Hi there, we should talk. I've communicated with Germany at this point and I've heard from England and keen to hear your strategic thoughts on the overall picture. Where can we draw a line of DMZs? Where (if anywhere) can we work together more proactively? It's reaching a bit, but if I ever have a spare fleet would it be useful as a loaner to your lineup in the north? Hey hey. To be honest, just got done with a day from hell, so not really thinking big picture at the moment yet.  Placeholder orders are more or less just a standard French opening, just starting to touch base with all the neighbors. I read you France, and sorry to hear about the apocalypse on earth. Pretty standard Italian opening as well, I'm neither more nervous or less of my neighbours than usual. 

Once you get your press off, maybe lie down and listen to your favourite tunes? I know that helps me when I'm blue. Oh, I'm not blue - just worn out.  It's been a hectic week :)
I think I'll stick close to a standard opening, get in position to drop a bunch of fleets Sounds good! Off Brest please - seeing them appear in Marseilles will set off all sorts of alarms in La Bella Italia ^_^ I’m glad you’re “only” very tired. What is it you do, when you’re not governing the fates of a nation?

Engineering student here. I design software systems for electronic health records. What's your focus?  I was originally an electrical engineering student, myself. Aerospace engineering :3 I finish my course at the end of next year and... then have to actually find work, if I can. I enjoy the university but don't want to spend my whole life in Academia, you know? No, no you probably do not want to do that.  😃 Nothing too new this turn, good to see you're on good terms with your neighbours - or at least good enough to quickly grab your neutrals this year! We should probably talk DMZs then, yeah? I don't have any intention of going into Piedmont any time soon, and really do either us want to see any naval adventures in the Gulf of Lyon, the Western Med or North Africa? That's the plan - and, yes, it would be very nice to keep the western Med area free of fleets. Anything I should be worried about there? England and Germany seem to be coordinating well, but at least they're leaving your borders well alone. Do we have DMZs in every territory I mentioned, or only the Western Med? We do, and we should be good. I imagine there will be fallout to deal with from the attempt at Munich Touching base, anything new from our friends to the West? And where is the Army in Marseilles headed? We Italians are known for our warm and personal hospitality, but prefer t *to extend that on a more individual basis than to whole armies at a time. Ouch! That hurt, though as you see we did spot you coming. Are you still intent on trying to force your way past my defense, or are you ready to talk? ^^ Always ready to talk!  Driving now though - be a couple hours before I can pull up the map Now that I'm home, we could probably work out a set of moves that keeps me in position to move elsewhere next turn "Keeps me in position" and "moving elsewhere" do feel a *little* contradictory I have to say. Still, if we can avoid butting heads pointlessly for the next three years I'm all ears! 

Where else did you have in mind? Your German and English borders seem a little bare, so I trust there are diplomatic ties keeping them safe and secure? That's the theory. And you missed the time component -keeping me in place this turn, so I can move the other direction next turn (which is harder to do if I advance this turn) You're not going to advance this turn. I appreciate the thought, but I'm already there and have nothing pulling me away in another direction. 

Or was that your point? More or less - but we need to make SURE I don't advance.  I mean, you can't effectively cover all of North Africa, Western Med, Tuscany, and Tyrolia, hence the getting on the same page 🙂 And that's what I was talking about - keeping me in MAO would have made it easier to flip in the Spring Ok, that works. Looks like some chaos between England and Germany we can maybe use to disentangle I think England is being very clever, and is using Russia's ambitious early play to get an advantage while you and Germany are committed. But then he's the same player who warned me about an incoming Western Triple a few seasons ago, so... 

How would you like us to disengage? Planning on just turning around and going home, or something more dynamic? Good question. Stand by while I get a feel for what's going on with the rest of the board. How secure are you feeling with the Austrian? Reasonably secure. He's in Tyrolia because I asked him to come, if that's what you mean :3 It is, yes. And funny enough, my "full push on Italy" order set last turn would have had me ordered there, but I was trying not to push too hard. 
I think I'm inclined to mostly just straight up go away, just putting one unsupported move to tyrrhenian to keep you from full-pressing a follow-up.  Does that work for you?  That would let you either force your way in and still put one on Ionian, or force Ionian and just use one to keep tyrrhenian empty. It does in principle, yes. It’s after midnight here and I’m heading to bed, but I’ll have a closer look at the map tomorrow (today now!) and give you a fuller response then. Maybe we can plot out some actual moves then. Where was the one unsupported move coming from, so I can run a sandbox tomorrow over coffee? That would be Lyons. I was going to stay something cheeky, but it's actually pretty obvious which one I'd want to back up, and which is want to hold as a delay. Ugh, autocorrect making it look like I've had a stroke... So, not *quite* what you said you were going to do. 

I didn't mind disposing of the offending unit in Piedmont though, so you won't have to have him courtmartialed! I half expected a convoy into North Africa, though I now see you have larger threats to worry about to your north. Russia coordinating with a powerful England, and England and Germany descending on your open borders! Eh?  I did exactly what I said I was doing :)
But, yes, you can clearly see that not only was I already backing away from you, I'm now *highly motivated* to fully commit to that. The attack on Tyrolia wasn't *precisely* the same thing of "I'm pulling back" as I expected, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt I guess. I'm not really sure what you were trying to do there honestly, unless you were hoping to menace Munich from the south? *sigh*
Alright then. Spain won't be supporting Marseille so you don't need to cut it -you'd just be helping England by doing so, and screw him. So if you want, you definitely have the option of shifting wmed - naf,tys - WMed.
That would let you take Marseille and be in position to still take Spain in the fall, and/or contest the mid-Atlantic. Agggh, I must have been half asleep. I didn't hit the thumb (or that was when the bot was down) Let me look at this and work out what we're doing. I was indeed hoping to menace Munich. 
For this turn, I'm also willing to support WMed - mao I'm generally in favour of that idea. Where is MAO going? I am generally in favour of plan "screw him". I have a few reasons, and in hindsight I can see the strings tied to my shoulders from a few seasons back. Would I be fair in assuming he set you to fighting me at about the same time he warned me you were coming? So confirming you'd like me to move F WMed - MAO in Spring, and will support me there (from Spain?) if I don't cut you that season? If I can get Marseilles, Spain and ultimately Portugal I would be overjoyed... though I confess I don't completely understand why you're helping me do this. 

I think I need to understand? Yes, he's been pulling some strings. As to why,  with three on my doorstep, I'm going to lose dots. All things being equal, I'd rather they go to the person that didn't betray me.  As for mao, it's going to English. That may cut a support and you'll just bounce mao open. It may also walk in behind a moving English fleet and get you into mao. Hard to say. But either is better for you than letting an English fleet in. 😀 I agree, and well reasoned. I’ll keep your secrets (although he does have a knack for reading the board), and plan closely with you for next year’s moves. Support's in the box - do with that what ye will. Thank you! I’ll see to it that it’s not wasted. So... we're changing back again then? 

I don't object to someone defending themselves, but you could have said something 😂 I haven't lied to you yet and don't intend on starting now. Sonafabitch - did I forget to hit thumbs-up on the last message?  Yeah, I did NOT mean for that to be a surprise to you, and I'm deeply sorry, cause you did me a solid and it looks like I reacted by being a dick. So the Triple is back on? I see England has decided he can afford to kill Russia now, though he hasn’t asked me to distract Turkey recently. Nope. He's killed the triple idea for me. So... What pull would make you happy? What is a "pull"? I'm sorry, getting asked a lot about terms I don't recognise in this game. Oh! You mean "pull off the board"? I don't see any reason you'd be inclined to make me *too* happy if I was still trying to kill you, but since I'm apparently the only one doing that last turn I don't feel any particular obligation to stick with that plan either. 

If you remove an army, I'd be happy to see that as a sign of good will!

I do want to keep my build, but get that you wouldn't want to lose a home centre long term - right? 

Simplest answer if I go back east is to sit an army in Marseilles while everyone else leaves and lets you focus north. 

Next simplest is... A Mar moving to Spain I guess and letting you reclaim Mar uncontested?

Or we could do something more aggressive, but without me in your backyard I'm sure you could make some progress against England, if that's who you're looking at? You sum it up well. Army gascony is probably the overall friendliest yet most ambiguous pull. It takes pressure off Marseille, but would let me keep pressing England if you backed off. And I'm happy to leave Marseille Italian for a while if the issue is off me - don't especially need that as a build spot in the near term We should talk about how we’re going to disengage, so there’s no confusion and no temptation to warn anyone what we’ve got planned for them ^^ I’m trusting your fleets are headed north, and I’m sending everything other than A Mar and F GOL (this turn) east. I hope to send F GOL East next season as well We're really on incompatible time schedules :)
Fleets are headed north, so is Burgundy. You may want to cover Spain. Cover or try to take it? Same thing, mate. It's all yours as far as I'm concerned. 😀 Alright, will do my best!