| Analysis for Fall of 1909 in gauntlet |
Dear Rick,
I will be away from Thursday 17th to Thursday 24th. England has started to send the signals out, so it should be me vs The Rest of the World from here in --- I hope I don't blow it!
My biggest decision this season was what to do with F(IRI). If I hold or order to either Clydside or Liverpool then I retain good chances of keeping Liverpool. On the other hand if I order to ENG I might entice Germany to retreat the dislodged F(Edi) to Cly, followed by disbanding A(Mun). More importantly I intend to blitzkrieg France and F(ENC) is more important from that perspective. I guess England will convoy A(Nor)-Edi and build F(ENC). If he dislodges me from ENC in Spring 1910 then I may be able to retreat to Bre.
Strategicaly A(Tyr) SA(Tri)-Vie is better, but I want to ensure that Vienna falls this season --- I don't want Austria to retain Vienna because Germany decided that A(Mun)-Ruhr was called for. Russia should take the hint and order A(StP)-Lvn this season --- it makes things much harder for me.
Winning will come down to either taking Munich or one of the French centers. It's going to take me two seasons to push F(ION)-TYS-LYO. Hopefully I will then have three fleets adjacent to Spa, an army adjacent to Mar and two armies adjacent to Munich. The pressure will then mount up on FA(Bur) --- EA(Bel)-Ruh looks obvious so I may need three armies adjacent to Munich. Since the critical season is Autumn I have, in effect, three movement seasons to achieve all this. It should be possible.
I won't win in four seasons, I won't have mopped War/Mos/Sev up by then, but if I can take the `18th' centre by then F/E will be under intense pressure. I will laugh and laugh if I dislodge AA(Gal) this season and it retreats to War... but that is very unlikely. I suppose Russia would disband A(StP), not necessarily to my advantage... but in a no-press game it is harder to co-ordinate two nationalities.
Mark.
Dear Rick,
Thanks for extending the deadline (I must have forgot to tell you that I was going to be away!). Apologies for not submitting by the end of the extension --- I had a really bad headache and spent most of yesterday afternoon/evening in bed.
A(Con) was an easy build. The second build wasn't so easy --- I couldn't see if a fleet or army was required. It's a long way from Turkey to the western battle grounds and F's(AEG,ION) would speed up movement. In the end I decided that I can effectively move units to the front by shuffling my eastern armies around --- Bul to Rum, Rum to Gal, Gal to Sil etc. Additionally I'm thinking of moving in force against Munich this year, if I build only one army I might be stretched "like too little butter over too much bread" (to quote Bilbo) in the east.
My strategic thinking is to force Munich and then use A(Mun)-Bur to cut French support for Mar. I can pick up War/Mos/Sev at my lesuire, breaking France open looks the best way to win. It was interesting that Germany didn't retreat to Cly, I would have been happy for him to take Lpl. Also the move A(mun)-Bur was interesting. Perhaps Germany has decided to do what it can to help me out?
Mark.