Gobble, gobble, comrades - Sultan Chev steers Turkey

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turns for 1906 and 1907:
Diplomacy: I didn't have as much time this week to negotiate as I'd hoped, as Saturday I was out of town, and my wife and I have been house-hunting, plus summer school starting keeping me mentally occupied. So I've done very little negotiation, honestly, far less than I should. So, through no merit of my own, Pindicator is pissed at scooter and attempting to throw the game to me. I will, um, try to take advantage while still honoring my deal with scooter. A race to 18 or a 17-17 draw is more likely now than a Russian solo, so maybe there's hope for honest men after all in this world. :D 
Tactics: Mostly boring.


Fall 1906 went well for me. Pindicator kept his word and moved north - good thing I evacuated MAO. Good will can matter more than tactical positioning! My own flubs were the poke at Munich failed as the Germans came at me with Italian support, possibly hoping to force a disband and set me back a bit? Otherwise Italy was eliminated as planned. 

Scooter successfully took Kiel and Holland with straightforward assaults, but pin conceded those and set up a good defensive line in the Low Countries and along the English coast. Scooter slightly outweighs me in the Balkans, which makes me nervous, but I don't THINK he can stab to win and so I don't think he'll stab at all, since that would more or less guarantee a 3-way tie. Then again, he'll probably do that before letting me solo, so I think I only have a phase or two left when I can trust him.

Spring 1906:


Another boring turn from the Turkish tactical picture. Here, my goal is to reach the line running from Liverpool through Brest, Paris, and Munich. Scooter can only be allowed to take one of those centers - taking 2 will nab him his 18th for a solo (assuming London and Belgium are taken eventually). So, I'm steaming west as rapidly as I can. However, I need to NOT occupy Pindicator's centers quite yet. I hold off for one year, letting him gunk up the works and slow Scooter down. Then I should be in position to reach Liverpool, Brest, and Paris next year. Brest is a reach, but maybe I can work something out with Pindicator at Marseilles?  

Or I probably will convoy to Gascony, giving me troops adjacent to Paris, Brest, Spain, Mar, etc. Then I can seize everything but Munich & Liverpool in one fell swoop, can work out the rest after that. 

On Scooter's front he has tough French defenses to crack. Munich is stalling him in Germany for a bit, which in turn prevents him from attacking the Ruhr or Belgium - his army and fleet can't cooperate there. He has one unit in the north sea, but nothing covering Edinburgh, and the back door at NAO/Liverpool is covered by two French fleets so no prospects there. It'll be grind for him until I force England to take some units off. 

I think I can take everything except Portugal & Spain in the same year. Can I do it and also defend the Balkans? We'll see.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Pin is obliging. I should just stab scooter for the last center, but that goes against everything I've tried to work towards.

maybe I just declare war on this turn, and attack openly? 

No, better yet, NEXT turn, after I take a bunch of French centers.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I don't know that there's a lot to say about the last week. Tactically, the goal was to keep France's great wall o' units in front of scooter until I was in position to secure something along the crucial line I pointed out earlier; diplomatically I still refused to stab scooter on principle but did think it fair game to race for London or Belgium. I debated building a unit in Smyrna at the end to try and crumble his southern defenses, but decided that that wasn't the way I had been playing and it wouldn't be the way I won, if it was. 

So, did anyone have any questions they wanted clearing up?

[klops]

I've no idea what Germany was attempting to do, the map is tough to read - lemme check the order log:


...that doesn't make it a whole lot more clear. Presumably Germany MEANT to order Denmark S F (HEL) -> NTH, but why? To ensure England moved out even if France contested? A sign of alliance with England? Was the misorder truly that, or did he accidentally-on-purpose give France the chance to bounce England in the North Sea? Dunno what's going on there.

You probably figured out already because you also issued something like this, later.
I was just holding, so this unit was free for some fun-order or more like a diplo-order "get out of my waters".


Congratulations for your victory!
Your firm alliance with Russia felt a bit boring, tbh, but I was hoping you are in for the last push when France decided that Russia is even more evil than Turkey 
I pointed out several times, that a 17:17 is very difficult, it seemed you were both playing for it, but yeah, if there is an opening, why don't take it? Diplomatically in your case, nothing wrong with that. I think it was clever to not grab french centres right away, well done.
Russia could have stabbed you once or twice but diappointed me, would have been the only way I survive longer.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Yeah, more than one person has commented that my alliance with Russia was boring, but when exactly should I have stabbed him?

In 1901? Austria was doing his best to join with Russia against me; wouldn't have worked.
In 1902? Well, at that point we had a good working relationship against Austria & I was worried about a Lepanto still.

After Austria was out? Italy was fully set against me, and never made a really credible offer to turn on Russia without just trying to murder me himself. There's no window there.

After Italy's out? This is more plausible, but look at the board at that time: Russia's actually stronger than me in the Balkans, and I need time to get units there to shore up the defenses (scooter actually considered stabbing me at this point). 

After I've strengthened my position? At that point France is throwing me the game anyway. I can win without having to stab, so why do it?

So, I get the lurker complaints, but sorry lads, I feel like my play was pretty much the right way to go about things at each step. No fireworks, just workmanlike grinding forward.

[MJW (ya that one)]

Yeah, more than one person has commented that my alliance with Russia was boring, but when exactly should I have stabbed him?

In 1901? Austria was doing his best to join with Russia against me; wouldn't have worked.
In 1902? Well, at that point we had a good working relationship against Austria & I was worried about a Lepanto still.

After Austria was out? Italy was fully set against me, and never made a really credible offer to turn on Russia without just trying to murder me himself. There's no window there.

After Italy's out? This is more plausible, but look at the board at that time: Russia's actually stronger than me in the Balkans, and I need time to get units there to shore up the defenses (scooter actually considered stabbing me at this point). 

After I've strengthened my position? At that point France is throwing me the game anyway. I can win without having to stab, so why do it?

So, I get the lurker complaints, but sorry lads, I feel like my play was pretty much the right way to go about things at each step. No fireworks, just workmanlike grinding forward.

I believe scooter would have gotten to 18 if he didn't annoy France. Reading your thread you didn't suspect this, so you just lucked out. If you did I was just wrong. 

[T-hawk]

Yeah, more than one person has commented that my alliance with Russia was boring, but when exactly should I have stabbed him?

Oh I never thought you were doing the wrong thing, you were fine to never stab, you play to win the game not to make worse decisions just to entertain the lurkers more

[scooter]

Yeah, more than one person has commented that my alliance with Russia was boring, but when exactly should I have stabbed him?

In 1901? Austria was doing his best to join with Russia against me; wouldn't have worked.
In 1902? Well, at that point we had a good working relationship against Austria & I was worried about a Lepanto still.

After Austria was out? Italy was fully set against me, and never made a really credible offer to turn on Russia without just trying to murder me himself. There's no window there.

After Italy's out? This is more plausible, but look at the board at that time: Russia's actually stronger than me in the Balkans, and I need time to get units there to shore up the defenses (scooter actually considered stabbing me at this point). 

After I've strengthened my position? At that point France is throwing me the game anyway. I can win without having to stab, so why do it?

So, I get the lurker complaints, but sorry lads, I feel like my play was pretty much the right way to go about things at each step. No fireworks, just workmanlike grinding forward.

In general I also think we did a good job of making it challenging to stab each other. When you have a profitably ally, you don't exactly want to throw it away for nothing. Juice has to be worth the squeeze. I think there's very few turns in this game where it was worth it. (I had exactly one window I think all game where it would have been a home run, but I couldn't know that for sure at the time.)