Lol. Thanks for the unexpected reprieve. Good game.

Nice game. I certainly wasn't going to solo!

If England had moved to MAO then he might have done, but attacking me would probably have let Austria win.

lol, thatsawkward. Was that on the smartphone? Happened to me as well. There should be a confirmation dialog for the votes :)

I wasn't attacking France, I was coming to help you in the Med.....

^^
I thought that would be the case, but thought that an army in Pic would potentially solve any potential English "refuelling stops" at Bre ;-)

I was looking to convoy that army to Syria :-)

Yep, that was awkward.

And I was just starting my comeback! Either way, I felt like the draw was coming soon anyway. Nice game all.

I don't have much to say since my game was mostly holding on for dear life.

I don't like to open south as Russia because I don't like to open east as Austria. Stands to reason, if I don't like defending myself as Austria, I shouldn't force an Austria into self-defense, yeah? So anyway, I opened north.

NEVER OPEN NORTH. May the gods damn every single Austria who opens Vie-Gal in a gunboat and every single Turkey that opens Smy-Arm.

So the rest of the game was "try to outguess Austria." I did a halfway decent job, but my only reprieve was when England (graciously and probably accidentally) let me into St. P. I offered him two consecutive support holds, the first I think he missed due to a move back to St. P, but the second time he returned the favor. Bless you, England, and God save the queen.

This game was frustrating. I genuinely believe the best Russian opening is north, but there are so many Russias who open south, that the paradigm for Austria makes it impossible to open any other way. Turkey is similar in that, you cannot trust a Turkey for a juggernaut because Turkey's best opening is anti-Russian (although I think this is only a marginally "best" opening, maybe Tru statistics can verify this).

The problem is everyone's best opening is anti-Russian so Russia is by definition shafted.

Mr A: I was indeed on my smartphone, in the process of gradually entering orders for different areas of the map. Whoops.

I don't think that's true, gobble. Can you please point me to your source while I try to find mine?

You said Turkey's best opening is anti-Russian.
You said Austria's best opening is anti-Russian because Russia opens south too often for Austria not to do that.
England's best opening in gunboat is often against Russia because it's easier to attack Russia without press than it is to coordinate an attack against France or Germany.
Germany's best opening in gunboat is to bounce Sweden because absent press, it's hard to control Russia in the north once he has Swe/Nwy.

Okay, but I also hedged that Turkey's best opening is only marginally best. (still looking for the statistics I once read, sorry that it is taking so long.)

I did not say Austria's best opening is anti-Russian; I said that the anti-Russia Austrian opening paradigm makes it impossible for Russia to /not/ open south. Sorry if my grammar was a bit complex to carry this meaning (and this is not a dig at you; sometimes my grammatical structure does get too complex for my own good). This is far different from "best."

I disagree on England. I think England can effectively attack France with a coordinated Germany if both players know what they're doing. An E/G alliance is the easier of the two to coordinate, so long as neither gets greedy and stabs the other member. The key is respect.

Germany's best opening is /not/ to bounce Sweden if Russia has potential of going no builds 1901. A 1901 no-builds Russia means that the east is going to eat him alive and that likely puts someone very near to breaching the north-eastern portion of the stalemate line. If you're preventing Russia from getting 2+ builds, then sure, bounce Sweden, but a no-builds 1901 Russia? That just spells trouble. Either Austria is going to profit or Turkey is, but Germany certainly isn't.

I will submit that the opening to Galicia works the best for Austria.

Oooh, that really *was* awkward!