A fair few things for me to clarify here! Just regarding the west side of the board: 7:22 - Austria didn't tell me anything, this was a painful misunderstanding. Cedric had told me that you and Austria had given him an ultimatum and were forcing Ion, which was a really blatant lie. And when Cedric refused to admit that it was a lie, I said that I'd gotten the intel from 'eastern sources' in an attempt to throw some distrust between you and him, but he took that to mean Austria (which I probably should have seen coming). 8:30 - I flipped to Germany's side because Italy was just being impossible to work with. They promised support to Ruhr in Spring, then just went to Ber instead and said 'hey it's all good I'll support you into Mun' when they were obviously just going to bounce me there. They also built F Rom without informing me in advance (fine), then moved to Tus without informing me (very much not fine) all while lying about everything that was happening in the east. 8:39 - I didn't tell Italy I was going to bounce Munich; they offered me support there, but had been lying to me about everything, so I correctly guessed they intended to bounce me instead and let them walk back in. 8:50 - Cedric did know I was going to Lyo! I asked him for a bounce there to make sure his Tus fleet wouldn't do anything annoying. He hated the idea and threatened me with ultimatum after ultimatum about it, but I held firm on this and told him I wanted the bounce there. Maaaybe he was paranoid about Wes+NAf moves? But if so, trying to get him to go to an open Lyo would have been absolute insanity from me given I'd have no builds to defend myself from it (and even if I pushed into Tun, he can maneuver three fleets around it very quickly from that position). 10:53 - I actually think the flip here was anti-balance of power, it completely demolishes England. The balance of power play here was to prop England up and keep it as EF v GR, because then England is taking all the heat and acts as a buffer while I slowly advance. But I had to abandon that strategy because we needed Cedric's assistance to make it work - the German line is firm otherwise - and Cedric was lying about all his moves in the north and slowly pivoting towards me in the south. I think a lot of what was happening in the west got a bit warped as the info went through Italy :p
Yeah I caught that balance of power comment was off when I was watching it back. I totally understand your decision to pivot here and believe it was correct after seeing your video.
A fair few things for me to clarify here! Just regarding the west side of the board:
7:22 - Austria didn't tell me anything, this was a painful misunderstanding. Cedric had told me that you and Austria had given him an ultimatum and were forcing Ion, which was a really blatant lie. And when Cedric refused to admit that it was a lie, I said that I'd gotten the intel from 'eastern sources' in an attempt to throw some distrust between you and him, but he took that to mean Austria (which I probably should have seen coming).
8:30 - I flipped to Germany's side because Italy was just being impossible to work with. They promised support to Ruhr in Spring, then just went to Ber instead and said 'hey it's all good I'll support you into Mun' when they were obviously just going to bounce me there. They also built F Rom without informing me in advance (fine), then moved to Tus without informing me (very much not fine) all while lying about everything that was happening in the east.
8:39 - I didn't tell Italy I was going to bounce Munich; they offered me support there, but had been lying to me about everything, so I correctly guessed they intended to bounce me instead and let them walk back in.
8:50 - Cedric did know I was going to Lyo! I asked him for a bounce there to make sure his Tus fleet wouldn't do anything annoying. He hated the idea and threatened me with ultimatum after ultimatum about it, but I held firm on this and told him I wanted the bounce there. Maaaybe he was paranoid about Wes+NAf moves? But if so, trying to get him to go to an open Lyo would have been absolute insanity from me given I'd have no builds to defend myself from it (and even if I pushed into Tun, he can maneuver three fleets around it very quickly from that position).
10:53 - I actually think the flip here was anti-balance of power, it completely demolishes England. The balance of power play here was to prop England up and keep it as EF v GR, because then England is taking all the heat and acts as a buffer while I slowly advance. But I had to abandon that strategy because we needed Cedric's assistance to make it work - the German line is firm otherwise - and Cedric was lying about all his moves in the north and slowly pivoting towards me in the south.
I think a lot of what was happening in the west got a bit warped as the info went through Italy :p
Yeah I caught that balance of power comment was off when I was watching it back. I totally understand your decision to pivot here and believe it was correct after seeing your video.