It's too bad Elinor and Lawrence had to miss it. But the rest of us had fun anyway. I utilized my position as basically the most experienced player there to good effect. ;) Solo victory for Russia in 1905! We had to play with two short, so Austria and Italy were 'neutral'. This gave Turkey (Brian) a great advantage - so many places to expand to... Naturally this pegged him as my biggest threat. Thanks to some effective Diplomacy on the part of Russia (Me), Germany (Geoff) was secured as an ally. Turkey, continually gullible, was overrun and reduced to one fleet in the Ionian Sea, flying the now-famous 'Screw you Russia!' flag. Meanwhile, Germany and Russia were working together to limit England's (Mark) expansion in the north, and began working together with England against France (Desmond). Despite this united assault, Russia was feeding France information about the Anglo-German battle plans, causing continued stalemates in France. The Turks, now broken, were convinced to serve as unwitting pawns to limit German gains, while further information leaks to France kept Germany out of Italy and France continued to capture Italian territory, keeping his forces supplied. A well-timed stab by Germany and Russia against England reduced the English to two fleets while at the same time, England had been working with France to turn the tables on Germany - too late. At this point, the Russians controlled a line from Greece to Norway. The German Kaiser passed away suddenly and Russia's long-time ally was gone. (Geoff had to leave) English spies managed to get a pro-english leader into the German government (Mark took over the ordering of German units) and German forces started to move East to stem the tide of Russian forces. Too little, too late, as a Russian offensive in Austia captured Trieste and Vienna from Germany, while the Russian fleets captured London, bringing the Russian supply center total to 18 and signalling the end of the game! The world will learn to love Vodka! by Jesse - March 26, 2001