Windy City Weasels

Just to build on Ted's comments - there were TWO significant misorders in Fall 1901. One was Ted's misordering a his army to Greece with Austria's support. The second was Amanda as Germany. As France, we had agreed to bounce in Belgium. I held my part of the bargain, however, she misorded from Ruhr (or was it Holland) to Denmark instead of Belgium. This made me a 6 center France in 1901. England and I had discussed England building an army and sending his forces North while I concentraned on the South, leaving Germany to deal with middle Europe. Since, I had 3 builds, I naturally built a fleet in Brest (this was after some thought as my agreement with Mike was to not build a fleet in Brest - with 2 buids it's easy to build F MAR and A Paris. With 3 builds, it gets tougher). I contemplated both not building and also building an army in brest. In the end I built a fleet in BRE. Mike, who had said he was going to build an army ended up building a fleet in London. This wasn't too troublesome given the change in events. I told him my plan was to flood the MEd with fleets. What really saved Ted as Italy and also proved to be the demise of France was that Mike built 2 additional fleets in 1902 and ended up have 6 fleets and 1 arrmy before his 2nd army was built. After his 2 fleets in 1902 (in Liverpool and London no less). I made a major pullback from the Med to defend myself.

Mike played me and played a great game. I often was left wondering if I would have been better off with only 2 builds in 1901 instead of 3. I also wodnder if Mike's plan all along was fleets or if the change of events in 1901 changed his mind.

An interesting, fluid game with several shifty-eyed alliances that would have been interesting to continue had time permitted.

I do agree that the early misorders ...

(Was Germany allowing France into Belgium a real misorder or one manufactured to trick me? This was the main reason I built that first fleet -- the second two fleets were built right after I had stabbed Germany, and I was pretty sure I'd have Germany and France turning on me?)

... created a powerful France, and perhaps it was enough to change my strategy significantly. On the other hand, I do recall that up until the Russians convinced me otherwise (last minute of Fall 1902?), I was satisfied with the Western Triple, but it did look like it was going to be slow progress.

Mike, I talked to Jim about that order. He ruled that it supported the army in Munich to hold. So Russia ended with five centers, and Germany with three. As he said, "The country doesn't matter."

As Germany, my game was mostly spent fighting Russia. When the game began, Mike, Pete, and I agreed to a Western Triple Alliance. Pete and I were committed to an alliance, but Mike turned on us in Fall 1902, when he decided to help Russia instead. From that point on, Mike was mostly a free agent, alternately helping and hindering me in my battle against Russia. Around 1905, Russia and Turkey formed a rock-solid alliance that lasted for the rest of the game. As to the rules question Mike posted above, it was settled in Russia's favor, with the French army unintentionally supporting the Russians in Munich.

Although Russia was nowhere near board top, I think out of all of us, Sam played the best game. He had little hope for survival until he managed to get Mike to turn on Pete and I. Later, it would have been incredibly easy for Turkey to stab him and gain several more centers, but he somehow managed to keep that alliance.