Spring, 1901: Spring 1901: I was really hoping I wouldn't get Italy. It's not that I don't like Italy, but I've played them in almost all my recent gunboat games. In those private games, the meta is pretty anti-France and Italy and Austria never attack each other in the first year or two. That makes Italy very strong. However, I'm not sure I can afford to be anti-France with this crowd. I'm going to do it anyways though, since France is always scary in gunboat, especially as Italy.

My moves are going to be:
A ven -> Pied
A Rom -> Apu
F Nap -> Ion

The move to Pied puts pressure on France and the move to Ionian and apulia sets up for the army convoy in the fall.
5 Jan 2021	Autumn, 1901: Autumn 1901: We got some fun openings here.

Turkey is looking like someone that read BB's blog. I'm going to have to watch out for them.

I think France did a pretty standard opening, but I don't really like opening to english channel. It seems like it's pretty common though.

Russia looking standard.

I don't like Austria's opening. I think you always want to bounce in Galicia.

I don't like Germany's opening either. Berlin -> Munich seems like a bad option because they're forced to move ruhr-> Hol anyways. I wonder if they'll bounce Russia. They seem anti-France though.

England looks standard and anti-France. I'm glad I moved to Pied.

Looking forward to this turn, France really needs a build. That means they're going to move mars->spain. The real question is what they're going to do with burgundy. I have a feeling they're going to be forced to cover mars. As a result, I'm going to hold pied. That way, both of their armies are out of line and also they won't be able to build a fleet in Mars. I think munich->burgundy is possible as well, so it's really bad for them if I don't bounce them. They might go risky option of leaving it open, so I might change my orders before end of phase.

I'm going to convoy to tunis because I want to leave open a lepanto. I like having the option to go either east or west so I want to keep both options open.
6 Jan 2021	Autumn, 1901: Winter 1901:

France fell for my gambit. They're going to be forced to build an army in Paris now. They're going to have a lot of trouble against England and probably Germany. That looks good for me because...

Turkey is playing well. They're going to build their second fleet. I'm really not looking forward to spending all my energy against them, but it is what it is. I'll think about how I want to push against them tomorrow. My build is always going to be a fleet Naples, so this doesn't change anything.

Austria took their two centers. They better build two armies here. They're in a very bad spot with Russia in Galicia.

Russia is luckily not in the best of spots. They got bounced in Sweden and there's an army in st petes. I think their build is A Warsaw, but they might have to commit a second center north which would be great news for Austria and me. I'm curious to see what they pick. Would not like to be them here.

Germany's move here is fine. They're getting two builds. Definitely an army in Munich. I'd build a fleet in Berlin if I were them. They need to get it early or they're going to lose a lot of room to expand.

England is in an alright place. They'll force the channel in the spring and go from there. I think they need to build a second fleet in liverpool if they want to be serious about this attack.

All in all, I think I'm worried about Turkey the most but that might pivot to Germany real fast.
7 Jan 2021	Spring, 1902: Spring 1902: The only build that I didn't call was army st pete and I said that as a possibility. I'm also going to stop mentioning each country unless something surprising happens.

I'm going to move to Mars because it will make France's life harder. I'd really like to move to Tyrolia, but I don't want to freak out Austria.

I'm going to move to Aegean this turn and hope Austria supports me or that Turkey doesn't move there. I'll also backfill from Naples. There's a bit of guesswork in the balkans right now. I think that Austria is going to take Galicia by force this turn and they're going to probably poke bulgaria with greece and rumania with serbia. I think that Turkey is going to move to both aegean and eastern med. If that all happens, the best option is bouncing Turkey out of Aegean. I'm not happy with my army stranded in Tunis but it wasn't going to do anything anyways.

I will note there's a chance that Austria takes Venice. If so, I'm a bit screwed, but there's no way they hold off Turkey without me.

Germany is going to take Sweden this year and it's not looking good for Russia. My guess is we'll end up with 3 out of E/G/I/A as the final result.
9 Jan 2021	Autumn, 1902: Autumn 1902: Germany did pretty much what I'd expect. France as well. I didn't see Turkey's exact move coming, but it was within reason of what I thought they'd do. The other three powers did weird things imo.

Russia has dropped the ball in the north. They should have moved to either Sweden or Norway. Instead they supported Germany into Sweden. This is them offering to fight against England together. This is pretty silly because Germany isn't going to side with Russia here.

England taking Sweden is weird. I'm guessing they were hoping to bounce Russia. It's going to be interesting to see what happens here because Germany should usually take the center. However, England is at 4 centers and Germany will be up to 7 if they take Sweden.

The move that really concerns me is Austria supported Bulgaria to hold. This to me reads that they're willing to work with Turkey. This is concerning because Turkey is in no place to help against Russia, and Austria should be fine with that. So it means they're willing to work against me (or at least signaling that).

As a result, I'm going to move Pie->Ven because Austria might try to take the easy center this fall. Also I'm in no position to get centers from France falling, so I'll let up a bit. For now, Tunis is going to hold since it's kind of stuck there. I'm going to assume that Con is going to hold Bul again, so I'm going to support Ion->Eastern Med. If that works, Turkey is in a really rough spot and I can probably get a center or two.
13 Jan 2021	Autumn, 1903: I haven't been using good notes, but does Austria really think Turkey is a good ally here? Their game plans are too similar. unfortunately it's probably too late for Austria to turn on them. I'm going to hope they do though.
Sun 7 Feb	Autumn, 1910: My only chance to get in this draw is to hold tunis