AARs

[Morg]

This turned out to be an interesting game after all. It did have the unique quality that two players were the only ones to make it from beginning to end, congratulations Pharoah of Nerds and Alupi. Mambam14 almost made it to the end, but he was certainly reliable while alive, that counts. Also a big thank you to Subotai45, Palin, Mathnut2728 for coming into the game and replacing the previous players.

Congratulations again to Alupi for the solo

This space is yours for you to post your AARs.

[Pharaoh of nerds]

I have to admit that, as much as I enjoyed this game, I didn't put in as much effort as I really should have into communications, I sort of slipped away for a while and I apologize for not giving you all the game you deserved.
At the beginning, I was in communications with all my neighbors as well as, to a lesser extent, the other countries, especially China. I made an agreement with France that I would take the Low Countries and let them have Venice, I made an agreement with the USSR that I would allow them to have Poland on the condition that I get Yugoslavia and that they only move there in the Fall so as not to threaten Berlin in the Fall, and I came to an understanding with Britain that they'd go for Norway and I'd go for Denmark. They all honored their agreements so I got 3 builds.
Britain and I were discussing us teaming up against Russia and France, so we were thinking that I could send my army up through Sweden to help secure Norway for Britain if necessary and to help us both advance further in the area. So I was thinking about stabbing Russia that next spring, but then the first fall France made two misorders that left them with only one build and an extremely vulnerable front, so I took the opportunity and stabbed them in the Spring. I thought I would be able to knock them out completely, but they managed to hold various parts of Iberia and Italy for a while. I was hesitant about getting into a two front war, but I sensed (correctly) that Russia was about to stab me anyway, so I stabbed them (the same turn when I stabbed France) and that turned out to prevent them from gaining what would have been a very large strategic advantage against me. I thought I could handle a two front war because Britain would be on my side helping me in the North against Russia and using their navy to work with me to clean up France's remains in Iberia - however, at the same time, America stabbed Britain (this was an exciting turn), so Britain was much weaker and much helpful than I was anticipating, and I was unable to completely eliminate France or make much progress against Russia.
A year or two later, what was left of France offered me an alliance where they'd become sort of my protectorate and I wouldn't keep trying to eliminate them, in exchange for which they'd help me pick off British centers and allow me to free up more troops for the front with Russia. In retrospect, I should probably have accepted that, but at the time I was wary of allowing them to continue looming over my back, and also I was talking with China about having them stab Russia, so I thought I could make a lot more progress there. China did stab Russia, but didn't actually get very far, and while Russia was no longer able to mount offenses to threaten me, I still couldn't pick up centers from them.
After a few years of this, American fleets were looming over the British Isles and I didn't want to have them so close to home, so I moved to the English Channel actually intending to support Britain against them - but in one of my most stupid moves in any Diplomacy game I've ever played, I completely forgot to message England and explain why I was moving to the English Channel. So, of course, England assumed the worst and mounted what they viewed as a counter-attack, taking two of my supply centers without much resistance. Having to deal with that closed off the possibility of being able to finally eliminate France or make progress against Russia, and while I was getting my centers back and my home secure, I completely didn't notice China's massive growth. After that I kept trying to pick up centers because even then I didn't fully process how close China was to winning. If somebody had messaged me and told me to get my act together I would have realized and joined a stop-the-leader alliance, but I didn't think to message anybody (because I was very much consumed with other things and not devoting as much attention to this game as it deserved). But even if I'd tried, I don't think I could have stopped China from soloing. Congratulations, China, that was very well done.

[Alupi]

My first Zeus and the first challange was to analyze the many possibilities. I had no master plan and I primarily acted on the situations as the evolved.

1940 My goal was to avoid commiting my units and I managed to get 3 builds to 6 units.
1941-42 There was an oppertunity to sneak in and take Middle-East while Russia/Germany and Japan/USA was fighting each other.
1942 Japan was winning in the Pacific and spring 42 was last chance before Japan was to strong to attack and I took the chance to move into the Pacifc. Had Japan not started with only 2 fleets then it probably would have been to late.
1942-46 I had the advantage of partly surrounding Japan but it still took 5 years to succeed and had I waited with attacking Japan then I never would have suceeded.
1943-46 I took Stalingard not so much to grow, but more because I wanted to help Germany. I feared Russia and France was about to take Germany down. Russia/Germany/France was nicely mixed up and the longer that lasted the more time I had to take Japan down.
1947 When Japan was eliminated, then the rest was relative easy as my position on the board enabled me to take those SC I needed.

Zeus is fun to play (usualy is when you win ), but there is many ways alliances can work on this board and the round edges and the compact center maks many interesting plans possible.

Last - thanks to Morg and GuitarMan for GM'ing the game