oh and another thing, it is CRITICAL you take rumania in year one, even if it means giving up the black sea.. If you get no builds you are screwed

@ccga4 You're saying what to accomplish without saying how. "Make sure you are able to take Norway and Sweden and Romania and make sure you get Austria and the Balkans and make sure you're invulnerable to stabbing and make sure England does not get strong." It all makes sense, I'm not sure that's really advice.

well i guess if you really need to know the exact moves, you would want to go
moscow to ukraine
Sevastopol to black sea
Warsaw to galicia
St petersburg to GOB

Then in fall use sevastopol (Assuming it bounced turkey in black sea) to support ukraine to rumania, and thats how you take rumania?

I put this in the game that just ended, but I think Russia should play a northern or a southern strategy without worrying too much about stp or sev, whichever is excluded by that strategy.

Since Turkey most often goes for the Jugger, I tend to play (About 80%) a northern strategy, opening to stp and fin/both. I move to gal for the bounce or gain, and bounce black sea.

Typically, I can still secure rumania. If gal bounced, I will move with the fleet and let Turkey take the black sea, while moving war to ukr. If gal didnt bounce, I will support it in.

In the north. you almost never can bounce England in norway, so dont try. Go to finland.

For builds, the key is not to build another fleet sev, as that will kill relations with Turkey. If you have two builds, Im partial to a mos, f nc stp. If only one build, I build a mos. Clear signal to germany you want to work with him. And Germany will likely have be focused on the netherlands, at least with his armies.

Beyond these opening moves, everything depends on the board. Indeed, even autumn 01 depends on whether the turk is armenia.

If you propose specific opening boards, I can suggest what I would do. But like you, I admit that Russia is my hardest country in boat.

my southern stategy open is as ccga suggests. In the fall, I supp ukr to Rumania and again war-gal.

The most interesting northern open, that is never expected, is the anti german. I play this about 10% time. When I do it, I have noticed a decrease in english armies, as they tend to recognize that I am proposing to treat germany as the northern austria, and E and F are already positioned for an alliance. E tends to be willing to focus on G, and after taking G, is more likely to go against F than you.

war-sil, mos -war, sev s ank - bla, stp - bot

Then, if germany is in kiel, obviously take sweden. If not, ignore sweden and move to baltic. It will weaken germany and create builds in 1902.

If france is in burgundy, either support him to munich (my preference) or move to berlin, depending on how you are feeling. If he gets munich, he will support you to berlin.

My typical opening as Russia is either:
F StP->GoB
A Mos->StP
A War->Ukr
F Sev->Bla

or

F Stp->GoB
A Mos->Ukr
A War->Gal
F Sev->Bla

Depending on north or south.

Let me introduce a *new* Russia opening in gunboats.

Spring:
Warshaw->Galicia (bounces with austria)
Moscow->Ukraine
StP->Bothnia
Sevastopol->Black Sea

Autumn:
Ukraine supports Warshaw->Galicia
Sevastopol takes Rumania (assuming Turkey knows he must attack greece)
Bothnia->Sweden

New build in Warshaw

The upside of this opening is, you can create a stable line of defence by next spring:

Rumania moves back to Sevastopol
Ukraine->Rumania (galicia supports)
Warshaw holds Galicia

This position cannot be achieved faster if you open "traditionally" by taking rumania from Ukraine, because in that case taking Galicia is impossible anymore.

By holding both galicia and rumania, Russia can achieve a stable position on the south, while you can give StP to england if needed. The only way to continue is to help Turkey to Serbia, or attack budapest. This makes it impossible for austria to leave greece with his fleet, hence Turkey cannot be Lepanto-ed anymore.

The downside is, it is a bit risky opening, as the first 3 phases must work out.

Russia, heh. In my last Russia game, I had to destroy one in 1901. Turkey and Austria opened against me, Germany opened east, and England convoyed to Normay and was in the Barents in 1901, for good measure.

in gunboat it makes sense to open to silesia. go hard, it's gunboat :-)

Go hard boating indeed. Historically, the very first boats of any kind were warships. Fishing and point-to-point travel came later.

I largely agree with roka here. The only times I've had success with Russia in gunboat is when I'm able to curtail any kind of Austrian attack. If Germany and England both attack, you're typically screwed. If Turkey attacks, take him down with you. Austria is the only one that you can actually control.

Never go for 4 builds. Or rather, if you never had a 4 build start, get 4 builds. That shitstorm will teach ya.

I am playing a GB Russia started a 4 build game, turkey and Austria left.... No way I could defeat him.... Just trying to survive now...