France here! Where to begin? This was one of the best games I've played recently. Excellent diplomacy all around, some very skilled players and generally great communication. And perhaps, the best performance I have ever given.
For simplicity, I'll use he/him for everyone below, apologies in advance if any of you is not a "he".
I also really liked the AAR format that lecrae introduced, so I'll use it here.
This post is really long, so if you're mostly interested in the end game I recommend starting at S08!
I'll start with the early game and I'll focus on my side of the board. After chatting with everyone around me, I decided that England was the one of my neighbors I liked best communication wise. However, it turned out that England was a particularly tricky fellow. He told me towards the end of Spring 01 phase that there was an agreement between EGI to all move on me, but that he liked me so much that he decided to abort his move to the Channel. At the same time, he warned me that Germany was going to move to Burgundy, and he came up with a plan: tell Germany that the plan was off because Italy spilled the beans to me (!), and warn G that I'd be moving to Burgundy. Germany sent me a message like an hour before the deadline asking me about it, and I confirmed it. So G and I bounced in Bur, which left the way open for E to grab Belgium in the Fall uncontested. An ingenious plan from England, which however created a lot of suspicion against him by everyone else. At the same time, Italy was nervous of me because I didn't want to rule out a fleet build in Mars, so I also bounced with him in Pied.

Fall 01: Germany and I both realized that England tricked us to get Belgium, so we started talking about working together. My move to Bur at that point was agreed upon with him, with the idea being that next year he'd be helping me into Belgium. I stayed friendly with England, who kept pushing me to build two armies (suicide). I told him that I'd be building fleet Brest, as Italy was very pushy against me building F Mars. Then however, England built possibly the most aggressive combination against me, F Lon and A Edi, which certainly worried me. But, Russia also built F StP, I am guessing at Germany's behest, which now meant that England was in trouble.

S02: I convinced England that the best way forward was actually to allow me into the Channel so that I could help him out. That of course gave me many options. At that point in S02, Germany changed his tune and even though originally he had told me he'd support me into Belgium, he asked that I support him in instead. I admit that that was disappointing, and knowing Germany's moves I got into Ruhr with England's support.

F02: And now, it was England who was asking me to help him into Holland. All I wanted was a build!

I also didn't think the move would work, and I also thought that Germany would had been too hard to crack, so in the end I decided to just take Belgium and move on England. Of course, all those flips didn't help me build much trustworthiness with either E or G, and at that point I thought I was doing pretty badly in the game, despite being ahead in centers.
Also at this point, despite lots of pressure from G, I ended up building an army, which was my first build related mistake, but not the last one. The truth is, as I told G in the game, that my army build was accidental. I had put an army in because E was telling me that unless I built an army he'd give everything to G, and at the same time I was nervous that without an army Germany could stab me hard. So I put the order in for an army as a placeholder, and then actually forgot to change it before the deadline because I was busy at work. This definitely didn't help G trust me and caused problems down the road.

S03: At this point, it appeared that my relationship with Germany was going pretty well, and since I got Belgium I promised to help him into London. I was also happy that Germany had a fleet in Holland, and that he also agreed to even leave it empty.

F03: I supported Germany into London as promised. However, in F03 Germany got into Holland again with an army, and was clear in his messages that he wanted to maintain 3 armies at our border at all times. That was very discouraging, as in my mind it's no way to build an alliance.
I'll take a break here from the north and mention that at the same time in the south, after a few flips and flops it was clear that there was an AT going on. Given this development, I thought it was crucial that Russia didn't get under pressure in the west. If Russia was to collapse, then AT would steamroll the board. So I put a lot of effort in the whole of the early game to make sure that I and R were working together to stop the AT, and also a lot of my decisions in the west were driven by making sure that Russia could defend against the AT. To answer a question by Groo above, I kept Russia close all game long, as ideally I wanted to take out both E and G, and that would be much easier with Russia's help.

Spring 04: At this point I was finding that the original Germany (the_discourses) was a very tough fellow to get along with. He was supposed to make sure that he'd help me get a build that year, but from his messages it was clear that his priorities were different. I was also nervous that he would attack me or Russia next. So I wrote back to England and told him I'd let him take London back. I knew exactly how Germany was going to move, so I made sure his London fleet was destroyed and I got into the North Sea. At the same point, as I expected Germany made a move towards getting a Russian center in the Fall (which was better than him moving to Hel, my other fear). I also convinced Russia to move to Norwegian to hit England together.

F04: Given Germany's move to Ska, it was now easy to convince Russia that G was moving after him. So I was able to solicit his support into Denmark, which guaranteed a build for me and a solid presence in the North Sea. I think also that was the final blow for Germany, who had already started getting pretty desperate after the destruction of his London fleet, and I presume that it pushed him over the edge and led to his surrender. This delayed the game by about a week, which was pretty unfortunate especially for me (I'll explain later why).

S05: At this point, I was pretty much King in the North. G and E were fractured, and even though they had more units collectively than I did, the positioning was such that I had the upper hand, plus Russia's support. Interestingly, Russia himself was afraid that I would stab him now. I told R to move to Ska to guarantee Denmark for himself (which we had agreed), but he was afraid that if he did I'd take Norway. I found that fairly paranoid given that I already had fronts with E and G, however R didn't want to take the risk. In addition, G didn't want R into Denmark for obvious reasons. This worked great for me, as it led to the hilarious situation where R were G bouncing in Denmark, effectively protecting my center while I could focus on England

This turn was also the first one for new Germany, mjparrett (as everyone knows it's possible to figure out replacements in anon countries games by looking at the player list after a new player joins). I have played previously with mjparrett a couple of times, and last time I actually played with him he auto-surrendered and then quit the site it sounds like, so I was glad to see that he was back.

F05: Now new G actually changed the tune from the previous one, and started asking me to support him into Denmark. I ended up not doing so, because I didn't see much profit for me, and I wanted to take an English center instead. Unfortunately for me at that time England guessed correctly and I failed. But luckily, Turkey with whom I had a gentleman's agreement regarding the Med was also stuck against Italy. This was a very boring turn, as almost nothing moved on the board.

S06: Russia was finally convinced that in order to take Den he'd have to move to Ska. This also meant that I needed to make gains on England, otherwise I'd have to destroy a unit. Germany whispered to England that I would convoy to Yorkshire, but to be honest even before that I had decided that I was going to convoy to Edi this turn as I thought that England would expect me to repeat the same move as last Fall. The gambit worked! At the same time, it appeared that in the south IR finally convinced A to join them. I admit I was a bit of nervous of that development as I liked the stalemate in the Balkans, but also a bit skeptical.

F06: It took me some time to figure out the best move here, as it wasn't obvious at first look. But supporting both of my units into Lon and York I was guaranteed a build! In addition, if England guessed wrongly there, I could even gain two builds. Luckily, England did guess wrongly which led to him losing all 3 of his centers in a single year and getting eliminated! At the same time, G was really pushing me to help him into Norway, or to get myself in there. Turkey was suggesting the same: take out Russia and then stab Germany. But, if I wanted to have a chance at a solo I needed Munich asap. Plus, I wasn't convinced that the ARI would last, and Russia and Italy were the only two powers with which I had consistently been honest and I didn't want to break these relationships at this point. So I decided that my next target had to be Germany instead of Russia, which led to me lying to G and ruining my relationship with him. Which wasn't a huge deal anymore thanks to England's elimination.
At the same time in the south, AT pulled the greatest ruse of the game. I was certainly surprised to see it, but also felt well about by decision not to stab Russia.

At the build of this phase I made a pretty grand mistake. Instead of building an army in Marseilles, which would had allowed me direct access to Piedmont, both to help Italy until I could get in position in the Med, and also to have easy access to Tyrolia/Munich, I built two fleets. The other side effect of this was that it distracted Turkey from taking Italy out, which diplomatically was not ideal as I had been in contact with Turkey for some time hoping to work things out with him in the long term. This F Mars build may have ironically been my biggest tactical mistake in the game.
S07: This turn went pretty well for me, as it led to Holland's distraction. At the same time, AT started making progress in the south. Turkey and I started agreeing bounces at this point.

F07: Another good turn in the north, I think that G didn't see this attack coming but there wasn't much he could had done about it anyway. What was disappointing was that Turkey got into NAf. I knew that in order to solo I needed Tunis, but it turns out Turkey knew it too

S08: The double bounce in WMS was agreed upon with Turkey. Turkey didn't know this, but I was planning to stab R in the Fall, and I needed my fleet to stay in North Sea, however Russia was asking me to move it out.

F08: At this point, I suggested to AT to go for a 3-way. I expected that Berlin would be supported into Munich, and I knew I couldn't hold it, so it made sense to move to Kiel and to Norway. Unfortunately, AT didn't believe me (can't blame them). The stab went well nevertheless. However, this was the second time that T got an accidental center from Italy (the first one being Tunis). A fairly unfortunate development for me!
At the end of this turn I convinced G to destroy Munich instead of Tyrolia. In retrospect, this backfired as it led to A moving more of his units away from Russia.

S09: I lied to Russia again and continued with the northern advance. I was however expecting a bounce in StP, which sadly didn't happen. That meant that I couldn't guarantee both Sweden and Denmark anymore.

F09: I really debated on how to proceed. One very important point to make here, is that I had a personal deadline of May 8th for this game to end, due to a family commitment I have at that time. After that date, it would had been very hard for me to keep playing. I could see that Turkey kept pushing on me and I understood from various comms that there was an ARTG forming. I was hoping that AT would take the opportunity to finish off Russia with me and get to a 3-way, but they didn't. I understand why they decided to court Russia instead, but I think they overestimated their diplomatic capital with Russia, which was negative as they had lied to R much more over the course of the game than I had, plus they didn't have as strong of a relationship with him as I did. Turkey's exit from the Black Sea also worried me because it meant that he didn't want to stab A but instead was hoping to get some of my centers (something that he told straight out in comms). That was very puzzling to me, as it was pretty obvious that T didn't have the potential to get any of my centers. But, it was also alarming as I couldn't hold ARTG by myself. The moves I had planned against R were:
- Ska to Sweden
- North Sea support Kiel to Denmark
- Ruhr support Holland to Kiel
In hindisight, the above moves would had gotten me the two builds needed to hold Turkey off while finishing off Russia in the north fairly quickly, likely before May 8th. But I couldn't had known that, and so in the end I decided to move away.

S10: Very intense comms with Russia at this point, who I still thought could come after me with ATG (so no, it wasn't a ruse). But, as I previously mentioned, AT had zero creditworthiness with Russia, while I still had some. So I managed to convinced Russia to help me into Munich while I would be moving further away. It was a risk, but R luckily stuck to his word!

With G finally gone, I had one final opportunity to stab R again and even go for the 2-way, which I was seriously considering. I messaged T and suggested that I could support him into Ven while he'd be grabbing Rum, and I would also destroy or convoy his A NAf. In addition, knowing Russia's moves I knew I could grab Kiel back (betting that A wouldn't attack Munich with 3, which indeed he didn't), and this guarantee R wouldn't build. Turkey was actually up for it, but his communication on the final day was extremely spotty. Time zone difference didn't help, as I got his final confirmation when I woke up 20 min before the deadline would expire. That made me think that T wasn't serious about it and wasn't going to follow through. In addition, going for a 2-way at this point would extend the game by another couple weeks and I didn't have that time due to my family commitment. So in the end, I decided to pass the opportunity and agree to a 4-way. Note that Turkey indeed moved Rome to Ven that final turn, so he was actually honest after all!

As I wrote above, this was perhaps the best performance I've ever given, and I've had quite a few good games in the past. So I'm pretty disappointed about the end game result, as I truly believe that a 4-way doesn't reflect my game. However, real life takes precedence, and I am still really happy that I was able to pull off the game that I did, despite the final result, as it means that after 25 years since my first diplomacy game, I'm still improving! Plus, I think R is a really nice guy (perhaps too nice for PDL!) so I'm happy that at the end he was included in the draw. Kudos to Turkey for prioritizing Tunis and making sure I couldn't solo, and an amazingly good defense from Italy. Plus, Austria really managed to come back from the dead, despite the fact that even T stabbed him and grabbed Sev (some great diplomacy from Turkey there). The AT ruse in the mid game was also very impressive. England also played well and was a skilled communicator, the original Germany a great tactician, and mjparrett made the best out of a very weak position. And finally, thank you to Russia for sticking with me till the end of the game, despite the fact that I stabbed him fairly hard in 08!
Well, this took a little too long and and ended up being a little too long, so thank you for reading it if you got to the end!
To the admins, I hope it's okay that I took the liberty to start the AAR. I wanted to write my thoughts on this game now, as soon I will have no time for it.