Nick came over on Sunday, equipped with a carrier bag from the off-license, for a bash at Paths of Glory. He kicked off as CP with the Guns of August, but was unlucky with his initial attacks and soon switched attention to the East. We had used the variant startup that places two corps to plug the gaps in the Austrian/Russian border, so there was no dance of death. Instead Nick kept up a sustained, turn-after-turn offensive which I found tough to hold back. Nick played a very OPS heavy game, while I was desperately trying to save RPS and get my reinforcements and events down. But it wasn’t easy with the pressure I was under on the map. I played the MEF at Gallipoli, and although we got off the beaches we were stalled by Kemal in front of Constantinople. I activated Romania (won’t do that again!) and sent two Russian armies down through Bulgaria. Driving for the Turkish capital, but this offensive was spoiled by Austrians attacking south-eastwards into Romania. Meanwhile my Italians, shored up by a British army, had taken Trent but I was too hard-pressed elsewhere to exploit this opportunity. Exhausted and bleary-eyed, I called a halt at 11pm. We had got to the end of 1915 in 6 hours of grippingly tense play and I was 2 victory points ahead (one of these thanks to a cheeky peace-offer I made at 9pm when I knew Nick wouldn’t be willing to stop!) Many thanks for a great game Nick – let’s do it again soon.