10 Jan 2014, 9:59 am
Ok, so, firstly, this was one of the strangest games that I have played. I feel that there were places that I could have played better, and places that I could have played worse.
Germany was the problem with this game. His complete silence (to me anyway, and as far as I know to everyone) meant that the game had this unpredicatable mess in the middle of the board.
Spring 01: I talked to Austria, and he seemed enthuasiastic about an alliance against Germany. I proposed to him that he take Munich and I take Greece and we work on from there. At the same time I was talking to Russia and asked him to move into Galicia, with the idea of putting the squeeze on Austria. I was talking a little with Turkey, France and England as well, but nothing of consequence was said. France was happy for me to be going to the East while he concentrated on Germany, and I was happy to leave him Germany, banking on being able to defeat the east quicker than he could defeat Germany.
Spring moves rolled in, and everything was looking good for Italy. I had agreed with Austria where my units were going, so he still trusted me.
Fall 01: Here is where I made the first mistake of the game. I should have stabbed Austria with everything, rather than supporting a unit into one of his centers. I had also sent an email to Germany telling him taht Austria was going to move into Munich (my second or third attempt to communicate) but he ignored it and Austria got Munich, leaving him with 3 units. I had greece, but did not expect to keep it as I was not really on great terms with the Turk at this point (mainly because he had refused to move in on Austria). My relationship with Russia was as strong as ever, and this was to develop over the game into an alliance that I just couldn't break. I was still making small talk with England at this point, and I think sending an email or two to France, but as I expected to be fighting with France I was concentrating on the English diplomacy, and as it would be afair few years before I was ready to fight France I was happy enough to put that diplomacy on the backburner.
02: I offered at this point to allow Austria to survive as a janissary, which I was sincere with, but he decided that he didn't want to go that route, and tried to take back his center from Russia. Russia not haveing ever trusted Austria, it was not too surprising that this didn't work. We decided at this point to eliminate Austria (ignoring his German holding).
I at this point offered the same janissary deal to Turkey, but he declined.
In the fall, I accepted that I would lose Greece, so worked out a movement order that would mean either I would get Bulgaria, or I would keep Greece. As it happened I kept Bulgaria.
France made a play for my centers in the North as well, and things started coming to a head. At this point Germany had been all but eliminated, and EF were taking over faster than IR. But I was still pretty confident thaat things could be turned around, the tempo was within a turn or two of each other.
03: I actually made a genuine mistake here when I sent my fleet into the Aegean Sea here (Note: on looking back on it I noticed that actually I had ordered the Fl Ion to support the Fl Aeg - Gre, so I would have kept control of the Ion. This would have changed quite a lot of this game, tbh, for starters the Turk might have trusted me a bit more). I really should have cchecked that at the time, but was busy, and assumed that I had sent in the wrong orders (as I had been toying with the idea of sending my fleet into the Aegean). France at this point also made a play, and with the Austrian fleet in the Ionian I was pretty screwed.
In the Fall I moved to cover the two SC that Austria could take, and sure enough he tried for one. My fleet at this point could retreat to Lyo, and I should have. Russia was urging me to at the time, but I was blinded by the fact that I would lose Tunis (and I had a plan to keep Tunis, but that plan never worked out). So I retreated to NAf instead.
France at this point retreated into the final Austrian SC, causing the fleet in the Ion to disband. I don't know whether I would have done the same, but I assume at this point France and Turkey had started talking quite a lot. I was also at this point trying to get Turkey to set up a stalemate line (I was quite worried about France) but he was having none of it.
04: This was an eventful year. It had two things of note. Firstly, France got into the IOn (an advantage he was to give up the next year for some unknown reason). Also, In germany, it was set up such that there was a guess between France and Russia. If Russia had have guessed right, he could have broken through the stalemate line. As it happens, he was going to move to take Ber, but I think I convinced him not to. His origninal plan would have broken that stalemate line.
Turkey was being decimated and would olnly last one more year.
05: Here I needed more fleets to keep away France. France gave up the Ion to take Tun, allowing me to set up a stalemate line, and all in all the game hit a stalemate. From here it was pretty settled until the end of the game. While we moved around a lot in the Med, nothing ever actually happened there, and France had enough fleets to keep me bottled up. I was attempting to move enough fleets up to Pied to take Lyo, but with the French fleet in Spain that wasn't going to happen. Even if it ahd happened, the only actual effect was that I would have take Tunis, and another stalemate line would have been drawn up.
So, in conclusion, there were a few turning points. One thing that I left out above actually was the NDR by Austria. This leftr him with an extra fleet against me and noting against France (or helpoing France even). This gave France a bit of a time boost taking Germany, and set us back in the Balkans by a year.
It was a strange game, but it was very enjoyable. There was some kind of problem at the beginning of the game with my email (still not entirely sure what happened there, was I a replacement) but it all got sorted out in time for 01 so no worries.
I might have a bit of that timeline mixed up, as I am working from memory (and looking at the maps).
Thanks to Sendric for for his GM skills, and thanks to everyone else for playing.
Germany was the problem with this game. His complete silence (to me anyway, and as far as I know to everyone) meant that the game had this unpredicatable mess in the middle of the board.
Spring 01: I talked to Austria, and he seemed enthuasiastic about an alliance against Germany. I proposed to him that he take Munich and I take Greece and we work on from there. At the same time I was talking to Russia and asked him to move into Galicia, with the idea of putting the squeeze on Austria. I was talking a little with Turkey, France and England as well, but nothing of consequence was said. France was happy for me to be going to the East while he concentrated on Germany, and I was happy to leave him Germany, banking on being able to defeat the east quicker than he could defeat Germany.
Spring moves rolled in, and everything was looking good for Italy. I had agreed with Austria where my units were going, so he still trusted me.
Fall 01: Here is where I made the first mistake of the game. I should have stabbed Austria with everything, rather than supporting a unit into one of his centers. I had also sent an email to Germany telling him taht Austria was going to move into Munich (my second or third attempt to communicate) but he ignored it and Austria got Munich, leaving him with 3 units. I had greece, but did not expect to keep it as I was not really on great terms with the Turk at this point (mainly because he had refused to move in on Austria). My relationship with Russia was as strong as ever, and this was to develop over the game into an alliance that I just couldn't break. I was still making small talk with England at this point, and I think sending an email or two to France, but as I expected to be fighting with France I was concentrating on the English diplomacy, and as it would be afair few years before I was ready to fight France I was happy enough to put that diplomacy on the backburner.
02: I offered at this point to allow Austria to survive as a janissary, which I was sincere with, but he decided that he didn't want to go that route, and tried to take back his center from Russia. Russia not haveing ever trusted Austria, it was not too surprising that this didn't work. We decided at this point to eliminate Austria (ignoring his German holding).
I at this point offered the same janissary deal to Turkey, but he declined.
In the fall, I accepted that I would lose Greece, so worked out a movement order that would mean either I would get Bulgaria, or I would keep Greece. As it happened I kept Bulgaria.
France made a play for my centers in the North as well, and things started coming to a head. At this point Germany had been all but eliminated, and EF were taking over faster than IR. But I was still pretty confident thaat things could be turned around, the tempo was within a turn or two of each other.
03: I actually made a genuine mistake here when I sent my fleet into the Aegean Sea here (Note: on looking back on it I noticed that actually I had ordered the Fl Ion to support the Fl Aeg - Gre, so I would have kept control of the Ion. This would have changed quite a lot of this game, tbh, for starters the Turk might have trusted me a bit more). I really should have cchecked that at the time, but was busy, and assumed that I had sent in the wrong orders (as I had been toying with the idea of sending my fleet into the Aegean). France at this point also made a play, and with the Austrian fleet in the Ionian I was pretty screwed.
In the Fall I moved to cover the two SC that Austria could take, and sure enough he tried for one. My fleet at this point could retreat to Lyo, and I should have. Russia was urging me to at the time, but I was blinded by the fact that I would lose Tunis (and I had a plan to keep Tunis, but that plan never worked out). So I retreated to NAf instead.
France at this point retreated into the final Austrian SC, causing the fleet in the Ion to disband. I don't know whether I would have done the same, but I assume at this point France and Turkey had started talking quite a lot. I was also at this point trying to get Turkey to set up a stalemate line (I was quite worried about France) but he was having none of it.
04: This was an eventful year. It had two things of note. Firstly, France got into the IOn (an advantage he was to give up the next year for some unknown reason). Also, In germany, it was set up such that there was a guess between France and Russia. If Russia had have guessed right, he could have broken through the stalemate line. As it happens, he was going to move to take Ber, but I think I convinced him not to. His origninal plan would have broken that stalemate line.
Turkey was being decimated and would olnly last one more year.
05: Here I needed more fleets to keep away France. France gave up the Ion to take Tun, allowing me to set up a stalemate line, and all in all the game hit a stalemate. From here it was pretty settled until the end of the game. While we moved around a lot in the Med, nothing ever actually happened there, and France had enough fleets to keep me bottled up. I was attempting to move enough fleets up to Pied to take Lyo, but with the French fleet in Spain that wasn't going to happen. Even if it ahd happened, the only actual effect was that I would have take Tunis, and another stalemate line would have been drawn up.
So, in conclusion, there were a few turning points. One thing that I left out above actually was the NDR by Austria. This leftr him with an extra fleet against me and noting against France (or helpoing France even). This gave France a bit of a time boost taking Germany, and set us back in the Balkans by a year.
It was a strange game, but it was very enjoyable. There was some kind of problem at the beginning of the game with my email (still not entirely sure what happened there, was I a replacement) but it all got sorted out in time for 01 so no worries.
I might have a bit of that timeline mixed up, as I am working from memory (and looking at the maps).
Thanks to Sendric for for his GM skills, and thanks to everyone else for playing.
