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Does Turkey HAVE to put the Fleet into Con on S01 or can he get away with building a fleet there ready for S02?

That's an excellent question. I'm going to assume you mean the Lepanto opening moves that Austria and Italy use to take down Turkey, usually involving a convoy to Syria.

If you look at the first image on https://imgur.com/a/87ywnSZ, you can see Turkey has no chance to truly stop the Lepanto. They build a fleet in Smyrna and can prevent a move to EastMed, but not to Aegean (since Austrian support is expected). Alternatively, Austria could move Greece to Aegean while Italy moves to EastMed, of which you can only prevent one. Turkey is in trouble.

Look at the second image though https://imgur.com/a/87ywnSZ. Turkey has a fleet in Aegean and builds another in Smyrna. Nonetheless they have to guess correctly every turn whether Italy moves to Eastmed, or to Aegean with support. If Russia is 100% on your side though, R/T have some good moves available if you factor in Rum-Serb, Sev-Rum S BLA.


In conclusion, you cannot stop the Lepanto with tactics alone. If Russia is fully on your side, you can have the upper hand but that puts Turkey completely at R's mercy.

The best way to prevent the Lepanto is with diplomacy. Tactically, my strategy is to make sure Italy gets nothing from the attack while Austria takes Bulgaria. This will hopefully upset the balance enough that one of A/I stabs the other.


I've added a bonus image on https://imgur.com/a/87ywnSZ (third one). By swapping Con and Sevas (which is madness), the Lepanto is stopped. However, Bulgaria can still fall. The seas are safe for now though.

Try French units in Pie and WMS. I find that is very wffective in discouraging a Lepanto.

Thank you.

While defending from Lepanto, you rarely can expect to gain Greece or Serbia (with support from Russia). Basically, you play without serious offensive ambitions, buying time so:

a) Austria becomes to strong in the Balkans, so Italy stops attacking you and becomes your ally against Austria, or
b) France goes after Italy, so you are left alone
c) Or deus ex machina thinks of something else.

I am not a fan of moving fleet in spring =! into Constatinople, because Russia will have control of the Black Sea. And if it turns out that there is no Lepanto, and Turks leave me as Russia with hold of the B.Sea, I'll attack Turkey sooner than later (instead of Turkey having it's options against Balkans and Sevastopol - both of which are great).

That's a basic reasoning, which you can upgrade at your will.

It's hard to defend from Lepanto, but it can be interesting.

Here is a nice defense from the strongest Lepanto that I've played against: Split as Italy, Xorxes as Austria.

http://webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameI ... #gamePanel

Nikola Maric Eto wrote: ↑

Thu May 28, 2020 8:37 am

...
Here is a nice defense from the strongest Lepanto that I've played against: Split as Italy, Xorxes as Austria.

http://webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameI ... #gamePanel

Interesting game! I didn't analyse all turns in detail, but I feel it must've been unnecessary to allow Germany a 50-50 at the solo (Tunis) in the end. Still, good defence against the Lepanto!

Yes it was an interesting game, to say the least.

The Czech read my stupid move on Piedmont, which gave us all a majestic endgame of the biggest pot that was ever played on Webdiplomacy, and probably on any site. In my defense, I was hungry at that moment, going to the market. Still remember, we have played those last 3-4 years in one night, it was nerve wrecking!

The best advice to any player that I can give doesn't regard any tactics or strategy. It is:

If there is any possibility, never, never, NEVER play your move when you are drunk or hungry. :)