This has been my first shorthanded game, so I'm not sure whether the following complaints are specific to this game or any 5-player variant. I found that there was nothing the other players could do against a strong alliance, even if that alliance was only two nations. It was ridiculous. I couldn't get over to help Italy, and I couldn't really help England either. I suppose that I could have worked my builds better to help England if he had been comfortable with northern fleets, but it would have probably only held off his demise by 2 or 3 seasons. I'm not sure whether this was because F/G were physically very close on the map and so best-suited to an alliance, or because it's impossible to quickly enough get one's units in position to defend someone else, but yeah, there was pretty well nothing that I could do besides convincing France to ally with me against Germany (a R/G alliance against France isn't practical in the least). Despite the Poland/Spain issue, I gave this my all, sending the best possible message that I could to France in late 1935. France never responded to me. What am I supposed to do with that? That message was a masterpiece given my circumstances, 700+ words long. I could actually not do better. So I'll admit, I gave up in trying to work things out with France at that point, and I really didn't have any points to use to convince Germany to ally, so I didn't really work that angle. My point is that after F/G allied, given the strength of their alliance, from spring 1934 onwards there was nothing that the rest of us could do, period. Anyone have any ideas on why this was true?
England, why on earth did you build all armies?????? That went against ANY English strategy ever written! Aside from that and your slipping reliability at the end of the game (when you were already all but destroyed) you were good to work with, and I very much valued your honesty and the information you shared with me.
Italy was the most useless ally ever. Our discussion and planning were great, but he failed me and himself on the orders again and again. Turkey in 1933 was a coalition between us, of course, and we agreed on everything up to the builds. At that point he ordered the opposite of what we had agreed upon, placing the both the fleet AND the army in the wrong SC, resulting in an overall Turkish NMR. This frightened me: I concluded that the only rational explanation for such behavior was that he planned to waltz into a Turkey which could not protect itself, so I relied upon the
clause, and, aiming to keep Turkey in Italian hands while maintaining enough of an IP presence that I could scoop the mP up after Italy smartened up at the end of 1934 and used his builds, I bid mostly on Poland. But alas again Turkey went through 1934 ordering everything normally until the build - a second NMR. It was really just not cool. By that time, Italy was devastated to the point where I, holding a 2-unit Turkey, could not help him in any significant way. Perhaps if Turkey held a more powerful force, I could have kept a weakened Italy in the game for a while.If a player takes a home supply center from a Minor Power he or she controls, he or she loses control of said Minor Power and may never bid for control of it again.
Finally, hats off to F/G. I think the greatest feat that your alliance pulled off was trusting each other in that very first bidding season. I would likely have become nervous at the prospect of not gaining the SC I was promised while being surrounded by an enemy power and an mP controlled by the same power, and either not agreed to the deal or tried some trickery either with my bids or with another power. With that setup, the planning between you two, and the commitment to the alliance showed, you guys were literally unbeatable. I'm quite impressed.
France: when I sent you that message, did you not relpy because of loyalty to Germany, or fear of your own destruction by German hands? Or the fact that I was offering a 2-way, much as Germany was, so you wouldn't necessarily have gained anything and traded a reliable ally for an uncertain one?