You can't possibly be worse than my recent game as England. And you were in that game too. No worries lol

:/

Gunboat or press?

What are you having difficulty with?

Gunboat especially. It seems no matter what I do, I get fully attacked by everyone.

Send fleet to Norway? Russia builds St. Pete.
Land in Belgium? France and Germany get mad, Russia sees opportunity.
Army to Norway? France sees an opening, Russia mad.

There's no winning scenario

Well, I mean, you're not going to run into aggressive neighbors all the time every game. The same could be said of every other country, right?

My experience with England is that everyone wants you dead, all the time. With Turkey, I usually find a friendly Russia or Italy. With Austria, sometimes you get shit on, but not always. With Germany, it's easy to befreind Russia (or England) but as England... man, it's rough.

France builds a fleet in Brest. Germany builds one in KIel. Russia in St. Pete, and they're all assholes.

I haven't played England yet on this website, but in the diplomacy games I've played elsewhere usually I do find France or more likely, Germany, to be willing to work with you. Usually I like to take Norway with the fleet and have North Sea support whoever I want as an ally, France or Germany, into Belgium. Though more often than not I pick Germany because I feel that E/G just work out better than E/F. Less potential for stabs in E/G, especially if Germany opens with fleet-Denmark, rather than Holland.

I mean, yes it's a very tough country to play, harder than Italy IMO but it's not a guaranteed loss 100% of the time :)

Chaqa you also suck at CDs - putting up a DRAW vote until you have gained enough advantage from the CD to take the DRAW vote down and play for the solo.
I'm not saying you are the only one.......

Take Sweden, Denmark, and St. Petersburg, wait for France to screw up.

This isn't amazing advice since I don't play much gunboat, but the biggest advice I have is that if you play England well it is almost impossible to kill. Basically, make sure you have the ability to have an army in Britain (and maybe even keep one there if you don't have anything better to do as a deterrent) and France really just can't kill you if you make strong moves.

I suck at England too, but if I was more patient and and waited for openings, rather than leaving myself open by attacking strongly somewhere else, I would probably do better.

I've played a lot of France lately and I can say that I keep ending up killing England, sometimes because England is a fool. Keeping tht army on the island is pretty good advice. It is hard to go in either direction withou leaving something open. Having the army means they need to bring two fleets

http://www.diplomacy-archive.com/resources/strategy/england.htm

You're main goal is to take over coastal home SCs close to you in order to stop people from building fleets, so if you can get a German ally and take Brest that's great as long as you don't get stabbed early on.

England is a nation the requires patience, and more a focus on strategy rather than tactics. In many way's it's similar to Italy, in that you have a relatively solid position and just need to wait for an opportunity to come, because over-committing is both easy and fatal.

I think my best nation is England, so here's what I'll have to say. Whether its valid in gunboat as well as press, I don't know.

Keep that army of yours parked in Wales at all times, regardless of whether you're planning on attacking France or not. It shows France "Hey, you're going to need a minimum of three units to take a crack at me, so don't even bother" Have your build be a fleet, because building two armies right away - while great for the long game - is a bit dumb.

I tend to follow a predictable pattern. Make sure Russia is incapable (or unwilling) of messing with you, then go full-out after France, and then clean up Germany for the solo (this is also why when I play Germany I advocate for the death of England more than anything)

How far that will go in gunboat? I don't know.

What's your opinion on the 1901 move to Skaggerack combined with a convoy to Norway?

NTH-SKA is risky because it leaves you 100% committed to Sweden and Denmark with 0% chance of effectively defending against a French stab, which becomes more likely after you throw all your forces east with nothing left to defend Liverpool. I've tried it on several occasions - I soloed once and was eliminated two or three times. In gunboat, you'd need a very specific set of circumstances; otherwise, its a great example of an all-or-nothing opening.

Much better to just leave that fleet in North, support someone to Belgium, and then continue to move the fleet to Ska in the fall, or simply move Norwegian to Norway and Norway to Finland

Skagerrak is only a risk if you aren't guaranteed Norway. If you are, build a fleet in London and in all likelihood France will stay away, even if you don't bounce the channel. It also almost guarantees you a second build in 1902, which can be used to defend Liverpool if France refuses to go south or east. If France still attacks you, Germany is likely to be forgiving and so is Russia in all likelihood.

If you luck out and have a France that wants to move east just as bad as you do, you can go after Germany relentlessly and have both Denmark and Holland, if not even Kiel, for yourself really quickly, and that opens a lot of doors for England that are typically slammed shut by immediate and untapped French growth.