1. ENG
2. TUR
3. GER
4. FRA
5. IT
6. AUS
7. RUS

In general, countries with higher survival rate for the opening 2-3 years are highly preferred. RUS just attracts a lot of attention and is relatively weak if pressured in the beginning.

1. Germany
2. Austria
3. England
4. Turkey
5. France
6. Italy
7. Russia

I find Germany the most fun to play as. And the rest goes to less fun to play as. And Russia is at the bottom because I can never seem to do well as Russia.

1) England
2) Italy
3) France
4) Germany
5) Russia
6) Turkey
7) Austria-Hungary

England and Italy are the highest on my list because it is easy to defend their homeland and because of all the starting options that they have. France is third on my list because it is possible to get three builds in the first year and it is easy to maintain a stalemate line with Germany if the time calls for it but it is hard to defend the south against Italian aggression. Germany is in the center of the map and garners a lot of attention from it's neighbors because of how offensive Germany can be as a country. Still, it is extremely difficult to defend the homeland unless you have an ally and Germany has a very low survival rate among the powers on the board. Russia starts off in a very weak position and a lot of diploming needs to be done to ensure it's survival. Russia also needs to work hard for every inch of territory it gains and even then it could all collapse within a few turns. Turkey has very few options on the board at the start. It either needs to attack Austria or Russia most of the time. But at least it has a very good survival rate and is easy to defend. I find Austria to be the weakest starting power on the board because of it's low chances of getting anywhere in diploming with the other powers and can be easily attacked by any of it's neighbors.

1) Germany
2) Austria
3) France
4) Turkey
5) England
6) Russia
7) Italy

1) Serbia - It's at the heart of things, surrounded by SCs. Simply put, if you're the Serbian then you can go anywhere
2) Switzerland - Again, you're in the middle of things: it's the perfect place for the active diplomat. Plus you have the added advantage of your homeland being literally impassable.
3) Syria - strong defensive corner position, rarely invaded by others; with Syria you have no excuse for being eliminated
4) Iceland - some of the advantages of both Switzerland and Syria without the central position of the former or the adjacent tasty supply centres of the latter
5) Denmark. If you get Denmark you know you're in for a dogfight. If you manage to survive the first few seasons then you stand a chance of doing really well. Either a win or bust country really
6) Wales. Essentially England's little sister - you're not going to get anywhere unless you get an alliance with England. Very disappointing.
7) Mexico. If you draw Mexico then you're not even playing diplomacy and have to go to the pub instead.

@Parallelpiped
Serbia is even better than you made out: Russia or Turkey might cause problems for Austria in 02 but serbia can eliminate Austria immediately by assasinating Archdukes.

Russia - lots of fun having great sway in both the balkans and scandanavia (and dealing with different people in each area)
Austria - Very dificult country, needs the best diploming or it's dead. I really like Austria, very powerful if it survives past 1903
Italy - again a hard country to play, attacking austria often brings on great misfortune, usually once austria is dead the troops that took it move on to italy. So careful play is required.
England - lots of fun, the western triple, and scandanavia, alas England can only really compete in one area to begin with.
Germany - avoiding early leader syndrome is really important, germany can easily get 6 builds in 1901, and if it does ill usually be ganged up upon by france england and russia. if it doesn't then france or england will usually get some of those builds. ok to play, fun to have 4 countries to talk with.
France - usually ends up sitting around in the west growing strong picking someone to start a fight with, not as much fun, only has a few people to diplome early on.
Turkey - stuck in the corner nowhere to go. I find turkey too slow to start off with.

1. Turkey
2. Russia
3. Italy
4. France
5. Germany
6. England
7. Austria

1. Italy
2. Austria
3. Germany
4. Russia
5. England
6. France
7. Turkey.

@djbent: Italy as number 1? Interesting...explain, lol!

1. France
2. Turkey
3. Germany
4. Russia
5. England
6. Austria
7. Italy

1. England
2. Russia
3. France
4. Turkey
5. Italy
6. Germany
7. Austria

England have a naturally ally in France at the beginning , can move against Ger or Rus as he like , very difficult to invade because is sufficent have i ally between Fra Rus o Ger
and the invasion of Eng became impossible.

If Russia have in the south one ally and neither Ger and Eng are enemy at the same time can move to scandinavia and gain some supply center.

France get Spain and Por in two turn and begin to face againt Ger or Ita with 5 unit , must have Eng as ally at the beginning

Turkey have to talk with Rus and Aus , if both are enemy there is no game.

Must get Tunis and have France on his side for the first 3 or 4 turn , if austria have to fight against Rus and Turkey can take something in other case if all attention of Aus is on Ita , the night could fall early.

Germany have to talk with a lot of people with the only aim to survive , only a international lucky condition could permit an expansion.

Austria for me is completly in the hand of fate. No ally surly allow to survive first turns.
An ally with Ger means death because are all surrounded.
An ally with Russia can't live for long.
An ally with Turkey is usefull for the first turns but a Turkey strong will invade Austria a Turkey weak is unusefull.
An ally with Italy is possible but can't collaborate because they haven't a common enemy.

As i see in this post there a lot or different vision of the game , and for me is good so everybody have a differents tactics and this board game don't became boring.

Djbent likes italy because it looks like a boot - easy to remember which is your country.

@parallel - boots also help me to kick your ass ;D

@persephone - i think it has the most flexibility, even if the opening is almost always the same. you don't have to commit early, and everyone wants to be your friend - no one can really attack you in the first year except austria, and that is a fool's errand in general anyway, so... i've realized i really like playing the central powers - when i'm on the edges it's so hard to get across the stalemate line.

1. Germany
2. England
3. France
4. Russia
5. Austria
6. Turkey
7. Italy

1. France
2. Austria
3. Germany
4. Turkey
5. Italy
6. England
7. Russia

Its almost easy to survive as France, and not to hard to expand. I've actually had some of my best games with Austria and Germany though. I can't work with Russia, and up until one of my most recent games, I've always been eliminated early as England.

1. France
2. Germany
3. England
4. Turkey
5. Russia
6. Italy
7. Austria

Italy can be perceived as powerful, because no one takes you as an early threat, so you aren't someone to immediately attack... but at the same time, it is VERY difficult to grow and win unless you risk a lot early on against AH or France.

France is my fav, easily. Too many great openings for france. As long as you can maintain peace with england or germany, it is a piece of cake to stay alive.

1. Russia, if you have a strong opening it is difficult to stop, if you have a weak opening (zero builds for example), it is easy to turn that into two builds the next year and continue to fly under the radar playing the part of a weak country until you're able to get large enough. Impossible to be caught with a stalemate line.

2. Italy, diplomatic options to influence both sides of the board and you can concentrate on Austria because France almost never looks at Italy beyond a DMZ on the border.

3. Austria, very hard to stay alive but it makes it easier to exist as a victim. Usually Turkey, Italy or Russia is willing to assist you to prevent the other two from growing too large devouring you. It is typically easier to turn Russia and Italy against one another as Austria and both are usually willing to work with Austria because they "know" eventually they're just going to stab Austria anyway.

4-6. Germany, France, England: I never get to play them. Random selection likes to give me Eastern powers and Italy only.

7. Turkey, easy to get stuck in the corner unable to get in or out, almost impossible to break a stalemate line because everyone can see a large Turkey coming far in advance and the only way to push through is at Mid-Atlantic.

Russia and Turkey against one another*

1. Russia
2. England
3. Austria
4. Germany
5. Turkey
6. Italy
7: France

1. Turkey
2. England
3. Germany
4. Italy
5. Russia
6. France
7. Austria

too many austria deaths...

I'd be curious to see the stats on how often each country wins/loses. Since the DB schema is open source, I could write a quick script to figure it out if I can get someone like TGM to run it....

@FK - i've seen it before, so someone already has those numbers. just can't remember who, but maybe TGM.

1. France
2. Germany
3. England
4. Turkey
5. Italy
6. Austria
7. Russia

I have actually won a couple of times as Austria, but been defeated more times than that. Austria is so vulnerable, early on, and if Russia and Turkey ally, you're dead.

I hate playing as Russia. Your huge size early on just means you have lots of potential enemies, because you border so many areas on the board.

On the other hand I get really excited when I draw Germany. With a bit of luck, and a siver tongue, three builds in the first year can be yours

And obviously France has a huge strategic advantage early on, so has to be number one.

1. Austria
2. France
3. Germany
4. Turkey
5. England
6. Russia
7. Italy

@ Parallelopiped: "4) Iceland - some of the advantages of both Switzerland and Syria without the central position of the former or the adjacent tasty supply centres of the latter"

Yes, but of course if someone captures Clyde, you have a problem.

1 England, The Beatles, NHS, the BBC, Tolerance, Shakespeare, Green and pleasent countryside etc, etc etc.
2 Russia - A big place to get lost in, funny looking turrrets on their buildings
3 France - Cheese and Wine, has to be in everyone's top three
4 Germany - Beer
5 Australia - shared language, some of my relatives live there.
6 Wales - had some good holidays there when I was younger
7 Italy - somewhere I'd always wanted to go to but never got around to.

"Yes, but of course if someone captures Clyde, you have a problem."
I'm not sure that anyone except the current implementation of Webdip actually considers Iceland to be part of the Clyde territory. Even with the recent collapse in the economy I'm not sure that the west coast of Scotland can claim ownership of Iceland (Under Sweyn and Canute, of course, both Iceland and England were under Danish/Norwegian rule but it's difficult to claim that this made Iceland part of Clyde).
It's a bug, pure and simple and I expect it to be prioritised by one of the mods.

well when greenland explodes, iceland will become atlantis, so clearly it should be #7

Egypt is my number 2

1) Germany- Contrary to djbent's belief, Germany is the most versatile and daring of nations. You have your hands in so many metaphorical pies, its awesome, able to effect the entire board, unique creative openings, fun defence, excellent diplomatic opportunities.

2) Russia is a beast. Its like playing two countries, one in the North and one in the South that are forming a giant pincer movement against Europe. Again you have a good reason to talk to everyone on the board. (Even France. Especially France.) and you can balance a conservative game on one side with an aggressive one on the other, or just bowl everyone over.

3) Italy is the most challenging country on the board. Keeping everyone in balance and still getting off to a quick grow requires some finesse. Certainly not the most successful country, but alot of fun if you like the challenge. Again alot of reason to talk to alot of people.

4) England. England is an easy game to play, its kind of interesting trying to fine tune defensive fleets with offensive armies, and striking the right balance. Placed against highly defensive France and Germany, making gains is tricky, but its easy to play them off against eachother and push for the win over both of them.

5) Austria. I haven't played Austria in a while, but Austria doesn't rank up with the other central powers because of lack of versatility in openings. A good Austria needs to play a cautious game, and a move to Galicia is pretty important. Attacking Turkey is annoying because you need fleets and it takes forever to get them from Trieste, so you need help. I don't know why everyone complains about Italy though, never been attacked by them in all my time as Austria.

6) France. I have never lost while playing as the French, but that doesn't mean its not a lame game. The defensive position means you need to do alot of things wrong with your defensive game to get eliminated early, so I often end up just waiting around for one of the eastern powers to stab Germany so I can get in on a draw. If you get out to an early lead and Italy isn't paying attention it can be a cake walk.

7) Apparently my most successful nation, Turkey. Lack of versatility means I have to play the same defensive system that slowly grinds away at my neighbours. It is said that Turkey should never be able to solo because of stalemate lines, and I don't like hoping everyone is an idiot and lets me win when I play a country.

@centurian - that could be. i feel like with germany you have to make more of a commitment early on, but there is definitely a case to be made that it is more flexible than italy.

1. France
2. Germany
3. Turkey
4. Russia
5. Italy
6. Austria
7. England

1. Italy
2. Russia
3. Germany
4. France
5. Austria
6. Turkey
7. England

1. France
2. Germany
3. England
4. Tyrkey
5. Austria
6. Russia
7. Italy

I might knock Russia up some places if playing f-t-f. But it is hard to get it to work. Some say Italy is a strong nation but I don´t know. I always seem to get stuck at best... It is tricky to win with England but if you have a good position in 1903 you should be able to guarantee your place in a Draw. in contrast to for example Austria & Germany.

1. France
2. Turkey
3. Italy
4. Russia
5. Germany
6. Austria
7. England

1. France
2. Italy
3. Germany
4. Turkey
5. Austria
6. Russia
7. England

1. Russia
2. France
3. Italy
4. Austria
5. England
6. Germany
7. Turkey

1. germany
2. france
3. austria
4. russia
5. england
6. turkey
7. italy
germany has tons of options, and no real enemy's at the start. france is like germany, but a better defense. i like the defense of austria later on, my problem is that it's hard to survive that long. russia is powerful, but the trick is to not appear imposing. turkey and england i haven't played much. italy i played a little, then learned my lesson.

1 France.
2Turkey
3England
4Russia
5Germany
6Italy
7Austria

1 England
2 Russia
3 Germany
4 France
5 Italy
6 Austria
7 Turkey

1. Italy
2. Germany
3. France
4. Russia
5. England
6. Austria
7. Turkey