I say ATTACK EVERYONE AT THE SAME TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CHAOS IS THE BEST THING!!!!!!! ONE WHO MASTER'S CHAOS MASTERS WAR ITS SELF!!!!!

no...sengoku is better...there you have more strategy, less luck, but its still hard...

It really depends on the power and the variant, but generally pick not only a target but a friend as well. Use your moves to communicate something. It may take a couple of turns, but they will eventually get it.

Even in a gunboat, you can't go it alone (usually). Use that alliance to gain critical mass, then stab the heck out of your ally when they look to be in for a low or no-gain year.

I also do pick a friend. The thing is, he often seems to have picked me as his enemy.

I have no friends in Gun boat :D

Its luck of the draw. if you are lucky the player you have chosen as your 'ally' has chosen you. It's difficult to get out of a conflict with another player once it has started, even more difficult to make peace with someone that you have attacked!

You are doing it wrong. When people do what you describe, they make decisions easier for everyone else.

In gunboats, there is often a trio (eg England France Germany) where if you are the first to attack a neighbor, your fate is completely at the hands of the third player. In that scenario, it's best to be the third player, the one who chooses who survives and who is eliminated. If you attack first, you are never that third player and the game is never in your hands.

gunboats are about communication, there are key signals that can be sent to those you want to be allied with. if you attack players blindly because of a preset mindset it will always be a matter of luck...

Is this the gunboat advertisement thread?
I'm going to assume that's a 'yes.'
gameID=8667

Gunboats, you need to think about what the other player wants. Just because you decide to support hold someone else's unit (I think that's the most basic form of "I want to ally" in gunboat games) doesn't mean that the other guy wants to ally with you. Basically, assume that other person is a reasonably smart player. Would he have more to gain through attacking you, or having you as an ally? Would you have more to gain from attacking him or getting him as an ally? As long as there's mutual benefits, the other guy should be receptive to creating or continuing an alliance.

I also think it's kind of a first come first serve, sometimes. Assuming you and a competitor are more or less equal, if your competitor shows through his moves that he wants to ally with the guy you want to ally with before you can show that you want to ally, your competitor will probably get the alliance, leaving you all alone.

Stabs are easier in gunboats for most people, since there's less attachment. Instead of having interactions, with an ally, the silence of a gunboat makes it so that alliances are more impersonal and emotionless. This helps the nice people have a clearer conscience when betraying someone. So I think you should be more on guard for stabs, unless it would benefit your ally more if you're kept alive.

Those were some general examples in my limited experience. The point of this long reply is basically: Put yourself in the other guy's shoes and see the map from his point of view.

This is a good thread, and has good advice.