Martin’s Game—Table of Contents
Introduction
1901, 1902, 1903, 1904
1905, 1906, 1907, 1908
1909, 1910, 1911, 1912
1913, 1914, 1915, 1916
Final Thoughts

Year 1901—so it begins

I drew England, (supposedly) the empire on which the sun never sets.

According to BrotherBored’s gunboat tier list, England is on C-tier (i.e. close to the bottom but still not unplayable). I see that my main difficulty is not to secure a foothold on mainland Europe, but to use this bridgehead to expand my territory there. You see, it is easy to find coastal centers that border more than one body of water, those that I can easily strong-arm a convoy onto with my two fleets in the early game. The problem comes when I want to convoy a second army—powers such as France and Germany can clutter the land with armies such that:

1. They can easily defend the target province directly;
2. Support coming from my first army will likely be cut;
3. At least one fleet will have to be used to defend my first army; and
4. Since a body of water usually borders more than one province, my other fleets will likely be out of position to offer any support or even do any convoys.

In terms of targets, I consider France and Russia viable. Germany is relatively not, mostly because of the defensive Heligoland Bight, and the risk of a French backdoor. Indeed, it is the thought of a potential menacing, unchecked France that make me decide to bear the risk of leaving Norway lightly defended, or even undefended.

So, my primary goal is simple: destroy France. I should try to signal this to Germany so that the German will join in, and ideally Russia is tied up by the southern skirmish so the Russian will not interfere too much in the north apart from try getting into Sweden.

Spring 1901 movement

With the above in mind, I want to get into English Channel to gain priority over France. I think I will succeed, since France can afford to play it easy and slow (so the French will likely open neutrally to the Mid-Atlantic Ocean). But, in case my move fails, I still want to ensure a build without leaving North Sea open—not worth taking too much risk in early game —so I will not move my army to Wales. Yorkshire allows convoy options to at least Norway and Belgium as I deem fit. So my moves are as follows:

• Edi – NTH
• Liv – Yor
• Lon – ENG

As mentioned before, throughout the game I will be predicting other players’ moves. For the sake of clarity and easy comparison, their predicted moves are listed on the left column while the actual moves are on the right. The moves that I predicted wrongly are highlighted in red.

France

Germany

Russia

Italy

Austria

Turkey

Spring 1901 resolved:

• Good to get into ENG
• France, Austria, Russia, Turkey pretty standard opening
• Germany is confusing though, Silesia?
• Italy committed to fight Austria right away but bad call, and Tuscany?

Autumn 1901 movement

• Holland is free, but not worth landing army there to antagonize Germany
• Sweden likely to bounce so Norway can wait
• France likely to cover Brest, so France and Germany likely getting 1 build; I can take and hold Belgium safely

So this is how I will move:

• NTH C Yor – Bel
• Yor – Bel
• ENG S Yor – Bel

France

Germany

Russia

Italy

Austria

Turkey

Autumn 1901 resolved:

Before builds:

• France took good gamble to have 2 builds with Brest open…
• Good for Germany to pile armies at France’s border and Italy joining attack
• Good to see south side still equal

• France likely support Portugal into MAO
• Probably build fleet at Liverpool then occupy NAO, IRI, ENG to force MAO
• Ideally Germany take the signal of allying to build army at Kiel

Builds

After builds:

• What is this army at Brest?! France wants to fight Germany even if I’m in ENG?!
• Germany may want to force Sweden
• F Trieste may make Italy hold back a bit from attacking France, not good
• Russia wants Norway so much and weak in south but Austria and Turkey not appear to be attacking him, and Russian fleet in the north does not look good
• F Smyrna not sure for Greece or for Italy

Martin’s Game—Table of Contents
Introduction
1901, 1902, 1903, 1904
1905, 1906, 1907, 1908
1909, 1910, 1911, 1912
1913, 1914, 1915, 1916
Final Thoughts