Well, not going to write a detailed end-of-game comment but a few things I picked up in other threads ot that I wanted to leave here...
(I did not read the private channels in discord and probably won't in the future. feels strange because it's meant to be private but the main reason is, you guys wrote A LOT and I have little time while preparing holidays)
Basically, I am a patient person and I am open to new options if they seem worth it. Although the last part has a pretty high threshold as I am not destroying a good alliance for minor profit. (I read something along these line in the Russian thread and I feel like scooter and I have a bit similar mindset in this game although you cannot see this from the outside because he was so much more successful, and he was much more chatty for various reasons)
The western part is almost always 2vs1. I was proposing good relations and options to both F and E but was preferring F who seemed nice and willing to go for an alliance. Still, if things go bad, I could have used a stab as an argument to the third person to so something totally unexpected... so, I am aware that someone has to be betrayed and you can only tell by orders made. Maybe that's one reason why I don't talk THAT much because it can quickly turn into a waste of time and I am not a fan of saying the same multiple times. I try to persuade but the other person has to make the decision to follow.
Other reason for beeing less chatty was a bit tight schedule sometimes and that I need more time for elaborate conversation in foreign language. But that's no excuse just some background.
So, things were looking good in the first year.
France sticked to his words and England opened very north, which is good if you want your ally to be successful.
1901F builds were very tense. I thought about it for a long time. Most people expected an army but I built a fleet because we needed it to get England down. I trusted F very much in that day and it was high risk to leave my home poorly defended. Investment in trust and I was very glad that F also built fleets as requested.
Russia:
Quote:1902S Strangely, neither Germany nor England ever asked me for support into Ska. Why, I have no idea.
here is the relevant map:
I was slightly angy that England made this agressive move to block me in Hol. And I was sure he would continued to do so. So, this was my attempt to partially block his advance while keeping control of Den. No Support needed or wanted. Also true for fall moves when I basically just held, most boring moveset and I am not sure if that was a mistake or needed.
Another questionable move that came up ingame and also in the aftermath: controlling and giving up control of NTH.
France wasn't very happy about Nth-Den because it's an important tile and I have to agree, but my problem in this timeframe was the Russian threat in the north. Holding NTH while losing Den seemed wrong. And providing support for anything just doesn't work because NTH get's attacked because NTH is so important. It's great if you have superiority but it was a double-edged sword in my case. Sorry Pindi, if this was annoying to you but I really thought I chose the right orders to prevent me from disbanding.
Most important thing in the game (probably) was the insanely quick fall of Austria which made the RT-Alliance very successful in the early years. RT is always a threat but it's ok if I and A hold long enough. Some crazy trickery happened there. If that diplo and double-crossing was the reason for success, then it was well deserved
On top: they were sticky as hell and didn't want to break up their alliance. For me, that meant Russia had nothing better to do than attacking me. It happend quite early but it was not unexpected. Sadly, we were not quick enough with England.
France and I tried to persuade England to join an attempt to stop the juggernaught but he didn't want to. I get his reasoning although it was sad to see how the overall game developed with me beeing less and less relevant. Most of the talking have been done by France but I was in the boat since I saw us allied anyways. Maybe I should have talked more? But it seemed he really hated F for his betrayal so it felt useless.
Also, I had little to offer for R or T since they were just rolling on and their next natural ally would be France (or maybe England), not Germany. A bit like Italy before.
SLightly frustrating but the game set my status to "food" and I was not able to prevent that. I didn't even had a good talking point tbh.
Russia:
Quote:"Germany's just doing random things every turn is tiring, and we need to get rid of him ASAP"
Heh! At last some archievement
Wasn't random for me. After France stabbed me, I had not friends left except the very last unit of Italy and we made some glorious plan to stop Turkey. It went well and Turkey was kicked out of... ehm... ok, it was just a minor but fun acomplishment.
Then I made a last desperate try and offered Turkey support to (russian) Vienna. He "had no time to reply" which I took as polite "no thanks" and at the same time, France got immediatly stabbed back by Russia, and offered me support to get Munich back. Ok, why not
I was still on the boat to prevent a Russian solo.
Then I went down and the second most important thing happened. (probably)
France did swing back and forth who is the lesser evil of the two remaining bullies. Trying to force a 3-way draw and finally decided for Turkey. That was beyond my influence but I feel like I had also chosen like that. I was very irritated that Russia too the English centre Edi shortly after starting a cooperation and then stabbed France right after getting help from him.
Very difficult to remain on the front seat in this phase and i am impressed by the amount of chat they had. So kudos to Russia for excellent diplo and tactics and Turkey for the same plus win
Finally thanks to Pindi for being a very good ally almost to the end. I still think that stab was a mistake but I can see why. (and yes, I even talked about it as a (bad) option, so no hard feelings
)
Ok, more than I wanted to write... feel free to ask if something is unclear.
Was fun to play some diplomacy after a lot of years. Unfortunately I couldn't invest that much time as I did as a student.
