Ah thanks Sims for stating all that is apparent!!
Well well well, Kingmaker Felix made good on the rumours fo the DCI!!

Here is my little take.....

When I was asked to join the DCI, or more like qualify for the DCI, I was a bit shocked and 
frankly disgusted, because i knew it would end ugly...more so for me than anyone else....
i was caught between two hard places.....one.....if i sided with sims, penger would cry hell bent
hell cross gaming kingmaking scum vermin that i am.....if i sided with sims, it would have been....
show DC that you and penger are really close and attack sims because sims is ranked first in Dc.....
of course there was the ray camp....don't follow felix at all he will just piss you off, better kill him than to 
suffer later, or he will throw the iching or some other absurdity...

so for me, the only 3 player i needed to really piss off were.....
sims, ray, penger.

so how do i play, what should i do??

here comes the fiafranchetto....

when i saw the players i decided on a whim with kevin on im to form a sort of reverse version of the lepanto
where italy really attacks germany but through france.....
it was a cockeyed opening but i saw....like sims saw...the strong possibility of it succeeding and to an extent it 
really did...until kevin got a bit cold footed...no doubt by the pesterings of ray/sims penger...and then took spain!!
when the fiafranchetto was blossoming....
for those of you paying attention.....
the moves were.....

to get me via convoy to clyde...effectively killing england off...and positioning france in picardy, italy in burgundy and tyrolia

it would amount to italy keeping marseille for the duration of the game and allow me to finish england
and put immense pressure on germany....
as i saw it, i was going to finish the game with kevin, the most neutral on the board and the one most
able to make it work.....i was wrong....

when kevin took spain i freaked out, i was livid as i was already on english soil and germany and england were 
shocked at all that was happening....the fiafranchetto would have been impressive....

fia (italian for the fiat) fran (for france) and chetto....a spear....kinda like the franchetto opening in chess.

too bad it didn't pan out....it was gold gold i say!!

so after kevin smashed my dreams to bits
i decided that i have two choices
to finish off penger (insert torn rage between killing penger in every game, cause thats what i do!!!!....and playing the game)
or to play the game of vengeance
and i decided to play for vengeance......
sims did very very well in coordinating the rest of my moves
tempting me
consoling me
and basically tricking me to do his bidding, sims is a master for the weak minded like myself.

during this period, i was harassed by the likes of penger saying things like giving sims a solo
kingmaker, and so forth et cetera et cetera!!! and frankly i was tired of defending it, so why not just
EMBRACE it!!
if someone says you are something prove to them that you ARE!!!!
i proved to ray that i'm a horrific player by giving him the solo in a previous game
so why not show penger that i am indeed the Kingmaker of sims in this one??!!!

frankly sims did play wonderfully, promising me all sorts of things...one of which was to take out
mikael for second place!!!

thus my random end game moves
i knew that stopping sims would not work when i sent a 5 party 'attack sims' email, and had that forwarded
by ray to sims...at that point, i knew that everyone would blame me for the sims solo, so i said, what the heck
i'll make it so!!

and so we dilly dallied, got called names, lots of folks resigned from the second round and just a bunch of drama

and finally i was tired of the game, sims would solo and coming in second and demolishing kevin/ray would have
been entertaining but really too much effort......

one thing that came of it.....

there was only one elimination.

i need not mention who that was

satisfaction guaranteed!!

sims....make room for me in your coffin for round two...i'll be next to you, six feet under before it even begins!!

Thanks for all the fish trout!! 
a pleasure as usual!

F












On Oct 12, 2007, at 10:10 PM, Michael Sims wrote:

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 Russiataking 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 Germanydefenseless”.  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 Italygoing 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