Well done Rick on a very good solo and an even better report. I am afraid that my views will be much more briefly given as I feel that others have covered the ground very well already. Firstly I should just lie to comment on this remark from Eric:  ''You promised me Bel in '01, and didn't give it to me.''
In fact Eric was insistent right up to the verge Autumn 01 deadline that he land an army in Belgium. Of course, as Germany, I would not concede this, but he repeatedly kept up the demand. Almost throughout these negotiations I offered him a fleet landing in Belgium, but he was, somewhat tryingly, insistent. This was set against the background of me letting Jerome take Marseilles so that France might be quickly eliminated. I have to say that in retrospect, I think that if anything, I was being over generous to both Eric and Jerome.
 Then a couple of hours before the deadline Eric got in touch agreeing to land his fleet rather than army. I am afraid by that time, I was in no mind to let him. In my view he was a guy that I would find very difficult to work with as the game progressed. To be clear, Eric, it was your insistence on landing an army which poisoned our relationship.
 From then on, as he rightly says, I perceived him as an enemy until the Russian solo seemed imminent; I am almost certain that he felt the same about me. When the solo seemed possible I was more than prepared to work with him, especially using the good offices of Andrew. Eric, however, would not do what was necessary to stop the solo. He seemed, at least to my eyes, more intent on recovering Belgium, giving, as a reason, some really left-field remark about the Russian threat to Liverpool, when he was in Wales and Jerome was in the NAO. Finally, all that was needed to establish the stalemate line was a nudge on the Baltic Sea from Denmark, but again Eric would not do so. It was at this point that I felt to play on was pointless.
 Finally I love Rick's message when he stabbed me, which went along the lines of: ''I am sure that my recent moves did not surprise you......'' I will like to use that one myself if I may . Super-finally Jerome is quite right about the useless counter-productive round robin emails. I did not initiate this chain , but do regret taking part. They served no useful purpose. Perhaps with other players it might have been different, who knows?
 Thank you all for playing and the mods for moderating. Best wishes and good luck to all in their future games David


On Fri, May 18, 2012 at 10:20 AM, rick powell <rick_powell_2000(at)yahoo.com> wrote:

Well I will not get drawn into any name calling.. I enjoyed the game for its own merits and I enjoyed meeting all of you.
 GM : excellent.. Thank you John.. you coped with my rambling questions excellently. Thank you. The game:I had one big issue here.. I kind of liked you all a bit too much and couldnt decide who to side with at first.
I have played a coulpe of Blitz games in the past and entered this one with some trepidation as I keep coming across established cliques which are hard to break into as a newbie to the site. But because of this I really wanted some strong alliances and I was prepared to sacrifice a fair bit to make those alliances
work. Initially, I,G,E, A & T all seemed really nice.. in the north I decided to tie it all up and avoid picking sides.. then I started to fall out with England a little who's views didnt quite match with mine so I was seriously thinking of Allying with Germany.. I was a little concerned as he had grown quite a bit due to Frances problems but I was about to ally with him in a major way when he stabbed me.. From that point I decided to play the wounded player role and help England. I may have been open to further negotiations but Germany was always difficult to get a decision from so my alliance was cemented..
For info.. at the end I was 100% behind Eric and would not have stabbed him.In the south I set off cautiously but i started to suspect there was something Lepanto'ish going on.. and Im delighted I called it right.. (nice plan
guys).For that reason I was very cautious about hurting Turkey in any way initially, and when the 2 Austrian builds presented themselves I took them.. Soory Andrew.. it was the combination of I had to attack someone and initially Turkey seemed in a better position.. (classic Austrian connundrum).. after that communication between Italy & Austria just cemented my view that they were in each others pockets.. not least the outrage by Austria that I was in his centres but the complete acceptance that it was ok for Italy to be in the third... From that point my other key alliance was formed.. despite numerous opportunities I had zero intention to stab Rich (Turkey) and the alliance was strong.. until I screwed up one set of orders (Bud & Bul are so similar) but luckily we out guessed the other 2 and came out of the turn on top. Had the game continued I think that we would have done well in the south as long as I could convince
Turkey to keep on working with me.. We did have some synergy going on And WHAT was with Italy convoying Aus to Tun !!!! ??  Bizarre.  
As the mid game came around the inevitable kick back due to my ever growing force started.. I had completely alienated Andrew.. I really liked Jerome (Italy) but we just couldnt find enough common ground.. Germany became increasingly distant and I became aware that GEAI were trying to work against me... but the kicker was that they werent doing it in a very inclusive way.. From what I can see they asked .. no demanded.. England defend me but leave himself open to potential stabs from them (no idea whther those stabs would have come but I suspect the fear was well founded). I did fan those flames of doubt with a few well placed comments but I only pointed out what was already there.
I am
not sure what I would have done if I were in Englands shoes but I do understand his views.. but I also understand the frustration of the others who could see me growing but were unable to prevent it without a united front.
 In the end I do believe that my expansion was limited unless I could have forged a major alliance with England.. and who knows.. maybe that might have been possible.. at the end of the day I didnt expect much more than a 6 way finish (possibly a little less if Italy finished off Austria in the final turns) so the result of a solo has just blown me away..  Thank you all..
 SummaryGM: excellent solid jobEng: Good strategy and a nice guy.. sometimes hard to negotiate with if he disagrees with your position (but arent we all?)
Ita: Excellent tactician. Shame we
never had an opportunity to team up properlyTur: Awesome ally, solid tactician.Ger: Obviously a great player. Was difficult to predict at times.. Fra: Did he actually play ?
Aus: Really nice guy in the wrong place. Would have loved to have worked with you but the alliance with Italy made that hard. Thanks and I hope we meet again (and you can whoop my ar&e in revenge ...