By Edi Birsan (With thanks to Andy Marshall for EDITING)

From Diplomacy World #94

 

 

 

In a recent game, an upcoming young player did everything he could as Italy to convince my Austria that I should give him Trieste so that he could build two fleets to attack France.  The classic flaw in the approach was that there was absolutely nothing in it for Austria and, in fact, it meant giving Italy something that would weaken Austria and replace a potential Austrian army for an Italian fleet, for nothing strategically or diplomatically useful.  Additionally, knowing that he had already agreed with the French to bounce in Piedmont added an element of incredulousness to the plan.  Diplomatically, there were no indications that Russia and Turkey would be fighting and, in fact, they had agreed to leave the Black Sea open without any talk of attacking the other.  Nevertheless, youth sometimes persists in casting its own illusions around itself and its would-be targets.

 

Openings do not exist as a strict tactical exercise.  They rest within a strategic plan and a diplomatic framework that must be aligned to make everything work.  One of the basic problems with new players is that they ignore those dynamics when they decide on their opening moves and thus will take, for example, a Lepanto approach to things when Austria is NOT on board and there are serious worries about time constraints and Russian intentions.

 

Inspired by these issues, and having just reviewed the history of the Roman expansion into and through Gaul by Caesar and other Romans, here is a full plan for a rather unusual and mutually dangerous opening for the Austrians and the Italians to accomplish Caesar’s Western March. Oddly enough, or if this was not scary enough, this plan can work also in one of the most rare triple alliances on the board:  I-A-T (more on that at the end). 

 

Diplomatic background:

Absolutely critical is that Italy and Austria have to be reliable to each other and of sufficient mutual comfort that they are willing to try to pull this off.  Two experts playing the alliance against a group of mixed veterans and average players is the best background for the play styles that will be needed. Lacking equal expert status then, the Austrian in particular needs to have the highest diplomatic skill for his anticipated dealings with Turkey and Russia. 

 

Further, the relations between the three western powers have to be brought up to a level of chaos-minimally, Germany opening against France directly into Burgundy either as part of the Spring 01 attack or at the least as part of a Fall 01 follow through.  England being in the Channel with hostile intent can also replace the German role in the west.  Both of them going after France is ideal.

 

In the east, Turkey needs to be engaged with the Russians.  Going to Armenia and bouncing in the Black Sea may appear ideal, but as you want the Turks to build an army and go slow, then having them move Smyrna to Constantinople is probably the real ideal.  Slipping into the Black Sea with Russia moving to Rumania may be tempting if there is an I-A-T triple alliance, but a slow deliberate moving Turkey is much better for this plan than an explosive one.

 

Russia needs to be a reactive player in that he is willing to switch sides, and be encouraged or even directed to change his role in the balance of power as the opening game shifts.  This will be critical to the Austrians if they plan to dominate the East as Italy goes to dominate the west.

 

The integration of the Austrian fleet in the western campaign and the Italian army in the northern campaign also opens up a lot of diplomatic options for causing chaos amongst the remaining players as time goes on and for causing the alliance to be considered as less dangerously linked than it is.

 

Strategic Concept:

The idea is to destroy France in the West and get allied fleets into the Mid as soon as possible.  Russia is to be weakened in the East by the Turkish attack, so that the Austrian has the option to put the game into the middle period, by turning on the Turks and bringing the Russian on board (after his southern fleet and Rumania have been lost), so that the Russians become the northern fleet builder and secondary alliance member (alias puppet).  

 

This will tip the western front wars combined with the Fleets breaking through the Mid Atlantic. Russia could also provide the one or two critical armies in the center when the Austrians join in a mass attack on Germany from the east and the Italians move through France to the lowlands and then to England (just as Caesar did).

 

Strategically, the Turks can be brought in by the Italians as a triple alliance (an unknowing client state), being sold on the idea of building armies with the classic division of efforts of Fleet (Italy) vs Army (Turkey) powers, and that, in the middle game, the Austrians will be between them.  This of course gives the Italians a flexible fallback plan if the relations with Austria are not as smooth as hoped.  However, this is what the superior diplomatic skills of the Austrian player are relied on to prevent.

 

Tactically:

Overview: The Italians give up the idea of going to Tunis in order to get a fleet into the Gulf of Lyon in the Fall of 1901.  This is why the Italians get Trieste.  Also, in the Fall of 01, the Austrians move their fleet to the Ionian and shift their armies to the south.  The Austrian fleet then goes from there to Tunis to make up for the loss of Trieste and becomes the third alliance fleet able to force the Western Med in the Fall of 02, under most circumstances.  Additionally as the alliance advances, the Austrian fleet becomes a vital support unit and an alliance insurer just as the Italian army in the East moves up along the German border to the Russian front doing more or less the same sort of thing.  Options: Italy must be in Piedmont in the Spring and has to decide how to play the Fall 01 response to the French opening depending on what it is.  With full hope of getting Trieste, Italy can (if the French are in both Spain and Burgundy) support Spain to Marseilles in the Fall of 01 for the hysterical pulled offsides trick to defeat a self-bounce.

 

If the German is in Burgundy in Spring 01, the Italians could support the Germans into Marseilles with the knowledge that he will be ejected by the Italians in the next move, or he could try for two builds and go for Marseilles himself.  If Italy gets two builds then he builds Fleet Rome and Fleet Naples and plays Fleet Rome to Tuscany in the Spring of 1902.

 

The Details:

 

Spring 1901

Austria - Fleet Trieste to Albania, Army Vienna to Trieste/Budapest, Army Budapest to Serbia

Italy - Fleet Naples to Tyrrhenian, Army Rome to Venice, Army Venice to Piedmont

 

Fall 01

Austria - Fleet Albania to Ionian, Army Trieste/Budapest-Serbia, Army Serbia to Greece

Italy - Fleet Tyrrhenian to Gulf of Lyon, Army Venice to Trieste, Army Piedmont (deals with Marseilles however)

 

Winter 01

Austria - Build Army Budapest

Italy - Build Fleet Naples

 

Spring 02

Austria - Armies Greece/Serbia/Budapest deal with the East Fleet Ionian to Tunis

Italy - Fleet Naples to Tyrrhenian, Fleet Lyon/Army Piedmont deal with Marseilles

 

Fall 02

Austria Fleet Ionian support Fleet Tyrrhenian to Western Med

 

The Dangers:

 

There are mutual periods of danger here.  At the first step the Italians in Fall of 01 could go to Tunis and take Trieste, moving Piedmont to Tyrolia.  However, this would be done at the expense of having to face the Austrians in the Ionian with an army potentially in Greece that could be convoyed into Apulia and other rude places.  Likewise, the Turk, who was on board at the start, has to be clued in that if the Italians double cross the Triple alliance then they have to build a fleet in Smyna and move so that if the Austrians land an army in Apulia or are bounced out of the Ionian they can follow up. There is also a danger that Turkey will go vulture on Austria rather than balance the power relations; this is another reason why Austria has to have a high diplomatic skill.

 

The second critical phase is the Spring of 02 when the Austrians can deliver a devastating stab on the Italians by convoying Army Greece to Naples and moving on Trieste, as the Italians move Army Trieste to Tyrolia.  This has the potential to cripple the Italians, but again, the Turk can play the critical balance role, moving on Greece from Bulgaria and trying to cut a deal with the Russians for peace against an explosive Austrian set of gains.  This is also where the fact of a ‘reliant’ Austrian player is critical to the survival of Italy.

 

The third period of danger is when Austria must decide either to make this a real Triple alliance with Turkey, swinging north and around to Germany (which might work best in a tournament game that ends in 1907-09), or as probably the preferred plan, to attack Turkey while Russia is still around and will become the secondary ally of the Austrians. Bad timing by the Austrians and Italy is in the driver’s seat.

 

The fourth period of danger is the transition in the west.  The Austrians need to avoid having their fleet stuck in a front line corner for too long, such as North Africa, and tempt the Italians to stab as the West collapses faster than the East. The Italians may be getting substantially more builds than the Austrian, in which case the Austrians have to retake Trieste to even things out; this returns the border to an occupied zone of tension.

 

Maybe because of the dangers and the unusual aspects of the opening and its restrictive diplomatic framework, Caesar’s March may be as rare as the original brilliant campaign in Gaul, but there you have it, one more opening for the arsenal.