Gents,

Here follows my tale and take on the game. Right from the beginning, before the game kicked off, I checked how everyone had done in round 1. From that I saw that Paul had done a solo, Michael was about to solo, and Italy and myself has also managed a solo. So, from the onset I wanted to work with Russia (Mick) and Turkey (Brian), since they were the least threat to me in the tournament overall. Yea, I admit it - I was looking towards winning the whole thing, and having soloed in game 1, I felt that I had to.

Anyway, it soon became aparent that France might not be playing at all - so that made my choice of ally Michael first and foremost - both because of his good communication and due to the fact that I know how hard it is to really boom as Germany when you have a big England behind your back!

Anyway, the early years things went easy – getting 2 builds in 01 really made a big difference, as did the fact that neither Austria nor Russia built in 01, and the italian move into Tri was a big surprise as well. This made my move in 02 vs Stp an easy choice, even though Mick was beeing mauled in the south, I saw an opportunity to help Turkey grow, and that would probablly be good in the longer run. In 03, things got really interesting in the Med – sadly I did not manage to catch Italy off guard, which would have been a big bonus. In 03, it became clear what this was boiling down to; a stalemate between E/G and I/T.

However, I’ve seen quite a few tries at the I/T and not one of them has ever lasted. The tension and temptation is just too great – especially for Turkey. So, now that things reeeeeally slowed down, I went into lenghty talks with both Brian and Michael. Me and Brian both refused to budge, he wanted me to attack Michael and I wanted him to hit Italy. That’s how it stayed for quite a while.

A lot of e-mails went back and forth, and somehow I managed (I want to belvie that anyway) to keep both Brian and Michael happy. Then, prior to fall 06 – Brian gave me the get-go, if I promised to attack Bel, he would stab Italy. This was quite close to deadline, so I hastily changed my orders to attack Bel and at the same time shot off a message to Michael that implied I was going to hit Bel and that he should do something about it. I did not say it out loud, thinking that could backfire – I only prayed he had the chance to read the message. And he did. My ‘move’ vs Germany dod not do anything and Turkey made the decesive move that crippled Italy.

From Italys downfall I first gained Tun, and while a few of my and Michales units tussled with pre-arranged bounces, I shuffled my forces closer to Italy at a modest pace. 07 was interesting, here I had a plan to strike Turkey with Italys help – Italy would stay at 4 centers if germany helped, otherwise 3, and I could have advanced my position even further. Sadly, Italy missed the 100% play for Nap and instead moved Rome to Nap with Tyn support instead of the other way around – which would have worked since I attacked Ion and cut that support. However, I also moved into Tyn (since Italy ahd to move out) and thus I accidently cut Italys support….whoops!

I was dishearthened, and I expected Turkey to curse me for what I had tried to do. I fired off an explantion before he wrote me that was so and so plausible – but Brian seemed to accept it, and all was fine in the world. In 08, I was proud the convoy from Bre to Tus hit home – but otherwise, things were bogging down again.
So, to get it going – and to possibly improve my score, I stabbed Germany in spring 01, taking Den and gaining a substansial positional advantege. However, I also made some moves vs Turkey – in order to protect myself, as I feared he would take Rom. The bad thing about all this was that it drove germany straight into the open arms of Turkey – and I was rewarded by having Rom taken. However, Turkey also snatched Ven from Germany, which put Germany back on my sideline.

I decided to go for a stalemate and also proposed a 3-way draw. I knew I could not go further or the risk of Turkey taking a solo was too great – especially since there was no certain way of holding Mos and War. The vote passed, and that was it!

I must say, I did consider voting against it – looking at the other games in the tournament, it might be a liability to end before the other tables, since then there is a score to beat. I would have prefered to have it the other way around, but I also wanted to acknowledge the good play by Brian and Michael. I was also a bit surprised that Brian did accept the draw, even though he said he would. War and Mos were certain gains and that would have been another 0.2 points – though there was never any chance of a solo.

My final question goes to Michael; Would you have voted in favour of an E/T draw – not that it matters now, but I’d like to know since I’ve been thinking about it.

To wrap it up, Thank you to Christine for doing an excellent job as a GM and to all of you who played on this board, especially Michael who was a very reliable ally and Brian who was a deadly opponent. Special mention should also go to Paul – every message we exchanged was a bit of fun, and that’s what really makes a game enjoyable!

I’m looking forward to battle you al lonce again, untill then – you know where to find me!

/ Mikael - England Här hittar du allt om Allsvenskan! MSN Sport