The Southern Hedgehog is the name of an Austrian defensive opening. Austria plays Trieste to Venice, Vienna to Galicia and Budapest to Serbia.

So in my while playing diplomacy on this site I have yet to see this opening played. The circumstances have never been quite right for me so far, but I hope to give ‘er a whirl soon enough. I think it is a very good opening that is underplayed because Tri-Ven implies aggression towards Italy. It is the best opening for cautious Austrias who do not have firm allies yet, or are suspicious of their neighbours. As Austria has by far the highest early exit rate, I think at least some of you should be wary of your neighbours.

So, why the Southern Hedgehog? There are basically two main ways that Austria gets killed really quickly: attack from Italy or attack from Russia. If Austria has foreign armies on her soil at the end of first year she is probably going to be partitioned up. Russia enters Austrian territory through Galicia so it is extremely important to at least arrange a bounce there. If Russia gets in then he has free shots at Bud and Vie. God forbid Italian armies are around as well. Speaking of which, Tri-Ven blocks both of Italy’s attacks. If Italy tries the ballsy Ven-Tri stab then everything just bounces and if Italy opens to Tyrolia then the Roman army is bounced and thus cannot lend his support. Budapest secures Austria a build and all is secure.

It is extremely important that you inform Italy and Russia of this beforehand. You don’t want to make too many enemies because no amount of openings can save you then. Just make it clear (especially to Italy) that it is purely defensive and if Venice is just holding then it won’t matter at all. Any rational player will probably understand, if they are unreasonable about it then that is usually a red flag for someone who you don’t want to ally with.

What is the big con to this otherwise brilliant move? You are obviously just limited to one build. You are guaranteed it, but you won’t get Greece. This isn’t actually a huge con, you stay under the radar and you can deal Greece off to win yourself some allies.

So what now? Well in fall you can reassess your position, this is where Greece comes in. You have plenty of options. Offering Italy convoy support into Greece is a good one to get help against Turkey. I’d be more hesitant to give Turkey Greece, (you can always bounce him) but to each his own. Most importantly, if Turkey and Russia are opening towards a juggernaught (Black Sea DMZ, Armenia DMZ, Russian fleet in Rumania) you can break it up early. Just offer up Greece to Turkey and then offer support to Russia into Bulgaria (which wont be supported because greedy Turkey is headed to Greece).

So there you have it, any thoughts on the opening? I hope to see some early secure Austria’s around here in the near future.