Well, Austria's sometimes a difficult country to play. It can be a lot of fun, though; you need to be very active diplomactically! As general advice, read some of the articles on the Diplomacy Archive, for instance. (http://www.diplom.org/~diparch/resources/strategy/austria.htm) Richard Sharp's "The Game of Diplomacy" is also instructive and entertaining reading, though he sometimes tends to the "always one correct move" school.
One way to survive the first few years is to encourage conflicts between your neighbors and _their_ neighbors. For instance, if France and Italy are at war, Italy is less likely to attack you. If Russia is facing pressure from Turkey in the south and England in the north, the Tsar is unlikely to open a third front.
As a general rule (circumstances may vary, and you should always adapt to the individual games), I find it's better to ally with Russia than Turkey in the first few years. In two of your games as Austria, you moved to Rumania in Spring 1901. I think this is a dubious idea at best, as it earns you Russia's enmity, and Austria needs at least one ally to survive. This ally is unlikely to be Italy, and Russia is often the best bet. Settling on Turkey as an ally is slow suicide; after the conquest of Russia, he has _nowhere_ to go besides the Balkans and Austria. Try to identify 18 centers as part of a win for Turkey without Serbia or any of the Austrian centers, and you'll see why Turkey almost always stabs Austria. In "Pinin' for the Fjords", the one game you didn't attack Russia, you were doing fairly well until you supported Turkey into Rumania (with a Russian army in Galicia!); in return for your support, Turkey took Greece, Budapest and Serbia.
Often, though, the biggest danger to Austria comes from Italy. Even if A/R combine to take out Turkey, you have to beware of R/I then uniting to destroy you. I think that Austria has to either attack Italy, or guard firmly against stabs. Once you reach 8 centers or so, Austria is as good as any other country. I think I once saw stats that showed that _if_ Austria survived to mid-game, it was likely to do well.
So what should you do in the early years? One option is to ally with Italy and attack Turkey (try a Lepanto, or something like, but NOT the Key Lepanto). Italy's unlikely to attack you while he's trying for Smyrna/Syria. After destroying Turkey, you could suggest that Italy turn west while you move against Russia. Another idea is to attack Italy in 1901, though I rarely see this succeed. More realistic might be to attack Turkey with Russian help, and then attack Italy; in this scenario, you would take control of the Med while Russia focuses on the north/west. This is sort of like playing the role of Turkey in a juggernaut, but I think you have a better chance of pulling off a win than Turkey does in a typical R/T alliance. (I believe juggernauts are _significantly_ more likely to end in a Russian win than a Turkish win.) Perhaps part of the reason for this is that the new units you can create are much nearer a frontier than new Turkish units, which always have to travel a great distance; it's a question of tempo. I don't have good stats on this, though.
I'd love to hear other people's ideas, as well. One thing I wish this community had more of is articles on strategy and tactics, negotation, etc.
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Hail Caesar!
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