Italian End of Game Statement
Thane Walkup Played Germany
My first thought was "Oh my god, WHY ITALY?" Once I got over my initial shock, I figured it's a pretty conventional game, let's play it easy and do a Lepanto.
Rule #1: As Italy, when France moves a fleet to MAO, and says he's trying to flank England, he's lying through his teeth.
Russia pops like an overripe zit on a pizza-faced sixteen year old. This means I have nobody to counterbalance Austria if Austria decides to come after me, but there's only so much I can do there. France's stab, while inconvenient, is survivable with quick action. I send out the "idiot" mail in an attempt to convince France that I am mentally unstable - which I am not. :D I don't even mean most of it.
Austria, Turkey, and I realize very quickly that there is a Western Triple, and we start discussing how to break up the triple. I actually spent some time and worked out a 3-4 year plan that would have collapsed France's front, but it needed Turkey to cooperate - something he decided not to do for a turn or two at a cruicial juncture. I don't have notes on that plan any more - since Turkey spoiled it, I threw them away.
Rule #2: When working with two other powers, make sure one of them isn't a greedy idiot. (Just kidding about the idiot part - I do stand by the greedy part, although shortsighted he isn't, as he was probably going to pop as soon as we got the triple off our backs.)
Rule #3: Don't spend too much time on a plan that involves more than one ally.
I think Todd made a mistake in not stabbing his partners when he had some good opportunities to do so.
So, when Turkey decided to stab me+Austria, I almost threw in the towel. I actually had a set of moves ready to go to usher France in to our back yard in the hopes of getting Turkey out of the game, and maybe betraying France to Germany or England, and when Austria sent out the note that we were in a stalemate position, I changed my mind right then and went along with the stalemate.
I managed to stay in the game, didn't lose any of my core territories to France, and that's really about it.