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France: Army Burgundy can retreat to Marseilles or Paris
Message from Russia to Turkey
>Movement results for Fall of 1903. (titleist.010)
>
>Austria: Army Ukraine -> Sevastopol.
>Austria: Fleet Aegean Sea -> Greece. (*bounce*)
>Austria: Army Vienna -> Trieste. (*bounce*)
>Austria: Army Budapest SUPPORT Army Vienna -> Trieste. (*cut*)
>Italy: Army Trieste SUPPORT Russian Army Galicia -> Budapest. (*cut*)
>Russia: Army Galicia -> Budapest. (*bounce*)
>
>Turkey: Army Greece -> Bulgaria.
>Turkey: Army Smyrna -> Constantinople. (*bounce*)
>Turkey: Fleet Black Sea -> Constantinople. (*bounce*)
>Turkey: Army Serbia SUPPORT Italian Army Trieste.
>Turkey: Army Bulgaria -> Rumania.
>
Thanks, so much. Why did you feel it was necessary to
lie to me? Austria I expected, but what do you gain from
this?
Message from Germany to England
This is easy. My orders are already in for the spring. I'll be
covering my ass.
Fredd
Message from Turkey to Russia
Nick,
> Thanks, so much. Why did you feel it was necessary to
> lie to me? Austria I expected, but what do you gain from
> this?
Basically, I just chickened out. I had you, Italy and Austria all asking
different things of A Ser. I knew that whatever I did, I'd piss off two out
of three. At various times today, I had all three sets of orders in,
pro-Austrian, pro-Italian and pro-Russian, and I kept changing my mind. In
the end, I decided that in the long run it would be best for Turkey to keep
Italy on the friendly side, and I acted with purely selfish motivations.
I tried to sell you on the Vie plan, which it turns out would have worked.
In retrospect, I should have had the balls to tell you I couldn't support
your attack, and push harder for the Vie plan as the best I could offer. I
regret now that that wasn't what I did. It would have saved us both a lot
of grief.
I think part of it also was that in the spring, you didn't do what I
expected. If you had, we could have bounced in Sev and you'd have been
guaranteed a build without worrying about Bud. But that's neither here nor
there. In the end, I felt the most confident that Italy would move as I was
expecting. But that was just part of it.
So I have no excuse to offer, only my apologies. For what it's worth, I
would still rather see you in Bud than Austria or Italy. And, now that
Tri/Gre are resolved, there's no reason Ser/Rum can't support you there next
year.
I don't blame you for being angry, I handled that badly and I know it.
Sincerely,
Ali
Message from Turkey to Master
Turkey's EOY for 1903
So let me get this straight. You leave yourself open to your neighbor, who
promptly slips in the knife. He then proposes a move that leaves you open
to even more devastating attacks. And you go for it? And it pays off?? I
thought such things only happened in fairy tales!
That spring move was a real nail-biter for me. In accepting Italy's plan, I
was trusting him far more than I had promised myself I would allow. I
especially kicked myself after I agreed to the plan in joint press to RI.
It would have been far more prudent not to have told Italy what I was doing
either way, whether I accepted his plan or not.
So I felt immense relief when I saw the spring result, though I felt
strangely unsurprised by it. I exchanged a fair amount of press that
season, in an effort to save my arse, and eventually it all tied together to
form the same picture. France's last press before that result did a lot to
convince me; it seemed to corroborate what I'd received from the others
quite nicely. Perhaps in a way I already felt as if I had gambled and lost,
so I didn't have that much to lose by gambling further. In any case, for
whatever reason, I again rolled the dice on Italy, and this time it paid
off.
I toyed with the notion of supporting Austria's vengeance attack in the
fall, hanging onto Greece and going anti-Italian after all. But in the end
I never really seriously considered it. Even had I built two fleets, I'd
have had no real opportunities against Italy, especially given the effort of
getting them out of Con and Ank, and Austrian prospects would have been no
better. A drawn out naval stalemate with Italy, while EG chewed through
France, didn't sound very appealing. I felt that the spring result had
given me a new chance in the game, and this sure wasn't the time to get
greedy for one extra build.
I have to say that the board today looks a lot like what I was originally
shooting for from the start: Italy and Turkey are strong and cooperating,
Austria and Russia are weak and fighting, and there's enough pressure from
the north to keep Italy looking away from my little corner of the world.
There is still a fair chance that A/R might combine their efforts for some
Turkish payback, but all in all it's not looking bad for a land-based
Turkey. [As to the wisdom of trying to build a land-based Turkey, I'll
address that in another entry.]
At any rate, my outlook is vastly improved from what it was a year ago. Now
I get to see if I can make something of it, or if this turns out to be my
crowning achievement in the game. Lying blatantly to Austria and Russia
could come back to haunt me. England's move to the North Sea gets my vote
as the most interesting move this season; if he attacks Germany in order to
win Italian support against France, then my hoped-for German pressure
against Russia could evaporate, and the A/R situation could turn into a real
mess.
Message from France to France
Prince Boar:
Following the discussion that accompanied my fall orders,
I am ordering the army in Burgundy to disband. My
intention is to build a fleet in Marseilles. It is a
wise move regardless because it allows me the flexibility
to still have an army in Marseilles or Paris. I can
build in either location. (Those were my choices for my
retreat.)
Le DAUPHIN
France: Army Burgundy DISBAND
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