First of all, thanks to all of the players, the master and the judge
for contributing to make the game carebear worthwhile.

I hadn't played email diplomacy for some time, but the thought of a
"carebear" game interested me, both in terms of tactics and in terms
of seeing if people really could agree to perfect alliances.

I chose Germany (I think!), not for any strategic reasons, but just
because I had never played Germany before.

I missed the first couple of days (it was around New Year wasn't it?).
That, coupled with my timezone, meant that opening negotiations were
not as fruitful as I would have liked. I sort of set it in my mind to
try to ally with France. I quite fancied a F/G alliance with no stab
risk - I suspect that it could have been quite powerful. E/F/G was a
bit less attractive; I had it in the back of my mind that it would be
G that would have to pioneer forward, leaving too many spaces for a
final stab.

I must confess that at the beginning, I had not quite grasped the
significance of the carebear oath - one promise broken should ensure
the wrath of the other players. Thus, after agreeing DMZs in Tyr/Sil,
I suddenly realised that I had no option but to move West.

I was still trying to deal with France (not very successfully, but I
suspect that that was my fault), but when England attacked Den, I
panicked a bit (E *should* have taken Nor if she were not allied to R).
Since it was clear that E/F were allied (T/R and I/A too) and that there
was a possible R/E deal, I accepted the R/T/G Alliance. (Remembering that
promises should be kept).

Russia managed the situation rather well. Russian play made it easy
for subordinate powers to relax, i.e. "logical" moves proposed. It was
only at the end that I knew what was going on, and by then it was too
late without Turkish cooperation. This situation was helped by the
Italy stab and unclear objectives in the balkans.

I was rather dissapointed by the way that Turkey let Russia walk all
over her, but apart from that, no complaints!

Germany

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