I’m interested in what’s going on too.
No, I’m busy giving birth to a set of twin newspapers at the moment (in this day and age!).
I’ll get moving next week.
OK, we’re back. Sound off!
Did the other game come to a conclusion or sort of fizzle out?
No, it ended. I’ve just been to damn busy with these papers (and now a magazine!) to keep up.
Is this thing still on?
The final table just started.
A true rogue’s gallery if ever I saw one. This’ll be fun to follow.
<pssst> Weirddave, Shibbo is plotting against you.
<pssst> Priceguy, Munsch is plotting against you.
[repeat as necessary]
I asked and received permission from SkipMagic to reopen this thread so we can discuss the recently ended game. I’ll be posting my thoughts, etc. in a little bit, but if anybody else wants to chime in now, feel free.
The tournament finale did not open very well for me. The last thing I wanted was to be on the board near Shibboleth. His reputation as an accomplished diplomacy player preceded him into the tournament and his negotiation of the endgame in game one only served to burnish this reputation. But since the draw put me as Turkey and him as Russia, I didn’t have much choice but immediate alliance or immediate war. I chose to look for alliance. As I recall, he was lukewarm to it at first because he didn’t want the rest of the board to get worried about a Juggernaut opening. I agreed to play it slow.
Then it went from bad to worse. Not only did I not have a real alliance anywhere on the board, Italy and Austria were obviously going Lepanto on me in the first few moves. Russia was also positioned to pick up some crumbs if my fledgling empire immediately collapsed. By Winter 1902, I was convinced that my nightmare scenario was going to happen: first man out.
That’s when I went into desperate plea mode. I hatched a plan whereby Italy, Russia, and my Turkey would almost destroy Austria if everything worked out right. lno, King of Italy, was the first to buy into the plan and became my staunchest ally throughout the ensuing years. The trap was sprung in Spring of 1903 with the Italian invasion of Trieste and amphibious assault on Greece. In the Fall, Turkish armies rolled into Serbia and Russian troops waltzed into Vienna. In the course of a year, the mighty Austrian empire was forced into its last redoubt in Budapest. Russian forces seized that proud city once the snow thawed in early 1904.
The Russian navy apparently blundered into the Black Sea in the Spring of 1904 after it was declared a demilitarized zone. However, events in the Fall proved that it was no blunder as the Tsar’s forces captured Constantinople and effectively cut my Turkish empire in half. Needless to say, I was livid. Stabbed in the back by a fellow ruler who I had fully hoped to be my partner in conquering the continent. Alas, his worries about the other European leader’s potential cries of “Juggernaut” led him to drive the dagger into my empire’s flesh. At this point I only had one thought: if I’m going down, I’m taking as much of Russia with me as I can. In my rage, I pledged myself and all my forces to the Italian monarch as long as he promised to move eastward against the Russian. He gladly agreed and the new war began.
I’m still curious if, at this point, the Tsar had truly realized his error in stabbing me. I received several messages to that effect, but I was never clear if this was true remorse or more lulling tactics. I tend to believe it was true because the main bodies of his army were plunging headlong toward Germany. But no matter, I tend to be a vengeful emperor and nothing would stop me from getting my pound of flesh. This to me was the turning point of the entire game.
Over the next few years, the battle lines waxed and waned until the end of 1907 when a combined Italo-German-Turkish assault finally left Russia crippled and soon to send its government into exile.
In the west, Germany and France had managed to take over Britain and Scandinavia and seemed to be thick as thieves as far as allies go. However, at the same time that my forces and the Italian armies were ready to move west, Priceguy, King of France, thought the time ripe to make his move to be sole owner of Europe. His fleets rolled into the Med, he seized the whole of Norway, and was poised to make an attack on Germany proper. This in-fighting gave the Italo-Turkish alliance enough time to make small inroads against the two enemy nations and reinforce our positions for further strikes.
Then came the Fall of 1909. I hated to do it, but the time came for me to strike against King lno of Italy, ever my erstwhile ally. By ordering my fleets to seize Rome, Napaulia, and Tunis, I effectively cut his amount of territory in half. I have no regrets, but in all it was a necessary and distasteful incident.
Luckily for me, King lno is a wise man and said that we would remain allied as long as he could be allowed the secondary position of primacy in Europe. I readily agreed, as I had no wish to see my longtime friend stand before the firing squads. He moved his capital to Venice and we proceeded to continuing our conquering until France finally pleaded for terms of surrender. And thus my Great Turkish War of Expansion and Empire came to a close in the Fall of 1912.
Thanks to Jonathan Chance for being our gamemaster and to everyone who played in the tournament. I couldn’t have asked for better opponents. Even after a week, I’m still happy about getting my first ever solo win. 
For a long time, I thought I had that game in my pocket. My nonaggression pact with Italy combined with my early (if slow) takeover of the British Islands gave me an excellent position. I was planning to stab Italy but he acted first. Luckily, he had to turn his fleets back when attacked from the east; that was my third lucky break. He invited me into the Mediterranean to repair our partnership, which gave me a warm feeling of security. I felt invincible, especially after Russia bought it and I managed to pick up a little piece of it.
Unfortunately for the eternal glory of France, I completely stagnated at that point, and suddenly Turkey was huge and was remote-controlling Italy by the looks of it. There was nothing to do but attempt to go down fighting and try to at least keep my second place intact. Yeah, I know - no points for second place - but someone has to keep making croissants even under Turkish superiority.
It was a great game. Thanks, everybody, especially Jonathan Chance.