England vs Austria would be worse. Austria's advantage of having builds in the centre of the map would be very unbalancing.

Austria might do ok against Russia with ability to defend the center, but Russia would definitely have multiple advantages with fleet builds on both the north and south and the extra home SC.

One of the other variants i developed was russia+turkey (the juggernaut) vs germany+france (frankland) and the central positions mean frankland have a huge advantage - greater than the initial +1 unit/sc that the juggernaut enjoys.

Also Turkey vs England is horribly unbalanced. Because england can only pick up two centers in 1901 (either convoying the army or grabbing with two fleets and not being able to convoy in spring 1902) - so E* vs T is the verions on vdip. Where england starts with a fleet in EC.

Apparently that gives England too much of an advantage.

France vs Russia might be playable.

In the vdip version, England starts with fleets in EC, North Sea, and army LON.

France vs Russia is nowhere near playable. By the end of the first year, Russia will either have 8 units to France's 6, or 7 units to France's 5. This is literally guaranteed. Russia is then guaranteed to get 4 builds the following year, while applying pressure to Germany and the North.

Thanks Ezio, apparently i did more with england... To allow england the option of convoys in 1901...

orathaic, it seems that E* v T is now balanced a bit toward England, if the statistics are to be believed. England has 710 (56.9%) solos vs 538 for Turkey (43.1%). I am curious how lopsided they were with straight up E v T.

It seems to me England has positional advantages being closer to the critical SCs of St Pete and Munich than Turkey.

I kind of wish that E* v T was here on webDip. Statistically, it appears the most balanced of the three.

Statistically it is, but it's also the most boring of the three. It takes years before there is any meaningful contact between the two nations.

I bet a modified Russia (R*) might be playable. Just eliminate the starting army in Warsaw, but consider it to be a home SC. The first turn they could only build 3 units and the couldn't capture Munich.

@Ezio: Only if you consider strategic build-ups boring. :) It's a resource game followed by frenzied fighting, not frenzied fighting with few resources.

Ireland vs. Switzerland
Switzerland vs. Siberia
Ireland vs. Siberia

All are impasible, so . . .

I know that this is a forum thread on the worst 1v1 board matchups, but I think that the most even 1v1 game match up (if it were created) would be France vs. Turkey on the Classic Diplomacy Board. Both countries have a strong water fleet advantage, but have limited main land access in the beginning 1900 year. This would be a cool one that I would want to try playing.

I'm pretty certain France would just dominate in that mode. France can push past the stalemate line into Italy and through Germany far more easily than Turkey can. If France sends fleets into the MED, he will get control of TUN and never lose that control. There will be fighting over the Balkans, and that will be evenly matched, but that's on Turkey's side of the stalemate line. Unless France gets completely outmatched in the fighting, I don't see how he can lose.

You can test it on vdip. But I would agree with ezio. France vs Austria is fairly balanced and turkey is much farther away from Germany where a lot of the fighting occurs.

Those are some fair points Ezio. I will keep that in mind Devonian. How do people access vdip? Could I find it if I searched vdip on the Google Search Engine?

http://www.vdiplomacy.com/
Classic - Pick your countries or ClassicVS is the variant that lets you pick the countries to play.

I have found Germany vs Austria is a good match-up.

Russia*, would you prefer to see russia start with f-Stp, f-Sev, a-Mos (as someone above or a-War, f-Sev, a-Mos?

And Russia* against who?
Turkey or France? England maybe? Or England*?

For R*, I was mainly thinking about Germany as the opponent, as that's the one you originally created.

As I mentioned in another thread, I think of 1v1 games as races to control 4 critical SCs, most crucial being Munich, so that's how I judge who a good opponent would be. So...

R* (no a-War) vs G or I
R* (no a-Mos) vs F
R* (no F-StP) vs E* or A
R* (no F-Sev) vs T

Yeah, i was thinking or R* vs T.

But would have half left sev in place and taken stp away - it does force an immediate confrontation in black sea, while warsaw goes off and does its own thing and moscoe has to decide whether to move north or south... (Ukr/stp?)

The other way (no sev) russia is forced to send moscow to sev, without stp able to do much help (other than taking a build) while turkey can move to arm & bla to force russia out of sev - thus pushing warsaw south to defend) and leaving turkey to probsbly claim rum and bul... Not a great place for russia to start 1901.

The more interesting alternative would be the 1898 variant rules (where every country start with one unit in their capital, and gets home centers based on what they claimed by 1901...) But maybe keep the classic home centers... That way... Hmm. I think 1898 could be modded to produce moscow vs constantinople.
Or london vs berlin....

I'll have to think about this.

Russia vs Italy would be pretty good. or Engaland vs France. or Russia vs Germany. or Turkey vs Austria. all pretty good

R* (no Sev): In this scenario, I think of Sev as any other SC--the home SC/build is a bonus. If Turkey went all out to capture Sev, then Russia can go War>>Bud, StP>>Swe, Mos>>Nor. Turkey would go BLA > Rum or Bul-n, neither of which is particularly enticing.

I think the positional advantage goes to Russia after 1901. They have solid defense and great expansion opportunities in the north. Turkey is still stuck in the corner.

France vs Austria a pretty bad match-up. Oh wait, that exists ;-)

England v France? A race east or at each other - that's kind of an interesting one.

France vs Russia would be pretty interesting. The rivalry is firmly rooted in history.

@Slypups: England vs France seems rough for England, since he can only grab 1 centre in 1901 whereas France gains 2. I don't see that working out unless England's starting position is modified.

Germany vs. Austria is undoubtedly the best match up. FvR with Russia starting at three centers could be interesting too.

FvR with a neutral Warsaw at the start perhaps? It's basically Napoleon vs Alexander.

Crimean war would be interesting. French, british, and turkish troops fighting russia.... But maybe not as a 1v1

Austro-Hungary had a big deal to say about that war (being that it was in their backyard...)

E* vs F, i wonder is the setup for england with EC and North Sea, aswell as army london too strong? (I admit i did no play-testing before E* v T was put up on vdip)

I think F EC, and army wales would be enough of a change in favor of England.

I haven't played E* v T so I don't know how it works. I would imagine that simply changing the start from F-Edi to F-NTH would be sufficient for any opponent, but probably too strong against France. English fleets would overwhelm France before they got established.

What if E* vs F* were this: E* = f-NWS, a-Edi and F* = a-Par, a-Mar ?

This provides 2 builds for each nation and forces them apart during 1901. There is no immediate battle for English Channel, but it comes roaring back in 1902. France buys a little time to get a fleet from Marseilles into the action and build another in Brest 1903. The rest is more complicated.