First of all I will also thank Frank for a fantastically GM'd game. Frank would easily rate as one of the best GMs I have enountered, and i would consider him on par with Christine Stoy. Thankyou for the enjoyment.

I have to confess I did not enjoy the ganme play in this game and it was mainly to do with the players. I didn't mind the scorched earth rules and I do like the viking map.

Slavics - Kurt. I considered Kurt my true and solid ally in this game. Even though he grew big at the start of the game, I suspected that he would face problems with ERE and the communication with Kurt is excellent. My emails always seem to go answered and i enjoyed working with him. There were rumours in the last few turns that Kurt was about to stab me for a northern centre (hence my last 2 builds were quite defensive) but i dont think Kurt would have done so. We were making plans to cut Sweden out (sorry Doug - i did lie to you about that). I was more than happy that Kurt was in the draw.

Sweden - Jack. Jack was a good ally, right up to a point... I enjoyed the strategies that Jack would come up with and with Jack and Kurt we co-ordinateed a great alliance in the north. However there was a point at mid game where Jack seem to stab 'doug/burgundy' just because he got bored. ERE then moved back on Sweden but it was too late for me. Twice Sweden attempted to break through in the north (both times unsuccesfully) and i had to fight him back. He then also stopped communicating near the end (with perfectly reasonable explanation though), which meant that I was definately onboard with Kurt's plan to wipe him out.

France - Trout. Put simply, Trout was a target at the start of the game by Burgundy. I had no interest in attacking Trout so I just let him burn what he wanted.

Arabs - Andy. Possible the worst player I have encountered. Andy did not answer a single email of mine in the first year, basically resulting in my walking into one of his Home centres. I only then heard about him through ERE. Andy, I think it was very poor play not to negiotate with such a close neighbour.

Burgundy - Lee. The one thing I like about Lee is that he communicates. He emails and writes all the time. The one thing i hate about Lee is that he has no trust. He was constantly movign armies back and forth along my border - this eventually led to me organising as many people as I could to attack Lee. HE wasn't helping us stop ERE, he was just being a pain in the way.

Burgundy - Doug. I think Doug played an excellent 'replacement' game. He came out, was able to read the board and quickly joined the status quo to stop ERE going for his solo. More importantly - he was willing to create a DMZ so that I could move my fleets into the med and help against ERE (something that Lee would not allow). In some ways, I think Doug was entitled to be included in the draw, but he was willing not to be - so who can complain with that. Doug - i was counting your SC, (at end game I knew I needed 11 to win.. and I could only take 5 off you instead of the needed 8.. so no stab.. However if i ever worked out how to get those 11, i was going for the win!)

Danmark - Kai. My first target. Jackson was too quiet and my first big threat to securing a corner for myself. I just moved to eliminate hjim as quickly as possible.

ERE - Jorge. Jorge had an excellent start to the game, and seemed to grow very quickly. He also seemed to have control over the arabs who just let Jorge take the entire southern corner. I viewed Jorge a threat after his first moves. I spent countless emails to Jorge, assuring him that i was working for a 2 way draw for us, whilst at the same time trying to organise Burgundy, Sweden and Slavs against him. (admittedly Doug took on this role in the latter half of the game). Eventually I hit a wall where I had to let Jorge know I was not going to stab Burgundy if Burgundy was moving on ERE. Jorge said very clearly at the time that if i did, we would never get the 2 way draw - and he was right. Thanks for a good game Jorge, you are always an excellent opponent.

Steve


Stephen Lytton
Knight of the Inferno
Moderator of www.diplomaticcorp.com

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