I'm relatively new at high level gunboats, so I'm not the best person to answer, and I don't recommend me as a role model, because quite frankly, I rarely ever win them. But I like the thread and would like to get it started. The underlying assumption in what I write is that I almost only play WTA, and when I don't, I play it like a WTA game anyway.

In gunboats, even more than in press games, I spend a lot of time looking at the balance of the board. Since there's no communication to warn about a solo threat, one needs to be even more proactive. If I see someone edging close to the stalemate line, with a very good position to get past it in one or two years, I divert most of my efforts to fighting this person. Maybe this is why I rarely win, and draw so much. Unless I'm the first to reach a dominant position, I don't go for my own solo if there is a risk it will grant someone else the win. I'd love to hear what people like Barn3tt have to say, those who truly excel at gunboats.

How do people pick put out an idea for their opening strategy given the lack of comm?

Personally, I think I'm a bit too formulaic when it comes to my gunboat openings. It's a bit easier to read and react with a few moves out, but my first move often just feels like a shot in the dark. I often try to use the turn to signal intentions. I would be very curious to hear about the thought process of more experienced players during the first moves.

Great idea for a thread, by the way. If not for Vaft's bump, I would have missed it in the noise.

Some tips:
1 - Always look at other people's orders, but don't always trust that they mean what you think they mean;
2 - Try to get at least one friend for the start, signaling friendship with your moves and being at least apparently helpful;
3 - As Vaf said, look out for stalemate lines and possible threats to get past it.

http://webdiplomacy.net/forum.php?viewthread=830969#830969

Here's my most recent detailed EOG.

Well, not necessarily my most recent, but probably the most helpful.

take everything you know about diplomacy and shit all over it. That's step one.

Barn3tt, that's an incredibly informative and fun read. I think the key theme in what you're writing is your constant attention to all parts of the board. Not only reading the balance of power, but constantly thinking about how your actions influence it. This of course takes a great deal of experience, which leads me to my one big advice that I am myself working on right now: Play more! Experiment. Try crazy shit. It's the only real way to learn.

Glad you liked it, Vaft. I think taking the time to evaluate your game play, look over experienced players' play, and try and step into their shoes and think about why they did what they did is important.

I know that when I first came on the site I clicked through a lot of MM's games.

That's why I wanted to link to EoGs in my 1009 thread, but I was just too lazy to dig them all up. I'll make an effort when I have the time. Providing easy access to those EoGs should help a lot of people.

Well, hopefully henceforth we can keep track and make a concerted effort to write detailed EOG's for these big pot games.