Russia: If you get off a good start, Russia become near-unstoppable with momuntum. With a back to a game board edge, great offensive ablities, access to both Northern and Southern waters. It's quite scary.

i pretty much hate austria, way to vulnerable early on, every game i play they're the first to go. i like playing as turkey and france, as they rarely get double teamed early on. germany is pretty fun too.

i have to say england. as long as france doesnt stab you almost no one can even come close to you. within a few phases the seas are dominated by you and no one has even a chance to stop you

wow, even i dont exaggerate that much...no one can take you on after a few phases? in almost any game, a country be beat after a few phases, unless they were bordered by CD countries...

Russia, in games with other new players hehe, ive won both of them :) its nice n easy to get a good alliance straight away. I've heard its a lot tougher with more experienced players tho because they often gang up on russia

What we should do when Kestas gets the system to accept Country choices is set up a game where everyone has their favourite country i.e.
Austria: me
England: N00bzorz pwnage
France: iMurk (possibly)
Germany: ?
Italy: ?
Russia: Airborne or Biddis
Turkey: iMurk (possibly)

I like playing whichever country I haven't played in a while. I think Turkey feels the most scripted out of all of the countries so I'm usually not too excited about that one and Austria is just hard even for the best diplomats, but other than that I guess I like all the countries =)

and in response to your first post, OMGNSO, 'if austria doesnt get blitzed' lol every game ive ever been in austria gets blitzed

Who was playing Austria?

I don't know why everyone beats down on Austria so much. If you have a sane Italian and at least one of Turkey or Russia is incompetent, then you are Golden.

My first four games as Friendly Sword were all Austria's.

I managed to either win or draw (with15-17 centres) all of them.

Its all about being super press-intensive from the get-go, and being the FIRST to talk to everyone.

Also, you must be willing to react to percieved threats.

If you can't do either of those as Austria, or if Turkey and Russia are buddy-buddies too early, or if Italy is a nutjob, then yeah, you're doomed.

haha, I admit, alot of qualification, but seriously, Austria is not nearly as weak as everyone makes it out to be.





As for my favourite power, I kind of like all of them, but I have a special place in my heart for the Germans.

Occupying a central, vulnerable position, the Germans are nonetheless in an excellent defensive position to protect from any direction, have several options open to them essentially the entire game, and do not require any power to be necessarily defeated for them to win.

Personally, my favorite is Germany as it allows for the best choices of allies. Germany can be a part of an alliance with pretty much anyone on the board (except Russia and Austria-since you just get subjected to a pounding from France and England while they decimate Turkey). You just have to be able to identify an adversary early on and sell the attack plan to the rest of the board.

I've just won my first game as Austria. They are really not that bad.

The list is now:
Austria: me
England: N00bzorz pwnage
France: iMurk (possibly)
Germany: Friendly Sword or Crazy Anglican
Italy: ?
Russia: Airborne or Biddis
Turkey: iMurk (possibly)

To have a complete list of players we would need 1 person to either choose France or Turkey (iMurk is currently in both) and an Italian.

France is a beautiful place...Turkey is rather boring to play with, but it im still happy when i get it. So France is my favorite. It proves to be a more interesting game in my experience.

My favorite country keeps changing - first Turkey, then Germany, and recently France, although it's because I'm about to score my first solo victory. Also because phpDip placed me in so many French games as opposed to just about any other country...
I hear Edi Birsan plays a good Austria during tournaments?

Turkey is by far the worst country to playon the board. They are boring, few opening moves, easily stalemated and they can only win through others incompetence. That is I'm sure of. France is also boring.

I'll vote for Italy because they often make for an interesting game. Russia can be really interesting as long as you get some momentum going.

nobody wants to be italy. the country preference system does not work :-)

alamothe: I seriously hoped you didn't see Centurian's post before writing that.

The full list is:
Austria: me
England: N00bzorz pwnage
France: My_name_is_mud or Kwkak37
Germany: Friendly Sword or Crazy Anglican
Italy: Centurian
Russia: Airborne or Biddis
Turkey: iMurk

All we need now is for Kestas to finish the preference system.

Perhaps we could also have a game where everyone must play as their least favourite country. Mine is Russia because it is too exposed to its ally over the long term and vulnerable to stab.

Italy, England, France, Turkey, Germany, Russia, Austria in that order.

Austria seems to be getting a bad rap. Yes, you're right at the crossroads, but a little diplomacy goes a long ways. I got saddled with Austria in a disportionate number of early games and managed to win quite a few of them. Of course, now that I'm entering more challenging games it's getting harder, and more interesting.
With limited experience, I think France and Germany are the most interesting because the range of options seems greatest.

Btw, we aren't getting a country preference system. We will never get one. We are however getting a more complex equation to even out the countries you play. So if you have never had England before, it becomes increasingly more likely you will.

Aww, you are such a buzzkiller Centurian. Let the kids have their fun.

I love the French...they have easy land targets of Spain and Portugal, also possibly Belgium. If the Germans are neutral they can invade Holland and the Germans and Italians are then vulnerable. I also like Austria because they can invade the Balkans and attack Italy. I also like both of these colours.