For me, the key moment was when I asked you what you felt was a fair division of Italy. While you did hold Rome and Tunis at the time, my units were in a strong position to fight for the area. I was looking for a 2⁄2 split so I could go after Russia, or at least strongly consider doing so, but when your description of a fair offer was a 3⁄1 in your favor with you having the ability to stab me for the Ionian Sea at will I realized that negotiating with you was too risky; if I made legitimate offers it would be clear to you that we’d never reach a deal, and I needed you to think a deal was reachable. My instinctual response was going to be “If I agreed to that, would it be credible?” to point out how absurd it was before I realized why I couldn’t do that.
In terms of the end, to me supporting me into the Mid-Atlantic was accepting the Turkish win, either because it was inevitable or because this was France’s way to survive, and that was accurate; if I was forced into a draw it would have been easy to reduce it to E/R/T by withdrawing from the French front and letting France (and Italy) be safely wiped out.
For me, the key moment was when I asked you what you felt was a fair division of Italy. While you did hold Rome and Tunis at the time, my units were in a strong position to fight for the area. I was looking for a 2⁄2 split so I could go after Russia, or at least strongly consider doing so, but when your description of a fair offer was a 3⁄1 in your favor with you having the ability to stab me for the Ionian Sea at will I realized that negotiating with you was too risky; if I made legitimate offers it would be clear to you that we’d never reach a deal, and I needed you to think a deal was reachable. My instinctual response was going to be “If I agreed to that, would it be credible?” to point out how absurd it was before I realized why I couldn’t do that.
In terms of the end, to me supporting me into the Mid-Atlantic was accepting the Turkish win, either because it was inevitable or because this was France’s way to survive, and that was accurate; if I was forced into a draw it would have been easy to reduce it to E/R/T by withdrawing from the French front and letting France (and Italy) be safely wiped out.