Hey everyone,

I had sent this to Eric only thinking he was going to collect and sent all EOG's at once but maybe I misunderstood. When I saw Gareth's EOG come in I thought I'd send mine out to everyone. I have not read Gareth's yet.



Thanks Eric for GMing and congratulations to Gareth on his solo .

It's funny how quickly things can change . After the first 2 years I was rehearsing my victory speech ,  the next couple of years I was practicing my "there's nothing wrong with a draw" speech, after that I was desperately hoping I'd last till the end






 Rather than give a historical summary of the game I thought I'd make 3 points

The turning point came in ( if I recall) F03 where England and I had coordinated a set of moves to put Germany (Gareth) on the defensive. Unfortunately  Bret changed his mind at the last minute and  went with a different option. I don't think it was meant as a stab against me , he just thought it was the better thing to do. Unfortunately he did not tell me and as a result Germany gained a unit rather than lost one . Turned the entire complexion of the game around , at least in the north. I lost 2 units, England lost 1 and Germany gained 1 . Turkey (Michael)  had stabbed me the season before but I thought I could hold him off in the south if I made gains up north, sadly that did not happen.


The second point is the serious lack of communication in  this game .  Gareth and I did communicate  regularly as well as Michael and I ( at least at the start) . England never communicated with me until F02 I think, despite me sending messages to him . Whoever heard of England and Russia not exchanging anything until F02 ! France and I communicated once, I sent a second message and received no reply and that was it until the end of the game. Matt, I really don't know why you were playing . I know you've apologized for your lack of communication but really...sending me suggestions 3 hours before the deadline without hearing from you all  week  does not cut it . I did offer to proxy for you as maybe you were having real life issues. To continue the way you did made no sense.  Diplomacy is all about writing and receiving messages and trying to make sense out of what other players are saying and not saying.  If you aren't doing that then you aren't playing Diplomacy.

Lastly , I don't want to take anything from Gareth's solo but I don't think France did much or tried very hard to stop you .  If I was France I would have been writing and urging everyone  to take a stand against that big bully Germany . I heard nothing until the very end , and to Matt's credit he did initiate it, where France was supposed to move against Germany but did the opposite. It's all rather suspicious...I'm really hoping France did do their best , I'm just not seeing it . 
Congrats again Gareth !
Gerry










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