What's the deal with Austria?

[MSmart]

I'm sure this question has been asked a million times since the games inception, but how the hell do you play Austria?

1. It's in a geographically awkward region, being a direct roadblock to Turkish expansion. Russia would have to awkwardly pivot around. Italy would have an easier time attacking Austria than it would France. Anyone allying Austria would need to sign up for very clunkily moving around their territories when attacking past them.
2. Trieste is right next to Venice without a buffer zone, meaning Austria can potentially be betrayed on the first turn/has a massive backdoor.
3. Neighboring regions Tyrolia and Galicia both fork two supply centers at once, and can be easily reached in the first turn by Italy/Germany/Russia.
4. If Austria tries to take any of the Balkans, they are immediately vulnerable to attack due to #3.

Every game I've ever been in, Austria was the first to go, and much more rarely, second. What can Austria offer ANYONE, owing to its terrible position geographically? Long-term it just doesn't work.

[TheFlyingBoat]

I'm sure this question has been asked a million times since the games inception, but how the hell do you play Austria?

1. It's in a geographically awkward region, being a direct roadblock to Turkish expansion. Russia would have to awkwardly pivot around. Italy would have an easier time attacking Austria than it would France. Anyone allying Austria would need to sign up for very clunkily moving around their territories when attacking past them.
2. Trieste is right next to Venice without a buffer zone, meaning Austria can potentially be betrayed on the first turn/has a massive backdoor.
3. Neighboring regions Tyrolia and Galicia both fork two supply centers at once, and can be easily reached in the first turn by Italy/Germany/Russia.
4. If Austria tries to take any of the Balkans, they are immediately vulnerable to attack due to #3.

Every game I've ever been in, Austria was the first to go, and much more rarely, second. What can Austria offer ANYONE, owing to its terrible position geographically? Long-term it just doesn't work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o1mECEIKWc

Great video going over how to play Austria

[Aristocrat]

I'm sure this question has been asked a million times since the games inception, but how the hell do you play Austria?

1. It's in a geographically awkward region, being a direct roadblock to Turkish expansion. Russia would have to awkwardly pivot around. Italy would have an easier time attacking Austria than it would France. Anyone allying Austria would need to sign up for very clunkily moving around their territories when attacking past them.
2. Trieste is right next to Venice without a buffer zone, meaning Austria can potentially be betrayed on the first turn/has a massive backdoor.
3. Neighboring regions Tyrolia and Galicia both fork two supply centers at once, and can be easily reached in the first turn by Italy/Germany/Russia.
4. If Austria tries to take any of the Balkans, they are immediately vulnerable to attack due to #3.

Every game I've ever been in, Austria was the first to go, and much more rarely, second. What can Austria offer ANYONE, owing to its terrible position geographically? Long-term it just doesn't work.

Is this for press or gunboat? The vast majority of Italian players won't go after Austria early in press - you have to be OK with leaving Trieste and Tyrolia undefended while you go after Galicia/Serbia/Greece in the first year. Ally Italy and try to convince them to go after Turkey with you. Once you get to 6-7 centers or so it becomes much harder to wipe you off the map. That is the most standard way to play Austria.

In gunboat the answer is actually pretty much the same, but Italy tends to attack Austria much more often in gunboat, especially lower level/bet gunboat games. Unfortunately there isn't really much you can do here. Austria (along with Russia and England) are pretty weak without press. If Russia/Austria alliances were more normalized in gunboat it would go a long way towards solving both countries' problems, but unfortunately they never seem to take off.

[JECE]

I'm sure this question has been asked a million times since the games inception, but how the hell do you play Austria?

1. It's in a geographically awkward region, being a direct roadblock to Turkish expansion. Russia would have to awkwardly pivot around. Italy would have an easier time attacking Austria than it would France. Anyone allying Austria would need to sign up for very clunkily moving around their territories when attacking past them.
2. Trieste is right next to Venice without a buffer zone, meaning Austria can potentially be betrayed on the first turn/has a massive backdoor.
3. Neighboring regions Tyrolia and Galicia both fork two supply centers at once, and can be easily reached in the first turn by Italy/Germany/Russia.
4. If Austria tries to take any of the Balkans, they are immediately vulnerable to attack due to #3.

Every game I've ever been in, Austria was the first to go, and much more rarely, second. What can Austria offer ANYONE, owing to its terrible position geographically? Long-term it just doesn't work.

I actually like playing Austria-Hungary. It's my favorite Great Power to play.

If you have the time, you should read some strategy articles that discuss how you can play Austria-Hungary:
http://www.diplomacy-archive.com/resour ... ustria.htm

Three of the articles listed above have broken links. Here are the right links:
http://uk.diplom.org/pouch/Zine/W1999A/Hand/bwl.html
http://uk.diplom.org/pouch/Online/strat ... arich.html
http://uk.diplom.org/pouch/Zine/W1999A/ ... riple.html

[ziran]

what austria offers to their ally is the ability to pivot to the other side of the map. austria can build in the center of the map. personally, i think a austria/russia alliance is much more terrifying than a russia/turkey alliance.