I hate you.

<3

You seem... Conflicted.

Pretty much how I play Russia.

F STP -> GoB
A War -> Sil
A Mos -> STP
F Sev -> Bla

Basically here, you move to Silesia and use this as leverage to ensure Germany gives you Sweden. "Either you let me into Sweden or I take Berlin". With that blackmail complete you take Norway and own the north; whilst backing out of Silesia by moving to Galicia and invading Austria in 1902 after convoying Turkey to Rumania in A01, and then sailing F-Bla *through* Constantinople into the Aegean to augment the Turkish naval threat.

I don't know why anyone would ever move to Gulf of Bothnia. It is *STRICTLY* worse than moving to Finland!

1) Moving to Finland shows friendship to Germany. It clearly conveys "hey, friend, I'm not looking to attack you by going to Baltic Sea, I'm just here to pick up my neutral". GOB and FIN are just as quick to SWE.

2) Provides a hearty defense against Englands who decided to go full Northern Aggression. Classically England will convoy to Norway, and then build another army, and then try to move NWY-FIN, EDI-NWY to set up an attack on STP (and SWE). However! If you're already in FIN (assuming you get bounced in SWE) then your defense is much much more readily compact. And if you didn't get bounced in SWE then you have an extra build for STP to fill it in the next turn. It's just strictly better for defense against England than GOB is tactically.

Hopefully people stop making this obvious mistake. I see it all the time.

Germany almost always moves to block or take SWE, though. At least with the BOT opening you have another attacking option and can make Germany negotiate. Fleets on land don't make much sense.

Hedgehog.

I Like
STP-GOB
MOS-STP
SEV-RUM
WAR-GAL

basically juggernaut.

make sure your allied with Germany and Turkey, and try to stir up conflict between England and France.

How does moving sev-rum help you Ally with turkey? That fleet does nothing to help against Austria.

A few comments on Valis's points:

1) While a F FIN is better to defend against an English northern attack, how would you know that England is already going to attack you before your first move? There must be some extreme diplomatic conditions going on.

2) If you forge a solid alliance with Germany before the first moves, then moving to Fin makes sense. It reinforces the fact that you don't want to threaten him and can make the German feel better about the alliance.
That being said, many Germans won't want to commit to an alliance that early. And by moving StP - Fin, the German can bounce you out of Sweden without fearing a move to the Baltic. Moving StP - GoB gives you leverage, because one of the worst things that can happen to Germany is if their fleet in Den successfully moves to Swe, but Russia moves into the Baltic and England sneaks into Denmark. If that threat is available to the Russian, the German may be more tempted to just let the Russian take Sweden and avoid conflict in the Baltic.

In summary; if you know that England is going for a northern attack and you know that Germany will be your steadfast ally, play F StP-Fin. But how can you really know that before the first moves are made? That's why I'd generally recommend against it.

Regarding the actual question about Russian openings, my personal favorite is this:

StP - Gob
War - Gal
Mos - Ukr
Sev Stands.

In my opinion, this is the best way for Russia and Turkey to ally. Instead of moving the fleet to Rum, where it can't threaten any Austrian centers and leaves Sev open to build another fleet (something that should make Turkey very worried), just leave the fleet in Sev! The fall should see Sev S Ukr - Rum and War - Gal again; with Turkey (and hopefully Italy as well) on your side Austria should crumble pretty quickly. Note that an army in Rum is far more threatening to Austria than a fleet, and leaving your fleet in Sev should make Turkey more comfortable allying with you.

Grey Goose
add ice
add rumchata

works every time.

StP - GoB, Mos - StP (threaten to hit norway), war - sil (maybe bouncing with austria), Sev - Bla/Rum (depending on diplomacy with turkey)

Fight england. Sweet talk germany (don't appear weak by Valis' advice, Germany wants a strong ally, capable of making good moves!)

Proceed holding in the south (let I-A-T resolve itself, while hopefully taking Rum) build fleet nc StP, and work with whichever of Franve and Germany is willing to invade England. (Of course i have managed to get troops into france, and see both France and England defeated before germany and russia came to blows... But that was not easy)

It depends. What do I have to do to get Austria to build a fleet in 1901?

This is clearly the best way to play Russia: gameID=93086.

Open with a 'Southern System, Rumanian Opening', which fails miserably and puts you on the defensive, then proceed to stop the solo. You will now dominate both sides of the stalemate line for longer than the longest recorded game of Diplomacy, then not win.

Sounds shitty. Also, how do you dominate both sides of a stalemate line and not win?

Mad skills.

just move to the south

spring
Sev-Bla
Mos-Ukr
War-Gal
Stp-Gob

fall
War(or Gal) -where you need it most
Ukr and Sev s. themselves in Rum
Gob-Swe

y? cos you can do better at ensuring Rum, than at cnvinving Germany of letting you take Swe, if he does not, you won't want to be in bad terms with England

Good topic for a conversation... I tried the Orthodox army Warsaw to Galicia, army Moscow to Ukraine, fleets to Black Sea and G o Bothnia opening for a long time....now the only move that is a constant in my Russian opening is fleet Sevastapol to Black Sea
My view of there being "North" and "South" division of the fronts for Russia changed to there being three fronts, North, centre and South with my experiments with opening moves and the move to Silesia from Warsaw... So my opening moves became fleet sev to Black Sea, army Moscow to Ukraine fleet St Petersburg to GoB and army Warsaw to Silesia.... I was sick of getting bounced in Sweden by Germany...
I might use this opening in a gunboat type game, but I rarely play those nasty wta type squabbles
The problem for Russia with attacking Germany at the start of the game is it lets England get strong, and how do you then defeat England later ?

Then I gave that up and tried alliances with Germany and a two North two South so army Warsaw to Ukraine etc
Moves are the tactical implementation of strategy...so I think you have to make the strategic decisions first..have I persuaded Austria and Germany to form an alliance with Russia so we can knock out Turkey and England, use France and Italy to help ? Or do I have to make a different choice in alliances and strategy
So...apart from fleet Sevastapol to Black Sea, and other fleet to G o Bothnia where I move the two armies is flexible in a game with "proper" diplomacy or I think you young chaps call it " full press"....the tactical decisions follow the strategic decisions

I have the "three front" approach with Russia not the North/South division. With a three front "method" my guiding principle is to use alliance arrangements so I can fight hard on one front and ideally have peace on the other two, but it's more usual to be fighting on two fronts
As an example.. I do get the alliances with Austria and Germany... peace in the centre, go hard in the North, and support Austria and Italy against Turkey.... Or it might be grab Sweden and Norway then ease up on that northern front, keep peace in the centre/ north with Germany and go hard at a crippled Turkey with the option of attacking Austria..so centre/south joins the front in the south

Opening moves are a lot of fun, when you manage to correctly predict the moves of the other players and your own just happen to be the perfect choices, they can also be disaster..
I have this weird hypothesis about another chap, that he sometimes plays a set of opening moves that everyone else regards as hopeless, for example if he had France it might be army Paris to Burgundy and his fleet stays in Brest and his army stays in Marseilles... that sort of thing
So for Russia it might be move fleets but not armies
But he manages to often be in a strong position by 1903 by using the support of allies who don't want their enemies gaining the vulnerable chap's sc's and nearby nuetrals sc's

The best Russian opening, of course, is Stp-Gob, Mos - Ukr, War - Gal, Sev - Bla.
It's strength lies in the fact that it is versatile and so well accepted that you aren't likely to make enemies playing this opening.

Go for a russia england alliance. It's so crazy it might even work.

War to silesia
StP to Gob (followed by move to Baltic)
Mos to Ukr
Sev to black (arranged bounce)

Get England to help.

St. P to GoB,
War to Ukr
Mos to Sev
Sev to Rum

If Turkey does not pick the anti-Russia opening and Germany does not bounce Russia's subsequent move to Sweden, Russia will get two builds. Proper diplomacy can convince Germany and Turkey to cooperate. Convince Germany that England and France are evil, and do the same with Turkey regarding Austria and Italy. It's easy to make this case. The reason for 3 units in the south and only one up north is because Turkey's anti-Russia opening can be devastating. Russia's builds should be a fleet in St.P(nc) and an army in Warsaw. Russia can then attack England and Austria. Please critique this, and thanks for the good question.