Closing Curtains 1900

In my second game, the map starts off the same way.

Edit: Here's the list of players:
England: Wildman1000
France: pani
Italy: ViscountSlim
Germany: Timojen
Austria: tvenezia
Turkey: Cuffer70
Russia: Zaphox


As France, the land grab consists of taking Spain and Portugal. In the other game, I saw that France only took Spain in the first year and saved Portugal to take in the second year so he could use the same army.

I decided I'd go for it and commit two units to take them both in the first year. There's no point taking things slow in this game in my opinion.

As far as alliances, Italy and I decided to DMZ a bunch of zones in the south. That was fine by me, one less border to worry about is always good in this game.

Germany and I had some very interesting early game discussions. I proposed to him that Russia, Germany and myself should triple-team England. Just like in the other game with Turkey, England only has 3 directions to move and I'd rather it not be in mine. If I could arrange every single one of his borders against him, we'd have some juicy supply centers and one less border to worry about, not to mention new-found allies.

Russia (my friend Mike) was very non-committal.

Your prediction on my intent to head North is indeed correct, however I feel it's a little too early to commit to such belligerent plotting.
I do respect your foresight though, and am prepared to review the situation in the near future when I have a better grasp on the mettle of my European counterparts.

Personally, I think that it's never too early. You have to have a plan and follow through.

Germany on the other hand, liked the idea of an alliance but didn't want to share the wealth. He wanted to exclude the Russians and split 10 supply centers equally:

You and I can handle England.In fact, England, Spain, and Portugal are yours,... that is 5 centers.
I will take Belguim, Holland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden,... That is 5 for me.

Sounded good to me. I had all the rewards with none of the risk. It would be Germany that had to worry about Russia's move on Denmark, Norway and Sweeden. If Germany could help me, I could take England out and then worry about Germany/Russia later on. Germany was actually trying to tell me that Austria would be a good ally. To me, Austria was no concern. If Germany wanted alliance with Austria then so be it. That'd at least help keep Russia off his back while he was helping me in the north.

In order to get England to trust me I sent him a message of alliance:

What'd you think to a 3 way alliance between you, me and Russia to wipe Germany off the map?

I wanted to let him know that he'd be part of my plan so that it'd help with the lies. He agreed but we shared very little specifics.