Italy, boungiorno.  Thankfully we have Switzerland as a buffer, but I wanted to reach out to see where your head was at.  Have you heard from France?  Turkey?  Austria?  Even Russia?

You and I - along with Austria, really have to watch all sides.  Depending on how initial conversations go, obviously, I'd love to have a good relationship on our border, potentially a NAP/DMZ.

I'm looking forward to hearing what you're thinking about the early game, and the game generally.

- Kaiser No thoughts on the early game?  Information I can provide, or vice versa?  I haven't heard much from you and Austria, and I can't decide if that's bad news or I just don't matter much to your plans. Okay, interesting first move.  I don't know if you're not talking to me, or not talking at all, but I did want to float a thought or two by you:

I don't know if you coordinated with Russia at all, and note that I'm on good terms with him.  Either way, he strikes me as an experienced player.  As such, it's weird that he would open aggressively at BOTH Austria and Turkey, don't you think?  They'd naturally see that and band together out of necessity.

No, I'm thinking he's working with Turkey, and we'll see F BLA C A Ank-Rum.  That's nothing to you - Austria dies faster, but they're grabbing the centers you bet very heavy to get.  (Congrats on that, by the way.  Always a gutsy move.)

But it's not good news for you.  Because they'll need to move quickly, so if that's happening I'd also expect F Con-AEG, most likely followed by 2 fleet builds - Con and Smy.

Tell me I'm crazy.  I hope I'm crazy, anyway.