ENDGAME STATEMENTS ACD 212

AUSTRIA (Paul Rosenzweig)

I forgot I had played in this game, I left it so long ago. Jan had to remind me to send him one. So here it is – short and sweet like my life. Italy stabbed me. I thought I had an alliance with Turkey, but he misread the position, thought the Italian stab was a Key Lepanto and stabbed me as well. Since I'd started the game attacking Russia it turned out to be a very short 1 v. 3 match. As for the final iteration – there was no way I was going to help out France by standing in Turkey's way, especially if it meant helping Italy. My goal at the end was to insure that Italy's actions did not gain success for him – as a lesson to others not to stab me. I suppose even there I fell short – but I am comforted that Jim didn't share in a draw.

Live fast, die quick or go big – that's the Austrian rule. This time it was "die quick" Congrats to Ben on a well-played game.

ENGLAND (Dorian Love)

No endgame statement received.

FRANCE (Benjamin T Hester)

France, on England and Austria -

Our two early game eliminations didn't necessarily do too much wrong from my POV, to a certain extent somebody has to be the target, and England and Austria are two common early choices. Dorian's proposal to me was an EFG alliance, which seemed too vague and too likely to turn openly anti-French before long. I'm kind of a plain vanilla player with France - hit England or hit Germany, with the other one at your side. Any attempt to divert me after Italy early on raises my stab fears. So Dorian had to go. I don't really have any insight into Paul's play, other than I wish he had been open to reconciliation after early stabs. I think he went out earlier than he had to, but it's always hard to criticize someone's play as Austria - that slot comes with something like 10-1 odds against. So I thank them both for playing, think they did well enough given the circumstances, and hope to play with them again sometime.

France, on Germany -

Dave is one tenacious opponent who (along with Jim, see below) epitomizes the term credible threat. His grasp of tactics is strong, and he has a good system he uses to analyze both the position and the other player's intentions. The only thing that I truly think bit him in the tail this game is that his demands often greatly exceeded what his position was able to back up. To a certain extent, I think a player has to temper their negotiations and demands according to what they 1) can accomplish by force and 2) are able to offer the other person as incentive. At a few key junctures in the game, Dave made demands of me that he could not back up by force, and was unwilling to offer a big enough carrot for me to bite at in exchange. That said, his first stab of me was well timed (regardless of what I may have said in negotiations at the time :-) and had he and Italy followed through, I surely would have been the third player to go. Fortunately Russia and Turkey did not have much interest in seeing that come to pass either, and I was able to come to terms with Jim. (the infamous involuntary long term lease of Marseilles)

I disagree strongly with any allegation that Dave threw this game. When pinched between France and Russia and his fate was pretty much sealed, he chose to continue attacking the one that had wronged him more. Great player, hope to play with him again sometime.

France, on Turkey -

I get the impression that Sean is an excellent player, though direct interaction between us was limited, so I don't really know a lot of what went on behind the scenes. I will be greatly interested in reading his EOG for some insight on that. Sean was a contender for the vast majority of the game, and I eyed his corner position and growing armada nervously for years. Beating the "yellow monster is going to eat us all" drum was only moderately effective at best, but I did it nearly relentlessly anyway, because at the time in question, Jim's position seemed precarious, and I was fully engaged in the north. Had Sean broken through Italian lines as seemed imminent from my POV, he would have been on his way to a solo I think, as I could not have redirected my fleets in time to stop him short of Iberia, and naval forces of the other powers were almost nonexistent. But never underestimate Jim Rossiter. (see below) Would gladly play with Sean again some time.

France, on Italy -

I would hate to sit at a poker table with Jim Rossiter. He has the backbone to call "all in" on most every season - and has no problem leaving even home SCs wide open because he has already evaluated both my style of play, and the situation on the board - and realized that I would invariably act on the assumption of "He wouldn't dare leave Venice open..." And so he does - and leapfrogs ahead of me time and again by taking advantage of my overcautiousness (see below). Oh by the way, his tactics are solid too, and he has a very methodical style of grabbing only those dots he can hold, and using the others in his reach as diplomatic leverage. I think had he and Luis not clashed so violently and frequently, that IR would have been one of the most potent alliances of this game. I cannot imagine two personalities more prone to completely despising each other than Jim and Luis either though, and banking on that helped me on more than one occasion. His containment of Sean's Turkish armada is legendary in my book. I hope to learn in the EOGs what was going on in negotiations at that time. I look forward to playing with Jim in the future.

France, on Russia -

Excellent positional analysis, difficult to manipulate in negotiations, and a good sense of when to take risks and when to shore up defenses. All this, and I still won't praise Luis overall as a player, because he steps on his crank every single time he opens his mouth. This game was his for the taking, but as is often the case (we've played before) his mouth cost him victory, and indeed, infuriated every single player on the board. I will never see the diplomatic value of writing stupid little :-D :-D :-D laughing faces in negotiations like a two year old, nor of unleashing an arrogant spout of sarcasm in every email. Simply put, he is just an extremely irritating person to play with. I'm done playing with Luis Aldamiz, and will actively avoid playing in any future games with him. Regardless of the outcome of the game, he manages to suck all the fun out of it - taking one of his SCs as my 18th is one of the most satisfying parts of this game. If his arrogant head can be wrapped around the truth, I hope he finally realizes that his mouth cost him this game. I'm sure the other player's EOGs will echo this sentiment.

France, on France -

I don't deserve this solo any more than the next player. I made my share of mistakes, both diplomatic and tactical (particularly so in the endgame), where I nearly cost myself the game once it was already feasible to accomplish the solo without assistance. I also misread both Jim and Dave at some critical moments of the game that nearly broke my position. I think I did a decent job with adapting strategy, choosing the timing for my stabs, and breaking up other alliances on a couple of occasions though, and that was enough in this instance. I still have a very nasty habit of playing overly cautiously, which hurt me extensively in this game - unless I learn to take a page from Jim's playbook and take real risks, I think that I will continue to make a decent showing early on in the majority of my games, but rarely accomplish more than a share of a draw. I have learned a great deal in this game, particularly from Dave and Jim - I thank them for the lesson, and hope to be a better player because of it.

France, on the GM -

JW is the man. I whole-heartedly recommend him to any players out there - you can count on having a timely, proper game run by the books. Thanks for a great game JW!

GERMANY (David E Watson)

Hello from Germany,

Let me start by explaining the following ramblings.

After playing Dip online it occurred to me that EOGs aren't really TRUE EOGs. How many people remember or tell the truth by the time the end game comes? So I try to keep a running journal of games so that by the endgame all it takes is a quick blurb at the end and I'm done, ready to publish. Tends to make things sound rambling and very longwinded.

So for those of you still reading this even NOW, I present to you;

Germany Journal ACD 212;

I'll try to keep this as short as I can and touch upon the important turnpoints.

The game started fairly regular with everyone being pleasant enough. France approached me with anti-England France/Germany alliance talk and Russia was very amicable. England didn't say much...so I think I was leaning toward friendship with France early on. Austria said the usual pleasantry and "attack Russia". Turkey was VERY closehold on his plans...if indeed there were any, mostly concerned with MY plans...and Italy said nothing.

After the initial bouts I had gained a friend in Russia by allowing his Sweden take but a very wary alliance with France. Who had earlier alluded to not building armies but built one anyway and suddenly had more armies on the board than Germany. This was very paranoia driving, and annoying because France had all but begged for Belgium in the beginning and that was my thanks for it.

But things seemed to still be negotiable, and since France was crying for Germany to turn its guns on Russia... Germany was negotiating Edi and London to be able to do that safely in the face of the Sitzkrieg. While things were knotted and volatile in the South after Italys early stab of Austria. Which I have never seen go well for either Italy nor Austria but it seemed to work for Italy for a time. (Since France left him do his thing by not building a fleet~dig-dig)

Then came that fateful NMR that the GM so gratiously bestowed. Now, we can argue the minutiae in ACD Chat later if you want, but its my firm belief that NMRs are a form of GM intervention... and this game was no exception. The GM tried to encourage me and state how the NMR didn't really effect me in SC's or position, but from that point on in the game my bargaining position with France was destroyed.

France now jumped two builds ahead and although he was still promising the world to Germany those Inky dinky parlay vouz boys were still there threatening Germanys very existence. Russia proved his loyalty with his actions and not his words. Austria ask Germany to "attack Russia". France asked Germany to "attack Russia". Turkey asked Germany to "attack Russia". Hell, I can't remember whether he said it or not but I'm sure England wanted Germany to "attack Russia". ...and Italy said nothing.

The first thing Italy really sent to Germany was an apology about moving into Tyrolia without permission after the fact. Which is, in essence, saying nothing.

All this time I kept hearing about how France wanted Russia to attack Germany...and Turkey wanted Russia to attack Germany... maybe England wanted Russia to attack Germany. Italy said nothing.

Until I messed up an attack of his by moving into Tyrolia and cutting a support. Italy was very upset at me for doing that without consulting with him first... I guess he failed to see the irony.

At this point I thought Italy was the best direction for Germany to maintain a front against France (in case), and makes "some" gains. At a crutial juncture Russia asked me to leave Italy alone because he thought he and Italy would be attacking Turkey together. Alas, that turned out to be Italy/Turkey attacking Russia together.

I had to cut my loses...this was turning sour quick and I had to try desperately to patch things between Russia/Turkey... I was on my knees to Turkey practically...and he granted me my wish. Together Russia/Turkey quickly turned the tide on Italy.

All along I was very wary of a France/Italy alliance. Don't know if the Turkish turn-around did it or they were allied all along, but after that France Italy seemed pretty chummy.

===

About day 150 of my captivity. Russian has gotten antsy and attacked Turkey for the ...um third time now? I can't recall. Only thing I know is this is bad for Germany...may be bad for Russia also. Thats usual a sign a game has gone on much too long. Can almost set my watch to it...after a long break someone gets jumpy and decides on a game changing stab. But this one came as a surprise to everyone. Even France, who swears his predictions come true everytime, had to agree he was wrong on this one.

Once again France approaches with some suggestions that are hard to believe. I mean, really...you may put your hand in the fire twice...maybe three times before you learn not to do it again.

For the first time in this game I truly have no idea how to save my ass.

===

Well, things went fairly well with the exception of Turkey. He swears I leaked orders to Russia which I wouldn't do. Guess its hard for Italy/Turkey to swallow that Russia actually outguessed them...

===

Another long break in the game. What a difference a day makes. I was really priding myself on surviving this long after the "NMR" but now I'm wishing I hadn't. Things go too much longer I'll have to quit this game to start planning my retirement.:) Partly expected a Russian stab after the long break but kept to my guns versus France. France won't let up and give me breathing room so I'll have to take my chances with Russia's honesty. About day 180 of my captivity.:) Things are looking up though. I think I got it figured out. Things were deathly quiet out there but that works well... see, every time I negotiated things went bad for Germany...every time I kept my mouth shut, a turn for the better. OK, guess I'll play Marcel Marco in this one... Germany goes dark.

===

Sigh...although things have gotten MUCH better due to the "lights out" German policy...it appears we're popular again and missifs are being sent from all parts of Europe. The pound cake from France WAS a bit much, but our technicians were able to defuse the bomb inside before it exploded. Russia has still proven a most valuable ally, I only regret what he did to Turkey. Germany really wanted the Franco-Italian scurge wiped out and only Turkey could assist with that venture. Now, its going to be one long hard uphill battle. Frances tactics are sound but he's lost valuable positioning. His disband proves once again he has no real intention of allying with Germany. Sigh.

===

It's become increasingly clear to me that Russia is out for himself and has no intention of honoring any prior agreements with Germany. Sigh. France leaves no door open for cooperation. Italy MAY prove to be an ally but not against France. Turkey can only make moves for its survival. Although Russia promises to not assist versus France nor vice-versa that means France will eventually gain the upper hand and Russia will continue to get the lions share. Germany stands alone. Decision, decisions. About day 200 of my captivity...

===

I have decided to throw caution to the wind. Russia makes no secret of his neutrality and duplicity. In fact, he seems proud of it. I'm going over the top East...in for a penny , in for a pound.

Spring 1912

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well;
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell,
Rode the six hundred.

Maybe it'll all be over quick and I can go back to reading The Lovely Bones.

===

I think the last and final turning point has been reached. Italy and Turkey have joined me in petitioning Russia to stop the now board leader of France. Only wish I hadn't had to give away all my country to do it. My only hope now is to help form an anti-France coalition. Russia and Turkey seem fairly hell bent on destruction. Each others. I think if I can get Russia to the ceasefire table Turkey may join it too. Hopefully they aren't so blind with rage for each other that they can't set it aside enough to reach a stalemate option.

France has been very cool and clever. Carefull not to encroach upon Russia holdings and yet not really helping Russia into any either. Simple yet brilliant. It hinges on Fall 1913.

===

Well, thats it then. I failed in turning Russia...probably for the best. Can't say I see how he still thinks its blackmail to attack France, but o well, won't be my problem anymore soon. (Its was never blackmail anyway, what Russia meant was coersion...or perhaps collussion) \France was also savvy in allowing Russia into a couple of centers just to keep him bouyant enough to resist whats left of Italy/Turkey. I will be interested in reading Frances EOG on this point.

===

Can't say knowing what I know now I would play this one the same. Hindsight IS twenty twenty...but France confirmed he would have done exactly what I predicted. Having attacked Russia, France ate up Germany from behind...just happened a few years later. :) Many end up scratching their heads at my decisions. As I have argued SO many times in the past...those who fight merely for the win, will never understand my motivations. "But I should be thrice a fool if I did it for aught but my own entertainment." (-quote from Maughams The Moon And Sixpence)
I will continue to write about morality, friendship and courage...thats so much more interesting than pragmatism...but I don't want this to be an anti-Russia slur. Luis played well, as did Ben. Stellar defenses both. Vituperance and subterfuge not withstanding.:)

Again my apologies go to Turkey, who did exactly what I needed him to when I needed him to...to his own detriment. Sorry Sean. You are a true and loyal ally...wish I could have played this one better for you. Jim. Jim... Jimmy! We weren't talking the same language for much of the game. Near the end though I found a kindred spirit. If only in our thirst for revenge. Paul, if your still listening...tough being Austria smack dab in between those three.:) Wish I could have helped, but had problems of my own. Dorian, sorry to do it to you again my man...I do NOT have it out for you. Both France and Russia offered so much more. You held off well.

Thanks to our steadfast GM...without whose efforts we would not have been able to play. Good job.

See you all in the funny papers.
David E Watson
-Germany

PS, a final closing thought:
It makes me wonder...about those who argue over senses of the word "right." There's "right" in the sense of accurate and "right" in the sense of "winning an argument." In the latter sense of right, being "happy" is frequently at odds with being "right." I've remarked to my Sainted Wife from time to time that when arguing with a loved one, the point is not to win, but to resolve the conflict. In proving yourself to be "right" you may end up losing in the end.

ITALY (Jim Rossiter)

First, MUCH thanks to JW for running this game. He is a wonderful GM and I appreciate playing on his board. So JW Thank You!

Second congrats to Ben. He played a solid game in the end and doggedly made his way to the solo. He definitely deserved it.

This was a bittersweet game for me. I had a solid plan for the start of the game. Like all military plans, it failed upon contact with the enemy. The first turn went as planned, but from then on, it was nothing but chaos. It was shifting alliances, failed alliances, and third party interventions.

My initial plan was to work with Russia to take out Austria and then see where things stood, but most likely to take out Turkey too France and I had agreed on DMZ's and non aggression. Germany and I agreed on non aggression and I was able to talk Austria into moving east as I slipped into Tri. So the board was set.

Unfortunately, Russia didn't take Rum and Turkey decided to get adventurous and moved into Ser. Turkey in Ser in W01, who would have thunk? Things got really strange, but by Winter of 1903 they sorted themselves out. Well not really. See, Russia, in what would turn out to be Luis' style of diplomacy, demanded I give him Bud in exchange for continuing our alliance. This demand would shade our dealings from then on. The best part is the point became moot as Austria had exchanged Bud for Vie with me that same turn, but the damage was done and would continue to have repercussions for the rest of the game. Sean (Turkey) and I continued a dialogue for this entire period. Most of it was making fun of each other's lack of skill at the game, low parentage and giving dire warnings about Russia and France to each other. This dialogue would also have repercussions for the rest of the game and although some of the discussions went beyond what I would consider proper, we developed a rapport that would pay off in the Spring of 1904.

In the Spring of 1904 France had had his way with England. Germany had stalled at his traditional border. Russia had gained control of Scandinavia and the Northeast Balkans. Turkey had control of the Southern Balkans and I had control of the Western Balkans. I figured I was going to have a long slow death at the hands of Russia and Turkey, but then France, my stalwart ally, built a fleet in Mar and saved me from myself. This stab, which Turkey had been continually telling me was coming, forced me to reconsider my position. Turkey and I came to terms, very uncomfortable terms. Our discussions had become bitter more than once, but I had no choice as France's build was a clear provocation of the terms of our treaty. Mind you, Sean and I had 6 fleets facing each other in the Ion/Adr area. I wish I could have been there when Russia and France got the results for S04. One moment they are on top of the world and the next their world's change as Sean and I sent our fleets flying off in opposite directions and Sean supported me back into Bud. This was the high point of this game for me. After several turns of bitter struggle with Russia and Turkey, I was off to the races. It was going to be a race to 18 between Sean and me. And surely, I would win that race.

Unfortunately, I had invited Germany to the party. In a quick session of diplomacy, I suggested to Germany that it would be a good time for him to move on France, as I was intending on doing this myself, I suggested we could share the spoils and it would speed France's demise. For some damn reason, Germany moved south instead of west. He now had an army in Tyr. This set up all kinds of red flags of paranoia. I convinced myself that Germany and Turkey were working together, I still don't know if this is true or not, but I decided to protect myself from an anticipated attack from the rear. This of course would be the doom of my alliance with Turkey. My moves instigated retribution or merely fell into Sean's plans, I don't know. So now it is 2 years later and everything is upside down again.

By the spring of 1906 the alliances had shifted once again. Out of necessity I re-allied myself with France and prepared to be smothered by the Juggernaut that was heading my way. This was the low point of this game for me. It was a long struggle filled with the loss of SC's and nothing but retreat. I protected France's back through it all. He was in his own fight with Russia and Germany and losing just as badly as I was. The whole time I gave up ground and lost a SC, rather than let Turkey get a fleet behind me. I bid my time. I knew Russia could not look at all of those lovely, empty, yellow dots forever and not be tempted. Sean and I continued our earlier discussion all during this period. We mocked each others play and parentage and gave dire warnings about Russia and France to each other again. It was great fun. It took longer than I thought it would, but come it did. In the Spring 0f 1909 Russia stabbed Turkey. Viciously!

So once again my dear friends the board had completely changed. Thanks to our continuous dialogue, Sean and I were able to agree to work together against Russia. France was already in, but David was going to take a bit more persuasion. His dealings with Ben had apparently been bitter. Needless to say, this was a very UGLY period. Russia and Germany continued to put pressure on France and Turkey and I slowly squeezed Russia and took back the Balkans. It had been my plan to keep Sean around as long as I could as help and a buffer against Russia. As he moved east, I back filled taking dots. I grew, he shrunk. But more importantly, Russia retreated. By fall of 1911 we had Russia pretty much back in the bottle. Unfortunately, Turkey took a few hits and was down to 2 units, just where I wanted him. : ) In the mean time, France and Russia worked out some kind of deal where Luis sailed 2 fleets through the Atlantic and into the Med. In the end, this worked out well for Ben, but to this day, I still don't know what he was thinking! Nor what Luis was thinking! At the same time, Germany made a breakthrough in France and took Mar from me. Yeah, I know it's a French dot, but Ben lent it to me years ago when I was fighting the Turk and I still had it until now. Now I was in real trouble. Germany and Russia heading for my wide open back. I chose to protect myself against Luis. David and I had been on neutral terms for a long time now, so I figured he would push against Ben and not me. Fortunately, I gained two dots and only lost one, so I was able to build a fleet to protect Tyn against Russia.

Finally, the end game. By 1912, I guess we got David on board because he was mad at Luis for not helping him against France. But, it was too late. France saw his chance and took it. I don't know what Luis was thinking during this period. I guess he thought his 2 fleets in the Med could get to the Aeg or he thought taking Tun would save him from my attacks in the east. I just don't know, but he saved France and made it easy for Ben to get the solo. David turned his back on Ben and headed east, so Ben took his dots AND he invaded Italy. It was clear to me that Ben was taking his shot and unless something was done he was going to take control of the board. Luis wanted nothing to do with any deal that let Turkey survive. I had no intention of helping Luis eliminate my only ally. Sean was my ace in the hole. He would force Luis to stay honest, because he would protect my back as I moved back west to fight Ben. Luis would not budge on this issue, even after I turned my back on him and attacked Ben anyway. He continued to believe he could still win the game and he attacked me, forcing me to attack him once again. Sean and I tried. We tried very hard. We tried more than we should have, but Luis would not or could not see the danger. It got very ugly. I ended the conversation more than once out of disgust and frustration. Let me be perfectly clear, so no one misunderstands. We could have stopped Ben, but Luis would not listen. He would not listen to reason, he would not listen to deals, and he would not listen to threats. We could have stopped Ben, if Luis had listened sooner. I laid out a clear plan for stopping the solo. Luis said he wasn't interested and if he couldn't win, he would rather let Ben win than settle for a draw. Eventually, though Luis and I came to terms. He needed a build, so I helped him take Turkish Dots. I still feel dirty. Of course he made the exact wrong builds, but he held to the FACT that he could still win, even when it was clear to me that he could not. I pretty much gave up about now, even though there was still some game left. I gave what advice I could and was ignored. I had to listen to Luis bitch some more about Turkey (I gave him a dot I didn't need so he could stick around.) This gave me endless pleasure. In the end, I am sure Luis will blame me or David. There is no doubt in my mind that Luis believes it is not his fault.

Over all I would say I played some of my best Diplomacy in this game. I was stabbed by everyone, except England and Austria, whom I stabbed first. I was allied with everyone, except England and Austria, whom I stabbed first. I continued talking with everyone, except England and Austria, whom I stabbed first, and at one point or another I stopped talking to everyone, except England and Austria, whom I stabbed first. Every time I started to get up a head of steam, somebody did something to knock the wind out of my sails. But, I shook off the dust and got back up fighting. I gave it my all every turn.

One final note, I have been accused of being a draw monger, the other position being a soloist. There is something to be said for the position that the game should never end in a draw. I've held that opinion myself. After a string of draws, I decided to never settle for another draw, but to fight until some one won. That opinion lasted one game. Draw monger vs. Soloist. I'm not sure I like either of these terms. I play to win, but when it is clear I can not win, I play to stop anyone else from winning, especially the one who just stabbed me! : ) I think the natural way for most games to end is in a 3 way draw. I think the solo is and should be an exception, a sign that the winner played EXCEPTIONALLY well, or the remaining players played EXCEPTIONALLY bad. In the end, I consider myself a realist and I think I will leave it at that.

Congrats to Ben and Thanks to JW.

RUSSIA (Luis Aldamiz)

At the beginning there were seven players. And naturally I talked to all:

- France (Ben) was the only one I had met previously and I had some concerns about him. But at least he sat far away.
- England started saying that he would convoy an army to Norway, to what I could not but express strong reservations. He reacted declaring war on Russia. At least he was direct.
- Germany sounded good: he was sincere enough as to say that he could not make long term promises for G-R cooperation, he also felt unease with England agressive stand and did not seem to trust France either. He looked like an ally, at least for a while.
- Austria accepted a Galitzian DMZ but his exchange was too brief and not really credible. I was virtually sure he would invade it, as he actually did.
- Turkey agreed to a Juggernaut but soon was evident he had something else in mind.
- Italy was apparently cooperative, as I wanted, and I told him I had no special preference on wether to attack Austria or Turkey together. He picked Austria. I found it quite strange but it was ok for me.

After the first turn it was obvious that I was under strong pressure from north and south and only the bounce in Gal had avoided the worst. I had to defend, what didn't look very promising. Austria reacted naturally in an anti-Italian way and Turkey seems to have felt he had als been decieved by Italy because he soon offered a truce (that I naturally accepted) and started looking west.

Soon I and David (Germany) were agreeing that it looked like France was pulling the strings, specially after he ended 1901 with six dots and England had left its rear wide open for the typical French stab. Naturally, I had no option but to beg for that stab to happen.

Anyhow, thanks to Italy and France, by the end of 1903, there was no Austria and nearly no England, while Turkey was heading west now. Nevertheless I'm pretty sure that both Italy and France encouraged England and Austria (as well as Turkey) to head east initially, and very obviously tried to rip all the benefits from the debacle of these two.

I didn't want to get too involved in the West, so I had no major objections on French expansion (nor I could do much about it, really). But in the south I got somewhat bothered by the Italian intention of annexing all Austria-Hungary. Therefore I claimed Budapest, what less?, what got Jim (Italy) quite pissed off. He could not defend that province alone but nevertheless he took quite badly that I claimed it, accusing me of not having done anything to destroy Austria (obviously: I was defending, I could hardly attack at all).

So my alliances were then Germany and Turkey. But while Germany was a fair ally (he even declined my offer to take Norway), Turkey soon showed he was quite greedy, claiming Trieste for himself and with it forcing Russia in a rather poor situation and losing interest in fighting against Italy. I tried to negotiate with Italy and he went with the tale to Turkey, and they joined forces against me: I lost Budapest that year and Rumania the next one.

Meanwhile, in the West, Germany declined convoying a Russian army to York in order to force France to keep all his fleets busy defending the English ports and gain a decissive advantage. Instead he prefered to convoy a French army there in order to stab him in Belgium. That decission caused a lenghty naval war that could have been avoided easily. I guess that trusting Russia too much, giving me too much leverage in the West, specially in Britain, was out of he question for David.

But for me it was a major error: England had comitted the error of convoying his garrison too fast, leaving the country open for invasion. France instead was doing things right, making sure that all Britain was defended with a single army. And Germany favored that.

I quickly lost interest in the West and focused in the South, where he I-T alliance was making serious threats with the capture of Rumania. At least I was lucky enough to capture Buapest in the riff-raff, because Italy was then focused in Tyrolia.

This was an issue between Germany and I: as I saw that Germany was much more reliable and dialogant and much less greedy than Italy, I wanted to partition Austria in three and invited Germany to intervene and capture Vienna with my help. But Germany was indecissive, he intervened rather late when I was not anymore in position to support him.

Not sure if for this reason or what, Italy invested a lot of effort in trying to damage Germany. In any case, after some riff-raff, France had apparently agreed to give away Marseilles for the sake of the Italian alliance. And the much speculated F-I became smething quite solid after that.

In the West, France was complaining that I had built too many fleets: actually I had only two, and I needed them if I wanted to keep Scandinavia with anything that wasn't mere promises. By that time I had clear that I was going to support Germany against France... but still my priority, my potential dots and my safety issues were in the South.

Turkey saw that I was going to put fierce defense and prefered to negotiate instead. He promised me to give Rumania back as soon as he had gains elsewhere. Italy didn't want to negotiate at all, so the choice was made for me: I supported the Turk advance into Trieste and it looked like Italy was going to succumb quite quickly.

That would have left me in a quite bad position, with nowhere to go except Germany (a poor choice probably) and Turkey in the way to victory. Sean had forgotten totally about his promises re. Rumania and, yes, I thought of reminding him but then I thought I would become his immediate target once Italy was done. So I decided to stab Sean and save Jim in the hope that the latter would be somewhat grateful and accept a generous peace deal including Trieste for him.

No luck in that but, in any case, I became the board leader for a while, leaving Sean in a very bad situation... and paying with the Turkish loot, a decissive fifth fleet in the Atlantic.

I think he wrote: "bugger!" But really, I don't know what he was thinking in: with his claim to Trieste, he was putting me in a subservient and very closed position. Stabbing Germany wasn't any realistic option with France so aggresively looking to oceanic domination. For me it was: staying weak and vulnerable to a rather dubious ally that had stabbed me already in 1901 or becoming strong and trying to forge the R-I alliance that I always wanted: with Russia in the continent and Italy in the seas.

Italy wasn't in the mood for that and instead joined forces with a Turkey transformed in Italian janissary. The situation changed fast: France could not resist my five fleets in the Ocean but, in the decissive South, I was losing ground rapidly.

I knew I needed some of those fleets in the Mediterranean as quick as possible. Otherwise I would have serious problems.

In the meantime the main beneficiary of the French apparent debacle had been Germany, who had grown +2 and built all armies. Armies for what?, I wondered. I felt terribly vulnerable to my own ally. I had five armies and seven fleets, the decissive victory against France could only happen in the sea and yet Germany didn't build a single fleet.

Furthermore, David started asking for England for himself based on some offer I may have made early in the game when the situation was totally different. I dont even remember the "promise" but guess it was in relation with Norway. I had just given away Denmark (a "loan", ok) to him at the expense of losing one unit. I didn't feel like becoming the fool around so I said: nope. Instead, I offered him a more easy to obtain dot: Vienna, again Vienna. He declined. I was investing a lot in the help of Germany (and myself, indeed) in the seas but Germany with his many new flamboyant armies that were of litle use against France could not help me against Italy (and get somehing from it). I started smelling foul.

Suddenly it was obvious that Italy and Germany had at least a truce. Germany was playing his solo game, I don't blame him for that, so I decided to play my own. I was in situation of smashing France but, once France was finished, germany would have been surrounded by Russian troops and, more sensibly, Russian dots by three out of four flanks. And the fourth flank was obviously neutralized. It looked scary.

So I seeked peace with France. In exchange I asked rapid access to the Med. It was apparently good for both, though admittedly France could have been accelerating his own demise. He had to trust me in that.

Still he was demanding, asking me to intervene against Germany. I declined that. He had no choice and I hoped that Germany and France would balance each other while I solved my rather urgent problems in the South. It was clear that they would not ally: France ambitioned Germany too much and Germany knew that. But what I could not expect was that David would blackmail me: or you attack France or I attack you suicidally.

Considering how was the rest of the board, I think that was the end of the game. Not that I did not manage to harbour some hopes in some later moments but they were very tenuous.

I had no choice but to ally with France. I tried to negotiate with Italy on the premises of dividing the remains of Turkey and using those builds to contain France. But Jim wasn't interested in that. I hope he explains why in his EoG because that was, in my understanding the only hope. To stop France, Russia needed to rebuild its Atlantic navy and for that I needed dots. Italy could also have made use of those extra dots in the Western Med and the Alps. Yet he prefered to wait till the last moment, apparently in order to create a stalemate line and force a 4-way draw.

So I had to remain allied to France, in spite of his uncooperative and threatening attitude. After that, there were a couple of guess-situations that could have changed the situation and maybe forced the draw... but Ben always managed to counter them. Luck, intel, both? Can't say but he got us anyhow.

Congrats to the winner and thanks to our patient GM.

TURKEY (Sean "Blue" Cable)

Gentlemen, thank you for an interesting experience.

GM (Jan Willem Omlo

The first game I ran on this forum for a year and a day was a rather prolific one. The gameplay itself was enjoyable to watch, with two quick exits from Paul's Austria and Dorian's England, but with many alliance-changes and much fluidity. But I have to say that the mails outside the game, on the various ACD message boards, made me cringe quite often and probably a lot of other users as well. Still, for the gossip-mongers it was a great Jerry Springer-like show.

I've tried to GM the game as invisible as possible and therefore I was not too happy with the "NMR-incident" David laments on in his endgame statement. As I had expected ACD to be completely without it, I neglected to put out a set of houserules concerning NMRs. And then David missed that turn, and used as I was to adjudicating NMRs, I published the adjudication. A one-time mistake but it did upset David's game and I'm sorry about that. I guess I was a bit naive :-)

The endgame statements describe the flow of the game in much detail, no need for me to go into that. B(en(jamin)) won fair and square after a lengthy 38 seasons, while the others chose to oppose him or each other as they saw fit.

I enjoyed GMing this bunch, it was great to get involved in this Academy-stuff. It seems to me that ACD212 shows that there are many different characters in the Academy that can fight, clash, disagree, but first and foremost PLAY with all their heart. Thanks all!