I’m rather happy about the outcome :-)
It’s been a very regular game: 10 players, no RR restrictions, only 1NMR during the whole game. That was surprising.
In the early game I bet on a partnership with Austria. It seemed to me the most reasonable choice for the mid game. If we manage to keep enemies out of the Silesian area, we will be able to develop well. The other option was Prussia, but if I let Prussia grow, they will build armies right on my back then or before... So I immediately started sending signals of friendship to Austria.
I’ve been astonished about how well we’ve been able to match our orders. The defeat of Prussia and the early containment of England were amazing. I remember I thought: “I’d like to shake the hand of this mind reader”.
Then the events in the mid-game turned to my favor: and I’ve been able to bend the defenses of Sweden, Russia, England, Turkey and ultimately Austria. This said, I recognize the campaign over Sweden, 1706-1711, as my greatest achievement during the game.
Because of the early game assistance I wasn’t keen to attack Austria, thing that I started doing after 1714, when, given the circumstances, I thought that the path to the solo was hard…but possible.
I didn’t find Turkey’s defense tactics irresistible. I managed to push him out for hundreds miles during the timespan 1711-1718. In this case, luck definitely helped me during the 1711 crucial move.
As long as we fought on, I recognized England as a skilled player, but in retrospect those 2 fleets weren’t supposed to sail for the Grand Tour in Italy.
For what it’s worth, I didn’t manage to take any SC from Spain, which is a point in his favor, but even in the case of Spain, the fleets had to take part in action. If you keep fleets in the harbors just for the fear of losing SCs (Tunis and Naples), you reduce the chances of preventing the solo.
“To me, a survive is the same as an elimination is the same as a loss.“
I agree with this sentence, only because it was a WTA game. Winner Takes All, hence, STN, Survivor Takes Nothing. These acronyms should guide the players’ actions, and the hidden one, STN, is usually underrated.
Because of this, I may understand Jimbozig’s disappointment: WTA calls for stopping the solo at all costs. Some efforts have been spent in this, not all though.