Step 1 is the tricky one . . .

Getting an alliance with both of them is better. I find that I get stuck in St. Pete with the Western Triple, usually a well timed stab of Germany so long as France is on your side.

The big thing is getting four or five fleets. Once you control the surrounding waters, you're okay.

1)France is more useful than Germany to you, though both is best.

2) getting a second army early is vital

3) If you're taking St. P, try to do so with an army - it gives you more options.

4) Sweden is the key to Scandinavia. If you can get that, you're set in the north.

Try not to have more than 4 fleets since you can't advance inland without armies. Fleets can take costal SCs, but then it's hard to move them out and replace them with armies.

Getting an army on the continent is vital if you want to force people to pay attention to you and not just keep you floating around the northern waters with your Richard Nixon in your hands. Once you're able to get armies in SCs on the mainland (Brest, the Lowlands, Denmark, ect.) you can use your armies and fleets in tandem to make some serious gains without having your home dots fall prey to other powers.

Don't try and go for broke in 1901 and try to put an army in Belgium. It usually doesn't end well for England. Use your fleet in London to buy an ally. Create a 2 v 1, but don't play your hand until 1902. Usually an army build will serve you better than a fleet build in 1902, as it makes you practically untouchable (moreso than any fleet would)

^I agree, having your convoyed army bounce in 1901 will certainly set you back a step, and prevent a build in London. You usually need to have an agreement with somebody or just see an opening, but if you don't have armies on the continent going into the midgame I think you're making a mistake.
I think whenever England has a free build he should seriously consider building an army to convoy to the frontlines. It helps in the long term and asserts your influence over more dots on the board. While it is important for England to maintain naval dominance around its island, your enemies won't be able to throw fleets at you if you're fighting the armies of you and your ally.

England is virtually impossible to kill as long as they have an army on the island.

I agree with uclabb England is a great power to play because it's three home SC's are by far the hardest to access on the board , Turkey benefits from this to some extent as a fellow corner power however turkey is so often cannablised by its three neighbors. The trick with both corner powers is getting the three neighbors to act against each other. I find that they are much easier to play and you can effectively communicate with the whole board in order to achieve what you need. For instance England does well to convince Turkey to turn on Russia therefore diverting Russia's attention South and keeping Russia armies out of Scandanavia.

How to play England well:
- be in good relations with France, Germany, Russia at the beginning: which mean France will not opet to EC and will not build 2 fleets, Germany will build armies only, Russia will not open north in exchange for England taking Norway with fleet. Secure Belgium for yourself, and build 2 fleets.
- do whatever possible ally with Germany who must promise not to build fleets and create your long term goal, to seal of western part of the board for English fleets only. That mean control of the Gibraltar and St.Pet.
- go after France as soon as possible, take Portugal and seal of west weak point
- in surprise attack take St.Pet and secure eastern weak point.
- now you are in charge and your ally Germany is your hammer for next step....winning the game for you.

Some of the steps are harder to achieve, but in most games everything is doable.

Interesting. Dejan is really good, and so are guys like uclabb. However, in the last couple SOWs, the professors have really emphasized that England needs to get armies into the continent early in order to have a chance to win, whereas Dejan is arguing for fleets early to secure the corners before going for the center of the map.

There is more than one way to beat the game. In this strategy (lets call it flank variation) risk for England is almost nonexistent, with good chances for winning. Alternative would be to put armies faster on continent(lets call it central variation), that would slightly improve chances to get win, but also put England in danger of being stabbed from more than one foe. I tried both, and prefer the first one :)

Example of this strategy could be seen in this game gameID=55622 even though I did not won, thanks to great play of martinck1

I agree with Dejan England works for me if i focus on the fleets - at least at first