Russia:Turkey

Russia and Turkey is both very common and very strong, but because it is so common, I think others are constantly on the lookout for it.

I am a fan of the Italy-Austria alliance. A good Lepanto can be difficult to execute, but it is powerful when successful.

While many may not think so, I think the French-Germany alliance can be very strong. I am in a game where I am Germany, and France and I succeeded in holding England to no builds the first year. However, the downfall is that it takes a while to really crack into England's homeland.

These are just a few I could think of off the top of my head.

russia/turkey is strong but youre right people can always see a juggernaut forming and are always worried about this. i think england/france is easier to set up because it is harder to stab whereas i find russia/turkey easy to stab. also l played a game recently where england/france beat russia/turkey which has kind of swayed my opinion.

the problem with thr france/germany alliance is how do you spilt up enlgand? who gets belgium? also they somewhat sit in each others way a bit.

For as strong as the Juggernaut is, I would suggest that Austria/Russia can be just as brutal, if not more so. A/R can more effectively cooperate to take down both Turkey and Germany. Not only that, but the distribution of the workload is a little more fair. When R/T starts to roll, a smart Italy starts to back up Austria, which makes life very difficult for the Turk. Russia has to deal with Austria alone with minimal distraction from England and usually without interference from Germany, which usually has problems of its own with England and/or France.

You're right, it is very unorthodox and somewhat complicated. But sometime unorthodox actions is a recipe for success!

Personally, I'm quite fond of Austria and Germany. This is hardly unorthodox, but I find it greatly improves both countries position, and tends to have very few shouts of "Juggernaut" elicited by R/T, or E/F.

But we must remember that that the E/F/G/R/A/I/T alliance has never lost :)

Russia:Italy has a lot of potential once they've dealt with the other eastern powers...
i don't know about the best alliance, but it has great potential.

Lol.

I find that early on Austria and Germany can do little to help each other.
A secret Russian-French alliance can be extremely effective though.

France-Germany for sure.
It has a very big potential. More or less guaranteed 3-Way with either Austria or Turkey.

I thought it was interesting that almost everyone who suggested a partnership as being great in this thread is playing a game with that partnership.

Trying to reinforce your allies trust that you're not about to stab? ;)

I agree that an R/F can be very effective. They can cooperate without having to worry about direct stabs at each other's homeland.

@ Hibiskiss: Ahh, the tendrils of a game of Diplomay sneak into all available facets. ;)

G/F is extremely effective when fully utilized. England+Belgium can be split evenly, and Germany can expand against Russia, while France expands via Med.

I/T is one of my favorite allies though. Even time I have set up this alliance, we both win. It requires a lot of trust, as after Austria is destroyed, both need to move their troops in the opposite direction, but if the Austrian/Balkan split is fair, it works wonders.

Best I ever had was a Sealion F/G with Perry. We wiped the whole board clean in no time.

Also good was A/T with Draugnar, although he eventually stabbed me.

I also like A/I where A offers Greece to Italy.

ANd R/G is so unusal that it can fool everyone and succeed for that reason alone.

@Hibiskiss. I had no ulterior motive for creating this thread. tho i am in a E/F alliance in a game at the moment that is partly because i lost to a good E/F in the game i referenced earlier. that would be a very sneaky play of reverse psychology tho.

Good leponto is always great for Austria and Italy. Juggernaut is a cheap tactic because it's to easy and turkey never wins under a juggernaut

*lepanto

Thing is, Austro-Italian alliances are super beneficial for Austria (balkans domination is likely) but Italy gains little in terms of SCs, and is really only strengthening Austria for the battle that they will eventually have ti fight for either of them to do well.

Russia and Turkey only if I am Russia and England doesn't attack me :P

In live games F/E has seemed to work well. From research and logic though, why not go for E/G? This makes Scandinavia and Russia easily accessible targets. France can only get two builds against this alliance. From England and Germany, France is easy to invade, and it's hard to stab in this alliance as well. I'm surprised no one mentioned this. Russia/Turkey is too risky for me most times, I'd much rather start with A/T if I'm Turkey.

A/T is the worst long term alliance imo. tho you have the upperhand as turkey in that situation

http://webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=16160 join
and i think the reasn people don't go for EG is that England tends to go after germany rather tan flooding into med

What do you think about I/A alliances?
I tend to try them but they don't seem to work out good.
Maybe if you are Italy you really need to attack Austria right from the start?

Everyone thinks that IR is a mid game alliance when you can take vie in the first year if lucky but if ou don't get into gal or try you use the cover that now you should focus on the other

I had a really good Austria/Russia alliance in a game on Facebook awhile back; I was Austria and ended up the junior partner in the alliance, but more because I got hung up in Italy during our drive to the west.

this is the best alliance i have been apart of and i think an absolutely brilliant lepanto, we could have gone for a two way draw but it was 5am.. i dont even mind i lost as that is an awesome game
http://www.webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=16156&msgCountry=Global&rand=29246#chatboxanchor

I now love A-I alliances (see my earlier comment). The game above is the most fun one I've ever played in as we tried an adventurous new Lepanto that got Venice involved in the battle against Russia.
Great fun!

Italy, Austria, Turkey was a great alliance for me :) i still can't believe it worked out as well as it did.