France: ken31415
Italy: Megasimperator
Germany: Gooderian
Austria: ColonelApricot
Turkey: No idea. Was silent and NMRed out immediately
Russia: lukeskye
Alright, my first ever diplomacy AAR thread, so here we go!
Part I: Pre-game
This was a Shift Right game, which means no one starts anywhere near their home scs. Well, except for France, if you count Trieste and Marseilles as close together. I'd never played one of these before, so I was looking forward to giving the variant a go. I got the last spot in the last game available too! My initial impressions before the game started were the following:
First, looking at the number of turns to get home on an empty board shows the following:
England: 5 (around Iberia's the easiest way, although many different convoy routes turn up the same result.)
France: 3 (charge straight through Italy to Marseilles)
Italy: 4 (Warsaw and Sevastopol can both book it equally quickly)
Germany: 5 (Con-Bul-Rum-Sil-Boh-Mun)
Austria: 6 (need to convoy to the mainland though!)
Turkey: 5 (Germany in reverse)
Russia: 5 (charge from Paris to Warsaw, or Brest to Stp).
I didn't do the calculations before the game, but it's interesting to note.
Austria sucked. Highest geographical distance to make it home, plus charging through busy terrain, plus needing a convoy through NOS makes his life hell. On the bright side, the British Isles are relatively safe.
England also sucked. Again, the convoy is required, except this time you need to do it far away from home. That's a logistical nightmare. Plus, 5 turns home is poor, but not terrible.
France was awesome. Easy waltz home. Also one of the only two powers who could get builds in '03 (barring weird multi-power convoy shenanigans).
Italy was also awesome. Can get builds in '03, plus a bonus unit! Also, to get home, he has to march through scs. Epic bonus!
Germany was pretty average.
Turkey was pretty average.
Russia was slightly better than average, given the fact that he had a relatively uncontested march home (northern Europe's in low demand early on).
Part II: Opening
I got England. Boooo. He was actually the power I liked the least off the bat because of the awkward convoy needed to get into the Isles from the mainland, or having to go through the bottleneck in MAO. Either way, that's awkward. However, I immediately hit up everyone with generic greetings. And I was forming a devious, cunning, scheme. I have a thing for unorthodox, outrageous strategies. About halfway through Spring '01 I get the following stroke of inspiration:
How to deal with England's logistical nightmare
The one perk I could see about England is that the person in his home scs is as screwed as he is. Plus, I bordered Austria's home centers. There might be a chance for a beautiful alliance here. Austria is communicative, funny, receptive, and smart, everything you want in an ally. We talk it over, and the board looks like this after '01:
Fall 1901:

Everyone's doing what they can to make it home, except France is going through Germany instead of Italy. That's a relief. I'm not really expectign a stab at this point, since everyone has more pressing concerns than little ol' England.
Spring 1902 is where Austria and I shock the board with our innovative and gorgeous play:

2 power, 4 fleet convoy from Wales to Tuscany in Spring '02. Of course, I wasn't just being kindhearted. The deal was that Austria convoys me back into London while he takes Rome off me, to keep center balance equal. It's an insanely aggressive strategy for the both of us, and is super-high risk, super-high reward. It works perfectly.
Fall 1902:

I made it home faster than was possible on an empty board, Austria's also in good stead. My fleets are effectively his to command, and he has no shortage of scs to make sure he keeps all three of his units until he gets builds. Turkey's NMRed out at this point, and France, Germany, and Italy are chewing each other up. Good, chaos is beautiful for me, who is home already!
Unfortunately, Russia decides in '03 that he doesn't like me. We had a decent truce going, and I promised not to touch his stuff if he didn't touch mine. He decides that I'm growing too fast, and nabs London off me to slow down my builds


Fall 1903:

Part III: The Middle-game
Italy, RUssia, and I are doing pretty well for ourselves (Italy and Russia have a ton of scs, I have the bare minimum needed to keep me building, but I have uncontested builds) Turkey's dead, France is hurting, and Germany is close to home, but running a bit late. Austria's about as good as an Austria can hope for.
Here's where the tides start to turn a bit. Italy stabs Austria, which is a horrible idea. I think he misjudged the strength of the AGE alliance, and thought I'd be fine with the stab. Germany and I are unamused. Austria also finally got his last fleet into the action, meaning that Italy's fleet is going to be perpetually stonewalled, and his armies are going to have a difficult time breaking through as well. Austria, however, loses his grip on his homeland. Austria never regains control of these scs, and never once has a build, even though he survived until the finish as an influential power.
After Fall '04:

Italy's on 8 centers, I'm gorphing Russian centers in France (he's actually fine with this. He says he'd written them off anyways.) . I promise Austria that I'll leave Edinburgh his until he gets his home centers back, he stabs me, I die, or I solo. This works for me for a couple of reasons:
1. It's mine whenever I want it. This helps conceal my true number of centers a bit (17 centers is a LOT more menacing than 16, etc.)
2. Austria's firmly in my court now. I'm showing him mercy, and letting him get a free center in perpetuity. That's major diplomatic cred.
3. It's fun. It's a cute symbol of our friendship, and is a good thing to talk about when there's nothing else to.
I get the first build (tied) of the game, as Russia also gets one. NOS is DMZed, and we're still stonewalling Italy down South. Italy tries everything to get me to let his fleet through, and I decline. He has way too many centers to be let in. Now's my first major decision of the game, do I stab France and his guardian angel Russia, who I've just made an uneasy peace with, or do I let France regrow a bit? Russia and I agree to let France regrow...
Fall 1905:

...And I promptly go back on my word. I attack Russia, and skewer France. It's easy enough to clean up France, but Russia's getting big, feasting on Italy, who still hasn't really made it home. Italy loses 4 centers, gains one, and is no longer a major player on the board. However, Russia has a ridiculous number of centers now (Fall 1906), with plenty more fattening up available (9, +4 other easy pickings). On the bright side, Germany and I can crush him in the North:
Fall 1906:

Fall 1907:

Russia is beaten back to Stp , and is trapped in place there. He also doesn't really gain ground in the South. I'm now the center leader, and I never relinquish that position (although I'm tied for it at one point). Dominating France has made me fat!
Spring 1908 France is eliminated by virtue of me destroying his last unit. Unfortunately, he nabbed an Austrian center before he went, one which I intended to use as additional buffer for my solo (I can grab up 2 free centers at will if Spain is pink).
My second stab of the game occurs here, on my long time ally, Germany. It's painful, but it's a beautiful sc farm. I convince Austria to join me (we're still joined at the hip!). Italy's staged a bit of a comeback, managing to sneak 2 units into the peninsula. Austria picks 2 up off of Germany, I pick two up off of Germany, and Germany's reduced from 7 units to 3 in one season.
Fall 1908:

I misjudge Germany's thirst for revenge, and lose a center to the ever-growing Russia, supported by everything Germany has left. I prefer it this way, since it takes pressure off of my little ally, Austria. Austria's a smart cookie, and realizes that I'm going for the solo. We talk about it, and come to an agreement. He sticks by my side unless it's clear I'm going to solo in the near future, and in return, if there's a draw, I let him third wheel it. 2-ways are notoriously difficult to get anyways, and I'd love to have Austria survive if all else is equal.
Part IV: The End-game
In Fall '09, I'm on 13 scs (Edinburgh is 14), Russia's at 9, Italy 5, Austria 5, and Germany 2. The next few seasons are pretty basic maneuvering, in which Russia gains massive ground. I'm locking him into Stp and BAR, such that he has no way of bringing in reinforcements ever, but in the middle and South he chews up Italy and Germany. The race is on!
Fall 1911:

Fall 1911 looks a bit different: I'm at 14 (15) centers, Russia's at 14, Italy has 2, and Austria has 4 (and still all three original units!). Russia proposes an ARE 3-way, which I shoot down, knowing that a solo's well within my grasp. Stp and Sweden can't be held from the southern side, and for some ungodly reason, Russia isn't building fleets in the South! Both Russia and I are trying to keep Munich out of each other's hands, resulting in the lone Austrian army defending with a strength of 6(!) in Spring 1912. However, I make two critical breakthroughs, taking Venice and Sweden in one go. Unfortunately, I am now at 16 centers (Edinburgh makes 17!), and can't pick up the 18th. Austria defect to try to stop me, and is the second largest naval power, with just his two starting fleets!
Fall 1912:

Spring 1913:

One final finesse as I pick up Munich and Rome in the Spring. I can't hold both Tunis and Naples, but it doesn't matter, since I have one extra center squirreled away behind walls of orange. In a final push, the Austrian flag over Edinburgh falls after having stood proud for over a decade. Austria and I are still on great terms at this point, and were throughout the entire game. Even when he tried to stop me at the end, we were still joking about it, and I appreciate his good humour.
Part V: Players
It was a good game all around:
France: Tough luck. You got steamrolled off the bat, and while we had a good alliance, I had to take you out early. I mean, it was effectively 5 free centers. You were a good communicator and player.
Germany: Pretty well played. It looked for a while like you were going to be a major power, which unfortunately meant I had to shut you down. Again, free centers are free centers. Your start was plagued by trouble all around, and Russia and I both had blisteringly swift starts, putting you at a unit disadvantage. I was happy to have you as an ally, and you would have been a force to be reckoned with on most boards I think.
Italy: You grew too fast, too soon. Everyone started panicking that you would start building heaps of units, so we had to blockade you from your home. You also misjudged the alliance between Austria, Germany, and myself, which definitely didn't help your state of affairs.
Austria: I may be biased, but you played a damn good game. Austria's a nasty one in Shift Right games, and you not only survived to the end, but were a major player throughout the game. A great ally, and a great player. You drew the short straw off the bat, and if it weren't for Italy being all over you, you definitely could have taken off. Everything I could have asked for in an ally.
Russia: You played a good game. The main mistakes IMO were the one sc stab on me, making me reconsider my alliance with you (I was planning on focusing in the South for a long time), focusing Italy for too long, and not building southern fleets. Was there a reason for the last part? In your shoes, I would have waived builds to allow me to build more fleets in the South. Building none flabbergasted me. You benefited off of Turkey NMRing out, but still played a strong game.
There's no one here I would be less than thrilled to play with in the future, and this was a really fun game.
- Your Eternal Monarch and Ruler,
Condude1 the Magnificently Foolish of England