I didnt play well--that's for sure. My position got screwed because Austria was a new player and Germany was only intermittently in the game. From the get-go Austria evinced no indication that he would work with me. His first two emails were hi and let me know if we have anything to discuss. That does not inspire confidence. Then Austria allows Turkey into Greece after I warned that was the one thing an Audtrian player cannot do.

So I tried to get some kind of relationship going with Italy--that was kind of my preference, really. RTs suck--they get stopped and anyway the alliance favors Turkey. But really could not get anything going with Italy and I did try. But seeing as how I could not make a deal with Italy and Austria was intransigent I had little choice but to work with Turkey. So that's what happened. An RT...how retro.

I think we could have broken IA's defenses but the RT was not a smoothly functioning machine. Turkey brought fleets out very slowly. And of course EF were content to let IA hold out while they advanced against me and Germany.

If Germany had been more involved in the game I would have taken Norway in Spring 1902. I should have done it anyway. I had been trying to get France to attack England the entire game and if I had taken Norway in Spring 1902 he might have gone after England in 1903. It's those kind of little strategic missteps that can turn a game.

And Germany when he popped up was fine but the NMRs and the retreats otb (which I do think are too big a penalty) really hurt my position. So when I did not take Norway and Germany easy pickings France had no reason to get involved in a slugfest with England.

And so did not like Italy's move into Munich both it makes little strategic sense for Italy and it hurt my position. Now it gives Italy some firepower but now Italy still has to find a way to ward off both France and Turkey. And Italy is not in a position to hold on to German centers long-term. Italy was able to pull it off in this game--credit to him for doing so--but an early move in to Germany is problematic, strategically. But you fix just about anything in diplomacy with effective diplomacy and Italy was effective there.

Getting bogged in the Balkans and hammered in the South, the stab from Turkey was somewhat inevitable. I am not sure why Sendric went for the solo in the way he did. I guess if Turkey had misplayed and attacked Italy he might have won, but certainly an EIT ganging up to stop him was a big risk. And I was too weak by that time to help out.

Thanks to Brad for running the game well. England, France, Italy and Turkey played well and I enjoyed the correspondence for the most part (The correspondence w Austria was tense for the most part).

One pet peeve: I did not like the fact that Turkey forwarded emails from other players. Nothing says you can't do that but I think it undermines the game to be honest. If everyone did that we would have a very hard saying anything, knowing it's going to be forwarded everywhere, potentially. Anyway, maybe I'm wrong but I dislike that practice.