The reason I ask is because I prefer to send units mostly south, and settle for taking Norway in '02.

It is 100% your decision, but F&G won't be mad

Thanks JY. You get a cookie for answering my shit so quickly.

What is a Sea Lion?

A Sea Lion is when France, Germany, and Russia all agree to clusterfuck England, usually from very early in the game.

Or,

noun
1.
an eared seal occurring mainly on Pacific coasts, the large male of which has a mane on the neck and shoulders.
2.
HERALDRY
a mythical beast formed of a lion's head and foreparts and a fish's tail.

Thanks you

I mean, specifically it refers to an opening where in F01
DEN-NTH
ENG s DEN-NTH
and then two convoys in the S02, one with ENG, one with NTH, and that's generally considered nigh unblockable and the pink demise is certain at that point.

But people around here are real fucking casual with their Opening titles/names/namedrops

And the Sea Lion is almost impossible to pull off and really shitty for France generally because it turns Germany into a naval power. But that's just my $.02

List of countries that seem to get ultra raped immediately (in order of most quickly raped):
Austria
Russia
Germany/England
Italy
France
Turkey

I put G&E on the same level, because in my experience, it is game2game with Russia and France. Still, maybe put England up to 3rd

I dunno man, Turkey can be squashed pretty good if AIR are all competent and T isn't a geneious.

True, but the same can be said more certainly about any of the other powers. Turkey is, comparatively, a defensive powerhouse.

@Valis, Operation Sealion, to me, is more the agreement to invade england than the specific moves.

Unlike Lepanto, which is very specific (with some variations) Sea Lion can go a number of ways.

I also don't think russia has to be part of the operation, for example. He can take sweden and bounce norway in '01 but will not he getting edi. And long term, with england out of the picture Russia has to worry about germany.

Infact i think france should be more interested in getting russia onside as a counter to german power, than germany should. From germany's pov, you want to either smash scandanavia and on to StP, then send armies to warsaw... Or secure britian an then send troops down on france.... So keeping russia weak is a good plan.

@Op, i love opening to the north with russia, so i would say go for it. You get to contest norway and piss off england, while you're not going to get much more than sweden+norway in the short term. Of course doing this means making deals with austria and turkey...

In defense of Valis. http://www.diplomacy-archive.com/resources/strategy/articles/sealion.htm

The best way to pull off sea lion is for germany tomake england think he is getting belgium, so england doesn't convoy the army to norway, then dont letchim into bel. This all but guarantees england is down to two by the end of 1902...

I've never spent any time learning openings and the like, and only have vague notions of what a few of them should look like. In terms of specific moves I wouldn't have a clue. If you aspire to be a properly good player it's probably worth knowing these things, but for those of us who don't take the game all that seriously you can put in a good showing without having to swot up.

Just because an opening has a 'name' doesn't mean it's right for your current game. To put it another way, theory is a guide, use it as advice, not a straitjacket, and above all, PLAY THE PLAYERS!