Well, I said I'd write an EOG too so here goes.
 
My first thoughts upon starting were "awesome, I drew England, I love England".  Then after seeing the map and what I had to do, it turned to "Well damn that sucks I got England".  Really.  Start with only 1 fleet and be entirely dependent on fleets to reach your homeland.  Not cool.  A few years into the game, I sorta turned to think Turkey started with a worse position, and perhaps Germany too... but other than that, I think England is a pretty bad one.
 
So I figured the only way I was gonna get home is if Warren lets me.  And he did.  I thought there were about 2 options for an Austria to play... 1... to slip thru the straits of Gibraltar before me and use he other fleet to keep me from passing thru, or 2... to slip one fleet thru and use the other to convoy his army toward home, which is the path Warren went.  This let me get my one lonely fleet home in not too bad of time.
 
The key tho was keeping Italy out of my centers long enough to not have to start dropping units.  So I really started out anti-Italy, and that was via working with Russia and France.  This EFR dominated the first half of the game..  I agreed so that France wouldn't go for my centers in Italy, that I'd let him get past me, and that worked well with Dan who was trying to get out of France and needed to attack Italy in Russia.  We timed it all pretty well, and we all got home - altho France benefitted the most, getting back first. 
 
This became a problem, and I have to point out many ppl suggested I not let it happen but I kept my word on that, and the alliance that had gotten me that far in the game.  So he got home, then I did a year or two later. 
 
Things started breaking down then, when Russia was still trying to get home, I just had, and France was becoming a superpower... Looking at all the avenues I could continue to work with EFR... the north was not an option cuz that was Russia... France was not an option, France would take most of Germany, and once he laid claim to Italy too, that was pretty much it.  I could sit around the rest of the game or I could make a move.  It was at this point that I talked to Dan, who agreed we should stab him, and so I did.  If France had taken a more modest approach to closing off the avenues for equal growth, I probly would have stuck with EFR for who knows how long.  That is, as long as France focused on Gemrany and Austria, and I could work on Italy and Turkey.  But when (if I remember) some army went south thru Pie-Ven instead of thru Bur-Mun to help keep Germany out of Germany, that's when I pulled the trigger.
 
It was a pretty effective stab, but was largely tempered by the fact that Russia stabbed me THE VERY NEXT TURN.  Talk about lack of committment.  This was incredibly annoying, for it left EFR completely nothing, FE at war, and Russia now a dominant player.  I think here - if Russia had not stabbed me - we would have taken it to a 2-way ER.
 
This carried on in a slugfest for a couple years, with me defending from R but trying to take out F... the real winners in this scenario were of course everyone else, cuz AGIT all managed to get home during this commotion.  Then we all teamed up against Russia who was getting huge, and so Russia pulled off of me, and we started to go for the ER again.  Trusted him twice...  I did so cuz he pulled off his northern fleet by me... a nice move on his part to get me to change course... but then that only lasted a short while and Russia stabbed me again. 
 
And then we teamed up again, and then stabbed again (I think I stabbed him this time) and it was kind of a mess.  ER relations were pretty well thrashed, but it was still fun playing Dan, who I think really embodies the essence of how the game is supposed to be played... that is, looking a turn or two ahead and always willing to change things up and keep it interesting.
 
Toward that mid-game I ended up pairing up w Italy, who had his own bone to pick w France - altho it should have been directed at me too cuz I was just as instrumental in Italy's slow getting home as France was.  But that was long since history, and when Russia was big, Italy and I made natural allies.  This stuck for the rest of the game... a few really good trust building moves were successful, and we ended up w Iberia returned to Italy, and MAO and everything around it DMZ'd. 
 
This probly would have stayed like this.  I don't think there was a win in this for me at least, cuz of the Med stalemate.  In order to pull it off, I'd have to get clear to Tunis via sea, and with Italy being a strong power, that just wouldn't happen.  I think you can bottle up that path with like 3 or 4 fleets, so it was a non-issue.  So I was open to letting Italy finish off Austria if he wanted to, or just take the 3-way if it passed, since it would have taken a LONG time for Italy to do that. 
 
I've played or GM'd to many of you in the past, and would happily do so again... tho I think this was my first game against Tony & Dave... Tony, you are a crazy player!  You remind me of Felix, one of those who started the dc club.  Always playing completely unpredictably and doing wacky things.  It was definitely frustrating and entertaining at the same time.  And Dave, you were a little quiet for the amount of dipping most of the others were doing on this table, which probly saw you getting home slower than the rest.  That, and being Turkey of course.  I wanted to see you get home, at least when I was with EFR, so that you'd kill off those German centers that were supporting Tony's unpredicatble units.
 
I think that's about it!  Awesome game again Jerome, i had a lot of fun...
-mike
 



From: Isaac Zinner [mailto:isaac.zinner(at)gmail.com]
Sent: Mon 4/16/2012 11:28 AM
To: Isaac Zinner; Michael Sims; Dave Labreche; Dan Dzikowicz; Warren Fleming; Jerome Payne; dc395; Tony Stevens
Subject: DC395 Italy EOG



Hi ,

Well as I'm the first to write an EOG ,
I would like to thank Jerome for GMing very smooth, with almost no NMR.
I do hope to read some other EOG as well.
So here it goes:

In the beginning I was approached by Germany ( Tony ) who offered we work together with Turkey (Dave ).
Since we were very close and thus could use each others help - and so was the TIGer alliance born.
The deal was: I help Tony get one Home SC and so does he, and then we split. At start since I wouldn't disclose ALL my moves ,
only the moves that were of importance to Tony, he felt I'm betraying him and on Fall 1901 we almost terminated the
whole thing off , However Tony got back to his senses and from then on we had very good relations. This lasted almost
to the end of the game when he was in the far north and I in Southern Italy.

I also had some contact with France ( James ) but I found out very soon I can't really trust him . He promised me
to cooperate but was blocking my way from Sev - Black Sea - Con - Ionian to get to Italy.
And so after I lost any hope of getting my southern fleet to Italy I decided to try the same successful route Austria ( Warrren ) had
used and so moved the very long way from StP - to the Western Med. This worked out very nice.but was making me the almost the last one to get back home.

In the meanwhile England ( Mike ) was all over England and France was hurrying to take his part of Germany without making sure his back was secured.
So once Mike offered me to go after France I accepted. This early strike that hit France was  one he never got back to himself. Due to our past relations
I didn't think it would hurt if we get France out.

With Mike I believe I had very good relations and though I heard of his Solo reputation I was quite open with and I feel he was open with me as well.
This lasted to the end of the game to the benefit of both of us.
Though I wouldn't try to stab Warren while hoping Mike would keep my back quiet, I believe if I would have stabbed warren Mike would help him
finishing me off.

I the North I was helping Germany to take his part however Russia was making this impossible . In my opinion Germany lost any chance of making it in the turn of F05 . He asked me to move Sil - Munich , thinking he would bounce me and so will have Mun vacant for a build, I did as he asked but Russia offered to support me there and thus Munich was mine.
And so Tony was left without Mun and no Build. Things got only worse for him after that.

I had very good relations with Tony but I didn't agree to his view of what should be the best turn moves. My tactics were somewhat different, however we cooperated very nicely, while we were at it.

With Warren I had a good start but then on Fall 1906 I did some aggressive moves and took Vienna by surprise planning to move after the rest of Austria, however once Russia (Dan ) decided to side with Warren and supported him on F1907 instead of keeping his word to me and supporting me to Budapest while having me losing back Vienna to Warren, I decided to try and get back to Warren .
I'm happy this worked out as Warren saw that Dan was getting too strong and if we were to fight each other this would just get Russia all over the map. So we had a deal which lasted to the end , to the benefit of both of us.

Dan lost me when he lied to me then on Fall 1907, from then on I had my Army going to Ukr and making him busy trying to defend his home SC
which eventually almost got him eliminated. If he would support me instead I think his situation would have been better.

Dave was from the beginning very loyal and helped me a lot. I did my best to help him when I could and when I got offers to go after him , I refused.
I believe he deserved to survive and if not Mike threatening my East , I might have considered working with Dave in stabbing Warren ( sorry Warren).

 
All in all I enjoyed the game very much,
Thanks all and hope to play another one with you.


--Isaac