Austria	Martin Burgdorf	1st Place
Florence	Bob Robles	3rd Place
France	Brendan Whyte (out, Fall 1501)	5th Place
Papacy	Dave Anderson	4th Place
Venice	Kevin Wilson	2nd Place

Statements

Bob Robles (Florence): Congratulations to martin for a tough game. The rest of us just couldn't get it together to stop him.

Dave Anderson (Papacy): Congratulations on a hard fought victory. A few changes here, a few different dice rolls there and things would have been different. One thing stands out. France poor play. It was inexcusable. That just practically gave him the game early. I will return.

Kevin Wilson (Venice): Congratulations to Martin. It was a hard fought and well deserved win. For a bit I thought the Anti-Austria Alliance might hold him off but that plague season in summer 1507 killed us. It left the front wide open and Martin swooped in.

Early I allied with Martin. My hope was to get a peaceful front with him while I consolidated my hold on the Adriatic, then turn my attention toward him for the final cities needed to win. But the Pope proved a formidable opponent, even taking Venice from me with a well-placed bribe. Consolidating the area then became harder and took longer. Long enough to Austria to unexpectedly eliminate France. The elimination of France allowed Austria to turn on me before I was ready to turn on him and from then on it was just an attempt to keep him from enough to win. While I didn’t hold out any hope of actually winning myself, not after Austria attacked me, I knew if I caught a break and the Anti-Austria Alliance held, a chance might appear. Just to be safe, I did retake Venice eventually, more for the income than to get to a win, but I realized it likely would be needed if a chance were to pop up. But, Austria proved wiley enough to keep us guessing and then was ready to pounce when plague opened the door.

All in all, an entertaining and well fought game. Let’s go again!