Name

Nation

Duration

GM:

Brian O’Farrell

Spring 1901-end

Players:

Gunther Wedelman
Caolan Harrington
Kevin Hall

England

Spring 1901-Winter 1903
Spring 1904-Winter 1904
Spring 1905-Fall 1908

Me

Germany

Spring 1901-end

Sean O’Shea

France

Spring 1901-end

Joel Grea

Austria

Spring 1901-Fall 1907

Stuart Evers

Italy

Spring 1901-end

Dara Mac Donnacha
Felix Wagner

Russia

Spring 1901-Winter 1905
Spring 1906-end

James (Genejoker)

Turkey

Spring 1901-Fall 1911

Year

01

02

03

04

05

06

07

08

09

10

11

12

13

14

15

Austria

4

3

4

4

3

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

England

4

4

3

3

2

2

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

France

5

5

6

6

7

6

6

10

10

10

8

5

4

4

4

Germany

5

7

7

6

6

7

9

7

6

6

8

10

11

11

11

Italy

4

6

5

5

5

6

6

7

9

9

12

12

11

14

14

Russia

5

5

4

4

5

7

7

5

6

7

7

7

8

5

5

Turkey

4

4

5

6

6

5

5

5

3

2

0

0

0

0

0

Joel’s EOG

Mine will be pretty short as I was eliminated early on.

"Stu let me no chance at all. As Italy he wanted Austria out of his way early. I was myself far too confident in the common knowledge that Italy and Austria shall not fight together too early on. Apparently, Stu do not agree and proved me wrong in a brillant way.

Then, while standing in Trieste Stu manage to convince me he had no intention to go further and made me think my eastern ally, were more threatening than he was. I spoiled my position and was then never realy able to catch back...

Then my proud Austrian Empire got entirely swallowed...

Joel, Former Austrian Emperor

Excellent. Life can return to normal now. Thanks for the players and to Brian for an interesting game. Like a bad fart it just wouldn't go away.

The game started well for me and I was on good working terms with G/I. I dithered for a while and when I chose Germany as my next target my not so perfect timing and Germany's neat defense meant no knock out blow and I was left with an exposed southern flank which Stu made the most of.

Thanks for the game guys - I enjoyed it (well most of it)

My major question when playing Italy is "where does SC number 5 come from?"....my answer is usually Austria and that was the case this time too, so sorry Joel! It was a pity really as Joel is great to work with and I hope to play with him again where he is not my target.

My problem from the mid part of the game was a lack of distinct strategy which is why the opportunity for the solo rather appeared by accident than design, and I wasn't really prepared for it. There's no point talking about my mistakes, we all have 20-20 in hindsight, suffice as to say I made a lot of them :)

Re: the end game - I'm not sure if Stephen saw this (I'm sure he did as he is a great diplo player) but there was a possibility for him to solo if a couple of things went this way....I pointed this out to Seano and Felix...Sean I think had lost interets in 857 but Felix was interested..hence our last deal and my support of him into Munich...perhaps I could still have solo'd but it would take 3-4 years (at least) and I really, really couldn't be arsed....anyway, I think Stephen in particular deserved a draw for his efforts during the game...and I guess Felix did too for being my stabbing cushion (sorry mate - I would not have stabbed you this time for at least a couple of years :)), and Seano for sheer durability

Lastly, thanks to Brian for all his G-M goodness - cheers mate

Hope to play again with you guys soon

All the best

Generalisimo Stuabaldi

Hello,

Yes, thank you for the game.

It was my first over the e-mail so it was a learning experience for me (and my english *smile*). I had played on the board game a lot but never with mail so I found it hard. But I liked it and I would like to play again.

Thank you all

Felix

Thanks to everyone, especially Brian, for persevering with this game. It must have started a couple of years ago now, so I can't help be relieved it's over. At the same, it got very engaging at the end, trying to galvanise the stop-the-leader alliance and plan our defence.

The game seemed to have more than its fair share of stabs - Sean and I had plenty of 'disagreements' over the years, and Kevin got caught in the middle somewhat. The dominant force in this was Stuart, who was clearly the most adept at manipulating his neighbours. Tactics was always my strong point, and I felt I held my own at that, but I was constantly surprised by Stuart's turning of my allies. Sean's main stab was reasonably justified, but I felt Felix's inexperience showed in how much he let Stuart influence him. It would be interesting to know if his most significant order - the move of his Fleet St Petersburg towards my centres without clearing it with me first - was suggested by Stuart or was just a mistake.

When we got into the endgame, as Stuart suspected, I was eyeing the solo, but in the end I decided it was impossible given my experience of Sean and Felix. Stuart very cleverly insinuated himself into a position from which he could snatch most of the Russian centres at any time, and while I thought I could probably grab most of the French centres in quick succession, my suspicion was that Sean would turn against me on principle, while Felix always placed more trust in Stuart than in me. If that had happened, Stuart would have been able to grab Spain and Marseilles as well as the Russian centres however good my orders were. Perhaps if a different player had been controlling Russia I'd have had a go. But I genuinely just wanted to get the game finished in a draw as fast as possible in the end. I was actually surprised Stuart threw in the towel after turning Felix, even if the Franco-German defence in the west was pretty solid and Munich would have been retaken in the Fall.

Well played everyone and perhaps I'll see some of you in another game soon!