Hi all,
I've now played twice in Versailles. Once as Turkey and once as England. As England, my minor was Rumania. As Turkey my minor was Greece. My England game was a disaster bc Poland and Russia made a truce on turn 1 and France controlled Spain. As England, your best move appears to be to try and find 5 SCs, build fleets, turtle and wait for a chance to make a move. The key is to secure your corner fast. In order for this to work, it's imperative that you ally 2 of the 3 following: USSR, Germany, or France. I only allied Germany and Sweden. I couldn't turtle in time.
Two key lessons I took away from this game:
1. The minor you control matters ALOT. Spain/France is a beastly combo. But allying minors helps very little against majors. Sweden was useless. It couldn't be captured, but it couldn't apply any offensive pressure on the Russians w one unit.
2. Using your minor to gain intel can help only so much. For example, as Rumania I knew the USSR was going to backstab me (England), but it didn't matter. My minor couldn't put enough pressure on the USSR in the south to change his plans. You really need a strategically close by minor.
Therefore, I think Italy which almost always (unless its Sweden) has a useful minor should be the strongest country to play in this version. After Italy, Germany, Poland, the USSR, and Turkey all seem to have a fighting chance. England and France are screwed unless they control Spain. Sweden allied me in my game, obeyed me to a T, and was effectively useless. I don't think Sweden helps England much.
My second game when I played as Turkey confirmed this suspicion. I controlled Greece. I used Greece to DMZ Ionian w Italy which kept Turkey safe. Then I wrecked Egypt and turned north. My game went south when the USSR stabbed me, and we got caught in a stalemate that ruined his game and severely impaired mine. Italy ran rampant in the west this game ..... Italy is a beast. It can go north/east/west and has no immediate enemies. It also ALWAYS has a useful minor. In this game, Italy had Spain ..... France got wrecked.
So after careful consideration, I believe that England/France is the worst play here and Italy is a monstrosity with everybody else falling somewhere in the middle.