Thank you Christine! What a fab GM you are...you set a standard that all GM's should be looking to achieve.
Dan, congratulations on the win and the WB win as well.
This is going to be VERY long.

I came into the game with a Rd1 solo and knew right away that i was the immediate target. Some of you even said your number one goal was to see that i was eliminated and you would work every minute to see that happen. I actually appreciated that frankness.

I could not make any real plans but i tired to hook up with England and Italy.....I also had talks with Germany but no expectations from anyone. Germany came out and attacked BUR, I bounced with Italy in PIE and England took ENG. Things in France looked bleak early. My first break came when it appeared that Germany and Austria could pick up 3 units each in the first year...so i went to work on Italy and France stressing that it did not matter what they did to me because they would end up losing ground to G/A in the end anyway. This may have been the key to getting England to stab Germany. Why Derek moved on Austria i don't know.

After England stabbed Germany, i found a friend finally. Steve wanted to work to get England out of the game and i was more than happy to do so. England was still a participant at this time and i wanted to attack Germany while he attacked Russia...that was the plan moving ahead....i could have gone in any direction at that point. Italy became very involved with Austria and the Turk was moving fleets so i decided that i could attack both England and Germany. It was a tough call but my objective for taking MUN and BER in the same turn was to get those German armies off the board. Those were the pieced that could challenge me...the east was muddled and England had a lot of fleets so i took out my competition. I thought at that point i was guaranteed a piece of a draw...i only needed to get to 12 centers to guarantee a WB win.

Will, down there in Turkey stuck to Russia like a good ally but there were several times where Turkey had better  options to hook up with Austria....i was really surprised to see that not happen. There was a period of chaos in the east where G/A/T were not communicating very well and Russia just walked back into his home centers without a fight...that was very concerning to me and ultimately put Russia right back in the game. Dan they had you down but could not close the deal! Italy was in a position to attack Russia and i told him that i if he made some ground in Russia and i started to lose ground in the north i would help him him win the game outright.....it basically would have ended in the revers of what happened here....i would have thrown everything at Russia and let Italy suck up the open centers, but Italy decided to stab.

Just after my stab, England disappeared...that was a help to me some...less than what most of you might think because him not being there let Russia off the hook in the north....so i had no choice to get my fleets up there to replace what England was losing.

I think i only made one mistake in the game. When Italy took Austria out and put two fleets on the board and i added one to MAR in the same winter.....i should have and actually considered breaking our DMZ agreement and moved to occupy WME....he got the jump on my with his stab using those fleets and then we jammed up the Med.

Skipping ahead to the end game, when only G/F/R/I were left, Russia was starting to build the north and it was only a matter of time before he broke me. I talked to Germany what, maybe 3 times a day to flip him to my side...telling him that he was becoming less and less important to Russia/Italy. I had Italy stopped but i could not hold off Russia without Germany...and Germany was ready to bail and try to save his own skin and i had requested that he send BER back to MUN as i left MUN.....but instead he supported Russia to MUN. That was really the end of my chances to draw right there....that allowed Italy to break into MAR or SPA then crush my line.

I could have still fought Russia but the Italian pressure was using too many units and Derek no longer cared to get a high finish....he was resolved to let Russia win and there was nothing that anyone could have done about it....that was just a shame....we all played pretty well and it came down to one person not giving their best effort....Derek, i do not care what your reason were, there is no excuse for not playing for the best finish you can get. I can say that i played my best because coming into the game the best i thought i could do was not be eliminated and that is what i got. You never had a chance to solo this game after you stabbed me, and that was when you just gave up and decided that survival points we're just fine with you. I read your EOG and your desire for a high finish contradicts your actions on the board. When you realized you could not win you said to hell with everyone else and removed Russia's only obstacle by continuing your attacks on me. The really sad thing is that you think your are honorable and valiant for giving up.



Steve, it was an absolute pleasure playing with you. England dropping out did cost you dearly in the long run. It is possible that the two of you would have patched things up and come back at me. By the way you finally sold me....sorry it took me so long to come around.

Will, the NMR's hurt! Especially on a board like that. You played pretty well but the missing moves caught up with you.
Andrew, great start...why the Turk did not hook up with you is just a puzzling to me as it was to you. Things would have been  LOT different if the two of you got working together. I do hope we meet again.

Dan, congrats. Not much more to say we haven't already said.
Derek, well i can say that i expected more than you were able to deliver. I know all of this sounds like sour grapes and really i am not upset at losing....it happens....but how it happened is really shameful.

I really did enjoy the game, it was a wonderful challenge and really pushed my boundaries. I hope that anyone that looks at the game and pieces together the events can see that it was not France that gave the game away. 


Tim