Russia and Austria are terrible in most gunboats that I've played on this site. President Eden had a thread where he claimed Austria was the best country for gunboat - it probably is - if Italy isn't new. It Italy is, then he's going to go for Austria like his life depends on it, in which case Turkey is going to mop up the pieces fairly soon, and there's really nothing you can do about it. With Italy diving into Austria, he keeps building armies, and given Russia's position and the fact that he can easily force himself into BLA, add the fact that eventually one of Germany or Russia is going to come for you invitingly empty StP and Warsaw eventually, and you have one unplayable country. The above is an analysis merely of the gunboat live games on this site, of course.