[Ranior]

Yeah, my feeling from very early in the game was that England and France were basically allied and weren't going to break up, and it kept more or less looking to be true on the board....

But it does somewhat beg the question how much I made that happen by my own play, forcing their hand in continuing to stay and look like allies as they didn't really get better options. Although they certainly seemed to have some other options, and the reports I was getting from Russia and Italy weren't really painting a picture that England/France were going to break up (although Italy and Russia had good reason to sell me a story that we had to stay allied to fight France and England)

I explored some other options throughout the game in taking out Russia or Italy, and maybe could/should have....but it always felt like the gain just wasn't worth it to me. Maybe I get down to a 4 way draw if I'm lucky, but I felt a lot of the time I hand England/France winning chances while I doom all of Italy/Russia/myself. I get Dad Scapers argument that a destabilized board potentially allows for things to happen and you can't know for sure what's going to go on....but given my view was that England/France were pretty stuck together and I didn't get serious vibes they'd break apart....was hard to want to do anything.

Kind of do regret not though, since a 5 way draw is rather boring, and I at least could have made the game more interesting and seen what would happen.

I'm curious from others though how much of my perception was reality:
--If I attack Russia or Italy, do Russia/Italy throw themselves against me and hand centers to France/England (this is what I would do in their shoes, feel the threat of that is the only thing that keeps them alive, so they have to be willing to follow through)
--If I attack Russia or Italy, do England and France switch to fighting each other, or do you both tend to just stay allied and push through the eastern powers that are in turmoil and vulnerable? (This is how I would have played their positions, in particular at several early points if Russia/Turkey just try to push through Italy and beyond I feel England/France cannot afford to fight among themselves as they'll just die to the juggernaut)