Matalarata said he'd figure out and join the game today, he was swamped yesterday
Once he does, be sure to confirm your participation in the game within 24 (four) hours!
Look at you all, walking with vibrant voices and glittering eyes that dream of some distant wealth and plunder straight into the lion's maw. Turn back, brothers! For you do not realize that you are about to test your wits against a man so devious and dark, so vile and viperous, that he has at one point in his life actually become fluent in Immanuel Kant. Kant! Why, you ask, still marching forth toward certain doom, still full of hope and wonder, would a man perform such intellectual contortions in order to achieve that frightening feat? Why would he attempt to walk the twisting streets of the great philosopher's moral system until he had memorized it all? Why, to understand it, of course, to grasp it fully and then to excise the moral imperative from his very core and cast it aside as he shall do with your pitiful, broken nations!
You know, if you'd put this much effort into your messages in our Diplomacy games you wouldn't have gotten gangbanged by girls in your last game - I think I remember you playing England like the prestigious gentleman that you are and getting crushed by the gals playing France and Germany
Anyway, while we're waiting for Matalrata here's some descriptions for every country! These are of course my personal views - any game may go off in completely different direction and change things completely, and much better players than me may well see the nations completely differently. General concepts and terms are in bold
Turkey
Turkey is kinda a turtling nation. Excellent defensive position and a guaranteed early gain in Bulgaria, but hard to expand from there. May take it a bit slow early, but has a good chance of ruling the Mediterranean and pushing its armies into Europe through Austria or Russia. Turkey has an incredibly strong ally in Russia, and that alliance is called the "
Juggernaut" in Diplomacy jargon. Basically, the two of them can easily run over Europe unless pretty much everyone else drops what they are doing and opposes them, so their alliance often uses fake clashes to disguise itself. On the other hand, Russia and Turkey have a difficult border that is bound to spark tension, especially around the Black Sea - one of those two powers getting a fleet into the Black Sea gives a huge advantage over the other.
Russian and Turkey will often have an
arranged bounce there - i.e. both order their starting fleets to move there by agreement, bouncing and keeping it empty.
Of course, Turkey doesn't have to ally with Russia - early on it can probably bring down Russia on its own with a well-timed attack since Russia has multiple fronts to worry about. An alliance with Austria is unlikely to last the whole game but gives both nations a safe flank early, which is very valuable. Relations will always be strained with Italy unless Turkey agrees to limit its fleet builds, in which case that alliance can work very well too, with Italy having a safe flank in the sea and Turkey marching its armies onward with their naval support.
Russia
Russia is the only nation with 4 starting armies and centers - all others start with 4 instead. It shares the advantage of being able to build fleets both in the ocean to the north and the Med sea with France, albeit in sub-par positions.
Remember, you can only build new units in the centers you start with. Anyway, RUSSIA STRONK! This can be a double-edged sword though, as players may become worried as you quickly climb to 5+ centers.
Also, the Russian position in the north is very tenuous unless you focus heavily on it and depends on whether the
Western Triangle nations (England, France, Germany; there's also the
Eastern Triangle - Russia, Turkey, Austria; Italy is kinda the swing(er) nation) are busy enough with each other to ignore Russia or use it as a minor ally, since both England or Germany could obliterate its north forces if they concentrate on it while Russia concentrates elsewhere. Russia will have to look to its south and find an ally there as well. Fortunately, Russia pairs well with both Turkey and Austria - the only problem being that Russia is large and flexible and usually benefits
more from either alliance, which may mean your ally will stab you sooner rather than later.
That can be resolved by keeping parity in conquered centers between allies - the path to a fruitful, betrayalless alliance
Austria
Austria is the high-risk high-reward nation. It's by far the most likely to be eliminated early, being in a central position with at least three neighbors eyeing it, but if it survives it has a prime central position to expand with short supply lines in any direction it wants, in an area very rich with supply centers.
Surviving those first few years is tough, and you have to find a firm ally among your neighbors. It helps that if Russia and Turkey obviously team up against you you can scream "Juggernaut!!!" and some players may actually listen
Austria usually works closely with Germany, since they are neighbors but both have problems of their own to resolve in their respective Triangles. If you read some of the strategy guides for Germany, you may find advice like "tell Russia you wont let him into Sweden on turn 2 if he moves into Galicia on turn 1" and such to help keep Austria alive, from a German perspective, so there's a good chance that you can count on Germany to have your back as Austria. Or not, who knows!
Generally, Austria will use the army in Budapest to grab Serbia on turn one and the two other forces to defend, possibly with an arranged bounce in Galicia with Russia. If you trust Italy a LOT, you can go ahead and move your fleet from Trieste to Alb to contest Greece on turn 2.
Italy
From what I've read, there are two schools of though for Italy: about half of the players think you should ALWAYS attack Austria, and the rest say you should NEVER attack Austria
Attacking Austria early encourages Russia and Turkey to go ahead and grab their piece, making your piece small and leaving you next to two powerful nations without a buffer state. On the other hand, not attacking Austria early often has you just grab Tunis (often by convoying an army there via the Ionian sea - holding that sea is crucial for Italy) and then stagnate: it's hard to attack Turkey to the east with ships when France could pounce on you at any time, and going for France will let Turkey just waltz into your centers with his fleets. On the other hand, Austria makes an ideal ally in that situation - help him fight Turkey and then rush to meet France in the west! Of course, Austria will be in prime position to backstab you if you do that.
Italy is a nation with a potential for remaining a mediocre power due to stagnation and a nation of tough decisions - only a couple of turns lost moving your fleets east or west can mean your death. On the other hand, it's the prime naval power in the Med sea and has a central position, no real threats, and generally everyone is happy to request help or ally with Italy at the start.
France
France has a pretty decent position and some guides recommend it as a good nation for noobs. You get two pretty much guaranteed builds in the first year in Spain and Portugal using the fleet in Brest and the army in Mar (that is if Italy is not up to any crazy attacks against you), and can even contest Belgium with your Parisian army. However, unless you trust Germany a lot, it may be smarter to arrange a bounce in Burgundy just to make sure a German army does not sneak into your lines. If you grab those two centers in your first year you can hold out fairly well even if Germany and England decide to gang up on you. Not forever, but long enough for help to arrive form the east or Italy.
In general, having an enemy army move in behind your front line is a huge pain, since eliminating just a single army behind your lines takes a hugely disproportionate force, at least 3 of your own units usually. This is because while you can dislodge that enemy army and force it to retreat, it can still keep retreating and cutting support or taking centers from behind your line until you actually corner it and destroy it (a dislodged - attacked by a unit with more support - army is destroyed only when there is nowhere left to retreat).
In any case, France has the very nice advantage of being able to build fleets both in the Med and in the north - and in much better and more forward positions than Russia. Balancing when you will build armies vs. fleets and whether you want to concentrate north or south is tough however, and mistakes can cost you the game
Germany
Germany shares the advantage of a central position with Austria but without the horribly precarious earlygame position. Russia usually has the south to worry about and is keen on good relations with Germany to secure its northern holdings, and Austria is happy to see someone that's not thinking about killing them. That usually lets Germany focus on its west at the start of the game, unless you choose to go for a risky early attack on Russia. However, by midgame Germany will probably be surrounded by strong powers to its east and west, and in a slightly more exposed position than an Austria that survives the earlygame crucible.
Standard opening moves for Germany are moving the Kiel fleet to Denmark and then threatening Russia to bounce him in Sweden if he goes for Austria, and grabbing Hol with the other armies. You can contest Belgium if you like as well, but that may be pushing it.
By standard opening moves I mean those most commonly suggested based on the strategy articles and my experience - but this does not mean that other moves are not possible, or clearly better in some games. As Diplomacy players are fond of saying in strategy discussions: It's situational.
England
England, like Turkey, has a good defensive position but can easily get "stuck". As long as you can hold the North Sea province you are pretty safe - although arranging a
DMZ (demilitarized zone) in the English Channel with France is smart. Of course, you could move there yourself right away, but that leaves it up to Germany to decide who to support - you have shown your hand are are committed. The same hold for France and the Eng channel as well. Grabbing it on turn 1 is a strong move, but leaves your fate in the hands of Germany and who it chooses to ally with.
In general, DMZs mean that either side entering that province means war. There's no wrong way to play, but the way we did it was not so much making deals that you promise not to break, but rather saying "either side not holding to this will constitute war". The situation changes too quickly in Diplomacy to make long-term deals easy, like the NAPs used in Dominions 4. Not impossible though, and whatever playstyle you think is best/suits you the most is the way to go
Anyway, England will normally grab Norway by moving fleets to the North Sea and Norwegian Sea (to have support available if Russia moves the Moscow army to St.P and can potentially block a lone English fleet from taking Norway) and then either convoy the army to Norway (usually seen as anti-Russian) or take it with a fleet, perhaps contesting Belgium with the army and other fleet.
After that it's easy as England to get stuck taking bits of the northern coasts here and there and not doing much else. To prosper, England will eventually have to both get armies to the mainland and breach the Med sea - not an easy task while keeping France and/or Germany happy. In fact, because England is likely to have naval dominance in the north and thus is likely able to backstab their German or French ally with impunity, France and Germany are sometimes reluctant to ally with England. This is balanced by the fact that even a joint attack by France and Germany on England is slow and painful if the English defend tenaciously, and the delay may leave France and Germany behind their eastern opponents in tempo.
Of course, a careful arrangement of relative fleet strengths makes alliance with Germany and/or France perfectly possible for England - just slightly more complicated than usual.
There you have it, I hope that helps or at least makes for a semi-interesting read