The alliance that no-one sees, no-one expects, and no-one defends from....

Albania-Switzerland!!!!!

Italy-Turkey. believe me, it's true

Pretty sure the best alliance is RTI against Austria.

Haha Killer why would you say that? Can't tell if you're sarcastic but common sense dictates you must be :)

Russia-France is the best one imo

Yellowjacket, you've obviously never tried it

Austria-Turkey may not be the most effective or relaxed alliance (nor have the longest shelf life), but considering its success would result in a similar position to Italy-Austria post-Lepanto, I think it's too easily overlooked.

I agree somewhat with ODaly, but to many a time have I seen a Juggernaut successfully march throughout Europe. Juggs gets' my vote.

I adore the Italian-Austrian alliance! Italy and Turkey also works well. Only way to counter it is for France to attack Italy.

Italy-Austria is indeed an amazing alliance. I think it helps that a fair amount of trust is required to get it going in the first place, and that helps to build up some early momentum.

It does have a tough time in the late game, though. Not being able to build fleets in the north is a huge pain.

+1 goldfinger. FRA-RUS is beast.

The strongest alliance is the France-Russia-England-Turkey-Germany-Austria-Italy alliance. That shit is really powerful. Nothing beats that.

Chuck Norris.

That's just a Europe-Russia-Near East triple. Powerful, but certainly not invincible. A North American triple could give them a run for their money. ;)

I love Italy - Russia, myself, but France - Russia has some good things to say for itself as well. Those are the easiest alliances to construct stab-resistant lines with, in my opinion, which is why they tend to last.

Germany, Austria, and Italy: The Central Triple. Everyone pushes out and there is never a need to stab so long as everyone stays balanced.

Juggernaut is probably in theory the best, in my opinion, but it hardly ever happens (in my experience)
the black sea is almost always the problem as russia has nothing to do with the fleet in sev.

But i also think that France-Italy is being overlooked here. If France goes for England, Germany and Northern Russia and Italy goes for Austria, Turkey and Southern Russia, there's plenty for all.

I have never not soloed when using a Juggernaut.

because you only call the juggernauts that you solo with juggernauts.

Turkey and Italy. - They can divide up the Balkans and head their separate ways.

The juggernaut is weak for Turkey in my opinion, and the alliance between Austria and Italy is bad for Italy or leads to a stab. An alliance between Russia and Germany is important for both but it is never much more than a non aggression pact. Any alliance with Austria or England is probably a bad idea apart from the early DMZs that should be established as they tend to devour their friends as they need to expand, Austria can sometimes just be in the way (turkey vs Austria). Italy on the other hand is one of the best countries to ally with as they can help anybody on the board in someway.

Anybody mention France-Austria? It's not really an early-game arrangement, but after you hit midgame, there's plenty of chances to cooperate and very little competition since you should have a very solid land power/sea power division.

My alliance of choice is always with the person I connect with the best. Geography is a relatively minor complication.

What Octaviois just said. After that, Russia/Italy.

England-Germany by far but no alliance is strong enough to not be put down by an anti-alliance of capable players.

i like england-france
very easy to start

I think an alliance of four people would be great, all corner countries together would be 2 jugs, eventually you might take the weakest out and get a 3way draw or maybe solo, also I think the center countries should (almost) always stay allied and try to get T/R fighting eachother and F/E fighting eachother...

Austria-Russia has worked best in my experience, Austria gets the all the Balkans and Russia gets all of Turkey. they both park units in Rum, Bul, Con and Sev leaving no chance to stab and DMZ Gal and Ukr.

England-France or Russia-Italy both are pretty good. If we include triples, then Russia-Italy-Austria is pretty deadly. Crush Turkey fast before the western powers get themselves into a good position and it's a breeze to a 3 way/stab for solo.

So not a single person here is in favor of a juggernaut? I'm surprised only to a degree I suppose... Course I think the difference is the face to face vs. computer faceless.

As Octavious says: the best alliances are always those where things just gel with your ally, regardless of what nations you're playing.

A good mid-game alliance is England-Austria. They can get a lot going together.