It's useful when combined with Bal for getting StP into Nwy.

or combined with sweden... what's bal? baltic sea? that's over by germany

Finland may not be as pivotal as Munich, but I would nominate Syria as being, typically, less involved in the game than Finland.

I disagree about Syria. A convoy to there can break down that entire corner region.

Baltic taps Swe should Swe also be held by the enemy, then Fin moves to Nwy with StP support or vice versa. Fin supporting is Risky cause Swe may cut it.

I think what I overlooked was it's importance to land war in scandinavia... i've always seen heavy naval fight there. I can see it being much more important with a couple armies in the mix.

Clyde.

This discussion depends on what you mean by unimportant. Every territory has the potential to be pivotal at some point during a game.
If were to ask which territory is occupied the least I would say Syria. If we could count the number of turns that each territory is occupied during a game, and then do that for every game ever played on this site and sum the totals, I would guess that Syria is occupied the least. If this is true then I would say that it is the best candidate for "the least important territory" on the board.

I think it is true that finland is the most disposable territory on the board. if it was engulfed by the GoB, the game wouldnt change much. but if syria, wasnt there, turkey would be almost impossible to attack. if clyde wasnt there, the entire dynamic of attacking england would change (it wouldnt be as necessary to convoy into enlgand to get a quick takeout, etc).

for this reason, i think you are right in saying that finland is the least important, but it is certainly true that all of the territories are important.

no, if england convoys to norway in 1901 there is often a land war in scandanavia, and finland is very important, a fleet there doesn't do much, but an army make a real difference to whoever is there. (and admitadly it is usually by retreat that you end up there, however it is a forward retreat, a great place to retreat to...)

Finland is probably as important as Syria. You can still get StP without Fin (but you need 1 more fleet) and you can still kill T without Syr, but it's harder in both cases.

My vote goes to Ireland :P

I think Clyde is clear. Finland has been crucial to Scandinavia in several games I've seen - stick an army in there and watch the other side squirm.

Syria can be useless, but whenever a country needs to convoy through the backdoor (which is necessary all too often - unbalanced defensive position ftl!), Syria becomes very important.

Haven't seen Clyde matter myself.

I think Finland is very important. If Russia wants to fight England than that fight will happen in Norway and the army in finland is needed to get a reasonable number of troops on norway. It is less important going the other way as if England is in a position to attack Russia he's either subdued or allied with germany and has access to the baltic for the attack.

I think clyde is most useless as If france or germany have enough fleets to land an army in clyde then England is dead anyway. The only point of moving to clyde is to change the colour of Iceland.

HAHA @ changing the color of iceland!

If you talk a bout color changes on the map.... Finland usually stays purple.... Clyde usually stays pink... and Syria usually stays Yellow

I was going to mention Clyde in my original post, but I took the English Island from Russia while playing France. Without Clyde the island would lose some of its manuverability (sp?).

clyde is important when fighting a war over england, usually if england has been beaten and other players are fighting there, or england is allied with russia/france and is lose mainland territory to the other but still in the fight.

Tuscany. What a piece of crap territory. It's significance lies less in what kind of things you use it for, and more in how it acts as an obstacle, taking an extra turn to march armies up the west side of Italy.

Clyde matters a lot when the naval lines of whoever is playing near endgame come down around North Atlantic/Norwegian, for the same reason that North Africa is important if the naval lines break down at Gibraltar. Syria is admittedly pretty forgotten most of the time. Finland is rather important to surprise the other player or break stalemates or as a retreat option for an army.

Or down the west side of Italy :/

And you guys need to play more games were Turkey is being annoying.

Tuscany became extremely important to me in a game where I was playing France against a determined AH - Italy alliance. We literally filled up every available space west of Italy and once they got a fleet in Tuscany it was the lynch-pin that I allowed them to leverage me out of the region, and I knew two years before they moved into it that it would be.

It's also very important in Italian defense as it can make Italy seem harder to break than merely moving through to AH or France.

Finland, Finland, Finland
The country where I want to be
Pony trekking or camping
Or just watching TV

Finland, Finland, Finland
It's the country for me

You're so near to Russia
So far from Japan
Quite a long way from Cairo
Lots of miles from Vietnam

Finland, Finland, Finland
The country where I want to be
Eating breakfast or dinner
Or snack lunch in the hall

Finland, Finland, Finland
Finland has it all

You're so sadly neglected
And often ignored
A poor second to Belgium
When going abroad

Finland, Finland, Finland
The country where I quite want to be
Your mountains so lofty
Your treetops so tall

Finland, Finland, Finland
Finland has it all

Finland, Finland, Finland
The country where I quite want to be
Your mountains so lofty
Your treetops so tall

Finland, Finland, Finland
Finland has it all
Finland has it all

touché

I'd say the Irish Sea is rather pointless.

I'd say an army in North Africa would be the most useless.

ditto

Least important would be Syria clyde and north Africa but all can useful

I think that it's a big mistake to start to rank areas on the map according to how useful they are, the only consequence is limiting one own's imagination. I've used the Irish Sea to invade England succesfully, North Africa has been essential in one of my games as a means to control the Mid-Atlantic, and Syria is of course not useless. How many times have a convoy from Naples to Syria started an invasion of Turkey? In my opinion, whether a province on the map is useful or not depends on the player and the situation.

Well obviously, all territories have value.
But some territories consistently are more valuable in more situations.