Diplomats,
I'm sorry about the delay in adjudicating this. When I got home last night I didn't have any access to the net. Something's obviously fixed itself overnight - everything's fine again.

First order of business - a rule change:After talking with Baron Powell, the variant designer, I've decided to go with the victory conditions as specified in the variant description. This means 18 centers to win. This also means that two of you can accomplish this in the same season. The 1900 wiki page states that this might result in a tiebreak, and that the game should go on until we have a winner. If there are any comments about this change in the rules, please take them up with me immediately. I'm pretty sure that the end-game victory condition hasn't affected the game all too much already, which is why I'm changing it.

Second order of business - a rules clarification:There have been a question about the variant that's been asked - specifically the Russian situation. We are playing with the latest variant version, as described on the 1900 wiki page. That version has a rule called the Russian Emergency Measures (REM). This allows Russia to have an extra unit on the board when one of his home centers is occupied by foreign forces, but not when all of them are occupied.
There was a previous version of the variant that had a different rule, called Steamroller. We are not playing with that rule. Any references to it you may find on the net are obsolete for this game.

Third order of business - the orders:Things are starting to heat up. The Russian unit in Rumania is crushed by a combined Austrian/Turkish force. The British unit in southern Spain is also pushed out of Spain by the French units. The British Fleet, however, has a few retreat options - one of which is an empty supply center.

We have a single retreat due:English F Spain(wc) can retreat to: Portugal, Gibraltar, or OTB (Off the Board).
I'll also need to take in the builds. They can be conditional depending on where the English Fleet retreats to.

Austria: Supp  5 Unit  3 Build  2Britain: Supp  5 Unit  4 Build  1 (or 2 if the retreat is OTB or into Portugal)France: Supp  6 Unit  4 Build  2Germany: Supp  7 Unit  4 Build  3
Italy: Supp  5 Unit  3 Build  2Russia: Supp  5 Unit  3 Build  2Turkey: Supp  4 Unit  3 Build  1

Next turn: Autumn 1900 Retreats & Winter 1900 AdjustmentsNext Deadline: Wed, 23rd of August 2010, 18:00 GMT (6PM).
/Fredrik