I usually try and play the board, but in gunboats I always leave the lepanto an option. Trying anything vs. AH without knowing anything about T or R is a recipe for disaster,

I only do it sometimes, when i think i can pull it off...

I usually play gunboats only, my favourite opening recently is piedmont+tuscany+tyrr, showing austria I will not attack him for 100%

I'm sure France loves that ;-)

Bohemian crusher is good.

Also the good old run for Trieste lol.

But I think anti-France openings, paired with good diplomacy, are much more viable than people give them credit for.

Lepanto sucks in my opinion/experience

Rocky lepanto, or anything which reduces the '01 builds of france by 1, or any attack on austria, or blue water lepanto...

@Lando, yes he does, and the funniest in that one, is sometimes, not once, i can get into mars+pied with my armies by 1901 autumn, meaning not just a 2nd build, but that I can actually hold marseilles :) The point is, to make germany and england jump on france too as they see he is weakened. The backside is if germ+england start fighting eachother as they see france is occupied with me.

First of all, I'm clearly no good at Italy in full press. I've let Austria solo in every game that I've started from the beginning, but to be fair those were from my PPSC days where I erroneously thought that strong second was worth playing for.

I've had very limited experience with Italy in gunboat, playing it only once in WTA tournament game last fall. It was actually my latest game as Italy and I have not played it since, but I was happy to finally find some level of success (a draw) by trying a completely new style than what I was used to:

gameID=69813
The opening and early/mid-game strategy was heavily inspired by (shameless stolen from) Lando's work in this gameID=60552

Dunno if this Italian opening has a name but I like it, if your intent is to go for Trieste in the Fall of '02. I prefer to ensure that Austria is already compromised by either R or T in 1901. Building a fleet in Venice year one is the main variant I guess... check it out here

http://webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=90267&viewArchive=Maps

look forward to your feedback, good and bad

Alpine Chicken is my favorite Italian opening, hands down. Yeah, it makes France a little antsy, but if Germany isn't in Burgundy you can just move Ven-Tri and Pie-Tyl.

If Austria is beefing early or looks weak, Bohemian Crusher.

The Lepanto is a sucker bet.

Italy is a tough country to play
the only wins i've seen used this strategy
ally with A-H & Russia & eliminate Turkey
& move west on Spain & Marseilles
attack Austria -H when that ( Turkey ) is about two thirds complete
or Russia
that depends on the diplomacy & tactical situation
but its a "progressive "reduction" in alliance partners in the East
whilst also attacking west

I have never been able to do that ( win with Italy )
I always get wiped out by either the "winners" in the East coming west through the med,
or the "winners" in the north usually France or England coming east through the med

One thing, I think the do you capture Tunis in 1901 with an army or a fleet question ?

I favour using the fleet & using two armies at the top of Italian peninsular

too many times I've seen Italy get the army there & then his fleets are so pressed it doesn't get convoy'd out again.

If the Austrian player wants Rumania and Serbia & you can get Greece in 1901
that's always a good start

so much depends on what A-H, Russia & Turkey do

A-H is just as worried about all his neighbours as anyone else at the start
so if you don't attack him initially it keeps your options open

moving an armies to Piedmont & Venice
is a very safe opening & it will annoy France & delight Germany
because it usually improves Germany and / or England's chances of getting Belgium

if you do move an army to Piedmont in the spring move,
then, depending on how France opens,
then if he can't fix a bounce (eg he has armies in Spain and Picardy not Spain and Burgundy & can have both move to Marseilles ) and it looks like France will probably use army Spain to Marseilles & hope for a bounce with your army Piedmont
then its a "spin the wheel choice" have army Piedmont hold & the French army moves back to Marseilles in autumn 01 is a perfect result,
it means he misses out on a sc for Spain and with an army in Marseilles he cannot raise a new fleet in Marseilles for 1902

I like the one where Italy opens to Ionian.

I like the one where Italy Holds all units to wait and see how everyone else opens.

@Lando: my gunboat has ended, here is my favourite italian opening in practice. I love it when you get marseilles and you have a holder unit right away :)

I mean here: gameID=88001 :D

Looking at rokakoma's game, I can't understand why France would ever let you into Marseilles like that. After that opening move from Italy, why would any France player order Mar-Spa in the fall?

Probably takes a lot of diplomatic effort.

@bo_sox48, this was a gunboat, no diplomacy at all

@Jamie, mainly the best for italy is to have a french army in marseilles by 1901 autumn. It means he will not build a fleet there. So in many cases italy does nothing with piedmont, so instead of bouncing a french unit (for eg burgundy) he lets a french unit into marseilles, resulting he cant build thre.

Also for France moving to spain and losing Marseilles is neutral, since he gets 1 loses 1, but he is in a better position. That's why I needed the second army as well. Othrwise it's useless to get marseilles (It's useful because you can exchange an italian army to an italian fleet, having 3 fleets and 1 army after marseilles is taken back by france)

So the answer is, france can assume I'm expecting burgundy to move to marseilles, so I don't attack marseilles, because I want his unit in Mars. That's whay he empties it, to be able to build there. It's almost always a 50-50% situation. This time it worked for me, other times I bounce.

My favourite game with italy was gameID=82581
Here I also started to piedmont, and as you can see france's objective was to make marseilles empty by autumn 1901, so he can build there. In that case I didn't attack marseilles, I supported spain back, so he get zero builds.

This was a funny game, france had zero builds in the first 3 years! :D :D