I say Turkey. England can stay alive on fleets for a while. Turkey isn't guaranteed a build either.

Turkey may not be guaranteed a build, but England is guaranteed *not* to get a build

I say Russia. You won't achieve anything in the north and Turkey is most definitely in BLA. No assured build either.

@ulytau
But.
You're forgetting the psychological compensation of still being a huge purple blob on the map.

...which means everyone MOBS you

I meant the psychological compensation to yourself.

If you ever get France, I strongly recommend NMRing in Spring '01. Nothing sets England and Germany at each other's throats like an apparently disabled France. I had that happen to me accidentally thrice, I won once, and finished strongly with about 15 centres the other two times.

Oh, it happened to me in a live game as well, finished in a draw. Germany was sure surprised to get into Bur! The build in Spain allows you to prepare for Sealion in 03 with 02 backup from Portugal build quite comfortably.

I agree with Eden and stratagos. Even if the other countries might not get a build, at least they all have the possibility. England is the worst off after a S01 NMR.

Maybe a better question is who would be the least impacted by a S01 NMR? I think it has to be France since he's only one move from Spain and nobody can absolutely prevent him from taking it.

That's similar to the New Beaujolais opening I think it's called, where all units are ordered to Gascony (paper version) or something.
The guy who tried it appearantly also won the game.
But anyways, I have a 100% win ratio with France so I can't vouch for it.

England has a similar opening called the Yorkshire pudding, where England pleads ignorance and generally attempts to look new or silly, hoping the more accomplished England and France decide to use him.

*Germany and France.

Although... thinking about it. Does guaranteed no-build necessarily equal worst off?

I would still argue England is the worst off, because everyone with the exception of France and Italy is going down if they NMR in S01, but at least all the others *can* get a build and try to remain viable. But it's still questionable as to which one is "worst" off.

I saw the Yorkshire Pudding used once. By Fasces over on Vdip. Guess what I as Russia got all of Scandinavia and ate him up. Yummy!

England

Austria.

Italy knows you're incompetent, so he'll decide he rather wants your centers than your help. Russia/Turkey will happily divide Greece and Serbia. All the diplomatic options that Austria has go down the drain immediately.

I have played multiple gunboats in which I started as England with no builds (due to Russia opening North). It sucks, but you'll live. Turkey can just go in turtle mode from 1901 onwards. Turkey has amazing resurrection powers.

Russia is also quite bad, by the way.

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The last one is a perosnal favortie of mine.

lol @ the second one. Russia in England, England in Scandinavia, Turkey everywhere else. lol

Interesting position in the last one. The next two years or so would have been fun.

Russia. With E, you have no builds but you still have time to recover before anybody is threatening a home center. If R NMRs you are dead in the north, you may be looking at an Austrian army in Gal and a Turkish fleet in Bla, and you're probably not going to take Rum in the fall.