My list of countries in favorite order are:

1. France
2. England
3. Russia
4. Turkey
5. Germany
6. Italy
7. Austria (GRRRR. I hate Austria!)

So, what are yours?

Well I've won with Turkey (x2), Austria, Russia, Germany, so I guess I like them best. But I rarely play with England, Italy and only sometimes with France. I lost more games with Austria and then Russia so I guess I don't like them the best. Yet I've also won with them. Hmm.

France is my fav
all have advantages and disadvantages

worst is austria, though if you do happen to get strong somehow you can win it, since you have a central position

i find turkey is the easiest to play, in the sense of getting a survive/ a decent draw. Not that easy to win with.
I find you get the most wins with russia, but if you played 10 ppsc's with russia, then 10 with turkey, you'd do better as turkey. Also, in wta people can identify you as a threat and look to gang up on you.
England and france are the next best, but very difficult for gunboat.
Germany is also not bad, not great. can die early on, but if u dont u tend to do pretty well.
Austria- almost certain to be one of the 1st to be defeated. but of not, actually one of the easiest to force a win with due it's central position. still, im gutted if i draw it.
italy- euhhhhhhhhhh. Worst for everything.

Hmmn...

France
England
Germany
Italy
Austria/turkey
russia

cool. I HATE Austria. I also get destroyed in 1902 or 03 because I always get stabbed!!!

I also hate Austria. It is terrible!

austria isn't that bad, sure in some games you can get ousted pretty quick but in others you can really explode in a couple moves.

i do like playing as england and russia, though germany is always nice.
don't really have a favorite, and i don't not like any of them either.

I like Austria, but England is my favorite. Russia, however, I definitely dislike

Maybe I'm a masochist, but I love playing as Italy. Germany is a close second, but my least favorite by far is Turkey. I dunno why, but I never seem to do well as Turkey.

I haven't played all that long, but France strikes me the best for winning, and Turkey for surviving.

Hugs and kisses to all seven.

They are all good. It just depends on who is playing the other 6. With good players it is a good game. With not so good players, their bad play could hurt you. You depend on someone else to make a move & they either make a bad move or CD, that hurts.
If we are talking gunboats(my favorite), anyone but England or Russia.
Again it depends on who is playing around you.

Turkey's my favorite. France is my least favorite. I just die constantly as France. Maybe I don't have the French mindset.

turkey, england, France, Russia, Italy, Germany, Austria
Austria... I really don't know how to play it.

I've never played Italy, but it seems painful. The most fun I had was with England. Germany can be huge if you can pick the right ally between France and England. My list;
England, Germany, France, Russia, Turkey, Austria, Italy.

france is strategically the best, but so boring...
england has a good balance of being strong and variable if you play it well.
next italy, for the chaos you can cause if you please, plus the variability in your moves
turkey is so strong, but even more boring than france (at least in 1901)
then germany, for the huge variety of moves
then russia, for its sheer starting power + variety balanced against the ease with which it's ganged up on
finally austria for being shit

I seem to do best when playing Turkey, but that's probably because I keep drawing it. I don't think I've ever played as England, so that'd be interesting for some variety.

My preferences:
Turkey
Germany
England
Austria
Italy
Russia
France

In order from best to worst:

England
Italy
Turkey
Germany
France
Russia
Austria-Hungary

I don't mind boring, so long as I could actually win something :)

I really don't see what people have against Austria?
Maybe it depends who you play against, but I've found that with seasoned players Austria is no longer a bad place to start, and indeed you could say one of the best. Still haven't really got my head around Italy though - had one decent game but that went wrong at the end as well :P

Every time I've played Austria, I've been taken apart, either a slow and agonizing death, or a quick and still pretty painful death.

I manage to do fairly well with Italy and Austria, surprisingly. Or maybe I just repress the vicious slaughters...

germany and then russia, then austria... not fond of italy

Turkey, England, France, Russia

the country that is winning...

1. Italy
2. Austria
3. Turkey
4. Russia
5. England
6. France
7. Germany

1. Turkey
2. France
3. Germany
4. Austria
5. Russia
6. England/Italy

1. Turkey
2. Germany
3. England
4. Russia
5. Italy
6. France
7. Austria (Though on the rare occasion I make it past the first 5 years I've done well and actually have won one but most games you just get jumped on no matter what you say.)

everyone loves Turkey ha?

1. France
2. England
3. Italy
4. Germany
5. Turkey
6. Austria- Hungary
7. Russia

Wow. I'm surprised by how many people like Turkey and Austria!

bump

See threadID=498680. The results were:
"England-5 France-4, Germany-8, Italy-8, Austria-7, Turkey-7, Russia-2"
So it was a tie between Italy and Germany for first, Austria-Hungary and Turkey for second and England for third. Russia came last.

odd. Being Austria sucks! Turkey I don't mind, but it isn't that high up, either. I don't understand the Russian, Italian, or French number.

Austria-Hungary and Italy were the initial leaders. We like challenge at phpDiplomacy/webDiplomacy. :-) Notice also that Germany received its last vote after Italy's and Turkey received its last vote after Austria-Hungary's!