1905ish was pretty much the beginning of the midgame portion as I would describe it. Two massive stabs that alter the course of the game in back to back years. 1904 ended looking like this:

Austria leveled the first big stab of the midgame. It had pretty much begun fall of 1904 but the blade truly went deep into Germany during 1905. Germany and Austria had been working well together all game. Austria was definitely resistant to stab him but he and I had been working really well together also and stabbing Germany just made the most sense to advance the game. I think, more or less, everyone was in a draw whittling mindset and wanted to see the game get down to 3. Personally I don't care to draw whittle but suspected if I continued towards that end I could see myself in position to make something more of the game.
England and I had started talking in 1904 about possible endgame scenarios and working towards a two-way draw. I had originally hoped to get there with Austria but England was no fool and had set up blockade on MAO so breaking out and kicking him from the draw was never really an option. At the time of our talks I knew Austria was about to stab and wanted England to jump on the stab as well so we didn't have to move into a 2v2 scenario where A/T was stalemated against E/G. I in turn promised him I was interested in the two-way draw and would be preparing to pounce at an opportunity to stab Austria as soon as it became clear.
As 1905 was coming to a close I thought I might have an opportunity to stab Austria then but felt I would probably not get as far as I wanted from a stab. I had told England I thought the time was right but ultimately sent him a late message to let him know I called it off for that turn. I had also asked Austria at this time about building an army to send into French territory but he didn't like the idea as it broke the arrangement we had made from the beginning.
1906 continued on about the same as 1905. Italy was eliminated and France was on the ropes. Germany began messaging me, Austria and England about ending the game once France was dead for the sake of his tie-breaker points. I told Germany and Austria that I thought that made sense. England and I privately discussed a potential stab and continuing to work towards the two-way. I told Austria that with the three-way draw in mind I would be building an army to defend myself in case he decided to try for a better result since he was already over the stalemate line. The end of 1906 looked like this:

I played the cards close to the chest during the spring orders phase. There was a great opportunity to deliver a brutal stab here and I was prepared to take it. I will just jump straight to what the end of 1907 looked like to complete the picture of the midgame:

One power eliminated and two major powers crippled the midgame was complete. England and I began talking division of centers for the 2-way. We were naturally separated by the best stalemate line in the game. I told him we should rush to these centers and he agreed. His road was tougher than mine. I was going to try for the solo if I could. But I had known that from the moment my 2-way talks began with England back in 1904...