CROSS MY FINGERS--AUSTRIA EOG

Having had the privilege to read Italy's, Turkey's and England's EOGs before writing this I'll keep it short (maybe) and to the point. But first let me begin by lauding :grin: our great GM for his patience and impeccable performance.

I did also begin the game with scant pre-game diplomacy. And having not heard from Italy (yep, whatever proposal he sent went AWOL in the great big black internet hole or the mail program waste disposal, bin a.k.a. the spam filter) or Russia for that matter (I got pretty much snubbed by both R and F for the whole game, so I do understand T's sentiment) I went straight into DEFCON 1 mode right from the start and decided to make a pure Hedgehog. And with Italy moving to TYR and Russia to GAL in S1901 I was sure that I was going to be eliminated pretty fast. So I launched a diplomatic campaign to try to turn away RI and convince T to work with me (see T's EOG for details). And to my utter surprise, really, Italy retreated and Turkey supported me (I had not expected my hard-ball diplomacy with T to succeed that well, as I had been so remiss in the pre-game diplomacy).

What frustration that must have meant for especially Russia as he had a made a great opening in the north. And then Russia did not follow up into SWE :eek: and ended up with no builds which was wow fantastic I thought. (See England's EOG though as to why...) So the Kaiser popped a bottle or two of champagne in Vienna and really started to relax. With the initial crisis gone and an alliance going with T, I could start to plan ahead instead. And 1902 saw AT turn the tables on Russia and gain, while Italy sank into some sort of torpor--as explained by him in his EOG. But that was fine with me as I could consolidate.

Worse for the game was the German collapse. I had counted on G balancing EFR, but for some reason R let E grow and instead attacked G, which essentially gave E the lead in the game. A lead that he managed to keep until the TEA end game deal. I had hoped to be able to succour G after definitively hobbling R, but events moved so fast in 1903 that G was almost gone by then, with me unfortunately unable to move units to his border. (Due to sad events in RL G also had not much time to give to the game.) 1903 also saw R essentially gift AT with his centers (he had given up) and me unexpectedly (for me that is) grab VEN. I was sure that Italy was going to just sit tight and support himself (as agreed), but suddenly he moved VEN-TYR--boy did Italy get mad at me then...

Yes I was planning to grab VEN anyway, but not until T was in position to grab NAP/TUN--not to stumble into VEN by accident.

And then the game got stale. By 1904 it had solidified into a strong EF vs AT with Italy hunkering down in between. And I bungled my moves. For some reason I did MOS-STP and WAR-SIL instead of MOS S WAR-LVN as E was obviously moving there. What was I thinking? Sure I got STP, but STP was impossible to hold -- I risked having it eliminated, so T supported me back into MOS. Also having E in LVN and F in BOH was a major tactical problem with WAR and MOS empty! But I managed to eliminate F BOH and restore order, but at that point Austria was boxed in behind what for all practical purposes constituted a stalemate line. Boring to death that was.

And then to my chagrin Italy managed to outguess AT on every attempt to grab NAP. Ridiculous really, but it caused T to get pretty paranoid over it. And he obviously did not believe my protestations to the contrary (see his EOG). From a practical standpoint the chances of guessing correctly are pretty good in in that situation--just too few moves permutations. It's like chess: statistically the chances are high assuming totally random events, but some positions can never be truly random. (But I do also think I misordered at some point.)

And then I just started to pester E with incessant, and for the most part totally ignored, "attack France" suggestions (and some attack E to reticent F too). I did even send E suggestions for moves to go for the win and possible solo too, in the hopes he would move to early, but E never moved :upset:

My main fear at that point was that T would ally with E to stab F and me and then race for the solo or board top. I was really badly strung out with all my units buffeting against the EF front. I do agree that E missed up, but not only one chance but several. But he did also tell me after yet one another round of stab nagging that he just did not feel right to stab a nice ally just on the eve of Christmas.

And no E, you would never ever had broken through that line however "cunning and clever play" you had managed to come up with (unless you had turned T--but I knew T was too good a player to risk a full out attack from an irate A while you, E, would have reaped all gains). You got your freebie by grabbing LVN much too early, but that was it. I always keep track of how to retreat into stalemate or semi-stalemate should it come to that.

So I guess both EF and AT then just hoped the other would make some major error out of sheer boredom. Sure also did not help that T clammed up and let Austria bear the brunt of the game.

So when E finally stabbed F it was a bit sad actually as F had been such a good ally to E. So having F in until the end was fair as ET mentioned.