I'd suggest do you best to create animosity between Turkey and Russia, and foster a good relationship with Italy, by suggesting that in case a juggernaut forms the two of you should stick together.

Though often when T/R are fighting Austria becomes a causality as Italy just goes for austria. So well trying to keep a juggernaut from forming is good, a juggernaut forming and you having italy on your side is better.

F Trieste - Albania
A Vienna - Trieste
A Budapest - Serbia
This is a fairly standard Austrian opening. Talk to everyone. Establish friendly relations. Turkey and Italy are very important.
Disclaimer: I am not, by any means, experienced or professional. I merely offer what I know.

Really? Your grade is based on where you end up? That's fucked up, dude!

You're actually graded by how well you do? That seems pretty shitty. Especially since you're going to be metagamed into defeat, from the sounds of it.

Open with the Southern Hedgehog, tell Italy and Russia exactly what you're doing, get Germany onside and do what damian said.

*Southern Hedgehog:
Tri - Ven
Vie - Gal
Bud - Ser

for reference

Yeah, its either that or you suggest the Lepanto, and try to get Russia to open north. If they're new to the game as you suggest, you can probably convince Russia to do a northern or western opening.

It seems, from the way you introduced your problem, that your classmates aren't experienced diplomacy players. I'd imagine that they would not be familiar with "Juggernaut".

but definitely tell people your moves and earn their trust!

@TS: They might not be familiar with the term itself, or the potency of the alliance, but they'll see Russia and Turkey with pretty big borders next to a reputable Austrian, see all the shiny dots and say "Wanna split it?"

If you are concerned about a possible attack from Italy. Do not do what The Situation proposed. While a very common Austrian opening it requires a good deal of trust in italy. Trust I imagine you don't have. I'd suggest you arrange bounce in Gal with Russia unless you can convince him to go north or west, See if Turkey would want you to help him into Rum.

As Austria you are in bleh spot so try and be everyones friend. Helpful and easy to talk to.

And put your fingers in everything try to make sure the board is playing out right. An english or German attack on Russia is stellar.

I have to agree with Draugnar and President Eden here. To actually grade students by making them play F-T-F diplomacy and give them a grade based on the results of the game is *absurd*. If that's actually the case, you should refuse to participate in the game, demand that the exercise be halted completely, and make an official complaint to the school authorities (the principal, the chair of governors, or whoever the appropriate person is) that your teacher is awarding grades in a bizzare and arbitrary fashion which is not in keeping with proper educational standards.

Ahh, listen to damian and PE. I'm not experienced enough to know what works and what doesn't.

What class is it for? If debate, the teacher is seriously mistaken if he thinks diplomatic arguments are formal debates.

It's for social studies and we just finished learning about WWI. I think that it is stupid that we get graded on what place we finish but it would make me look bad if I complain and I already am in an alliance with Italy and Turkey and France is an iffy. Russia I know for sure is going to attack me and almost every group has one person who plays, but none of them are as experienced as I am(at least not that I know of)

Okay so if Russia is going to attack you for sure. See if You can't spend a bunch of time on Turkey. Offer Rum, and a shot a Sev.
Make sure to Cover Galicia. While you could also go for Rum first turn it encourages Turkey to go for Serbia which is generally a bad idea.

If you think you can trust Italy then the move to Alb is fine. If you don't think so then just keep Trieste where it is. Or see if Italy would be alright with you moving to Ven, since if he's standing still it won't inconvenience him at all.

@KPopRoxMySox: Grading you in this way is beyond ridiculous. First and foremost you have my sympathies. It can't be fun to have to try to squeeze the benefits of an education out of such an incompetent teacher.

I understand your reluctance to stick your neck out and formally complain. Perhaps you could consider making an anonymous complaint?

If everyone decides to gang up on you, it isn't too late. One of your neighbors can take your side by surprise and you and he make huge gains on the other. He'll be "working" with the others for your quick demise but instead tell you what they plan so you both can counter it and make gains on them.

And the other reason for a neighbor to do so is the simple fact that you have a lot of experience and a large target on your back. That makes you dependent on him which puts him in a position of power, while having access to a valuable resource (your experience.)

Good luck!

my european history class my junior year had us play dip and we got bonus points based on how we finished. Not as bad as an actual grade but still a shitty deal if you lane italy or austria.

President Eden is correct; if you are worried about hostile neighbours and just want to focus on surviving the first couple of years in decent shape (and a school game wont lost longer than a few years), the southern hedgehog is definitely your best bet. Just make sure you tell italy that you are poking venice. If he is willing to work with you, he won't mind; it doesn't make a difference. If he is planning on attack you, the poke to venice cripples the standard northern attack

i don't understand how to do this southern hedgehog thing

F Trieste - Venice
A Budapest - Serbia
A Vienna - Galicia
This is, apparently, a very defensive move. It is meant to bounce Russia out of Galicia and prevent him from moving offensively against you.

A common Italian move is:
A Venice - Tyrolia/Trieste
A Roma - Venice
Your attack Trieste will either split Italian armies so they can't support each other into Trieste, or simply stop the attack completely. Generally, you want to let Italy know that you will order Trieste into Venice so that he doesn't take it as a declaration of war or something
The army moving to Serbia is to give you a build.
As you mentioned an alliance with Italy and Turkey, I suggest taking Albania with your fleet in Trieste, and then support yourself into Greece (This is advice I found reading diplomacy articles).

As a teacher....I would lose my job if I did something like this.

i understand moving into sebia and galicia, but how does moving into venice help?

It would leave italy in Tyr/Rom if he tried to attack you. I however thing it's a terrible opening particularly when you fail to discuss it with your allies.

I have an example of why but I can't show you since I would be too tempted to reveal details, and it's a league game

if Italy is against you he will likely move to Tyrolia and Venice... if you bounce him in Venice his armies will be split and can't invade you with support

if Italy is with you then you tell him your doing it and why

If Italy moves as suggested, it keeps hin out of Ven by bouncibg thereby splitting up his armies. If Italy tries to move to Tri, you bounce and neither has the fall advantage over the other.

but i don't know why i'm doing it

It prevents an Italian stab. It is a crappy opening though. Here is why.

gameID=49618

You piss off everyone.

Won't comment further on this game.

They just explained "why." The presumption is that Italy is not trustworthy. If Italy is trustworthy, there's no need to sacrifice Greece. You had originally suggested that you were unsure about Italy, hence the presumption and subsequent proposal of the Southern Hedgehog.

oh..... i thought i said france wasn't....but im pretty sure they on my side now...so should i do two of the three southern hedgehog and then take greece?

@damian: Without commenting too much, I feel like Italy completely changing course was the consequence of either (a) Austria not telling Italy in advance, or (b) Italy getting absurdly, irrationally angry over it, or (c) that the object was to attack Austria anyway. If (a), that's Austria's fault and Austria should know to tell Italy -- it's always good to tell Italy about this opening; if (b), there's not much you can do about it, but I feel like an Italy that was genuinely after France would have just convoyed to Tunisia and continued the attack instead of switching; and if (c), well, better he attacks you from Pie/Rom than Pie/Ven!

The Hedgehog DOES have its flaws, certainly. The fact that it angers people and encourages a 3-way alliance against Austria shouldn't be (and I dare say isn't) one of them.

I'd love to see the AI press in that one. I have a feeling Austria didn't do his homework.

Uh... the Hedgehog series of Austrian openings is based on the move F Tri -> Ven. If you're sure about Italy, you would move to Albania from Trieste, Serbia from Budapest and Galicia from Vienna. That's the Galician variation of the Balkan Gambit.

(If you're REALLY sure about Turkey, you might even support yourself into Galicia.)

A Vie-Tri, A Bud-Ser, F Tri-Alb if you are confident of Italy not going to Tyrolia with a back up to Venice .... this move works quite often and usually gets Austria 2 first year builds as you can support Alb into Greece

Not going to comment further on that game in the forum. Just wanted to point out how badly it can fail.

Come back post game and I might discuss it.

If you feel you can trust Italy, Tri-Alb can be done. But you should always nove to Gal if you feel at all questionable about Russia.

As long as Italy is with you, you are fine with strong tactics. I would focus on being clear to Italy about how and when he/she will be getting gains down the road. Also, if Russia is blindly hostile, support yourself to Galicia and tell Germany you will support them to Warsaw in the fall. Definitely worth it.

Talk to all the other players and get them to vote for a draw during the pregame. That should put pressure on the teacher.

Do a barrel roll.

Barrel rolls are dangerous and should not be attempted by novices.

If you are sure about Italy being your friend, and you like adrenaline, send him this link.
http://devel.diplom.org/Zine/S2001M/Livnat/Orient.html
Meet him secretly and explain every detail of it.
Force him to do it. Persuade him that you are such a great player that if he works with you, you are both guaranteed a 1st and 2nd place (as if such thing existed).
Turkey will be pissed.

Aouch... Austria Hungary when no one trusts you. It's gonna be fun. As Austria Hungary, create wars. First, tell Italy your country is a no go, you're just gonna be fighting without ever winning and, so, he should go west. Then, warn France of a potential Italian attack. Suggest Turkey to make an alliance against Russia, meanwhile, inform Russia that Turkey's gonna attack. Then you can go on with ENG-FRA, FRA-GER, ENG-GER.

The main key is to keep them guessing. If they are worried about everything, will they think of attacking you? After the first year, go against either TUR-RUS or ITA (the one that likes you the less). Then, finish him off, go to the person that likes you the less, etc.

You should do okay following this technique.

Btw, what a sick teacher you have! :D

Good way: Officially complain as someone said.
Bad way: Offer money to other players to go with a metagaming unbreakable alliance and then draw after killing the rest. Nice choice: Germany and Italy.