First off, Woohoo!
The cream of the crop, the big cahuna, the taco supreme, the game of games… the dc invitational, and a solo! What a game…

Before everyone rips on Felix, hold those thoughts… it should be known that this win did not come from Felix, but rather a series of questionable moves toward the mid and end game by quite a few players that netted me the win. Will get to that later… first I’ll share the game from my point of view:

The early game:

Right off the bat I knew I was in a good spot this game. Starting as Germany, you always worry about the early elimination… the England, France double-team, or Russia taking Scandinavia. However I got a great start in that Steve was England and Felix was France, and those two fight in just about every game. Some rivalries never die. Then also it turns out that my other two more distant neighbors, Russia and Austria, were Mikael and Ray-- Another duo that seem to always have it in for the other. I was sitting pretty.

First year, got the 3 builds, and helped Russia into Sweden, thinking with Steve in England I might need an ally… And this is about where things started to go really bad. It seemed like Italy stole Marseilles from France in fall ‘01, tho actually France gave it to him, in an elaborate plot… a plot to “eliminate England and leave Germany defenseless”. It was a masterful design, sort of the opposite of an Italian Octoberfest… you know where Italy goes thru Munich to attack France? Well this was Italy going thru France to attack Germany. It was an ingenious plan, and left me fried when I found out what was going on… I couldn’t believe I bought it, a plan created by Felix and Kevin had completely snowed me.

Second year was the very odd Italian build of an army in Venice. At this point I knew something was up, and I argued for days with Felix and Kevin about the merits of such a build. I knew it wasn’t to attack Austria, and the way to kill France was to build another fleet… but an army was raised, and the Fiafranchetto was destined to come to fruition… with simultaneous moves by Russia, Italy, and France, all against me and Steve! Fortunately I bounced 1 of the 3 moves against me, but Italy ended up in Tyrolia, and Russia in Silesia. I was basically dead from here on – with only 3 armies of my own! (I’d built 2 fleets at Felix’ request – part of the Fiafranchetto).

What saved me was a couple things… first—Ray… came thru w a killer move on Russia, taking 2 sc of growth in the 2nd year with Gal, Bul, and Rum falling to Austria. This caused Mikael to abandon the attack on me, and fall back to defend his homeland. And second—Kevin. After substantial negotiation, I managed to convince Kevin that an attack on France would produce more results than pursuing me, and so came the day the Fiafranchetto died, with Italy swiping Spain the turn he was to get support into Burgundy.

Third year, things were looking a thousand times brighter, as Russia withdrew, Italy had attacked France, and I had my original 6 units to sit on, half of which were fleets. At this point I made the move that really pushed me forward, which was a stab into Italy, right after he’d stabbed France. I knew Felix would never let him live that down, and so it was a very successful move which put me in Marseilles (Italian sc) by the end of the 3rd year. Also the newfound alliance with Felix already had him in position vs Steve (England) and so all it took was me shifting my units to the north and Steve was outgunned at sea 5 fleets to 3. It was only a matter of time. Steve was certain to lose Norway, and be reduced to his 3 island centers, which he expedited the loss of by misordering a key cover of London.

The Mid-Game:

Years 4 and 5 were just Felix and I pressing our advantage… Mikael and Ray tossing back and forth in the east, Steve beaten back in England, and France dominating the Med. Not much changed, until maybe year 6 or so, when everyone started ranting about a possible German solo. All the talk aside tho, nobody was willing to step up and make a move against me, being locked in their own wars. I think Mikael and Ray fought clear up to the fall of 08, by which point it was just too late to stop me.

Any semblance of organization at this point by AR, and I would have been stopped cold, and a DIAS could have been forced. But instead we trudged into year 7 with everyone saying Felix had to make the move to stop me, but nobody else would do the same. Because of this, I was able to keep Felix onside for quite a long time! While he did give in to the demands of the resistance a few times, I was able to keep him onside enough times to keep my progress inching forward.

The End-Game:

Year 7… more gains for me as Mikael pulled out of Moscow, in yet another attack on Ray, while yet again Ray attacked Mikael., handing me some centers I thought I would have to fight tooth and nail for. Instead I walked into Mos, securing those two eastern centers (War/Mos) I knew I’d need if I was to win.

Year 8… Russia and Austria FINALLY got together and decided to stop attacking each other, but by this time I was already in Moscow, and I had France outmatched in fleets – already occupying Par and Bre.

Italy was still alive by a hair tho, so I spent hours convincing Felix that we had to take out Italy in repayment for him stabbing the Fiafranchetto. It worked about half the time, the other times he’d order something to help the others… like helping Italy recapture Venice, and destroying my army in Rome. Both huge setbacks for me. In fact these were really my only setbacks along the way, all of which were due in part to Felix.

The End:

The 1908 turn was very odd because I knew Mikael was coordinating moves at this time, yet he had Turkey order F Apu-ION. I thought this was a bad move, since it set up a 50/50 guess for me outright soloing! In the final year, I had certain capture of Mar or Spain (but not both) for 17 sc, and then draw… but I also had a 50/50 shot at Vie or Ven because of this s08 move making it so they couldn’t defend both.

I guessed well, and went for Vie, tho it didn’t matter as the resistance didn’t cover either center. Whether I’d gone for Vie, or Ven, I would have been successful. Felix hosed an order that put me at 19, which was irrelevant in the end.

I’m very surprised I got this solo. At any point in years 5-6-7 if Austria and Russia had stopped fighting, they could have stopped me, but they just didn’t do it. Instead they demanded Felix make these gotta-stop-Sims moves, and he refused to do so on his own when everyone else was insulting him left and right for not stopping me, yet none of them would do so themselves.

So I owe the win largely to the alliance I built up w France after the Fiafranchetto (later dubbed Fiafranghetto) collapsed, but also to the eastern wars, and the easy capture of Moscow. Also the constant insults to Felix really egged him on and gave me lots of opportunities to keep him with me.

It was a great game, very exciting, especially negotiating towards the end, trying to keep battles going in the east, and to keep Felix onside in the west.

Good game to all, and I look forward to being slaughtered in round 2.

Trout, impeccably GM’d… I love the enthusiasm, and the storylines each turn… Question is, did you recall the StarWars bit from memory? That made me sick hearing some great movie quotes leading to my army in Venice being slaughtered as if I was the evil empire. :-p I’m not evil.

Felix & Kevin, you two better write up that opening, and get it to go down in the history books.

-mike