Mine are
England: Edi-Nwg, Lvp-Yor, Lon-Eng
France: Bre-Mao, Par-Gas, Mar-Bur
Germany: Kie-Hol, Mun-Ruh, Ber-Kie
Italy: Nap-Ion, Rom-Apu, Ven-Tri
Austria: Tri-Alb, Vie-Gal, Bud-Ser
Russia: War-Gal, Mos-Ukr, Sev-Bla, Stp-Gob
Turkey: Con-Bul, Ank-Con, Smy-Arm

By the way, me playing against 6 other versions of myself would be a huge clusterfuck :)

I'm curious about Ank-Con with Smy-Arm... why are you doing those moves together?

Actually, I'm interested about the rationale for the choices that people make far more than the details of their choices.

I'm surprised to see your favorite German opening doesn't involve you in DEN. Do you not like having control over Russia?

@ATC

I would assume the Turkish moves go along with an agreed bounce in BS in an attempt to backdoor SEV?

But then you have a guess over Con/Ank....?

Supposedly the idea is to pressure BLA even if he moves there. He has to cover SEV with an army and vacate BLA to take RUM, or you can feint and have him occuppy SEV again. I almost never play it in FP, opting instead for SMY-ANK, CON-BUL, ANK-CON, but I used to play Turkish Hedgehog a lot in Gunboat for a variety of reasons, most of them approximating flexibility and not standing over BLA forever.

Especially in gunboat, it basically says to Russia "let's work together, but I'm still going to flash my gun to make sure you know I don't have to". It's not for the nice guy.

Old school opening theory is that Russia wouldn't go for the home centers. Both not defending SEV and not securing RUM, especially without an astonishingly arrogant southern assault (either WAR-UKR and MOS-SEV or WAR-GAL [succeeds!] and MOS-UKR) it would give up too much especially if it has to be a guess and can be easily dislodged next year by Turkey in a Mutually Assured Destruction waste of time.

http://www.diplomacy-archive.com/resources/strategy/articles/turkish_hedghog.htm
http://diplom.org/Zine/S2000M/Steinhardt/Hedgehog.html

You are posting awesome openings too frequently, please slow down.

Easy

Ven- Apu
Rome- Apu
Nap- Apu

I, too, am a fan of the Valis Opening.

The Valis opening where you forgo any chance of a Russian build to support France to Munich, thus allowing you to have foreign units in all your home centres as soon as is practical?

I will always advocate for this opening as France.

(what's the Diplofool opening?)

vienna move to galicia
budapest support move to galicia from vienna
trieste move to albania

albania move to greece
galicia move to romania
budapest either hits serbia or supports galicia

One of the main ideas of the Ank-Con, Smy-Arm opening is to counter a typical southern opening from Russia. In fall 1901, he'll probably move Bla-Rum and Ukr-Sev. You self-bounce in Ank, play Bul-Rum, and build a second fleet in Ank. Spring 1902 you take Bla and disband Russia's fleet. This all assumes that Italy is on your side, or attacking France.

Let's hear from some more people. I didn't start this thread just for you to criticize my opening choices :)

The Diplofool Opening is credited to our very own diplomat1824. It was perfected as Germany, but with enough work could probably be pulled off as any country. The move set is:

Spring 1901:

KIE Hold
BER-KIE
MUN -KIE

Fall 1901:

Civil Disorder

People have no creativity nowadays. I recently offered a neighboring power a neutral center that was traditionally contested and they didn't believe me. Another game I offered a neighboring power a neutral center that I had 100% claim to in exchange for their undying loyalty. I'd hate to see the site or the hobby go to only standard openings, only obvious play.

"I didn't start this thread just for you to criticize my opening choices :)"

Are you knew?

Bas: I didn't mean to criticise - I'm just interested in the reasoning behind your choices.

I don't really have standard openings for any country, I'm afraid.

Would you consider running an R/T from your Turkish opening, assuming Russia did your Russian opening?

Russia is in Black Sea, Ukr, Warsaw, GoB (and clearly picking up Swe)
Austria is in Vie, Ser, Alb
You're in Bul, F Con, Arm

There is the option of moving Arm-Sev, Con-Aeg and Bla-Con if you are very confident in your Russian friend. I like having options.

I should say I have never played Turkey in a high-level full-press WTA, so no idea if I'd actually use this opening or if it would work. But I have used it in gunboats with reasonable success.

The Con/Sev swap! I've not seen this be successful (yet), but I like it.

Germany is set up REALLY NICE to attack Russia, but between greedy England and unreliable French, it's hard to pull it off.

It is almost never worth it for Germany to cross the MSL to attack Russia (and vice versa) when there are *FIVE* neutral SCs within 2 territories away.

I had a game as Russia recently where stabbing Germany ended up nice

gameID=164422

Italy:

A Ven -> Tyl -> Boh
A Rom -> Ven -> Tyl
F Nap -> IOS -> Tun

Build A Ven

Probably my favorite opening of all time. In magical Christmasland you get an A02 kill of Austria with you in at least two of the Austrian HSCs. It's usually a precursor for a strong alliance with Russia, and as long as you're able to secure Vienna as part of the spoils (not necessarily easy, to be fair), Russia is almost forced to side with you over Turkey in that conflict.

That could have been a solo run for me, but my wifi was all scratchy, and France wasn't doing half bad