Buongiorno! 
Be kinda nice to know if you're looking to move in a direction  I might be interested in participating in.  I fully understand if it's too early to know, just know that channels and minds are both open . Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen Wintergreen. 

I’m not writing to anyone else until I get things squared away with you. I LOVE the Wintergreen alliance. It works in the short-term (we only need to get A/T to fight) and it works in the long-term (resolves East before West, and we can’t really stab each other). Can we do this?

I don’t care if we target T first or A first. I’ll let you decide. But I want to work as your partner. I am just hoping that you’re brilliant and fun too!

I literally will not message anyone else until you and I have a plan. I want it to be clear to you that you’re the ally I want. Well, Italy and France are, in my opinion, some of the best possible partners for Russia, so how could I possibly turn down such enthusiastic overtures from one of them? Lovely. Would you rather we target Turkey first or Austria? I’m okay either way. To be perfectly honest, that's hard to say right now, since the decision doesn't really affect my opening moves any (the standard southern opening spring moves are equally useful against either one), and I'd likely need to adjust based on what else happens on the Spring turn.  Easiest just to say I'm opening South, flexibly considering the follow-through against either one of them. Okay. Fair enough. One reason it might matter is because I could open with an aggressive attack on Austria if you want to blitz him quickly (e.g., DMZ Gal and then break it). Or you could organize a bounce in Gal and then not move there. On the other hand, if you’d prefer to take out Turkey first, I could go the standard Lepanto route. I’m happy to go either way, but I’d really like to coordinate with you if you’re game.

Maybe we both need a fuller picture of what is happening first. I’ll begin to reach out to others now. Sounds great - and here's where it's useful to know Austria has already indicated a bounce in Galicia, so opportunity to blitz him through there is severely limited. Okay, that’s good to know. Thank you. I sent Austria a general first message offering friendship. I’ll let you know how things play out. Hearing anything interesting? Both Austria and Turkey are acting cagey and conservative with me so far. Hey, so, Austria seems to want to Lepanto now. 

You’re still the ally I want. And I’d like either to cut down Austria quickly or cut down Turkey quickly. 

If we decide to take out Austria first, I’d like you to let Austria in to Gal (just tell him this was a mistake). This will make it very hard for him to defend against me.

If we decide to take out Turkey first, bounce Austria, and I’ll open as a traditional Lepanto.

Thoughts? Let's do Turkey first. I'll bounce Galicia 👌 Hi Russia, how’s it going? I hope this turn finds you well. 

I think my move is going to be fairly boring, but I’m still game for some adventure if you have any ideas. 

Also, would you mind asking Austria for a bounce again in Galicia? I’d just like to have a decent sense of what his units are doing. 

Any other thoughts? Can do. He doesn't seem that interested in a Galicia bounce, fwiw Okay, thank you for letting me know. That helps! I believe that Turkey is in for a world of hurt soon. I think you just need to expel that yellow army from Sev, and you should be in for a swift turnaround. 

Let’s kill Turkey, and then we kill Austria. Long live Wintergreen. That's the plan, mate That went reasonably well. Looks like Austria is going to pick up Greece, so get wherever you can get and I'll get you into doors where I can Obviously Bulgaria, not Greece Awesome. Thank you Russia. Any chance you can tap Black Sea this turn? I’m planning to take Greece, but I need Austria’s move to Bulgaria to succeed. His move is guaranteed What am I missing? It looks like it’s only guaranteed if you tap BLS. Otherwise, 3 - 3. It's 4-3.  Rum, Ser, Gre, Aeg Ah, cool. I did not realize that Rum was supporting Gre to Bul. That works too! Thank you. Hi friend: can you please NOT support England into Denmark? I think that the last thing we want to see here is E/F trample over Germany. I feel like this is really important. Thoughts? Ah, I did not see this in time.  And one of the upshots was learning that England talks too damn much, so I probably won't be helping him much going forward 😃 I feel like, perhaps it’s time to go all out against both T and A here? Something like this:
Ven - Tri
War - Gal
Rum - BLS
Sev S Ukr - Rum

I may lose Greece this year, but I feel like it’s worth it to gain some momentum. 

Thoughts? Hi Russia,

My moves very much depend on you here so I’m looking forward to hearing from you. I think this is the right time for us both to hit Austria, but I’m not going to do it if you’re not on board. 

Thoughts? Hey, sorry -focused on guests for the holiday. I'm currently ordered to move units around so I can move on Austria, without moving on him this turn. Basically getting the fleet out of the way. Okay. Let’s shoot for next turn. Thank you! Russia, argh....

I sincerely want to work with you man. Truly. But if you sell me out and try to use what I tell you against me, it makes it really hard. 

Austria went right back to me and told me that you sold me out. I want to move beyond this. But I need to know that what I tell you stays between us, or else I just can’t trust you and I can’t speak with you. 

I’d like to hear your side of this story. And I’d like to know that you’re not just going to tell Austria again. Let’s use this bump in the road as a lesson to work better together. Eh? Are you really claiming I've been telling him anything useful, given that I said nothing about Greece?
I mean, that looked kinda arranged to me, but nonetheless I gave him no heads up about your plan to move in, which should make it pretty clear I have no intention of passing on potentially useful info to him. 😀 So, where do we stand now? You're in the driver's seat for path forward. I'm going to take Ankara, I assume you've negotiated the taking of Smyrna.  Austria either needs to be given a path forward or dealt with, and England most likely needs dealt with. So... You have lots of options on path forward, and I'm mostly inclined to Ride along as most of my attention is likely to be in the North. Well, here is my honest assessment: if you want to work with me, you have to commit to attack Austria with me. If you’re not interested in that, I’m not going to attack Austria, and it will basically be his choice whether he wants to attack me next or attack you next. Frankly, I am still a little wary after the last time we discussed this, you ratted me out to Austria. But I can get over that if you actually want to be my partner. I'm still not really sure how you think I "rated you out" to Austria given that I've really told him nothing useful at all.  Greece was the test of that -even though I'm retrospect it's obvious it was an arrangement, it's also obvious I didn't say anything to him when I thought you were stabbing him But whatever, water under the bridge. I'm willing to move on Austria as soon as you give the word. I thought that's what I pretty much just said -I'll follow your lead in the South. You want to roll? Let's roll. Orders are in, moves on Austria, up to you to join in. What moves on Austria would you like to see, and what have you ordered? I’ll make the move now if it makes sense. If not now, then next turn. Yeah, you missed me after I'd gone to bed, but as you can see I did make the move on him, and we are apparently spoiling for a fight.  Of course, with you reoriented the way you are, seems unlikely you're on board for continuing that line of discussion. Well, I’m not completely opposed. I build an army in Venice, after all. What are you thinking? I mean, the only decision point is Ank/Smy/Con, right?  That's just a matter of choosing the mover - everything else is straightforward one-power tactics Well, we should really talk to each other more. Ya think? FWIW, I'm still on board with cooperating to take down Austria, if that wasn't obvious I’m not sure I can save the Bulgarian fleet this turn, but I think you would help yourself by taking Galicia. I'm not sure you have a vested interest in saving my fleet in any event -you'd much rather be the undisputed fleet power. And that's just fine. Well, either way, I can’t help. But I do think you can take Gal without problem. That was already the plan, and then he walked out anyway. 
Anyway, my course is both set and obvious, so it's really just a question of if you're going to take all the free dots. 😀 Will you be around near the deadline this turn? Monday at noon ET?  Yeah, I should be available around that time. 😎 Hi Russia, still there? Russia!? Come back! Yes, I'm here Cool. Any chance you’d like to team up with me and England? I mean, sure. My goal right now is just to hammer Austria, and that coalition helps further that goal, so... Cool. I expect Vienna will be empty this turn. Boh - Vie should be a winner. Ahh...BOH - Vienna. Why’d you try to take it from Gal? Didn't log in fast enough to change it. And not really upset about it, either - this way my line is still mostly intact, which is a bit of a priority until you make an overtly anti-Austrian move. Fair enough. At least you can see that I was sincere. Aye. As was I. 😀 So, how are things going over there Comrade? I’m feeling like it’s just about time for you and me to make things official and go steady. I believe that England would like me to support you to Munich in the Fall. And that’s possible. But perhaps getting you to Budapest might work out better for you? I don’t know — how do you the board right now? Things are pretty well. Yes, this looks to be the year you can just quietly slip the knife in and take pretty much everything. And I'm easy either way -no need to make that call right now, as this is the boring turn for me Well...if I “take everything,” then we end up with a boring, large draw. I’m not in solo position. So, believe it or not, I’d rather you get the spoils out East. If I get much bigger, I’ll be fighting the whole board, and I’ll lose that fight. Well, damn, guess I can't bamboozle you into that position then. :) Eh — I think it’s a better position for you to get a bunch of centers and work as a team anyway. Beats a five-way draw. Shall we get you Budapest or Munich this year? I think Austria is likely to try to retake some of his centers this year, so you may have some openings regardless. Presumably Budapest is the better option, but again I'm not really moving much in the spring, so it's easy to remain noncommittal on that right this moment. Unless you're making a hard move right now, which I doubt - you also benefit from the likely ability to just walk in on the fall. Alright, now it's specific planning time.  And Munich clearly doesn't seem to make much sense now. Okay, Let’s get you into Rumania and Budapest this turn. I think I can do that, as Austria wants to take Trieste and Greece, which will open up room to maneuver. As far as I know, Ser is moving to Tri and Bul is moving to Gre. I think that you can take out Bud/Rum with Gal - Bud (supported by Vie) and Sev - Rum (supported by Ukr). The trick will be keeping Sev safe, but I think we can do that too, as I can recommend that Austria self-bounce there to keep me honest. I am picking up some gains out west, so I risk a severe backlash if I gain anything in the east.  I’d love to see you pick up two here and take a bit of the pressure off me. I can work with that.  Grrr. Out tonight, so less stability to chat, but I'm with you here. 👌 Is this thing back on? Ah, good. Nice run in the West you have going there I'd probably be trying to push a stop the leader narrative right now, except Mitch hasn't talked to me since I pointed out that rolling on me was only going to net him two dots before he hit a wall, and that was two or three years ago. So... Eff him. 😀 Sent to Germany, England, Austria, Russia: So, England, Germany, Russia, y’all played a great turn last turn. You got me to stab my long-time ally and you ended our pretty excellent 7-year run as an alliance. Russia told me he was with me if I stab Austria. England told me he wanted me to solo so long as I would “teach him” and help his along to second place. Then y’all pulled the rug out from under me. It was clever and effective. (End Part 1) (Part 2)
At this stage, my excitement about the game has diminished quite a bit. And of course I’m happy to play on and take my lumps for falling for “Hey, I really want you to solo, just help me place second,” but if you guys just want to call it a five-way draw among us and grab a beer together, while reviewing the statistics, that’s really my preference. 

I am outnumbered and I obviously can’t solo. And I’m sure some of you in the north are eager to send everyone else flying my way, but I expect Russia and England to be careful, and so I’m not sure there is much room to move forward without simply tipping the board to Germany’s favor. 

I propose that we draw and hug it out.🤗 I think most of us have the draw set already