Italy has always been one of the harder powers to play in Standard Diplomacy. It is made difficult by only having one natural neutral center to take in 1901: Tunis. It is made more difficult by having that neutral only accessible in the fall and by sea. It is at once isolated (and therefore relatively safe from enemy intrusion) but also out of the way. Even worse, Italy is one of only two powers which begin the game with home supply centers adjacent to another power's. With such challenges, Italy is left with few options for openings.

Looking at resources on the net like the openings library at the Diplomatic Pouch, you will find that most published openings relate to the famed Lepanto, in which, by variety of means, Italy sets herself up to attack either Austria (a failed lepanto), Turkey (most lepantos), or even rarely, France (Western Lepanto). In most cases, Italy is deemed to be most successful when attacking East, either to Austria or Turkey. Seldom is Italy advised to attack France, but on occasion it happens; usually France attacks first. But on occasion where Italy is going for France, even then there is one move nearly nobody uses: A Rome Tuscany.

In one of my early Face-to-Face games, I had the privilege of playing Italy. In my struggle for an opening move, I was torn between opening east or west. In spite of conventional wisdom, I saw just as much opportunity attacking France as not. I wanted to do something that would be deliberately ambiguous: neither offensive to Austria and/or Turkey, nor offensive to France. I would up ordering A Rom-Tus.

The sounds of shock and looks of temporary insanity spoke volumes about what the other players thought of the move when orders were read. Several asked me, Are you sure, and Was that a misorder? during the next diplomacy phase, one of my allies said right out, What were you thinking? At the time I passed it off as just what they though: temporary insanity. But at the end of the game, (it finished early in 1908 because everyone had to leave) I had the most centers!

I know this is a thin string to base an entire premise on, but entertain these thoughts as I write them and see if it doesn't change the way you think about what many view as one of the most useless regions on the board: Tuscany.

First, you can play up the temporary insanity. If the players you are playing with don't know you well (and that was my first time playing with that particular crowd of guys) you can sell them on being a newbie, not knowing any better, and they may well buy it! They will offer all kinds of reason why you shouldn't have done it: you could have moved Ven-Pie and backed up Ven with Rom-Ven. You could have moved Rom-Apu and prepared for a lepanto. You could have moved to Naples and passed it off as a disguised lepanto. Tuscany is halfway to nowhere: it is not threatening to France, it is not threatening to Austria. It only allows one avenue of convoy: via TyS to Tunis; but who needs an army in North Africa? Nobody else is there to fight.

But these reasons not to move to Tuscany are EXACTLY why you should!

But these reasons not to move to Tuscany are EXACTLY why you should! In a situation where it is not clear how the alliances are shaking down between France, Austria and Turkey, this buys you time while strengthening your defenses. Tuscany affords you a move to Pie if France has seized it early. It affords you support to Venice if Venice is besieged. The only way anyone is getting Venice in the fall is if France moved to Pie, and Austria moved Vie-Tyr and Trieste held or attacked by herself. It is a rare game where Austria opens Vie-Tyr. But assuming France and Austria are working together, then they have to offer a combined attack with two supports to get in, and all you need to stop it is one bounce from Germany on Tyrolia to cut it. Suffice to say, this scenario is rare, so Italy's northern holdings are very much secured by the Tuscany spring move.

In the event of an ill-advised French attack (Italy moves Ven-Pie in the spring) depending on your relationships with Austria and France, Tuscany can come in very handy. With Army Piedmont and Army Tuscany, you can stop any incursion by France into Piedmont no problem. If Venice was bounced from Piedmont in the spring, then you can force your way in with support from Venice in the fall. If you attacked Piedmont thinking Austria was not going to stab you for Venice, and he does, then Austria had better have set up a supporting army in either Tyrolia or Trieste, or he isn't holding it for the fall.

So, to summarize, Tuscany is a great move because: it throws your opponents off-guard because of its rarity. It offers excellent defensive possibilities in the north: nobody is moving into or staying in northern Italy in 1901 unless there is a concerted A-F attack and nobody is pressuring either of them anywhere else. It gives you recovery options in the case of an ill-advised Piedmont move resulting in a Venetian stab. And if you absolutely HAVE to try a lepanto, you can always convoy into Tunis providing Fleet Naples moved to Tyrrhenian Sea in the spring. So try it out some time. Be amused by the baffled expressions on your opponents' faces. Chuckle when you turn such a boneheaded play into Diplomacy Gold by endgame.

Happy Stabbing!