I'd certainly like to add my thanks to Trout for taking over the game and steering us most capably through to a conclusion!
Three of the four of the survivors were replacements, and the game does show how much easier it is for replacements to put the strategic situation ahead of the personal history (at least to begin with!). When I took over Turkey things were pretty desperate - down to 4 centres with the Italian in Smy and an E/F on the way to conquering the world. Clearly until the E/F could be shaken our only chance was for everyone else to team up....
Fortunately Andy as the Austrian was also new and we managed to make the unusual A/I co-operation work through to game end. The 2 SC Russia was also willing to help, but there was no shifting the Italian and, sadly, during the year or so it took to eject him from Turkey and the eastern Med, France managed to secure a lock on the western end. I worked with F for a few turns to remove the Italian, but with an eye firmly on getting to the ION-Ven-Sev statemate which Andy and I came within one SC of securing...but we had to gamble to get the last unit in place and it didn't quite come off.
We'd tried everything we could diplomatically to shake the E/F but with no success right through to the original England's unexplained disappearance. England had the best position and hence the upper hand; whether the original E ever intended to break for the solo was never clear, but certainly Jorge was blessed with as good a replacement position as anyone's ever likely to get..and he handled the opportunity very well.
With a new England everything changed - since F appeared closed to anything other than the original E/F and we weren't strong enough to hold out alone the only option was working with England for long enough to gain the upper hand against F but not so long that the solo became unstoppable. It was good working with him whilst it lasted, and Jorge is probably right that we decided to act one turn too late - but with F determined to hand over the solo by throwing his position, rather than playing the game, really the end was inevitable whatever we had done. Except for the last spring turn, I think Andy and I read Jorge pretty well, and I hope he feels we at least gave him a run for his money....congratulations to the winner, and thanks again to Trout for rescuing us mid-game.
Ian
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