So, where is Austria going to retreat too? Bohemia, Silesia and Budapest are the options. Budapest being a more conservative perhaps anti-turkish move. Silesia being bad for the Germans but perhaps with an anti-russian spin and bohemia being against the Italians, and less anti-german (but still anti-german) than silesia. It is also the one most favoured by Russia.
Small moves like that matter.
Speaking of the potential anti-German moves from Austria... up till now I've been pressing home the point that players should try to help the odd man out, that way they keep the other side without making progress. But all you really want is turmoil in the other sphere. An easy way to do that is to maybe collapse Germany *faster*. Maybe England gets all the centres, maybe France does. Maybe you swing one way to help entice the other into a stab. Maybe you just make everybody think you are working with someone, but you are actually just raising suspicion.
Major A/T priority: rushing the Ionian and beyond. France only has two fleets in the med right now, and thats not enough. But if you wait, the med will surely get bottlenecked. What creates med bottlenecks faster? Peace between England and France of course. Work the phonelines.
Russia, try offering for the stab again. Your position in Galicia afford you options. Perhaps you can help Austria take Rumania and Bulgaria this turn? Maybe you will offer unconditional support to Turkey for the meagre price of him moving his fleet to sevastapol rather than an army. Allies are often loyal, so on a toss up they will usually stay with their guy. But most players can't pass up a good deal. Taking the good deals is what wins people games. Making good deals is what keeps people in them.
Italy, you are basically sort of dead. But that doesn't mean you can't still play a part. Think about stalemate positions. The water around Italy is going to form a large fleet bottleneck. If you become a critical part of that line, you might not only survive, but you could get in on a draw. The best place to hide? Tunis. Talk to France and Turkey.
England, you need to bring France round. Who is he working for? Himself? Or the alliance? I notice that Burgundy cut support at Ruhr, rather than Munich, Both of them would have won your alliance a centre, but France cut the one that was supporting the centre we was going to get. You need to get armies in Northern Russia or Central Germany asap or risk being pushed to the side by a more dominant France.
Turkey, France's move to the Med might have just cost you the win. COUNT 18. Where are you getting your 18 win centres from? Not Austria? Fine. Turkey, bul, rum and sev make six. Maybe Tunis and Naples makes 8, Moscow and Warsaw make 10. Turkey's basically can't take St Petersburg if England is alive because its too easy to hold. If France stalemates the west med, you won't be able to expand past tunis. So where are your next eight? Ignoring Austria's centres the next ones would munich, berlin, kiel, denmark, holland, belgium, marseilles and paris. Thats quite the circle. It also assumes Austria doesn't expand anymore and takes none of those centres for himself.
What does this mean? If you plan on winning this game you need to gain access to the Iberian centres and you need to push past Gibraltar into the Atlantic. OR you need to stab Austria. Either way you are going to want France's progress slowed down to a crawl.
beginner questions
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