EOG:
First and foremost, thanks to Alan for his patience and dedication
serving as the GM for this game. Great service, much obliged as
always.
Early Phase: Turkey is one of those few positions (Italy being the
other one) where I have a clear-cut favorite alliance partner. In
both cases (T and I) that is Austria. In my mind, there is only one
pair of neighbors on the map that are truly forced into conflict on
the Standard map, Turkey and Italy. While there are exceptions, an
overwhelming amount of games will find Turkey and Italy going at each
others throats, either before or after Austria dies.
All that to say, I cast my lot in with Austria for DC 402, and
remained loyal to him for the vast majority of the game, only shifting
course when it became impossible to match French gains without turning
against him. I might have considered an R/T juggernaut, but my early
negotiations with Italy and Russia did not go well, and the
unannounced Russian move to Black Sea soured our relations for years
to follow. For their part however, Italy and Russia did an
outstanding job of containing the A/T alliance, and completely
stalemated us until such time as the German intervened against Russia.
Middle Phase: France and Germany outpaced their southern counterparts
by a country mile, dismantling England very efficiently. Not sure
what happened behind the scenes, but it appeared that England was just
unlucky to be targeted by a solid alliance early on, and did not
receive Russian aid to withstand the attack. So heading into the
midgame, France and Germany were gobbling English and Russian dots
while the south remained mostly deadlocked.
Then France did two very smart things. He timed his stab of Germany
perfectly, and he maneuvered in the Mediterranean to hold Italy at
gunpoint, scuttling my (sincere) attempts at a reconciliation. Factor
in that Nick and I really just had irreconcilable claims, and you've
got a full blown Turkish disaster on your hands. I found myself stuck
in the one situation I desperately hoped to avoid from Spring 1901 -
bottled up in the Mediterranean. So - full credit where it's due -
France did very well to overcome the challenge of dealing with
northern and southern threats, dispatching the north while containing
the south.
About this time, I turned on Austria. I hated to do so, as he had
been a loyal ally throughout the game. Really had no other option
though. It became apparent that I would have to concede to anything
Nick wanted if I was to break out of the Mediterranean. Which brings
us to...
Late Phase: Nick and I weren't too late in our reconciliation. Had I
not botched that one critical season of orders, we could have cracked
the Mediterranean blockade and held France at 17 or less - but then
the Real Life monster attacked. Normally I use Realpolitik to prevent
this kind of blunder, but Big Brother wouldn't let me install it on
this gov't computer. So maybe it was written, or in the tea leaves,
or Jupiter, Mars, and Pluto were in alignment or something - but I
misordered. Probably only the third time in history that has ever
happened. It was all downhill from there.
That, and I have to say France did deserve the win. He played a
masterful game from beginning to end, so misorder or not, I don't
think anyone can claim he didn't earn it. Well done, thanks to all
for the game, I hope to see you all again in the future...