Austria is tough. You can still negotiate in live games, and negotiate much. If all people do talk, I'd say just play 10min and you are settled.
In reality there are two problems:
- people are deaf, especially in live games. Don't expect to be answered at all by some players. Maybe thy cannot handle the workload of live games and they just won't respond. You will have problems with Germany, too, if people just play deaf-
- Italy. For God's sake it is Italy, and Italy alone. Italy attacks Austria more often than not. If he is your ally, and Germany is your ally, too, R/T get nowhere. Because you can hold the lines vs. R/T if you play the Balkan gambit (which you can seldomly do because Italy attacks you; Tri->Alb, Bud->Ser followed by Alb->Greece; Ven->Gal seems to be the better choice to stand off an attack from Russia.) and let ITaly and Germany attack War/Aeg/EMed. It is not too easy for R/T to overrun Austria if the first year goes right. For that, your burden lies on Italy, Italy, Italy. If you can trust him and he trusts you, R/T will have problems taking you out.
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Looking For A Few Good Players!!! 
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