thanks for the contributons, I have always had a go with Austria,
rather than just be CD from the start, not that i had any success,
but my last effort ( hand the country over to Italy,
by giving him advice as to how to get my sc's & help was no solution )
And I will observe the rule about not discussing any current game in the forum.
as a hypothetical, i figured if i was going to play to get wiped out I should at least
let the other players know my game plan to be polite.
I have similarly played Italy without much enthusiasm in the past and would
not exclude the possibility that I might do so again.
I am over getting upset if other players go CD, even if it is often "unfair" to one or two
players and gives one or two others an "unfair" advantage.
I figure it's a feature of modern webdiplomacy, random CD's, and as it introduces
more anarchy, it provides more opportunities.
play enough games and the "unfairness" evens out.
I had some experiences where all but one player
( invariably the one who got a huge advantage from the CD's )
would vote to draw or cancel, but one holdout would keep the game going,
so I concluded that I just had to learn to play under those circumstances.
And the "learning" point is taken on board,
and I found with Russia that by playing silly games actually taught me some things.
I was a firm 3 south 1 north opener with Russia
had a horror run , kept getting Russia or Italy so I did some daffy things,
tried a 2 north, 1 up the centre and only the fleet south & Turkey went CD from the start
so I got away with it