The key to breaking the Turkish fortress. Often ignored by newbies, critical to defaet the Turks quickly.
Syr - The most unlikly place to go.
There's a province down here?
Blaine Bisanti
bbisanti@shaw.wave.ca
icq : 364156
Almost every player considers Syria to be useless. However, there is a great
opening involving it, the famous (to those who know these things)
Lepanto opening.
Note: The name Lepanto opening is actually used for the Austria-Italy alliance against
Turkey, named after the sixteenth Battle of Lepanto where an Austrian-Italian fleet won
against a turkish one, but I digress..
I have added the alliance moves needed to make the
opening work.
In this scenario Russia and Italy agree to an alliance right away. I ignore F StP since it is irrelevant to the opening
S 01:
Italy:
A Ven Holds
A Rom-Apu
F Nap-Ion
Russia:
F Sev-Bla (this is a stab on Turkey, and it's important that it get in)
A War-Ukr
A Mos-Sev
Turkey:
A Con-Bul
F Ank-Con
A Smy H
F 01:
Italy:
A Ven H
A Apu-Tun
F Ion C A Apu-Tun
Russia:
A Ukr-Rum
A Sev S A Urk-Rum
F Bla-Con OR F Bla-Ank (this is a guessing game)
| Turkey | |
| (Conservative): | Dangerous: |
| F Con-Ank | F Con-Aeg OR F Con H |
| A Bul-Con | A Bul H | A Smy-Arm | A Smy-Con OR A Smy-Ank (guessing game) OR A Ank-Arm (if F Con H) |
This opening backfires if Turkey chooses the dangerous option and Russia guesses wrong, so here I'll assume that Turkey was conservative (if Russia guessed right it's basically the same).
The position is now:
Italy: A Ven, A Tun, F Ion, F Nap (build)
Russia: A Rum OR A Ukr, A Sev, F Bla
Russia's builds are for the northern war, and so aren't included.
Turkey: A Arm, F Con OR F Ank, A Bul, build: F Ank OR F Con
Now, in 02 we see the true glory of Syria:
S 02
Russia:
If it has Rumania:
F Bla-Bul
A Rum S F Bla-Bul
A Sev S A Rum H
Or, if not:
A Sev S F Bla-Rum
A Ukr S F Bla-Rum
F Bla-Rum
Turkey:
A Bul S A Bud OR A Ser-Rum
F Ank-Bla
F Con S F Ank-Bla
A Arm-Sev
Italy:
F Ion-EMed
F Nap-Ion
A Ven H
A Tun H
F 02:
Russia:
Just tries to hold it's position, but probably loses Rum if it ever had it.
Turkey:
A Arm-Sev
F Con-Smy
F Bla S A Arm-Sev
A Bul S A Bud OR A Ser-Rum
Italy:
A Ven H
A Tun-Syr
F Ion Convoy A Tun-Syr
F EMed Convoy A Tun-Syr
After Spring 1903 F Ion-Aeg Italy has 3 on 2 on Turkey and gets Smy!
Turkey falls apart after that.