First, let me start off by saying I feel like I don't really deserve the draw in one sense. My diplomacy was poor this game. My apologies for not talking more to everyone. I feel like I played a solid tactical game, and developed a solid trust with Italy, and those two things saved me. 

Here's the game as I saw it:
I've played on Diplomaticcorp for some time now, and you get to know repeat players. I had worked relatively well with the French and Russian players in the past, while the Turkish player and I had previously had an adversarial relationship. I was super busy at work, and didn't have time to do the right thing and get to know everyone else, and start with a fresh slate, so I defaulted to trying to do the "easy" thing and hit up France and Russia for a FAR triple (triples are *the* way to do well in the blitz, mark my words!). It looked like it could really work well, but France made the mistake of copying our whole email exchange to Italy. 

I think Hugh commented at one point that the FAR didn't even realize what they had done, but that wasn't true. I scolded France immediately after he sent it (I was CC'ed on that fateful email and immediately realized what had occurred). But we felt it was better to play it cool and hope Italy hadn't read the whole email chain. Unfortunately, Eric had indeed read the email top to bottom. So we had to scramble to figure out what to do.

While I wanted the FAR to be my primary alliance, I was also trying to lure Italy into an AIR alliance to take out turkey, which would let me fight on one front at a time. After the email issue, I cut france out, and tried my hardest to convince Italy that my true loyalty lay with the AIR. And indeed, I was telling the truth. France's breach of trust made me leery to try something as complex as a triple alliance with him any further. Eric was initially very hesitant, and understandably so. But eventually I proved my trustworthiness. 

By this point, poor turkey really hadn't had a chance. Italy hadn't initially joined in the slaughter, but I'd convinced him to at least stay away, so Russia and I carved us some turkey. And that growth led to a strong AIR that looked to sweep the board. My memories at this next juncture are a bit fuzzy, but we ended up with the 6 way stalemate monstrosity that almost everyone hated. The rest of the game is straightforward, really the only hanging thread is why Russia stabbed me during endgame. It seems pretty goofy to me, especially since I hadn't made a single move against Russia the entire game until that final stab. 

Eric (Italy) was a pleasure to work with. I wish we had started working together better sooner. But the end result left us as participants in a draw. Great job man.

Hugh probably did more than anyone to force the end of the game by convincing the non-winning powers to get on board, so in a sense the draw is his doing more so than necessarily Eric, France, or me. I appreciate the assist, hugh.
Thanks to our GM for keeping us on track. Especially handling up to 6 draw proposals per turn. That's the hardest thing about GMing for me, keeping track of who voted what on multiple draws. So kudos to him! A well run game!
John

Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2013 16:12:08 -0700
From: hapolley(at)yahoo.ca
Subject: Re: dc444 German End Game!
To: jeromerpayne(at)gmail.com; hurup(at)pc.dk; Johnston.scott(at)comcast.net; untitled36(at)hotmail.com; stuartandmaria(at)googlemail.com; ericmarr(at)gmail.com; danilobliekthebest(at)hotmail.com; jerome777(at)ymail.com; blitz(at)diplomaticcorp.com

German End Game Statement: A great group of players! I have the suspicion the group is a mixture of experienced and newer players.  As Germany I have not had much luck when allying with England so at start of game I decided he would be the target of my diplomatic efforts.  An email circulated by Italy indicating a R/A/F alliance resulted in my worrying about what Stuart might do and I stood of on Burgundy instead of making a better move.  To that extent the forwarded email had some affect.  A
breakthrough occurred when France agreed to convoy my army Belgium to Wales and Russia agreed to trade Sweden for Norway.  Now it took to long to set this all up giving Austria and Italy time to grow to point where they could strike at F/G. Still if Russia had not joined in attack the game might have ended differently.  The other deciding factor was R/I/A ganging up on Turkey, this left no country counter weight to I/A/R plans. Facing elimination after convoy to Wales, England agreed to abandon England in return for survival position in Norway and StP.  He
did not keep exact deal, on one occasion retreating to SKA, and in another not voting for F/A draw and attacking my SC in Norway threatening to occupy North Sea.  Still his actions enabled F/G to establish a solid stalemate line. If it had not been for key NMR by France because of GM communication to Germany error, game could have ended in F/A tie.  Still Game Mastering is no easy task and each must do it in his or her own way.  Except for Eric my communications with all players were excellent. My teasing of Eric to get him to attack France worked; but too well. Still it prevented France from joining an A/R/F alliance.  I finished with 5 SC including Munich, that is better than being eliminated. With Warm Regards!Hugh  -  hapolley(at)yahoo.ca