Hints for The Case of the Lethal Alliance

I had to retire for the evening before I had completed my own investigation into the history of Mr Whipple's final game, but before retiring, I had a number of interesting questions (if fewer answers).

• First, which game phase had just completed? The strict timetable to which the General kept the game helped me here. I had to spend some time determining how many (if any) of the optional phases (retreat and adjustment) had occurred. For Mr Whipple to have been in conference forty-five to fifty minutes before his death, only certain possibilities existed.

• Second, what information on game events could be discerned from the configuration of the units, especially the Austrian and Italian units?

• Third and finally, what of the Russian....?