In some sense, every country in Diplomacy is unique, and playing each one correctly requires appreciating the unique problems that are posed. However, it's fair to say that Italy is probably the least similar to any other power, and so playing it to full effectiveness requires skills that take a while to hone -- it's a difficult country to play. On the other hand, if used correctly, it's probably the most powerful country on the map, and that's why you're seeing the strongest players in the thread saying they love Italy and the weaker players saying it's horrible.
The key to understanding Italy comes down to two geographical facts:
1) [The big benefit] You have more freedom and influence than any power on the map.
Most powers are constrained at the start of the game to think locally; two of EFG will usually cripple the third while two of ART will do the same. So, if you draw, say, Germany, almost all of your resources will be devoted to dealing with England and France despite your proximity to Austria and Russia. However, the balance can be easily tipped by even one or two units from an "outside" power; one or two Russian units in Scandinavia, for example, will not be enough to make Russia a northern power but do mean that Russia can help the early-game EFG to resolve in whichever way Russia prefers.
With Italy, you get this power in both directions. If you do things correctly, you can tip the balance of both EFG and ART in the manner you prefer. You also can have meaningful negotiations with all six powers because you have something to offer them, multiplying your effect. For example, an offer to Germany that you will send a unit to Piedmont in 1902 only if Russia [gets/doesn't get, as you prefer] Sweden in 1901 is very helpful to a Germany who wants an EG instead of EF. The point is, if you do things right as Italy, you have a very good chance to manipulate the entire early and even mid game into being arranged as you see fit, so that you can size up the different players, decide how you want the game to unfold, and then go for it. This is the power that everybody else in the game dreams of, the power that lets you end up crossing all of the relevant stalemate lines, and it's really unique to Italy. Only a northern Russia even approaches this level of influence, but being a northern Russia comes at other costs in the early game that Italy doesn't have.
The best Italian players are even willing to just send one unit somewhere for the negotiating power, because Italy is uniquely capable of this. For example, a single Italian unit that wanders into Galicia or Silesia in 1902 often provides outsized negotiating leverage, and no other country on the map can do this.
2) [The major flaw] You are so far away from almost all of your targets that they will always see your attack coming.
And the downside: the only center you're close to that another player naturally wants is Trieste, and even if you successfully take Trieste, that's usually the entirety of what you can keep in the long-term from a IRT split of Austria. Realistically, you have three theaters of operation:
Austria: a real invasion of Austria involves having mostly armies rather than fleets, which means building up those armies. Austria will see it coming, as will R/T, who already have those armies and so are likely to get there first. Attacking Austria means you will have to leave yourself open to possible fleet invasion from either Turkey or France, because you won't have the units to deal with it.
France: Requires putting pressure on not just Marseilles but really on Spain and then the MAO. Spain is 3 turns away from any home center, and you need at least two units on it. Attacking France requires leaving yourself open to a possible fleet invasion from Turkey and having too few units to deal with even an Austrian stab on land.
Turkey: Also 3 turns away from any home center before you reach Con or Smy, and often you're required to breach Syria first, meaning it's really 4 turns away. Attacking Turkey requires leaving yourself open to a possible fleet invasion from France, and breaching Syria while you're still on 4 centers leaves yourself wide open to Austria plucking centers from you.
Moreover, these theaters are mutually exclusive -- Spain and Smyrna are a minimum of two game years away if you want to reposition, and attacking Austria requires a unique balance of units. So, that's the fatal flaw of Italy -- more so than any other country, you need to be able to predict at least 2 game years out what the map is going to look like. If you get it right, you correctly pick one of these three targets in a situation where your potential enemies are otherwise occupied. But if you get it wrong, you're hopelessly out of position, and even if you *can* reposition, it will cost you several game years to reposition to defend, then reposition again to attack a different target, and no country in Diplomacy can do well by having 3-4 stagnant game years in the early to mid game while everybody else who survives is continuing to grow.
So, the key to Italy is learning to use its great strength to overcome its great weakness. The best Italian players constantly use their influence to arrange and rearrange alliances across the map, and are flexible enough to invade whichever of their neighbors ends up being right based upon how things will develop several years out.
However, a weak Italian player will instead let their course of action be responsive to events around Europe, which often results in a schizophrenic rush to different places without really being able to stay long enough to do anything safely, so that they just stay on 4 centers for 5+ game years and then somebody gets large enough to come swallow them.
Finally, there's a third class of mediocre Italian player who simply has a favorite target and aggressively goes after it from the outset. I suppose in principle that would be correct about 1/3 of the time, although this sort of player most often picks Austria, and Austria tends to end up being the correct target less than 1/3 of the time. But in practice it doesn't work out this way, because without the benevolent guidance of the Italian helping things along, alliance structures have a distressing tendency to change unexpectedly, so that the right decision in 1902 when you start shifting units becomes the wrong decision by 1904 when you're ready to capitalize. You can sometimes make even the wrong target work by simply peeling one unit off the line to influence events in the other sphere, keeping everybody in line. But, it's rare that things will serendipitously fall into place for you. Unless, of course, you're playing one of the other six powers and it benefits a skilled Italy for you to grow...
500 point live game
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