Hi there! As probably the weakest nation I have always felt that Italy can benefit from having Russia as a friend, and that it can be mutually beneficial. Do you have any initial thoughts going into the game? I fully agree. Russia's well served by a friend in Italy as well. I'm primarily concerned with which proverbial horse I'm going to back in the inevitable Austria vs. Turkey rumble. What do you think? I’d personally favor Austria. For now I tend to agree. Austria can become a thorn later on but Turkey's an immediate threat. Sounds good, hopefully Austria and I can reach an agreement. You vouching for me and not hitting Gal would help. I've reached out to them but they're yet to respond. I'll tell them about it as soon as I get a response. Yeah I havnt heard back yet either Have you talked to Turkey yet? I have yes, we've essentially agreed to bounce in the black sea and we've talked about fighting the Austrians. Still no word from the Austrians on my end about possibly fighting the Turks. What about Rum? I’m trying to figure out if I can snag Gre, I doubt I can if you’re getting Rum though. I'm going to be moving into Rum on the second turn with the army from Warsaw. Got it So you'll likely be doing a Lepanto right? (Assuming that the Austrians ever speak to you of course) I’m not really sure, Lepanto’s are kind of risky. Plus turkey thinks I’m going to which makes it pretty ineffective. And yeah I need to hear from Austria. What do you think the odds of me being able to land Gre are? With Austrian support the Turks wouldn't be able to stop you, but it all really depends on them. If you get the Turks to think you'll be on their side you might be able to get them to support your landing, but that's a long-shot. Because getting to 5 would be nice, I would actually have some options. But yeah we need contact from Austria. Yeah, the more time goes on the more I'm thinking of playing along with the Turks for at least long enough to dismantle them, but I really really don't want to do that. Yeah hopefully we hear from Austria soon just so that there are options for everyone (including Turkey) Yeah, them being AFK really forces a scramble for their territory. I’m guessing they aren’t actually AFK and have just not gotten on the discord yet. Although this is strange. If they do end up going AFK I would have to assume we would restart the game I certainly hope so, the game's never as interesting with one nation DOA. Any news on Austria? They just responded to my message, no big breakthrough but at least they're alive. Yeah same, gonna work on staying peaceful We agreed to leave Galicia empty, but the way they worded it makes me feel kinda on-edge about it. Hopefully they don't do anything that'll derail everything. We’re leaving Tyr open, he must be planning on going after Turkey then Regardless, even if he does try something funny, I'll be in a position to counter it. Hopefully it's as you said. I will be too, not leaving Ven until he isn’t an immediate threat Solid choice, no reason to move it unless the French start getting funny ideas. Which I doubt, that attack never works Yeah, it always leaves them too open to attack by the other two members of the Western Triple. Turkey is responding to Austria but hasn’t responded to me, something to keep an eye on Well, if the Austrians were willing to tell you that then it's a good sign about whether or not we've got the Austrians on our side at the very least. Then again, if they're talking to each other it's bad news for me. If they both went after you I’d probably intervene It would be too good of an opportunity There'd be plenty of openings for you to exploit, that's for sure, lol Exactly God Germany had me so goddamn worried about getting bounced in Sweden and they didn't even twitch toward Denmark this turn ffs Better than a potential bounce, I might try to find out what the alliance situation is in the western theatre. It looks like turkey might be scared of a Lepanto with his hold. He is, I'm communicating with him consistently, keeping him unaware that I'm not on his side. He's going to move to Armenia to build a fleet in Smyrna and he's going to pivot the Ankara fleet to Constantinople so that it can leave. Thank you for the information, I suppose I’ll be needing to propose an attack on them with Austria then Any word on if the Austrians are letting you have Greece? I’ll ask right now Are you getting much from Austria? They don’t seem very chatty Austria is gonna take Gre Well that sucks. Not much to be done about it though. And yeah,  I haven't gotten much from Austria at all. Just a single volley of messages that one time in the first season. I just heard back from them again, they still trust you regarding Gal. Very good, though at this point they kinda have to. So what are your thoughts on Turkey? They will have 4 units after this year, and possibly be in BLA As long as the three of us (You, me, and to a lesser degree Austria) stay together, we can take them easily no matter how good their positioning. Do you want to start moving after this season then? Yes, I'll be making a move on them in the first season of the new year. We can try to coordinate with Austria but it’ll probably be hard. I'm communicating with them as much as I can. It might be better to leave them out of it, not sure if we can trust them Yeah, the move to Vienna definitely indicates that they intend to build a fleet. Yeah, we have an arrangement where he moves out of Tri and I would move out of Ven when I saw that, however he’s gonna build right back into Tri so that’s a problem. What are your thoughts on Germany? Well, they seem like they're about to have a hard time if France and Britain are combined against them, which it seems they are. I was thinking about trying to become friendly with them, since France is not looking that friendly right now. Speaking of- do you think that I should be worried about that fleet going to the south coast of Spain? (plus they will be building in Mar) You probably should. I've currently got a working relationship with the Germans but I'm thinking of upgrading it to a full-on alliance given the France-Britain alliance that's unfolding. I was going to propose that you send a fleet or something over to help him against england. We’re on the same page 😂 Well, if you want to help out you could always start putting light pressure on them, not enough to provoke a reaction before we're finished with the Turks but enough to keep them from being able to full-focus the Germans Not sure what we get from Germany on this other than that england and France don’t get too big too fast. Eh, we keep the French and British from growing out of control while we take Turkey out, then once we're ready we can cannibalize them I reckon. I don’t know how much I can dedicate to both Turkey and France though. I’m assuming we will want both my fleets on Turkey. Probably just an army to Pie Of course, Turkey needs to be destroyed ASAP, but even a slight distraction counts. The only problem being that once Turkey's gone, traditionally Austria starts either looking West or East for their next target, and we're on either side of that. At this point I think I’d trust you enough to say this, and if I can’t then I’m probably screwed either way. But I think we should look to eat turkey up toward the end of our turkey campaign or else immediately after. They are not a reliable communicator and my armies need to go somewhere I was wondering how to broach that subject myself. I am absolutely in support, I think that we should limit Austria's gain to Bulgaria and once we've got Turkey on the ropes, turn and eliminate them as fast as possible so we can both pivot to the west. That sounds good to me, hopefully he is responsive enough that he is useful against Turkey As for how to split the Austria/Turkey gains we'll make, how's this sound?
You: Trieste, Smyrna, Serbia, Greece, and Bulgaria
Me: Constantinople, Ankara, Vienna, and Budapest Constantinople of course so that my fleet can get out and contribute in the Med That sounds great. Have you proposed the thing to Germany, I’ll vouch for you unless you don’t want you and I working together to be too public I'd already agreed to help them by taking Norway and deploying my fleets to fuck with the Brits, I figure that as long as we keep cooperating along those lines then that's effectively an alliance, no need to be all formal about it. The two of you should definitely start to closely cooperate though. France made some interesting choices with that build. Normally building fleets in the north would be something that puts the British deeply on edge. Yeah I’m kinda confused, glad they didn’t build a fleet in Mar too. I’m still gonna play cautious Even so, if they move precisely right they can guarantee that the German fleet in Belgium doesn't survive. Yeah it’s not looking great for my guy germany over there, he’s gonna need some help. Well, they can't kill the fleet in Belgium and keep Norway at the same time, but then again, if the Germans do as I asked they wouldn't be able to do either even if they prioritized Norway. Germany may not have the upper hand but they still have a decent position. Yeah I’m gonna message england about that fleet in Bre and see what he says I think he anticipates me coming for Norway and that's the reason that he built a fleet in Edinburgh. Well we will see, if France moves that fleet in Spain back into the mid Atlantic (which would confuse me) things are gonna get messy. Maybe they figure that they can get to the British when they're out of position and grab up the majority of the supply centers before anyone can stop them? Yeah I really don’t know what people are thinking over there, I’ve tried to get a feel for the alliances (even by offering to exchange info) but haven’t been able to crack them. According to germany, england was not supposed to do what they did (fairly obvious). It is possible that we have misread things though and england acted on their own. France did tell me they want to stay neutral until they trust someone. England sneak attacking Germany could have scared France, leading to the fleet build. This is obviously speculative though England slipped up with their language at one point and told me that they don't trust the French to *stay* allied with them if they don't keep them in check Just got that from England as well. He says he views the fleet as aggressive and unnecessary, and that France says they are *still* allies despite this. He is angry with France though so he told me that France is planning on attacking me with that mini force. Excellent, I'll work on the French to try and drive that wedge deeper. Should I hold off on messaging France? Wouldn’t be the worst thing to make them think I’m oblivious. They started playing their cards very close to their chest with me though so I don't know if they trust me anymore. If you can get them off guard as far as your skill goes I can definitely see that going to your advantage. I *definitely* don't like that the Austrians decided to build a fleet in Trieste. That doesn't indicate trust worthiness. Any chance at least one of your armies will be heading down to keep Austria honest? I wish that I had the armies to spare but with the Brits displaying some amount of suspicion I don't know if I can afford to have any fewer than 3 units up there. Hey, weird pitch, are you alright if I let slip to the French that the Brits might have given away some of their plans regarding you? It has a lot of potential to drive a wedge into that alliance. Yeah that’s fine with me, I’d like to keep France away from me. I’m kind of worried about France and Austria teaming up on me, there wouldn’t be much I can do Hopefully the revelation that their plans have been revealed will keep them off your back. That sounds great, I messaged Austria about going after Turkey, he said that he is interested but is more worried about France. That is reassuring to me though. Maybe you could reach out and try to figure out how we could do both? There's not much I can do about France without dealing with the British first, but the best thing that we could do for the time being is see to it that the Turks are eliminated.

On that note, I'm working a deep subterfuge with the Turks. This turn I'm going to support them to hold in Bulgaria while my fleet moves -with their consent no less- into the Black Sea; in fall I plan to convoy my army from Rumania to Constantinople; from there we can annihilate them completely, hopefully within the third year. That sounds great, by the way you have successfully pissed off france, he sent me a long message about how I will not be attacked and that I should trust him Excellent, driving that wedge deeper as we speak. Need them to decide that I'm a better partner than the British. Sounds great, I’m still not sure about France so keep working on France to convince them not to attack me either Test message, I’m not getting the thumb option Weird, wasn’t working when I messaged england Yeah, it messes up from time to time. The French have assured me emphatically that they never had any plans to attack you to begin with, and have indicated a temptation to make a rush at Liverpool if I advance the front in Scandinavia. Interesting, does not seem like a solid alliance. We are working on demilitarizing the Mediterranean so that I I don’t have to be worried I'm going to keep up the temptations, but I think that I've pushed hard enough at them for this season at least. Hopefully I can trust France after this One can certainly hope, in any case you'll be in decent position to counter them if they make a move toward you. Yeah unless austria does too, but I doubt that Austria seems earnest at the very least, but the glut of units they have that have to sit sedentary certainly puts me on edge. Yeah I was hoping to coordinate an attack with them, but I don’t know now Destroying Turkey would be faster if they took Bulgaria in Fall, but I don't want to give them another build that has to sit around doing nothing. I was thinking about going ION -> AEG and NAP -> ION, I would go into EAS but I have a feeling Turkey will move there. Do you have any idea what their moves are from your spying? Yeah if they don’t take it it isn’t the end of the world I desperately need the Turkish move into the Aegean to not bounce so that I can convoy an army to Constantinople. I believe that they intend to move both fleets out at the same time, but I know for fact that they want to move into the Aegean with the fleet in Constantinople at the very least. I'd recommend bouncing the Eastern Med and moving the fleet in Naples out to the Tyrrhenian Sea so that if the French do move toward you you're in better position to stop it. Sorry, I had intended to make move recommendations and tell you what Turkey's plan was at the point where I told you that I was going to move an army to Constantinople but apparently I completely failed to do that. Okay that’s fine, as long as things will work Unless the Turks catch on it should work like a charm. Sounds great, I may not move into the Tyrr just because of an agreement I made with France Fair, I'm just concerned that the agreement was only so that you wouldn't move while they put themselves into position. Yeah I’ll keep an eye on it The Austrians are expressing doubt about my plan, I'm concerned that they think I'm proposing something that'll get them double-crossed. They're impatient for Bulgaria. That’s understandable, I’ll see what they say to me I'm mostly worried that they'll act alone or worse, make a move on me. I don’t think so, they’re a lot more worried about this France thing for some reason I can't imagine why, there's an entire Switzerland between the two of them. I know I don’t get it Austria's gone rogue. Goddamnit they're going to ruin the entire offensive. Standby for possible drastic shift in allegiances. Yeah Austria is dumb How do you feel about shifting our plans to attack the Austrians instead? I was going to ask you the same thing You should start communicating with them, I've gotten them to agree to let you have Greece, you should talk to them about convoying there As in talk to turkey? Right yeah, if you hadn't started already I mean. Will do, I have to figure out my France thing too Yeah, it's not looking very much like a DMZ over there. We both agreed to move into those because we weren’t sure what to do yet Sounds like the French are trying to maneuver themselves into some kind of position while feigning indecision. Yeah I’m having him move out before I do Good idea. It’d be good for me to get a build here though so that I can support myself Do you think it’s too risky to go Ven -> Tyr Nah, if you can take the Austrians by surprise and nab two supply centers at once, so much the better, especially since you could immediately build in venice after that. Tyr isn’t a supply center Thhhbt got it mixed up with Trieste in my head; still, if you succeed to take Greece it'd be a hugely powerful play Plus he hasn’t attack Ven all game Hopefully he doesn't take you for a turncoat Yeah I’m gonna try and butter him up a little by saying I’m worried about you and turkey Speaking of, I have a feeling turkey doesn’t like me, especially after that bounce. Are you sure he’ll support me into Gre? I've given them the sweet talk about how it's all temporary and we'll kill you later blah blah so I think they're sufficiently convinced to do it. Okay because me getting Gre doesn’t really leave him with anything of Austria They've told me that they're willing to accept that so long as you're going to be an immediate target. Obviously I'm reassuring them as to that fact but intend ASAP to execute the plan that I had had in mind before Austria ruined my attack plan. Because I think that plan was sweet and I'm pissed that I didn't get to do it. Hahahaha it was sweet, austria should go down quick though. I’d say the only variables are if Turkey gets their fleet too far out it will slow me down and if France gets aggressive With the builds I get from Austria, if all goes right, I should be able to crush Turkey with no more support from you than is necessary to claim your fair share of builds to use on the French front. Hopefully. 👍🏻 Also worried about if Turkey doesn’t play ball, but you have to take risks sometimes Yeah, hopefully we go 2/3 for risky alliances. (The second successful case being the Germans thusfar.) That’s my favorite part about the Italy/Russia alliance. It’s very mutually beneficial and doesn’t take much risk. The only problem being that in the early game it's very difficult to mutually support This is true Soon enough we'll be able to though, hopefully. Yeah if austria goes down Oh my god, Austria has no idea how this game even works. Apparently they betrayed me because "They knew I was up to something because there's no way that they could have taken Bulgaria" but... it's pretty obvious that they could, Greece goes to Bulgaria, Serbia supports, F Ionian breaks the Aegean's support. I'm so fucking frustrated. That’s very annoying, who told you that austria? The Austrians themselves told me that, yes. I meant to say turkey Ah, no, the Austrians themselves admitted that that's the reason they betrayed me last turn, they were talking about twenty minutes ago. Turkey is being cagey about letting me into Gre, can you prod or at least find out if they’re gonna do it Will do my best They say yes, that that is the plan. Was a very brief message though. Yeah he said he’s supporting me in What’re your moves this round? Just curious how things are gonna work. I’ll share mine too if it makes you uncomfortable Good good, and he's supporting the convoy from Tunis, yes? Yes I'm going to protect Warsaw and do everything I can to hold onto Rumania. I fed the Austrians some bullshit lines trying to get them to back off and focus on the Turkish threat, hopefully that'll work. Black Sea's going to support Rumania to hold and Ukraine's moving to Warsaw. Yeah I have austria supporting me into the Aegean with Gre so that’ll be a wasted move I’m gonna hold in TYS and move into Tyr Good, can you get them to tell you what they'll be doing with the rest of their units? I need to know whether to defend Warsaw or Rumania. I’m gonna try and get turkey to hit Ser to cut any potential support Yeah I’ll ask Thanks, I'll admit it's got me anxious. Are you too worried about Rum to let Bul hit Ser to cut support? Or do you think we don’t need to worry, he won’t support Gre holding There's too many risks if you ask me. If the Austrians supported from Greece to Bulgaria we'd get Greece but the Turks would lose Bulgaria and we'd have a shit time. I don't think he'll try to support Greece holding. Yeah I’m realizing that he won’t either. Any specifics? The most important one is what he'll do with Galicia. I’m thinking about going TYS to Tus, I don’t think France will move into TYS if they stab because they should expect me to hold. I’m guessing they would convoy or move into Tus and Pie right? Yeah I haven’t heard back yet, I’m just guessing he won’t support Gre because he doesn’t have a reason to That seems the most likely option, I think it's a good idea to do that. The French have the opportunity to ruin you completely if they manage to secure both. Yeah I’m worried about that, not sure what else I can do other than send Ven to Pie but I wanna get moving on austria The faster them and Turkey are destroyed the faster you can pivot completely toward the French. I just wish I could convince France that the English were a better option. Yeah they’re pretty annoying Just like the real French Hey now, I happen to quite like the French in reality lol Just messing around I gotcha, the France in this game definitely has their general aloofness down pat for sure though They’re very difficult to negotiate with. They are saying that me being in LYO is more risky for them than them being in TYS is for me That's a stinking lie and they know it. Exactly France all of the sudden agreed, pretty suspicious Extremely. Don't trust them. Moving into Tus is a win win, either I’m prepared for the attack or we both move out of the spaces and the DMZ is active Yea gods if only the Austrians hadn't been chief among morons we'd be in such a better spot. This will be a big turn Indeed, this is big make-or-break time. Yeah we’re taking a lot of risks. France and Austria could attack me, Turkey could screw us up. Hell, if the British get tricky again the Germans may not recover. Yeah they’re worried about england holding Hol, otherwise england might not recover Well if England fails to recover, we might have a shot at this yet. It’ll be interesting You have no idea how much information you can get from some people if you feign a willingness to betray an ally. The English have effectively handed the war in the north to me, if they're telling the truth, and if they aren't, it proceeds as normal anyways. What’d they say??? With the "promise" to betray the Germans in a turn's time they've agreed to back away from St. Petersburg, told me a great deal of France's plans, and given me an opening to break through their fleets, if all goes according to plan. And if they're lying, then nothing of value was lost. So what’re france’s plans? And nice work I only got information as pertains to Germany unfortunately; they're allegedly not going to menace Munich but instead throw all their support against Belgium. Nice, should help you and germany our! Out! I certainly hope so! Any blow struck against the British and French is a possible relief to you. Yeah I’m really hoping France doesn’t hit me and I get Gre That would be the ideal situation. I shudder to think of the worst-case this turn though. I might have to stay up and see what happens I have no choice but to either way, I'm busily researching for a big paper I have to write by the end of the week. College? Yeeeeep, it's a real pain in the ass. It really is I’m in finals this week Same, though it's mostly over. I had two today. Same I’m done tomorrow, I’m at MSU IUPUI myself. Good stuff Well prayers up for good grades and good luck with France I'll drink to that. Aside from France making a move on you, I could not be happier with the results. True Ok, so, if the French weren't riding your ass we could make amazing progress this year, but unfortunately they are. Unfortunately as well, the Turks are rearing to get at you too; I'll convince them otherwise, and if we make sufficient progress (Unfortunately the only way I envision it working is if the Turks get Serbia for now, similar with how the Austrians would have gotten Bulgaria) I will be in Budapest, and if things go *really* well, I'll stab the Turks before year's end to keep their minds off of you. If the French back off we can easily get you Trieste and then start making serious gains on your front.

How's that sound as far as a general road map goes? Considering the situation I think that it would also be far more expedient for us to switch Smyrna for Vienna in our center shares but I understand if you'd prefer to stick with what we had planned previously. Yeah I already told turkey they could have Ser, it was part of negotiating Gre. And yes France is really ruining things, I could lose Ven if they coordinate with Austria (which is probably somewhat unlikely since Austria has stabbed everyone so far this game) I’m not sure if we will need to switch those, but I am open to figuring it out when the time comes Even if they do coordinate, the only way they can guarantee it is by moving with the fleet in the Adriatic this turn, and you can take it back immediately after that if the Turks and I work together to disrupt the hell out of them.

The current worst case is that the French can now support the convoy move into Tuscany. I’ll be building an army in Ven which will help with everything It will indeed. Things are going to be extremely rough if the French don't decide that they need to pull back. Yeah hopefully you can convince them I’ll be arguing it too You could also try to tell the Austrians that if they're going to be cool now that you'll back off, but they seem fully in league with the French. Maybe try to convince them to disband Adriatic rather than Albania? Worth a shot I moved into Tyr though Well if they do that, you can support Tyr into Piedmont and send TYS to Tus, and that would not only block the French convoy again, but force the French to retreat. It's worth a shot. Yeah I’ll see Hang on, let me pitch it as "Getting the Italians to back off" rather than as you offering, it might be that they trust me more since they backed off of Galicia when I asked. That’s fair As soon as they respond I'll tell you what they said. That would be a godsend in backing the French away, even if it'd be a setback on the Austrian front; I'm more worried about the French, don't know about you. I am too, I can’t fight on two fronts As long as you hold the French off and and I can hold the Turks back long enough to put them down easy, it shouldn't be *too* much of a crisis. And here I thought the sweating would be over after last season's results, silly me. It’ll be interesting for sure 😂 Hopefully the pressure that I'm about to lay down in the north will be enough to get the French concerned and pull back. I’m still trying to figure out if there’s a way to split the england France alliance. Not sure who would be more likely to attack who but either way it would cause the French to retreat. Soon enough I'll have the English on the ropes if everything goes as I intend it to. That would definitely cause the French to need to reassess the situation. France sounds a little apologetic and defeated, could be a ruse but I’m hopeful It is 100% a ruse, don't believe them for a second. Hahaha I would never move differently because of it. Just hoping it is followed by a retreat What’re you doing for your build? That'd be super cool. I asked the Turks if I was allowed to build in Sevastopol, because I want to convoy from there to one of their home supply centers when the time comes. I obviously didn't tell them that last part. Hahahahaha, we’ll see what they say then The Austrians did it the mad bastards, they deleted the fleet in the Adriatic! Hahaha did you suggest that? I did indeed, didn't expect it to work but here we are! Wonderful, that will make defense easier For me Well, it means that you can support yourself into Piedmont and make it impossible to lose Venice, at least not until next year. The only hurdle is determining whether or not the French are going to try to convoy again, or try a different plan of attack. Yeah it’s gonna be tough I’m gonna have to play cautious Lol France is out here trying to get me to let him into Tyr FOH 😂 This fucking guy lol Like, what kind of wacky races plan does he think he's gonna pull off? He claimed it would be low risk I told him low risk is him turning around and attacking England If you want turkey to take Ser then you should hit Bud, I’m supporting him in. I think you should, we will have turkey in a corner and he trusts you it’s okay if he gets a build as long as it comes from Austria I'm attacking Budapest as my part yeah. Though, doesn't supporting him have the same effect with less rksk? True, either way works The fucking people I’m this game good god *in God the Turks ugh You could have had Ionian support Greece, not that it would have mattered Took a big risk trusting the French to back off I realized that even if they didn’t back off I would be able to respond And yeah I should have had the support in, I was changing my orders last minute and didn’t fix that. But yeah it would not have mattered What do you want from Tri If you could support me into Budapest, from there I can support you into effectively all of the territories you need from Austria/Turkey, aside from Greece and Bulgaria. I'm moving from Galicia, sorry, that's necessary information. Will do! Turks are gonna be pissed when they see the news. Good work, lots of builds for you I will have to catch up. Kind of sucks that england quit It does, but considering how things were going for them I don't exactly blame them, especially since the French were just about to turn coat. So which do you want first? Vienna or Serbia? Not sure yet, cleaning this up is gonna be a mess. Hopefully Germany can keep France small enough while we do it I don't think we can keep the French from getting one build, but if all goes well we can get you two builds at least, then pick up the others the next year and be ready to turn around and finish off the French. I might go army... the Turks are so weak that I think the fleet would be a waste And if you do it right they will have to disband Bul I would assume turkey will stop attacking ION now that it had to defend itself I don't think it'd be a bad idea to have a third army running around, especially since you'll have more builds to consider stocking up on them in the near future. I'm guessing the Turks are going to withdraw both fleets to Smyrna and Constantinople respectively, but if you have the Ionian poke the Aegean and I have Rumania poke Bulgaria I can guarantee that my fleet makes it into Constantinople, and from there we can guarantee your fleet makes it into the Aegean, from there you'll have Smyrna and at the same time you'll have armies marching into Greece and Bulgaria if all goes well. I was thinking about negotiating a mutual retreat with France and then being sneaky and moving into WES, could slow them down. I’ll have to look at the board more though to see if it would be too much, them retaliating into TYS could be rough, but if they actually retreat I’d be fine or my armies might be enough to keep him from hitting an SC I’m gonna look into it more And yes I like everything you said up there What are you thinking after this? Will you be eating germany? You have been wonderful all game but as you hit double digits I have to start worrying about a solo... I don't think that doing Serbia or Vienna first has any material difference honestly, though Serbia first would mean you could possibly take Greece this year as well.

As far as my plans go, I admit that a solo would be nice, but I have no intent of turning on either you or the Germans. I already proposed a 3 way draw to the Germans and they have said that they're all for it. Obviously sounds great to me, it’s kind of being handed to us at this point 😂 I certainly don't blame you for worrying, but if I intended to go alone I'd have no reason to help you into all the bits of Turkey and Austria we've agreed to, which you'll see I won't fail to do. So what will you be doing with all those other units then? Makes sense Well me and germany will have our eyes on you 😉 Yeah, the Austrians had me worried for a while there but convincing them to back off put things nicely back on track; for me at least. And once we have Austria and Turkey dead, I'll likely keep most of my units in and around Ukraine, with the exception of any which could better be used to help you or Germany out; in limited enough number to keep from doing anything even if I did intend to turn on you two of course 😜 I'd hate to get you two worried about it. And lol yeah, I'm sure you will Vienna and Serbia both present effectively the same problems, whether you go for one of them first or the other. Yeah I was thinking about that too, not positive how I wanna tackle it Yeah France is already trying to get me to turn on you So I figure, his only chance is to either get you folks to turn on me, or get me to turn on you. I think of the two, going for Vienna first is the most safe. Okay that’s fine with me Sorry I just remembered I was supposed to attack with ION, ended up not mattering No worries, though it did just occur to me that if both Turkey and Austria are going to go into civil disorder that you could have also had Greece this turn if we went for Serbia first. Yeah this is gonna be weird Of course they will wake up as soon as we start assuming that Naturally, which is why we should continue to act as though they were both still around. Are you supporting me into Ser and AEG or just Ser Never heard back about AEG so I didn’t want to risk turkey hitting ION and me not going anywhere, sorry No worries, it's not a big deal all things considered. I’m just glad you had that support to Ser in Yep, the Austrians are effectively dead and the Turks are going to follow quickly. What luck! Bulgaria and Greece are both walk-ins now. I'll start pulling away from our border in Austria and the Balkans. Yeah looking good! From what I can tell we don’t need to coordinate anything this season Not particularly, things are going quite well. I can support you into Bulgaria just in case the Turks unexpectedly submit orders though Sounds good Think it's time to pivot toward the French, I can support your fleet from the Ionian into the Aegean and then into Smyrna from there, and that'll finish the Turks. Will do And last but not least, I support you into Smyrna and the Turks are done for. Sounds great! I think when Turkey is eliminated we may be able to get France to surrender Probably yes Happy New Year, I'm going to be forcing my way into the Mid-Atlantic, from there I can support you into Spain; you'll probably end up being the one of us with 12 supply centers at the end considering the positioning of everything. Sounds wonderful, happy new year to you as well Shall we request that France surrenders and announce the intentions of a three way? That sounds right to me I will be supporting your fleet into Por and setting my condition to three way win Excellent, support the Germans into Brest as well if you can