Berlin

Hello,

being relatively new to Diplomacy, I have started playing a number of games as Germany, and encountered a major difficulty in playing this nation which could be described as follows:

The German Fate is in Russian Hands.

With which I basically mean that a Russia which is not willing to keep peace with Germany in the first few years, makes expansion for Germany nearly impossible.

I want to give my reasonings and would apprechiate any comments on it.

Let's assume that Austria keeps peace with Germany, which is reasonable. Also, let's assume that Italy (perhaps after A Ven - Tyl in spring 01) is basically friendly.

There are basically four possible alliances in the western Triangle:

1. EF against G. No doubt - if Russia joins in too, Germany is doomed. With peace at the eastern front, however, and perhaps with some natural support from Russia (because England will plan to invade Scandinavia sooner or later), EF can be slowed down severely.
2. EG against F. If Russia keeps peace and away from the German border, France can be taken within a few years usually. After this (or even earlier, if the possibility arises), German expansion will be towards England, which is rather difficult, or towards Scandinavia and Russia. So it is natural for Russia to guard her western border. However, if Germany needs even a few of her five or six units early on to keep a few Russian pieces in check, Germany will hardly be able to grab more than Belgium and Paris from France. With only seven pieces and Russian danger in the east, it is likely to be swallowed by England in the succession.
3. FG against E. The situation is almost symmetric to the one in 2), but perhaps even a bit more difficult. England will release her grip on Scandinavia as soon as France lands on the Islands, and will therefore make way for Russian expansion westwards. With France swallowing the major part of England and Russia well in Norway and Sweden, German expansion is almost impossible since the natural expansion of both includes Germany. If Russia keeps quiet or is busy in the south, Germany might be able to grab a center in Scandinavia and can then (again) either try to stab his ally France or turn east. The latter is the easier choice, and therefore it is likely that Russia will put pressure on Germany at this stage of the game.
4. EFG alliance. This seems to be rather rare, and dangerous for Germany anyway. If the alliance is stable, it should work well, but that seems not to happen often.

When playing Germany, it seems to be vital to keep Russia busy in the south, especially to generate a Turkish-Russian conflict whenever possible. Cooperation with Austria for an early invasion of Russia seems almost unavoidable.

An ideal alliance structure for Germany thus looks as follows:

England and France at war with each other, none of them making much progress.
Austria and Turkey allied against Russia, with Austria and Italy going for Turkey as soon as the Russian defense is broken.

This makes a quick expansion of Germany into Scandinavia, Warsaw and StP possible, generating the surplus units needed to stab the former western ally and to possibly win the game.

I wrote this just from scratch - I am sure that there are a lot of flaws in the line of reasoning. I apprechiate any comments. In particular, I would like to hear about games with a working RG alliance - is this at all possible?

Pascal.