It don't work. Where would Turkey go?

Key Lepanto is interesting, but very much A/I and not A/I/T right?
I'm thinking about a system that also involves some diploming with the other powers, but I guess Turkey would attack Russia with Austrian support. Italy would attack France with English support. Germany is probably asked to balance the game as he sees fit, either antagonizing Russia with Austrian support or France with Italian support, or simply pick up his neutrals with the support of both.

So, England and Italy both aggress France a bit, by asking bounces in Pie and Eng. Turkey asks for a bounce in Bla and moves to Arm and Bul. Austria would support himself to Gal and Austria and Italy bounce Rom-Ven, Tri-Ven. With Rom surely to be stationary, Italy moves Nap-TyS to show his friendliness to Turkey and then supports Rom into Tun if everything is safe up north. Austria then takes Rum, because Russia is under too much pressure in the south and Turkey moves to Greece.

I don't think it'll work. A/T even seldom works. Turkey's too much behind the lines, gaining little or no progress once MOS is taken, and Austrian or Italian centers close and for the taking. Last but not least, Turkey needs to eliminate Italy in order to have a chance at winning.

Italy should move F TYS-TUN, and use his armies to get/keep PIE (and protect VEN). Right now you're actually decribing a five way alliance, in which France and Russia get screwed by the rest of Europe. The succes of a southern alliance will depend on the succes of an Anglo-German alliance in the north.

in my opinion, italy and turkey are the most natural enemies on the board. there is too much overlap in their optimal growth area.

It could be a good setup for stab if you can pull it off as Turkey. Once Italy gets bogged in the west, you cannot be outflanked by Austria. Definitely better than getting Lepantoed when A/I are allied but given the low prominence of Italian French opening, A/I will usually eat you rather than use you.

So, Turkey cannot do that much, can it? It can either ally up with England to eliminate Russia and hope A and I are getting into a fight, or form Juggernaut. An alliance with Austria doesn´t work, and an alliance with Italy neither.
No wonder Turkey is only that good at gunboat games.

It's not a triple that can easily last into the endgame; you won't see those three end up with a three-way draw, the way you occasionally can see EFG. However, most three-way alliances end up two-way, so the question is really whether all three pairs are possible, or whether somebody gets the short end of the stick.

Seems to me all three pairs are possible - Austria would prefer to partner up with a Med power, but can pick either, while IT have a natural militarized border with Italy in the Ionian, so that an army-based Turkey can work well with an Italy that leaves 3 units in place on a militarized border and moves West.

In other words, yes, it's possible, like most things in Dip, but it's going to fall apart in the midgame. Could you make it work long-term ? Yes, in the same manner as the Western triple: Turkey actually gets most of the gains from Russia, while Austria pushes into Germany, and Turkey ends up as an army-mostly power with fleets in EAS/AEG along a militarized border. But like with any triple, the question is when it becomes a double, and what everybody's chances are of surviving that shakeout.

Well, that was the only "key" move I know...

C'mon, y'all, broaden your horizons a bit. A successful A-I-T can definitely go to a 3-way draw, I'd argue it's not that much less likely than a 3-way E-F-G draw.

If we're going to speak abstractly (that is, assume A-I-T are on-board from the get-go instead of factoring stab concerns, etc.), then Italy runs a Key type opening like dD said, with the object of taking Tunisia and Serbia and building 2 fleets. Austria gets Greece and goes to Galicia while Turkey opens all-out against Russia. The early game is going to see Italy power west in 1902 with 3 fleets and its other army while allowing Austria to take Serbia in 1902, blowing up the surplus Italian army and readying Austria for a 1903 push into Germany. Turkey takes the main role against Russia, assisted by an Austrian army in Galicia. England is the alliance's best friend: the natural counterweight to this alliance is an E-G which sees E+G pressure F hard and also R in Scandinavia. Austria will attack Germany in 1903, but by then France should be totally screwed at sea and the additional land support Germany can provide should be fairly minimal. And if Turkey is making strong enough progress, it can probably get through Russia with Austrian help and into Scandinavia, especially if England's attention is divided with that and France.

The biggest key of all: *know your stalemate lines.* Relying on England to help can be a huge strategic error. gameID=61076 is a great example: A-I-T happily accepted my help, but made the mistake of allowing me into Portugal, thereby finally giving a practical use for the classic minimalist English position (where, assuming F-G-R are dead, Por/ENC S MAO holds the Atlantic and 4 centers with 3 units). Germany is the least-crucial part of the major line, because it's hard to mobilize five units to hold a line there by 1903-04, but Scandinavia only needs 2 and Atlantic only needs 3, and England has the advantage in getting to both, so be careful!

(note: the blueprint in the linked game can work too, but I wouldn't recommend it, the main lesson to be learned from that one is beware those bloody English!)

Thank you PE, that's interesting, I'm going to study this and test it once.

Oh whoops, kind of left off a crucial addendum. Obviously Austria isn't going to trust Italy with a Key-style opening all the time (and Turkey may of course not be comfortable with it either). Absent that, Italy can run a more standard anti-French opening.

The main concept is that essentially, the AIT is an AT that has neutrality toward I as I moves on F. Once the initial targets R and F are gone, A and I can possibly combine on G, but the main lanes of expansion are the Atlantic (Italy), Germany (Austria) and Scandinavia (Turkey) - and while expansion into Scandinavia might not seem like the best prospect for Turkey, the major key is moving early and getting quick, strong position early so you can break St. Petersburg.

Interesting. AIT's first job would be to get into MAO then, before it destroys the northern powers that can build the required fleets.

I think in my proposal above Italy is being underpaid for participation, perhaps he should be in the Ionian Sea rather than the Tyrrhenian, to have some say in who gets Greece (possibly even himself). I'm going to think more about balancing this alliance.