Our first game I was Germany and took two subs at the Canadian fleet. It went 2 rounds, and I missed em both, and he hit both rounds with his cruiser (both subs sunk, no hits?). I also took everything else at the UK home fleet. This battle fared much better for me. He missed w/mines, and I killed his fleet only losing 1 sub, and ding on my bb.
2nd game the Germans did the same thing. The Canadian fleet was sunk w/o losing a sub. The UK home fleet was also sunk, but only a German damaged bb survived. The French played clean up.
I think that the Germans need to hit both UK fleets, and I would do it again. This forces the French fleet to head to the Atlantic. The Brits generally keep the India bb near India to get bombardment vs Turks. That really only leaves Italy (who doesn’t make much income) and probably the Brit cruiser in sz17. If you build some ships w/Austria turn 2 you might get out of your port (maybe hit the Italians?) and have a chance to merge w/Turks?