Hey all,

I've been out of town myself, so I just now got a chance to read through all of the end game stuff.

As has been said, my overarching alliance was the triple with Eire and Sicily. I enjoyed working with most people on my side of the board, and  Hungary, Israel, and I had some good stuff going on for a while. Then one turn, Hungary and Israel decided to send fleets west, which would have crippled my true ally in Sicily. I tried everything I could diplomatically to dissuade them, but to no avail. So I sent in moves to stab them to take pressure off Mike. But then at the 11th hour, Hungary and Israel decided not to go west after all, but I was away and could not change my orders in time. So to the board it appeared I stabbed them for absolutely no reason at all. This gave Byz a chance at life, and Hungary and Israel no longer trusted me, understandably. Still, this wouldn't have been too bad as the Eire, Siciliy, Ukraine trio was fairly well positioned at that time.

But then tragedy struck. Eire and Sicily had a huge falling out, and it was pretty ugly to watch. I tried desperately to patch up the relationship and played peacemaker to the best of my abilities, but in the end Sicily would have nothing to do with Eire. Dirk, while more amiable to the restoration of the triple than Mike, was still badly scarred by Mike's tirades, and not sure about the feasibility of a continued triple alliance. This was the biggest turning point in the game as it relates to me. I had just betrayed my two allies in Hungary and Israel for the sake of our Grand Alliance, and now the grand alliance was in shambles, and everyone near me saw me as a stab happy maniac. I tried my best to patch things up, and Israel and I had a great deal of potential. In fact, I had a lot of fun as his ally. But in the end, I think the fear of stabbing each other was too great. As I recall, Israel and did indeed have a falling out about him moving to Pis as he mentions. As I seem to recall, I think israel had essentially decided to throw the game to me (I don't recall if this was earlier, or later), but wanted to move to Pis. I didn't trust his motives, and that was a big falling out for us.

Thus, Ukraine, was left virtually ally-less except the ever-faithful Dirk and fell to its enemies.

I really enjoyed talking with almost every single one of you. Burgandy and I never really seemed to see eye to eye, but I had lots of good talks with Israel, Eire, Sicily, Byz, Hungary, and I'm probably forgetting someone somewhere along the line too. Thanks for letting me be a part of this madness. I feel like my moves and apparent wishy-washyness in regards to allies spoke poorly of my performance, but I hope this eog sheds a bit of light on the subject.

I'm taking a bit of a break from Dip at the moment, but when and if I pick the hobby back up, I would be honored to meet any of you across the board again!

John