The seven wonders of the diplomatic world
Once upon a time there was a continent which was for the millions of people living there known as Europe. The people of Europe lived in peace and prosperity, until one day in the year 1901. The seven equally strong superpowers suddenly lost all their respect for the ordinary way of war and peace. Everyone fought everybody until one was the master of their devastated hell. None of the powers could alone become the strongest, everyone had to make allies, allies who you would cooperate with until you could get as much as possible out of stabbing your ally in his back.
This is what Europe looked like the spring 1901.
Far away in the south-east there is Turkey ruled by the sultan Stonehenge. Turkey has not much to pick up right away but on the other hand they do not have any back to watch, at least not yet.
Going north we find giant Russia, biggest of them all, ruled by the czar Dweomer. Russia might be big but has a very long border, and if he wants to advance and gain he must be sure from which front he has to transfer the troops. There are many possible allies but also many possible enemies and in the end it is often more of the latter.
Slightly south west there is the double eagle, Austria, under emperor and king Number1. Austria is surrounded from all sides but there are provinces to pick up in the Balkan if you play your cards right. On the other hand one might want to take out the usual enemy Italy as fast as possible, and leave the Balkan to Turkey and Russia.
Then comes the boot of Europe, Italy, under king SirMaru. It does not take much luck for Italy to go undetected from the other powers of Europe but on the other hand easy picking is a rarity in the neighbourhood. If you want to see other areas you have to make a bigger offensive against one of the others, and there is only two options. East or west.
Just North West there is France ruled by the digital minded president Owl. France use to have Iberia for themselves and some in the Low Countries but then would have to move on into someone’s core area which might take some force. France has to know who the enemy is. Going naval there might be to weak land defence, going land means harder to defend from fleet attacks. This might apply for all countries but it does more for France, mostly due to its neighbours.
If we cross the channel we have England with king Pax25. The task for someone to take out England should prove very difficult, but on the other hand England is very naval and has problems with conquering inland territories for not to speak about effectively holding them. The free gain for England is extremely small, so to get something you have to choose your enemy and strike at him fast.
And lastly there is, in the centre of Europe, Germany under the most glorious Kaiser Snake IV, me that is. Germany is surrounded on three sides, and there is no doubt that it soon will be four. However Germany’s homeland has a very nice buffet zone around almost the entire area which makes surprise attacks more difficult to do on them. There are some pick ups in the north west and when Germany once have turned that way they use to stay with that. But one has to make sure having an ally for the situation
All Quiet on the Western Front is not very fun, on land and on sea.
This is my 1000th post.
EDIT: I would like to note, that usually we negotate more, and think more, then I have done in this AAR. So if you find that it seems that the game is too boring form this AAR, that is not how it is.