Hi All,

First off, a hearty congratulations to Joe for a well played and well
earned solo victory. Thanks for the clever plays.

Second, a huge thanks to Steve for being GM. The game couldn't happen
without your work.

Thanks to Mike and Brian for a well played game and for sticking it
out to the end.

Thanks to Paolo for a valiant effort in the North. I hardly knew ye.

Thanks to Steve for stepping in as Turkey. Sorry about the immediate
stab...

And thanks to Chinmay and Bhargav for starting out down this long
road. It was fun while you were with us.


And, without further ado, here is what I have to say:

As this was my first Diplomacy by correspondence game, and just my
third game of Diplomacy ever, I can be no less than pleased with the
experience. Sure, I made some mistakes (most of which I'll own up to
shortly), but I also learned a great deal about the game and I'm very
much looking forward to my next.

The game started out very intense, as I pleaded each of my neighbors
for peace. Joe and Brian were happy to oblige. Bhargav seemed to
want to team up and head North, and Mike offered to bounce in Galicia
for the low, low price of a completely Russian Turkey. So, at that
point, I decided to invade Turkey with Russia's help, then stab Russia
when the time was right. Just to make things interested, I also
invited Italy to do a Lepanto. I figured Italy and Russia might get
into a fight in Turkey, giving me a chance to waltz North. You all
know how that turned out...

At the end of 1901, I built a fleet. Apparently this made Brian
somewhat nervous and would have a lasting effect on our diplomatic
relations. The ostensible reason was that I needed a fleet in the
Black Sea, but yes, it was also meant as insurance against an Italian
stab.

Things progressed nicely, but it appears that I waited one season too
long for my Russian stab. If I had done it in the Fall of 1902,
Rumania would have been undefended and I would have taken an immediate
advantage. I waited, however, until 1903, and Mike was waiting for
me. I think this was a pretty big mistake on my part, but then again
I'm not sure how far I would have gotten in Russia, anyway. The
stalemate was fun, but I would have rather had some cabbage rolls in
the Ukraine, to be honest.

This went on for some time. I thought I had finally reached an
advantageous position, but then Brian stabbed me. He sent me a nice
letter explaining why, saying that my earlier fleet build plus the
lack of future rewards in the East were his reasons. He seemed open
to resumed co-operation, and I made a genuine effort, but our
relationship never healed. He can correct me if I'm wrong, but he
seemed to suspect that I would attack him, and so he never restored
our DMZ. After a few seasons of this, I had enough and attacked him.
I thought at the time that he would attack me, yet he oddly chose that
moment to restore the DMZ. And so we set up another little stalemate
in Italy.

These events were accompanied, of course, by the the Civil Disorder in
France. I thought that this was quite unfortunate, as I was hoping
for a drawn out battle between Germany, Italy, and France. In fact,
my war with Italy gave Chinmay a chance to survive. I was somewhat
disappointed that he didn't take it.

As for Joe, I was always a bit confused about our diplomatic
relations. We maintained the DMZ for a good part of the game, and we
agreed to break it for a joint attack on Italy. Yet something went
wrong and the DMZ was never restored. I tried to convince you to
leave with some (mostly empty) threats, but it didn't work. The main
result, rather, was the breakdown of our diplomatic relations. I'll
go ahead and call that a mistake on my part. I'm not sure if a more
diplomatic approach would have worked, though. Perhaps you'll shed
some light, Joe.

When the German threat became apparent, Mike and I finally declared a
cease-fire. We even restored some semblance of trust with a partial
demilitarization. My goal here was to keep Germany out of Warsaw for
long enough that I could subdue Italy and start fighting Joe for
Iberia (big plans, I know!). We had some difficulty in co-ordinating
our efforts, however, and Joe was able to get in.

All in all, I found the whole thing to be quite fun. Thanks again to
everyone, and I look forward to your statements.

Yours,
Matthew