Austria may be powerful but its surrounded by nations on all sides and your capital can be attacked from almost very direction. All the Regions have their greedy little eyes on your Empire early on. They have divided it up and are just waiting for you to turn your back. Playing Austria is difficult game early on but an easy game later for this reason.

Both France and Russia can easily take over Austria in the first Era if they form an Alliance but it is the smaller countries that will try and take you on first. You should not trust any of them. Russia will go for Poland first. France will take on the smaller nations surrounding your Empire to the west. So that is most of the initial threats to your Empire taken care of by the other Empires. Only Prussia, Saxony, Kurst and The Ottoman Empire are left.

Your initial Alliance with the Helvetian Republic could cause you trouble with the French because it is one region the French want really badly. So get out of that Alliance as quickly as possible. Then wait for the Ottomans to Declare war on you. They will, but the strength of your armies may delay it until you can attack them first.

Once you can taken over the Ottoman Empire, do so and start your conquest of Africa. This is vital if you are to gather the resources needed to take on France, Great Britain and Russia later in the game.

Divide and conquer is the policy you must take here to survive. To do this you have to carefully consider every move you make early on. Keeping France and Great Britain in their place whilst weakening Russia and taking over Africa. Its a tough task and will require you to take certain risks. However as long as you maintain a strong army, you should be safe.

So the first thing to do is to research the Infantry barracks and Stables as fast as possible and start churning out troops like there is no tomorrow. You will find Austria is a fairly rich country and offers big benefits if you build improvements in its regions, but do that after you can defend your self. If you do not have a strong army then every nation on your border will declare war against you after a short time. If you can build up 5 full armies then they will leave you alone. The AI will still target your Empire if you lose too many troops in a war, so time your first conquest so you do it after either France or Russia has formed an alliance with you. That way you are safe from at least one of them. Remember, do not let any one Empire get too strong. Chose your Alliances carefully so they weaken your biggest threat.

Your first priority is to defend your Capital since almost everybody can strike at it directly. Next is expansion to the East and South. Making an Alliance with Russia or France will help here because it means Russia will try and take on the smaller countries to the north and once the Alliance ends, France or Great Britain will attack Russia and take them back. Mean while you can conquer everything as far away as Egypt if your quick. This will bring in the resources needed to take care of the smaller independent states surrounding your Capital and give you a buffer zone or proceed on to Morocco. The Ottoman Empire will be your biggest problem early on. They are strong and if you lose too many armies capturing their regions the other Empires will attack you. Also beware of Kursk Region, they are just waiting for you to show a signs of weakness. You should plan to take over Kurst after beating the Ottoman Empire.

If you wish to position your self to take on France and/or Russia then you must take over Hanover and/or Poland. These will give you useful staging areas for your attacks against either nation. Just remember, Great Britain will usually grab Hanover first and Poland usually falls to the Russians very early on. This on the surface sounds like the best plan but is in fact an expansive plan to maintain. Those two states tend to be attacked a lot so its wise to let the others fight over them whilst you secure more resources.

Avoiding any of the nations above your Capital and the smaller nations below it will give the other Nations something to fight over and they may leave you alone to expand in other directions. You should attempt to prevent France or Russian taking over too many of the smaller countries whilst your expanding. You can give the countries resources needed to build armies or once you have the Loan Army feature you can give them armies to fight off Russia and France.

This will keep both Russia and France very busy whilst you do your work.

As Austria it is unwise to make an Alliance with any nation that can easily take over Prussia, Saxony and Poland, even if Prussia is attacking you. If you do make such an Alliance you are basically putting a new super power on your door step. By refusing such an alliance you force that super power to defend its borders against you and thus delay its expansion plans. You should swap alliances frequently in order to maintain a level of instability in the area around Prussia, using the fact that you as an a friend of the French, English or Russians will promote war between those countries on a fair frequent basis. Forming alliances with Russia if Great Britain or France get too strong and forming an Alliance with Great Britain or France if Russia gets too strong. You a key player in the region and no Empire will dare upset you if you have a strong army. So saying yes to an alliance is like giving that nation permission to take over Prussia, Saxony and Poland later in the game.

The best Alliances are made with the Papal States and Sicily. These offer you stability without being a threat and without giving France, Great Britain or Russia any advantage. France will have its greedy little eyes set on the Italian Region so may have to help those counties defend against France. You definitely do not want war with France early on so use Diplomatic methods to help. They also ensure the area around Prussia remains highly unstable when you do not take sides. If you play it right, Great Britain, France and Russia will spend the entire game taking over and losing Prussia, Saxony and Poland over and over again.

Ideally you want Great Britain to take over the nations above your Capital when your ready to add them to your own Empire. Great Britain will be not be too friendly with you, but when you attack Great Britain's Annexed countries in force, there will be little Great Britain can do about it and the French will be happy to support your efforts.

Russia is the one country you really do not want to take over the nations along your northern border. If it does, then your Russia's next target. So use any Diplomatic means at your disposal to keep those nations from falling into Russian hands. If you can also prevent Russia's expansion into Africa then you can turn Russia into a minor power. You just need to wait for an Alliance with Great Britain and France before attacking Russia. After that, things get a lot easier for you and Austria will become a serious threat to everybody.

Written by giskard