unable to respond to the offers because an adjudication went through with my preliminary orders.  After that I was stuck, so there was no point and I set out to be as annoying as possible to the one I perceived to be the main problem for me, and somehow
survived.

mvp