GP Game

In the great powers game, I was partnered with Sabei and was Germany. From the start we focused on mainly building our army, which didn't turn out to be the best idea, as a lot of other teams focused on colonies and industries which looked to benefit them in the long run. I think that USA and France had an advantage at the beginning at the game and they made it obvious. I condemn France's idea to wait the first round, when a lot of countries were busy making "allies" they sat around and watched what was going to unfold. Conor kept a strong hold on his armies, and really helped the alliance that defeated Great Britain in the "great war." Compared to some of the weaker countries like Ottoman, we were a strong country, and they rushed towards us to make allies. In the long run, like I stated before, It is better to by colonies and industries, but you shouldn't overlook armies which are your only line of defense. Navies are useless because they are equivalent to half an army... too bad we had thirty of them. If I were to do something differently, I would have bought a lot more industries, we had 96 economic points compared to Russia's 2000 plus. With that much wealth you can by a lot of army to strengthen up your arsenal whenever an attack comes. We didn't do that, but instead focused on army, in the first few years we were the strongest country, but then that slowly changed. We made a mistake in the beginning, we made to many allies. We only had one trustworthy ally, Russia. Italy double crossed most of their allies by helping USA in the first war, surprising all of the GB friends. Karma struck and Italy paid the price. We also double crossed some of our "allies." In the great war, we didn't choose to part in it, leaving GB to fall. Although we didn't gain much, we didnt run the risk of loosing anything.
I learned that you really can't trust anyone, and even if it is on paper, it does't mean anything. Its a dog eat dog world, and its unfair. You should always expect to be attacked. I learned also that you should get colonies before bolstering up your army, because in the long run, the colonies will help a lot more. And also I learned that before you attack, you should talk over with your "allies" and see what way the will go, not enough help, not worth it. I think that the great powers game was a great way to start up the quarter because we have a really good example of what we are studying now.