Spring 1915 – the stalemate line is pretty much there

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Developments: it looks like my solo win attempt is over

• Italy disbanded his fleet in the north when Austria stole Venice. He made the correct choice (for beating me, Germany).
• Even with Austria’s unusual last-moment attack on Italy, Austria still has the right positions to form the stalemate line. I’m impressed by Austria’s strategy this game actually. That player is a survivor and he seems to understand how to play Austria correctly. He has refused to be reduced in scale and takes almost any center he can get his hands on. This is likely going to keep him in the draw at the end since he will be too big to whittle down.^[1]To be clear, although Austria‘s play-style annoyed me as Germany, I think he played well for his own sake.

Strategic thoughts:

• I can still win if the defending players make a mistake, but that still seems unlikely to me.
• I need to start thinking about how I will try to get the draw size reduced after the stalemate line forms. I definitely want to get Turkey to finish off Russia and Italy to finish off France. Perhaps that’s as far as it will go, but maybe Austria will panic and cause some sort of chaos that allows me to make a second solo win attempt.
  • To entice those players into bringing down the draw size, I’ll have to start retreating far away from them. I’ll have to bring my armies up out of Bohemia, Galicia, Ukraine and Moscow, and probably bring all my fleets north of Mid-Atlantic Ocean. I think if I do that, the other players will take the hint that I am withholding my draw vote, conditioned on them finish off these weaker powers.
  • Normally, I would consider that a lot of trouble and might just vote draw to start a new game, but because these bets are for 4,500 points, each elimination is worth a HUGE amount; it’s worth it to me to get the points. I want the bragging rights and vindication of my strategy. I suspect that the other players will be more willing to whittle down the draw than usual as well for the same reason.^[2]In the time that has passed since I played this match, my strategy on whittling down the draw size has grown much more ruthless. In order to achieve a high rank, win tournaments, and so on, a player needs to be familiar with how to get the draw size as small as possible. So even when I play for low … Continue reading
• If this year ends with the stalemate line positions, I’ll start backing up the next Spring turn. The defending players may be shocked at what I am doing and hold their positions for a while, but if keep backing up I bet something will happen. 

Orders: after this year, I’ll probably give up the solo attempt

• The fleet at Mid-Atlantic Ocean move to Western Mediterranean Sea.
• The fleet at North Africa support move to Western Mediterranean Sea from Mid-Atlantic Ocean.
• The fleet at English Channel move to Mid-Atlantic Ocean.
• The fleet at Irish Sea support move to Mid-Atlantic Ocean from English Channel.
  • This moveset is my best hope at breaking through with fleets, but it almost certainly will fail anyways. Italy can easily stop this by support-holding Western Mediterranean Sea with Tunis. The only way this will work is if Italy makes a mistake or panics about Austria perhaps.
• The army at Brest move to Gascony.
• The army at Paris support move to Gascony from Brest.
• The army at Burgundy support move to Gascony from Brest.
  • I’ll get into Gascony, but it probably won’t matter.
• The fleet at Kiel move to Holland.
• The army at Ruhr move to Kiel.
  • Nothing better to do here. Moving my army slightly east could matter if I somehow make a breakthrough.
• The army at Bohemia move to Tyrolia.
• The army at Munich support move to Tyrolia from Bohemia.
• The army at Silesia move to Bohemia.
• The army at Galicia move to Vienna.
• The army at Warsaw move to Galicia.
• The army at Ukraine support move to Galicia from Warsaw.
• The army at Moscow support hold the army at Ukraine.
  • There’s probably no attack I can make in the east that would work, but maybe there’s some slight chance that Austria will keep attacking Italy, so I figured Tyrolia is a potential weak spot. It’s my best guess anyways.

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