I retreated Trieste to Tyrolia and then strongly considered disbanding Budapest. With no practical chance of surviving, I thought about moving two armies west to take Venice and try to survive longer. I really like the AI alliance and felt like Italy ruined that by attacking me first, so it would be fitting for Italy to go down with me. Ultimately, I decided not to take Venice and to play this out and defend as best as I could, clinging to the infinitesimally small chance of survival. Turkey built two fleets and Germany removed a western army.
I simply entered support for Budapest and support for Galicia to Rumania (maybe Russia would finally work with me?). The phase didn’t process on time … someone was late. Then, the grace period ended without the orders processing and the GM announced that England was being replaced.
At the same time, there were four or five other games that had gone past grace the same day and replacement positions were posted for all of them. It seems that one individual got too busy in real life and couldn’t spend time on a hobby. For a replacement position, I think this is a pretty good one (even without allies)!
Spring 1908
Russia kept attacking Germany (which wasn’t surprising) and Italy fell back (not surprising either). Hopefully, Russia would see the support and take a shot at Turkey now. Meanwhile, Russia also tried to be friends with New England (reciprocated by New England ordering Denmark to convoy Norway to Switzerland: a show of peace since Sweden couldn’t support Norway) and New England kind of pulled away from France (but not out of MAO, which simply had a “Hold” order instead of supporting France or issuing a convoy to Switzerland, or anything useful at all).
I would repeat my orders for the fall.
Fall 1908
Did Russia take my offer of help? Nope! Russia chose to keep banging his head against a wall. Italy took a shot at Trieste. I wondered if Italy might do that and considered offering support for him doing that. However, I didn’t know which of his forces he would use and also expected to be attacked in Budapest, so I didn’t do it. It cost him the Ionian Sea, which was a critical loss.
Meanwhile, England continued to make peaceful overtures to Russia (Den c Mos-Swi) and France (MAO c Pic-Mun; this is basically asking France to attack Germany).
Italy retreated to Naples and there were no builds for anyone.
Spring 1909
Russia didn’t take me up on my offer to attack Rumania. Turkey covered it, so it wouldn’t have worked anyway. Meanwhile, England tried to take Tunis (not sure why England didn’t expect Italy to cover it) and Turkey moved into ADR to get ready to finish us off. Italy was unable to foresee this and made no attempt to stop Turkey from both moving to ADR and ION. So even if I had moved west, Turkey would have stopped me from being able to take Venice since he was getting in position to do it and Italy did nothing to stop it!
Meanwhile, England finally moved out of MAO and France answered the call to attack Germany. Germany chose well to cover all centers as best as possible, but now EFR was against him.
Fall 1909
I decided to take a shot at Trieste. Turkey hadn’t attacked me for awhile (in covering Rumania) and I thought he may use ADR to take VEN. I was right about using ADR to take VEN and was wrong about Turkey not attacking me and simply sitting in Rumania. I don’t know why I wanted to try to help Italy—Italy deserved to lose here and I should have simply kept supporting myself. It wouldn’t have mattered since Russia AGAIN ran into a brick wall in Warsaw. Russia’s stubborn refusal to actually attack Turkey (which would have worked this time, if I had supported him as I had the last year) irked me. I started rooting for a Turkish solo.
Elsewhere, England took Belgium and moved out of the Mediterranean while France started to trust the New England.
1910
Turkey built an army, England built a fleet (in Edi, as a gift to France I suppose), and Germany removed Warsaw (I suppose Russia can finally succeed in re-taking Warsaw).
With one unit, a Russian player who is stubborn and doesn’t seem to care about the fact that Turkey would come for him soon, and an Italian player who would start to fall as well, I could only delay the inevitable a little bit. I didn’t try to help Italy anymore, just myself. Turkey took Venice, Germany set up a western wall of armies, France didn’t trust New England quite as much, (and even took Belgium!), and New England continued to show love to France and aggression to Germany (which didn’t do him much good). Italy continued to do a poor job of defending himself. I really wish I had cut the Turkish support for AEG-GRE when Turkey first attacked me. I feel like I could have defeated this Italian player while holding off Turkey and then attacked Turkey myself. At least I can learn from my mistakes!
In the fall, I did try to move to Trieste, thinking maybe Italy would do the right thing and support me there. Nope, Italy tried to move there too. I guess I decided to wait to learn from my mistakes until after this game was over!
1911
New England removed the fleet in HEL (I suppose because the French player couldn’t be trusted now). France built an army in Paris (interesting… to go after Germany again?). Italy removed the army. Russia and Turkey built armies. The end had come for me and I literally had no hope.
My elimination was complete. I decided to disband in the spring instead of a useless retreat. Germany had moved to Tyrolia, but I felt I had no way to utilize that (very late) help. I did offer another support to Russia to move to Galicia as I was eliminated. Russia was finally (fruitlessly) attacking Turkey.
Besides my elimination, it’s also noteworthy that Italy botched the defense of Naples. All that was necessary was Adr-Apu and Tun-Ion. Instead, Italy moved Adr-Ion and lost Naples.
In the west, England entered spring convoy orders indicating peace with France and asking France to attack Holland and Turkey. However, England left the fleets in MAO/ENG, which is not exactly friendly. England could have moved MAO-WES to attack Turkey and show a more peaceful stance toward France (ENG-IRI would probably be necessary in that scenario to protect against a French stab).
Germany tried to make up with France (Hol s Bel in the spring) while moving south. In the fall, Germany reversed course while England entered a convoy order indicating peace with Germany and urging Russia and France to move south (with convoy and support orders). It seems England sees the solo threat that Turkey is and wants to rally the rest of the board against Turkey. Will Turkey be able to capitalize on the chaos in the west for a solo, or will the rest of the board acknowledge England’s desperate attempts to gather a coalition to stop Turkey?
BOUNCED Gunboat Journal—Table of Contents
Introduction
1901 | 1902 | 1903 | 1904
1905 | 1906 | 1907
Elimination
Conclusion
End of Game Statements