My thanks to Mikko for a well run game and for the patience he showed with all the missed deadlines (many of them my fault). I would also like to congratulate Phil on a well played game.
I started the game with the plan of making peace with Austria as Russia while moving against him as Italy. Once Spain moved against Italy then I realized that strategy was a no go. I came clean with Phil and we formed an alliance (with me getting Gal) and a plan for coordiniating I/R/A against Germany.
It was also obvious that Scan's secret power was Germany or else Scan was in alliance with Germnay by 1902 or so as Scan did not move into open German SC's. With Scan attacking Russia in the north this was extra incentive to push against Germany.
Phil and I grew at a fairly quick rate as Turkey was dismantled. Our alliance was a poor choice from my point of view as it meant that I had to sacrifice my Italian holdings to Austria but I felt I had no choice with Spain pushing against Italy.
My only real hope (even this early in the game) of getting the better of Phil was to quickly dispose of Scan/Ger, fortify, and then stab. Phil though was able to grow much quicker then I and that hope was never very realistic.
Nothing really interesting happened for a number of years. Phil and I finished off Turkey, pushed Spain back, and pushed into Germany. In the north I was able to push strongly into Scan and knocked him down to 2 SC's.
Then silence from Phil and I knew that the stab was imminent (I had been hoping for another year so that I could ally with England to finish off Scan and stabilize that border). I immediately called off my campaign in the north and ordered all my units to the A/B/T front lines. The Austrian stab came as expected. If Phil had just kept the pretense that the alliance was still on prior to the turn then I probably would have bought it and he would have caught me out of position.
About this time (1907-1909) my work schedule increased drastically and I was caught with way to much on my plate (insane work hours, GM'ing 3 games and playing in 6 or 7, plus the regular father and husband duties). My ability to be proactive diplomatically and to try coordinating moves was seriously hampered. No one else seemed willing to try driving the coalition either (although I think Tim tried when he came on board) and without some coordination stopping the solo seemed remote (though possible) until Sanford moved into Denmark. I don't fault Sanford with being impatient and wanting to get into the action but:
1. after the spring turn when he took Denmark I wrote to him saying that was a mistake. He agreed to withdraw and then reneged in the fall. I didn't understand why he would lie to me. If he told me that he was staying I couldn't have retaken it anyway. So I was pretty pissed about it.
2. I had been planning to have Sanford move into Denmark in the next spring turn and then move into Kiel in the fall so that we could utilize his army. He would have picked up a SC and the front line would have been strengthened not weakened. If I had communicated this idea to him I am sure that he would have agreed but due to time pressures mentioned earlier I did not.
I was now faced with disbanding a unit when I really didn't have a unit to spare. Sanford has suggested that I could have disbanded Kiel but my memory was that Phil had 4 units bordering Mun and I needed Kiel to defend it. My alternate choice could have been to disband F Bla but my plan had been to wait until Bla had to retreat and then retreat it OTB so that I could build a much needed army in Warsaw. I ended up disbanding Rum because there was no way I could hold Rumania in the coming year.
Then, totally inexplicably, Sanford took Kiel (after I had taked Mun so that I would not have to disband another Russian unit with the fall of Rum). That was essentially game over.
I'm not bitter with you Sanford nor do I take your moves personally. I admire a good stab but your stab made absolutely no sense to me. Without your moves into Kiel and Denmark we could have prevented Phil from soloing.
Again it's nothing personal I just think that you made the wrong decision. The blame I think is on both of us for not communicating enough.
That's the game as I remembered it ... Thanks again Mikko and to my past and present allies/opponents.
First off, I'd like to congratulate Phil for his solo victory. I'd also like to extend my congrats to the other players of this game, for a well-fought out battle. We didn't win guys, but there's always next time I guess...
As this is my first end-of-game statement, I'm a little unsure about what to say. I realize there is some bitterness about my moves, particularly concerning the last several rounds of this game. However, I'll go through my reasons for making those moves, and hopefully everything will become clear. If not, well, I'll meet you all on the playing field again some day and you can show me the error of my ways.. :->
I came into LUICK as a replacement in the fall of 1903. My predecessor had made some ground on Russia in the north, but the secret country, Germany, was getting seriously hammered. What was worse was that it seemed that all the other players *knew* that my secret country was Germany. To me, that seemed to be a serious disadvantage.
I had three goals at first. The first was to attempt to divorce the other players from the idea that I had Germany as a secret country. The second was to consolidate my forces. The German fleet in Belgium did little good while Italy and Russia were eating up my home supply centers. Thridly, I wanted to convince Russia to call off the dogs. While I think I achieved the first two goals, I failed miserably in the third, and that was what ultimately prevented me from getting anywhere in this game.
Even at this early point, I was fairly confident that Russia had Italy as a secret country. I didn't know why else the Italian would have abandoned everything in such a single-minded pursuit of Germany. With no home centers left, Italy had become just a tool. After hearing about John's goal of destroying the Krauts, I was pretty certain that it was Russia's hand that wielded that tool.
Unsure about what I could do, I attempted to accomplish my goals. As Scandinavia I attempted to convince John that I would aid him against Germany and the British. As Germany, I simply attempted to survive the onslaught. For some reason, a German unit had been retreated to Denmark, which led to the disbandment of one of the Scandinavian units in my first year. This then led to the retaking of St. Petersburg by Russia the next Spring. There was literally nothing I could do about it.
All this time, the Balkans and Austria/Hungary were growing bigger and bigger in the south. However, despite sometimes glancing at the map, I barely noticed this. It was taking everything I had to stop the tidal wave that Russia was throwing at me. I think that I managed to throw John off balance by accepting his aid into Denmark as Scandinavia, and then supporting him into Kiel in 1904. This was done solely to attempt to convince him that Germany was *not* my secret country. As Italy owned Kiel at the time, it was no loss to me. Doing this, I fully intended to swing around and catch John off-guard at some future point, and hopefully fight my way back into Germany. Attacking England was never in the plans for me.
My plan kept Scandinavia from having to disband from the loss of St. Petersburg, but Germany had to disband one. Anticipating my success into Kiel the next turn, I thought this would be all right.
1905 came around, and I pulled my sneak attack on Kiel, anticipating that John would have to disband the Russian fleet there. It worked perfectly, except that I had forgotten that Kiel could retreat to Helgoland Bight, which John did. That Russian fleet in my back destroyed my plans. Looking at the situation, I thought that Russia would make a move on Holland, which was then undefended.. Moving to bounce that attack cost me, as John instead attacked Kiel. The German fleet wound up back in Holland, unbounced, and I ended up with a Scandinavian in Kiel...
I think that one mistake cost me Germany. If I had moved the Ruhr army into Kiel instead of the Holland Fleet, things might have gone completely different. The Russian retreat to Helgoland Bight wouldn't have mattered, and I would have had a lot more mobility with an army in Kiel...
Anyways, I popped another army into Scandinavia to help stop the Russian invasion in the north, disbanded the Ruhr army and focused on Scandinavia's survival, since it was now apparent that Germany was doomed. My maneuvers with the Krauts had burned any bridges that I had built with John. However, I had been expecting a stab into Scandinavia from northern Russia anyways, expecting John to go for the next weakest power on the board.
1906 saw the death of Germany, and was witness to things going extremely poorly for me in the north. Russia worked his way into Sweden in the Spring, and in a last-ditch effort I landed troops into Livonia in the Fall. It had been my intention to cause havoc in the rear of Russia with my last few turns, but at the last minute I heard from John. The danger of the A/H-B solo had finally been noticed, and maverick Scandinavian troops in backwater Russia would be a serious detriment to any plans that were hatched to stop the solo from happening.
Going along with the greater good, and putting my desire to claw at Russia with my last breaths, I disbanded my Russian strike force, and settled down to freeing up my home supply centers, if that was possible. John sent his northern units southwards, "accidently" taking Denmark as he passed through. As I had retaken Sweden, this was no setback to me, although it was a little bit of a bother.
1908 saw the long stalemate line develop against Phil. It also saw me move half-seriously into Denmark. I never actually expected John to move out of it, and was seriously surprised when my attack succeeded. Nevertheless, Denmark was my home supply center, and I felt completely entitled to it. A loss of one unit to Russia would have had no effect against the stalemate line, as John could easily have disbanded Kiel.
However, John took my reoccupation of Denmark personally, and instead of disbanding Kiel, he disbanded what I thought was a more key army in Rumania.
To this day, I have no idea what John expected me to do. All game,
he had been spanking me. Then, when confronted with the threat of
Phil's solo, he expected me to sit there at two supply centers,
waiting for the "grown-ups" to beat down the southern menace?! What
would happen if Phil had been beaten back? Sitting up in the north at
two supply centers, I would have been easy meat for either England or
Russia to swallow up. Playing out the rest of the game writing
Norway Support Sweden
Sweden Support Norway
was not something that I wanted to do.
So, not expecting anything, in 1908 I wrote in:
Sweden -> Denmark
To my surprise, it worked. Deciding that John could afford it, I stayed in there, got a build, and rebuilt my navy.
My plan, at this point, was to send my navy into the water and convoy one of my armies somewhere where it could do some good. I sent the fleet into the North Sea in 1909, and enlisted England's aid in convoying the army. Unfortunately, the convoy failed. England had suggested convoying to Gascony, which in my rush to submit orders I went along with. In retrospect, I should have asked Trevor to move his Picardy fleet to Brest, then convoyed there. I didn't really think the convoy idea through all the way, and Phil gained some important ground into the Atlantic because of it.
The Kiel attack in 1909 was strictly to poke Russia in the eye. I didn't actually expect the attack to succeed, but the bitterness that was emanating from any email contact that I had with John was just too much for me. All I wanted at this point was to get one of my armies into the fight against Phil. To be fair, I attempted to move out of Kiel in the Fall, although I really didn't want to. Long story short, I took another center from Russia, and one that was definitely more vital to stopping the A/H-B tide than Denmark had been.
1910 saw me with two fleets, and two armies again. I convoyed the Denmark army to Holland, expecting to arrange with England to work his way into Ruhr in the Fall. Also, I sent a fleet up north to work his way around the British Isles, and meet the advancing Austrian boats, or bolster British defences in the Atlantic.
However, seeing the full-scale Russian retreat in the east, things looked pretty bleak. I counted the supply centers, and thought that Phil would solo the game after 1910. (I think I must have miscounted, but damn, Phil had so many at that point can you blame me?) I decided that if the game was lost anyways, I might as well go out in style. Hence, the last turn's stab of England. I had not planned to do it, but when John retreated, I figured what the hell.
This game was a purely frustrating one for me. Nothing that I did seemed to work, until the last few rounds when I wasn't sure that I wanted it to. I made a couple of bad mistakes that I shouldn't have made. The last few rounds, however, I do not regret at all. I would not expect any player to sit at two supply centers when he has a chance to grow, and could not believe that this was expected of me.
So yeah, I *did* finish second, and I *do* feel fairly good about it even though it means nothing. After the beating I took in this game, finishing with as many units as I entered it with does a body good.
(I'd like to note that I *do* feel bad about stabbing Trevor at the end, as the opportunity was there only because he was doing everything he could to stop the solo. However, if the goose is already cooked, I have no problems biting into it... Anyways, in a private email, I explained to Trevor what I was about to do, and apologized for it.)
Anyways, it was definitely not a game that I'll write home about, and I'll admit that I got my hands dirty at the end. However, as always, I enjoyed myself guys, and I thank you all for enjoying it with me.
Congratulations Phil.. Next time will be different. :->