Switzerland. They are invincible.

hehe

1.Germany cause you win if you ally with England
2. Russia cause you win if Germany and England don't ally

germany, they r free to expand in any direction.
best is austria, the most toughest and best to play with harder country,

Turkey. Good land and sea connections, backed into a corner.

Italy

usually everyone ignores you in the beginning and you have the ability to do some truly creative play

France is actually my favourite, then Germany.

Germany for the reasons outlined above, France because if you play it clever you can get three builds on the first turn and just go from there.

Getting three builds in Autumn 01 as France is just inviting ENG, GER and ITA in to end your dream.


My favourite would also be Austria. Great defenisble position (if you survive the first years) and always busy diploming.

I'm currently playing a game as Austria that I am enjoying a hell of a lot. It's a great challenge, and can be a lot of fun if you survive the initial drawing of the battle-lines.

Turkey would be my second favorite.

Italy

I really like England, if you can avoid France attacking you on the first year, you don´t have to worry defending yourself and can sail away....
Germany and France are very good too, but you can have a lot of problems if you expand too much at the beginning.
And Austria is good if you really like chatting eheheheh
I have yet to learn how to play Italy and Turkey.

Italy, because no game ever turns out the same when you are Italy. You have so many choices on how to go about the game

I want to manage the 3 builds in 1901 that i've seen italy take.

I don't know, except i dislike turkey, too slow to open up, doesn't have much to say to italy unless he is already attacking you. The fastest opening is into russia but that leads nowhere (as england/germany takes the north, and austria/italy still bear down on you)

I like italy/austria as their success is so tied to each others, yet they are also the biggest threat to each other. More reason to ally and more risk in doing so...

@orathaic - A 3 build Italy makes a great target :)

I like Turkey and England best - there's something about the corner that makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside

Austria because I got my first win as Austria and they have massive expansion combined with appearance of being weak.