German End of Game Statement
Stephen Weingarten Played Germany
This game, most of it at least, was all about keeping the Western triple together. It was England's idea; he came to France and I before the first move and proposed the alliance. France and I had already decided to work together at that point, and our thinking was to play the triple for as long as we could and then stab England if he looked vulnerable (though we were also both perfectly content to stick with him as well). I think the thing that really sealed the deal with England for me was that he included in his response to our positive replies to him a picture of a handshake. Corny, yes, but funny too. I felt that we had a deal.
I took special care in my dispatches to the other players to express how paranoid I was about E&F ganging up on me, and with some success I think. Italy and Russia seemed particularly credulous. Even when I was perfectly positioned to make the stab on France (a stab I finally did make much later) and didn't, it seemed that some were willing to entertain the notion that there might not be a Western Triple. The player I was most worried about was Austria, as I was well aware that he would be the one who could galvanize resistance to our triple. I was not particularly concerned about Italy, however, as his repeated temper tantrums seemed to me to advise against working with him. I did not think that others would be likely to trust him as a long-term ally.
There were jitters in the Western alliance. I was probably more paranoid than the others, but we three took care to continually reassure each other that it was one for all and all for one and that noone intended to stab. The deal breaker was that we were not fast enough to get across the stalemate line. Austria held fast, and France could gain no traction at all against Italy. So I did the only thing I could do: I backed off the line and took Paris and Brest, having made a deal with Austria and England to go for a AEG 3-way. I was eager to vote for it, because by my estimation the German position at the end of the game was most untenable. Had Austria and England wanted to do so, I could have been wiped off the board in a hurry. I guess the only thing that saved me was that everyone was eager to finish the marathon.