SelhurstPark wrote:By comparison just a few words from me as Russia. I acknowledge that I was perhaps fortunate to be a part of the final result although I don't think that it can be denied that I worked long and hard even to survive so the in that sense I feel I was successful. At the end, I realised and shared that T was surely never going to order against A as that would invite A to retreat to gift F a solo and once that became clear I think we all recognised that the game was complete.
France kindly has suggested, "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." and I will admit to a sense that this is certainly a demanding and unforgiving format and quite different to the more normal day-to-day stuff. However, I am here and never quit - so hopefully next time I might even find a way to have fun as well as surviving: success, however, seems unlikely!
No, you played really well. You deserved to be included. Also, a draw with 8 dots is a respectable result in this league.
From our early comms, which were excellent, I thought you'd be a great ally for a jugger. It was partly my greed (ensuring Bla) and partly my fear of Italy that made me decide otherwise. I'm really sorry I made this game difficult for you, it was nothing personal, on the contrary! As you can see, I'm still thinking it might have been a mistake to alienate you this early in the game.
MasterGR wrote:Interesting also to learn that when A supported R into Sev it was actually not a ruse, especially because for some reason Austria sold it to me as a ruse when I asked him about it!
Yeah, we agreed it would be better for us at that moment to make it look like we planned it all. The idea behind that was to save Austria's face (he was worried about switching sides too many times) and to appear more coherent in order to get you (Fra) talking about a 3wd with us. I don't know if that was necessary or even counter-productive.
I also share the opinion the "Musketeers idea" was a tad too much. I mean, I didn't believe for one second Germany will get out of this alive, but it seems Austria really did. I thought there's no harm in trying it, as it seemed Russia was pissed with France about his stab and repeated lies. I was seriously considering giving him Sev and turning the fight around and back to France. But then I realized it was the same trick Austria and I pulled on R/I a few years back so I advised Austria on taking Russia down. He seemed confident in Russia's commitment, though plus it was really risky to stab him. I mean the best thing we'd get if we took Russia out is a 3-wd with France on 17 so the decision was to trust Russia (but not completely, I blocked him out of Sev) to move against France which never happened.
ps.
You're welcome, V. for taking Squasher down.

pps.
Italy, I would love to hear from you. I was wondering if you have any advice on how to make so many good guesses?

