@vonclausewitz:
My point is not that the specific Austrian buy was a good idea. I told him it was a hoprrible buy for the aforementioned reasons. My point is that if the Austrians can buy just enough navy to get the british fleet out of the Suez the Ottomans can get in and take out the two british tranports. I think this would work well in an CP attack france game where Britain has to spend more on helping France then building in India and attacking Ottomans. Britain would have to try to protect the Suez and support France and it might be too much for them.
Unless Germany goes almost 100% full tilt on France (everything but Silesia and Poland armies+all buys west), France is going to be able to postpone the fall of Paris for a good while. And if Austria spends all its money on ships, it can neither support the Germans in the west nor cover them in the east, and Russia will have an absolute field day.
And Britain can take Trans-Jordan for at least one round, probably two or more, even if it doesn’t spend in India.
Imo, Austria should only think about maybe, maybe buying a single battleship R2 if the German High Seas Fleet did incredibly well attacking the Royal Navy and most of France’s navy has to go north.