Hello there! What's your general plan for this game? My inclination when I play Austria is to piss off as few people as possible, so I don't plan on making any overtly aggressive moves this turn. Hey hey!  
Don't really have much of a plan yet - like you, I generally try not to piss off too many people at the start until I get a feel for the lay of the board, so my general decision at start is really just Mos -> Ukr|StP .  Right now my default inclination is to go Ukr and try to get Rum, that may change as I talk to other players.  Happy to talk about trying to take that with fleet or army depending on how spring goes, and certainly not looking to commit to any particular long-term growth direction right now.  That being said, A/R is one of my favorite duos (R/F is up there too, but I don't think I've ever even seriously tried to pull that off in an online game - that's a FtF option where I know the players 😃 ).  
I'm assuming standard Galicia bounce right now. happy to discuss other options. Yeah, I was figuring standard Galicia bounce too. Keeps both of us honest. So, here's my pitch: I have been on both sides of the deal when Austria, Italy, and Russia decide that everything would be simpler if there wasn't a Turkey. Every time, things have indeed been simpler for A/I/R. So, whaddya think? Wanna simplify our game? I literally just told Italy to go after Turkey first. 😀 Oh, fwiw, I'd just as well neither of us tried for Galicia this turn, if you don't mind. Works fine for me. They free people of rumania depend on your good will. I assume he's going to force Black, so... That would actually leave him pretty exposed to you and Italy should you so desire. I certainly won't be helping him take Rum, so I think you can survive this. Well it looks like that worked great! I'm in a position to force Bulgaria, you're getting Sev back, and you'll be set to keep Rum. I'd appreciate it if you could support Greece to Bulgaria. Oh, I didn't reply yet, did I?  Yes, I can give that support. And if feel bad, except Turkey didn't even reach out to me even once last season to try and pitch something like blowing up my fleet to try and work together later on - just completely went radio silent after the setup Yeah, Turkey has not been handling this fantastically. I assume the Greece swap wasn't negotiated? No. No it was not. There are some heated discussions happening. What are you planning to do? Well, I was planning on finishing off 🦃.  Tell me what you need. More specifically, I'm planning to take black. Other than that mostly looking to reposition North That works just fine for me. Italy's really angling to get me to attack you. I've put him off from expecting anything this season. FYI. Good to know. Welcome back to the land of open channels. Anyway, you know you and Italy don't have to fake fight on my account, right? The Tyrolia move is to slow down the west, I think. Sure, I more meant the Greece swap with attendant noise and the immediately swapping info on outside communications. 😀 Heh. So, you taking Ankara? Planning on it. Then it's mostly a matter of seeing where England/France take their relationship. Yeah, they seems to have a bit of a clusterfuck going on. Should be fun to watch, at least 😛 Indeed. How do you feel about a good old fashioned bounce over Galicia? Sure, works for me. No need to confirm or deny, but I assume your deal with Italy is to convoy Greece to Smyrna. It's been discussed, not 100% sure if it's happening For my two cents, it's either that or you just take the second Turkish dot for yourself. I wouldn't want him growing with armies all up along the border. Italy is starting to be squirrely with me. Can we avoid the bounce in Galicia? I want to get that unit moving to Vienna. I didn't hear from you in time, so I left the bounce order in place. And I covered Serbia in case you got cute. What do you want to do now? Yeah, sorry - good call on your part, as I was already asleep by the time you sent that. 
I want to go deal with England now, to be honest. The question is what do you want -you're the one who needs an obvious path to move in. If you need a sales pitch, I'm not squirrelly at, nor do I tend to negotiate via wild mood swings. 😀 I wholeheartedly support you going after England. I think my most long term success comes from going after Italy, so I'm going to build an army in Trieste and let Italy go get engaged with France while I come after him. I'm building army Sebastopol for the obvious defense - assuming you do build in Trieste, will take steps to demilitarize that border (no move to Galicia or otherwise in your direction, cooperate on Smyrna, moving units away as soon as possible) Ball's in your court - I never really understood the strategy of lying on the builds, as there's little payoff to it generally, but we are where we are.  You're well-positioned to make a move either direction, I can only repeat that I'm really only set up to defend against you, and actually more interested in moving North That was less a lie, and more my having changed my plans to be in line with what I messaged you, but not being able to update my orders in time. Fair enough.  Either way, math remains the same.  If you want to move on me...well, y'all will win two dots eventually.  If you want to go the other way, you'll get two right away and I'll happily feck off to the North.  To be honest, neither's really a *bad* option for you, given how aggressively Austria has shifted West, so ball's truly in your court. That was for the terrible pun. 😀 I will note that I'm not even remotely pressing you, and I'm not the one you need to worry about. You gonna talk to me again at some point? Yeah sorry about that Clearly some turnaround needs to be done here. What do you want to see me pull? I want you to keep whatever you need to start recovering dots. Now that I'm home, in all honesty, any three units you keep have their own possibilities and risks. I'd assume you'd keep the ones around Budapest, but I can work with whatever you keep. I think I gotta keep Rum, Bul, and Ser, because they give the best chance of stopping Italy, and they're the ones in positions that you can't quickly get into. If you could support Rum-Bud, that'd be greatly appreciated. Absolutely. Can I cover Rum to keep that army on the front-line? Sure. Thanks.  Alright, Bud isn't guaranteed but it's as close as we can come - you have support, Tyr will be cut, and I'll cover the eastern flank Actually, I suppose I should say, it is guaranteed if you use Ser to support, but in the spring covering Tri may be just as useful.  Not my call! You know what?  Ignore the question about Rum - I have to cover Galicia anyway. What's your train of thought on the draw? I have it set - I set it right at the start of this turn, actually, and England and I both talked about it then. Seems to me like everyone is in, then. I've got it set, and set for early adjudication. So, did you veto the draw? Hell no. I want this torture to end. And I'm approaching from the point of view of assuming there's no artificial end date. As it turns out, doing this one extra turn is good for me, but in the long run my position isn't going to improve any. Oh - he can't take Serbia without losing Trieste, btw.  If serbia wanted to support Tyr -> Tri....it probably won't matter, but could in an edge case Good idea, so oedered. Er, ordered. GDI
All supports for bud to Serbia unless you have a better idea. I do not. Sorry you died, dude - I did legit try to keep you alive 😃 The effort was appreciated.