Hi there! I think us attacking each other early game is pretty dumb, what’re your thoughts? I agree. Even with the element of surprise, it's just too easy to defend the Piedmont/Marseilles corridor.

If France attacks Italy, it will most likely be Austria who benefits, and likewise if Italy attacks France the spoils probably go to Germany.

Given that, what are your plans? Are you planning to attack Austria early, or thinking of the standard move of: 
F Naples - Ionian
A Rome - Naples
A Venice H Yeah I’m not planning on going for Austria off the bat, I feel like it usually just locks the two weakest countries into a fight that hurts us both Understood, good to know! Seems like everything went pretty much according to plan. Not sure why Turkey stayed in Smy instead of backfilling to Con. Seems a bit passive to me. He’s scared of me pulling off a lepanto. What’s the deal for you guys, seems like you and england have an agreement at the very least to stay out of ENG. Did you and germany agree to that bounce in Bur? Yeah, England and I demilitarized the channel, and the bounce with Germany was arranged. Looks like you guys still have to figure out your 2 on 1 then My own view is that France can afford to remain neutral longer than England or Germany can. 

As long as I can prevent an English-German alliance, I can afford to remain non-commital and find the right time to strike.

Of course, I already have a hypothesis for who I suspect would be the better ally, but I don't think I can share that :p Understandable Not sure if it's true, but I heard England has been telling you I plan to invade Italy? Would just like to point out that if that were the case, I would have built a fleet in Marseilles. My priority is securing Burgundy, and that's why I built the army. I had heard that, and was already suspicious. Your fleet going to SC of Spain was alarming. Him telling me that made it worse. The only way I will believe you is if your fleet moves back into the Atlantic. However there isn’t much I can do to attack you, only defend. In my view, the fleet going to SC of Spain is a concession to England, but apparently he doesn't see things the same way. I suggest that we demilitarize Western Mediterranean for now. My fleet will go on standby in Lyon to defend Marseilles Why do you need to defend Mar? I do not want you in the Lyon Since Gulf of Lyon borders several of my supply centers and none of yours, I view it as part of my territory. However I would be willing to demilitirize it if you agree to demilitirize Tyrrhenean Sea, which is to you what Lyon is to me That sounds like a good deal to me, agreed So WES, LYO, and TYS are a DMZ? Let me confirm with England that they're comfortable with me going to Mid Atlantic in order to get A Portugal out, but agreed if there's no issue there Okay let me know If England says no, I'll move to gulf of Lyon first but return to Spain. It provides a temperary hedge while allowing A Portugal to get out Understandable Did you hear back yet Until I hear otherwise from you I will be moving into TYS Apologies, I didn't hear back from England until after I had retired for the night (I'm in central Europe time, so turn change is early in the morning for me) Occupying Tys while I am in Lyon is totally fair, but we are now in a bit of a standoff Yeah we are in a weird position now. How do you want to handle it? Here I my view:
TYS is more vulnerable for me than LYO is for you, it borders two of my home centers which as opposed to 1 home and 1 neutral for you. Additionally, you are in a very good position to defend those centers if I were to move into LYO. So I propose that I hold in TYS and you move from LYO to Spa SC, (I’m assuming you’re moving Spa to Gas) and when I see that I will leave TYS and our DMZ will be in effect. Hmmm... Can I assume that F Ionian will be going east, against either Turkey or Austria? How is your relation with Austria, actually? The situation with Germany and England has become very messy and delicate. Retreating to Spain makes sense on paper, but it is a very passive move which would also leave me vulnerable if you chase into Lyo Not sure what ION is doing yet, Austria and I are still talking. The relationship is good though Has Austria been responsive to you? They haven't really responded to me, for the most part What is messy and delicate about it? I think you can see that I will be attacking toward the East. It would not make sense for me to send a lone fleet to attack you. No they are hard to talk to, they have about one time each day they respond to messages I mean, if Austria doesn't play ball, I have no way to be sure that you won't pivot west I think you would see that coming You will have a unit in Mar and a unit in Spa if you move from LYO to Spa, there wouldn’t be anything I could take We should figure this out before the game moves Apologies, was actually about to go to bed - missed your earlier messages Good to talk about it though? But on further consideration, I don't have a problem with you remaining in TYS for now You're right that it's less threatening than I thought at first Will you be moving out of LYO to Spa? Can do Yeah, plus I have made no indication of attacking you this game That's true, and appreciated! Of course! I realize that for now Mar is gonna have to hold Yeah, there's nowhere it can really go. The most I could do is F Belgium S A Burgundy - Belgium, A Marseilles - Burgundy. But not only does this risk losing control of an important province in Burgundy, it leaves my fleet trapped in Picardy, where England would likely be offended Yeah it seems like england is being a pain, do you think you guys will make headway with germany this round? That would help give you guys some room. ? Is he worried about Russia! He has some justification to be worried about Russia, considering that Russia hit Norway in force and England won't be able to recover it I'm guarrenteed to take Belgium, but need to see if England can hold Holland and how Germany disbands in order to get a better sense of whether we can continue to push against Germany Makes sense. I’m sure russia is trying to get you to help with england Indeed, as is Germany No surprises there Of course not, France is always better off with england as a friend. Not really the other way around though it’s impressive that you pulled that off. I think the dynamic does matter a bit, but I think as soon as Germany gambled hard for Belgium it made it very difficult to come to a deal with them Yeah that was weird by him. He was upset about england moving into Hol but like it was open It was a really strange early game in general Even as the main beneficiary of early conflict between England and Germany, I wasn't quite sure what to make of it Naughty naughty Hehehe worth a shot I had a pretty terrible turn all around... Was putting in moves at 2am central europe time and ended up with a bunch of misorders Not gonna pretend I put in a convoy order by accident though I don’t suppose you’ll realize you have bigger fish to fry and head back? There would be no hard feelings Will need to figure out how to recover from that misorder, in general England isn’t looking too good, russia tricked him last round and now he’s kinda screwed I’m getting a build in case you needed another reason to back off Yeah, I'm not on top of my game right now, but I did notice your build and England's dilemma Alright, I put some thought into it, I think we can turn this around into a mutually beneficial arrangement I would like your permission to go to Tyrolia From there, I can break through Germany's line in Munich, and also support you into Austria I don't think there's too much risk on your end from being stabbed - that unit would be really isolated from the rest of my forces If you agree, suggest that you do A Venice - Piedmont - Tyrolia and send A Tyrolia - Bohemia I’m not going to do that, the only benefits are things I could do myself. Why do you not realize that england is an easier and better target for you? You can get his SCs well before russia does You have a point, actually, especially since this fight against Germany is going nowhere Let me speak to Germany about it I know I’m biased but I think he’s a lot easier target than I am or Germany is Part of why I sided with him over Germany is that he seemed more competent. But this is going nowhere, time to reconsider Yeah you have been strangely loyal to him I don't think it was a mistake to side with England at the start, but I think I should have cut my losses earlier instead of not only sticking with him, but also opening a second front against you Still waiting to hear back from Germany, but Russia is on board and that's good enough for me. Germany has reason not to trust me and it might be good to make a demosntration of good faith anyways I'll draw down A Pie - Mar Would like to demilitarize Pie going forward, although it would be understandable if there are some hard feelings there Yeah we can build a DMZ once you have pulled out Okay now we need to figure out TYS and LYO I'm perfectly content to just stay as is, to be honest. We could also bounce off each other with F LYO - TYS, F TYS - LYO if you're worried about me going to WES But if you have something else in mind I"m happy to hear it I can’t be doing that, I need to use it to support ION with turkey being dumb Let me think, how late will you be checking messages tonight Probably not much later to be honest Been sleeping too late recently I'm generally averse to just holding, but I can do that for this turn if you need to support F Ionian Can you just hold this turn instead of hitting it? Make amends for my ill-fated incursion Was about to ask, I’ll fix it this coming year Thank you Thank you, small amounts of trust regained They are now twice as large as the next largest power We need to do something about Russia Yeah I know they’re getting big Turkey should be on board for sure, and it seems like England dropped So need to get Germany on board Let them know that I promised to cooperate, and that you will back them up if I break my word on this I will aim to fight the Russians in England while relieving the pressure on Germany in the west Does this mean you are going to pull out of LYO? Depends if you are pulling out of TYS :P Like I said earlier, I'm perfectly content to just stay there, but would also be willing to discuss demilitirization How does me moving into Tun sound It would certain be the most parallel option to me moving to Spain Sounds like a deal to me Sounds good! Not a fan of your move to West Med I know I haven't really earned much trust from you, but we need to present a united front against Russia and Germany or else Russia will win No you haven’t For what it's worth, I've kept our demilitirization since our discussion And Germany is likely to be the main beneficiary in the event of a French collapse Well, looks like this is it for me Given that I pissed away a winning position with an ill-advised stab on you, I doubt I'll be missed much But best of luck for the rest of the game! Nah we’re going for a three way so that’s it for all of us, good game though!