I recently finished my first game of 1900 as Turkey. One of the more interesting conundrums that I had was what to do with the army in Damascus. I had a few ideas:
1. Damascus - Konya. This seems like the "safe" option but is very boring and frankly, feels inefficient. There are very good odds that Konya will have to sit and hold or offer a meaningless support in the fall. The plus side is that you have more protection if Russia and/or Austria open against you.
2. Damascus - Armenia. As the Turkish player, I really liked the idea of this opening. At first glance it's anti-Russian, but if you don't move to the Black Sea you could actually work together with Russia. In my last game I pitched the following opening to the Tsar:
Turkey:
CON - MAC
ANK - CON
DAM - ARM
Russia:
WAR - GAL
MOS - UKR
SEV - BLA
In the fall, Russia convoys Armenia to Bulgaria resulting in the R/T having superiority in the region because the armies are a lot more dangerous to Austria than the fleets. There is risk for both players so it's definitely a gambit. I am not so sure the risk is worth the reward. The Russian in my game certainly did not think so!
The plus for Turkey is that it leaves room to work with both Austria and Russia.
3. Damascus - Palestine (arranged bounce). This opening allows Turkey to influence England similarly to how Germany can influence Russia in classic Diplomacy. In my game, I wanted to occupy the English fleet in Egypt to relieve pressure on France so I arranged a bounce. I really liked the bounce because it occupied the fleet, but didn't move my army out of position if Russia or Austria attacked.
The downside is that if England does not follow through with the bounce (or worse, coordinates with Russia), Turkey will be extremely vulnerable to an attack.
That being said, I think that if I did not suspect Russia and were playing Turkey again, I would probably take the risk and work for the bounce. I like the bounce better than trying to sneak into Palestine.
Does anyone else have any thoughts about what to do with this unit?