Same. As turkey your main threats are Russia, Austria, Italy.

Austria is looking to expand in any direction he can, would love to see you die and take a corner position.

Italy is a bit constricted, and will challenge your naval power. Would love to see you die and have a secure rear.

Russia generally really just wants a few free SC's in the south and a friendly southern border during the early game. Unlike the other two, he can expand without conflicting with your interests. Russia is so clearly the favorite ally for Turkey, and should only be attacked early if Turkey is confident that I or A is a better diplomatic pair, and can be reasonably trusted.

But I'd never say it's "completely wrong." Each game is its own entity, and if you say to yourself, "well I'm turkey I guess that's a jugg" you're really limiting your options.

again, i am not abdicating the jugg, just the seemed use of it to get out of the corner....@5-6 sc Turkey can start to dictated as opposed to being told what to do

i got these thoughts from an anon source:

Man, what a time to post this. I'm TAing Turkey in the SOW right now, so to be prim and proper I felt like I should PM you rather than discuss what I think of Turkish Strategy in the public forum. Sorry about that.

Recently I've been playing a Turkish strategy of going all out against Russia. With either Con-Bul, Ank-BLA, Smy-ARM or the Turkish Hedgehog of Con-Bul, Ank-Con, Smy-Arm.

-The way I see it is that if Russia sends two north than I outnumber him.

-The fleet in Sev can really only be used against me; especially if he sends three south I MUST control BLA anyways. It's an SC I don't have to fight Italy/Austria over

-If Austria and Italy band together they can eat me for breakfast before I blink. It's essential to have (at least) one as an ally and that makes my third neighbor an obvious outlet for early growth/aggression instead of against them until I have a couple of SC.

-It's much easier to wrestle Rumania away from Russia than Greece from Austria until 1905 or so and I've built two or more fleets south

Those are some initial thoughts at least.

All good points so far

In my opinion, the difficulty of the situation at the start of the game that Turkey is presented with (in classic diplomacy of course) is far greater than is often recognized, especially in the modern game, by which I am referring to how players tend to approach the different nations that they play, the alliances that they form and how those alliances tend to be orchestrated.

Well, Turkey is sort of positioned that way, isn't it? I think it's a reasonable option if you can be sure of non-involvement from Austria and Italy. Especially if Russia goes north, but is then reasonable about Sev (as in, put a fleet there and it's okay for now). Not my recommendation as a general tactic, maybe, but worth keeping in mind if your early diplomacy points to it as an option.

http://www.diplom.org/Zine/F2007R/Burton/statistician3.htm

Table 4 (Mutual Antagonism for Solo Victories) highlights it well. Austria and Italy are Turkey's biggest enemies. Russia is also an enemy, but at the beginning of the game, they are necessary to keep Austria contained.

Of all the fights to pick in 1901, this is by far (IMO) the riskiest. My biggest concern is if Turkey does go full anti-Russia, where does he find an ally who isn't willing to stab him the first chance he gets? Austria is always willing to jump on Russia, but that A/T is an awfully dangerous alliance without some serious trust right off the bat. England and Germany can do some damage, but they can't help you against the likely A/I that would pop up as soon as Turkey moved to Armenia.

The Black Sea is the biggest barrier to any successful invasion of Russia by Turkey and presents a formidable logistical challenge. Not only does Turkey need to take and hold the Black, but he also needs to sacrifice a unit to maintain its security. Can Turkey reasonably expect to take anything past Sev and Rumania without having to deal with at least one of Austria or Italy.

I personally think Russia and Turkey are too symbiotic in the early game to reasonably consider an attack on each other, at least from Turkey's perspective. Much easier to eliminate Austria first and then launching a stab with help in the north than to push your luck in the early game.

I completely agree with 2WL.

Austria would probably rather ally with Russia than with Turkey 7-8 times out of 10. Makes it super difficult to attack Russia as Turkey. This leaves aside how many people play Italy like overly conservative cowards and just ally with Austria and run a Lepanto to fruition because "that's what you're supposed to do."

I also have a pet theory that defending half of the Balkans plus half of Austria is much easier than defending half of the Balkans plus half of Russia. There's just something about how the provinces connect to one another that makes the former arrangement stable and the latter unstable, but I can't place exactly what it is.

Juggernaut should probably be the default plan for Turkey but obviously feel out everyone around you first; if you've got an Italian player who's willing to play ball and/or tension b/t Russia and Austria you can probably afford to do something different. Usual caveats about playing people vs position early in the game applies

Eden brings up a good point; namely, defending Balkan centers vs. Russian centers. If Turkey is committed to a Russian attack and pushes north into Warsaw and Moscow, his units are very exposed and vulnerable unless he also manages to put armies in Ukraine and Sev, which would necessarily leave him with only three units defending his home territory.

Turkey's biggest strength is its easily defensible territory, which lends itself to slow expansion with lots of support and plenty of available reinforcements. Invading straight north and stretching support thin is just not the Turkish game. That might work for Italy running a Lepanto, who can afford to leave one army behind, but once Turkey loses that defensive minded approach and starts taking unnecessary risks, he will inevitably be destroyed.

While I do agree with 2WL. In general, PE makes a great point if you are able to read the other players. This would be easier in non anon but some people are quite adept at reading others through their language.