Diplomacy: Serenes Forest style

[Life]

Diplomacy -

The art and practice of conducting international relations by negotiating alliances, treaties, agreements etc.

That is until one can freely strike..

Or in other words...

About The Game

From Wikipedia:

"Diplomacy is a strategic board game created by Allan B. Calhamer in 1954. Its main distinctions from most board wargames are its negotiation phases (players spend much of their time forming and betraying alliances with other players) and complete absence of luck. Set in Europe just before the beginning of World War I , Diplomacy is played by seven players, each controlling the armed forces of a major European power. Each player aims to move his or her units - and defeat those of others - to win possession of a majority of strategic cities and provinces marked as "supply centers" on the map; these supply centers allow players who control them to produce more units."

A player is eliminated from the game when they no longer control any supply centers. Alternatively, a player can choose to forfeit. This will leave his/her pieces on the board where they will hold or idle during every turn. Victory is achieved by a single player controlling 18 of the 34 supply centers OR if all of the remaining players agree to a tie. Diplomacy has 3 phases. Since this is online, you can talk to other nations any time you wish. The game begins in Spring of the year 1901 where you issue your first orders. After that turn is Fall 1901 and you issue your second round of orders. And finally the year ends in Winter 1901 where you either add or subtract to your total number of supply centers and in turn your army depending on how many you captured or lost in Fall. Then the year begins anew with Spring 1902.

Even though this is a game of Diplomacy, you are never required to honor any promises you made to any nation. You are always out for yourself.

Pretty self explanatory. Now for the rules and such. Read this for the rules. It's actually easy to understand but I'm going to highlight a couple things.

a. All units have the same strength.

b. An army unit may be on any land area in the game.

c. A fleet may be on any water area or coastal area in the game.

d. No two units may be in the same area.

e. You may only build in your home supply centers.

f. Winter is only for building, dislodged units or disbanding units.

This is a copy of the map. It is not the actual map I am using but this one is here for aesthetic value (mine ain't pretty).

As you can see, there are 7 nations (England, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Russia and Turkey). Do not bitch about the balance of the map, this game has been played for over 50 years and can be won by any nation (Diplomacy is the key). Each power has 3 home centers (Russia has 4).

There are 4 types of actions that any army can do and a fifth that only fleets can do.

1. Move. Any army or fleet may move to an adjacent area. Fleets can only be in coastal areas or open water while armies can only be on land. For example, Constantinople (Con) may move an army to Bulgaria (Bul) or a fleet to the Black Sea (BLA) or Aegean Sea (AEG). Moscow (Mos) may only move an army to a surrounding area but not a fleet since it is landlocked.

2. Hold. A unit will hold their ground in that area. Holding is sometimes a very good strategic and/or diplomatic move.

3. Support move. A support move is basically an attempt to take an area (land or sea) in case another person has a unit there. The combined strength of the moving unit and the supporting unit can knock another unit off from the targeted area, which is called dislodging. However, the supporting unit must be beside the targeted area to move to. More than one unit may support a moving unit but all supporting units must share a border with the area that you want to move to. If Portugal (Por) wants to move to Spain (Spa), it can get support from Marseilles (Mar), Gascony (Gas), the Mid Atlantic Ocean (MAO), the Western Mediterranean (WES) or the Gulf of Lyon (LYO).

4. Support hold. This is more of a defensive maneuver in order to hold a line of defense. A unit cannot dislodge another unit unless it has more armies supporting the move than supporting the hold. For example, if an army in the North Sea (NOR) tries to move to London (Lon) with support from the English Channel (ENG), that move can be repelled if an army in Wales (Wal) is supporting the unit in London.

5. Convoy. A fleet may convoy an army from one land area to another. For example, a fleet in the Ionion Sea (ION) may convoy an army in Naples (Nap) to Tunis (Tun). This can only work if that fleet is not moving that turn and the moving area is free to move to. The army that is moving must also put in the order to move to that spot.

Here is a standard order which would show orders in action.

France Spring 1901 - A Par-Bur, A Pic S A Par-Bur, A Lon-Bre, F Eng C A Lon-Bre, F NTH Holds

In this example move, an Army in Par moves to Bur, the Army in Pic supports the movement from Par to Bur, the Army in Lon moves to Bre, the Fleet in Eng convoys the Army in Lon to Bre, and the Fleet in NTH holds.

Also remember that it is allowed for you to support move, support hold or convoy an army/fleet of another army if you want as long as the rules above still apply. And it's not a bad idea Diplomatically to do so.

Questions and Answers:

I'll answer them here.

Sign-ups:

Iced

I Eat Tables

Anouleth

Ninji

Lightning

WoMC

Life Admiral

Edited October 21, 2010 by Sue Sylvester

[Iced]

I'll play, looks like my sort of game.

I'm happy to be any of Russia, Italy or Turkey.

[Psych]

So...this is like War? I'm good at that....

Um...for now put me in the sub list.

[Tables]

I'm in.

Question: Phase lengths? Also I'd strongly make the suggestion that once the game starts, you make a PM with every other player in the game. Except England - Turkey, every pair of countries are either neighbours, or both border a mutual neighbour - meaning you'll have something to discuss with everyone.

[Life]

Phases are 48 hours long. So Spring is 48 hours, Autumn is 48 hours and Winter is 48 hours.

I'm happy to be any of Russia, Italy or Turkey.

RNG does the choosing for you.

Oh yeah, this isn't like Mafia. In Mafia, you can scumhunt and hope for the best. If you don't use PMs in Diplomacy and speak to your neighbours privately, there's a good chance that you will enjoy some nice old fashioned gangrape.

Edited October 20, 2010 by Sue Sylvester

[Anouleth]

Looks really interesting! I'd like to join, if that's okay.

(And I'd like to play as France, if that's okay.)

Edited October 20, 2010 by Mr. Know-it-all-Anouleth

[Life]

I just want to say that if Austria can survive past 1903 with 2 builds, they can possibly solo the map.

[_____]

Are you playing this on, like, WEBDiplomacy, or just here? Because I think the former would be better.

Oh, yeah, I'm in.

Edited October 20, 2010 by Ninji

[Psych]

If you're going to make two games if they get enough, then move me to sign ups.

[_____]

Oh, and by the way, if you've never played the game before, Life is probably going to kick your asses. He's probably going to kick mine, too, based on some of the lingo he's throwing around. It's not that easy of a game to pick up, but it's fun.

[Psych]

I don't think he's playing. >_>

Just modding.

[riariadne]

I'll play if Psych doesn't.

Edited October 20, 2010 by Luka Megurine

[Life]

Oh, and by the way, if you've never played the game before, Life is probably going to kick your asses. He's probably going to kick mine, too, based on some of the lingo he's throwing around. It's not that easy of a game to pick up, but it's fun.

As Psych said, I'm just modding. It wouldn't be fair if I played since I've got DipTool on my computer and I would know all of your orders since you're sending them to me.

And I keep pulling Turkey or Austria in games. Turkey requires me to turtle out of the southeast corner (it's fun but gimme some variety) while Austria is a shitstorm for the first 3 years. Some people like watching a film called 1904 and Austria ain't one of the stars.

Edited October 20, 2010 by Sue Sylvester

[_____]

WELL THEN.

[WeaponsofMassConstruction]

Will try.

[Life]

Since we have 6 people, nobody else is posting and I want to play, I propose this.

We find a person who is willing to be a "judge". Everyone will send their orders to him including me. Once he has everyone's orders, he will send them to me and I will input them into DipTool. If the orders that I've sent to the judge differ from what I put in on the map, I will allow myself to be ejected for the first offense.

Is everyone OK with that?

[_____]

I don't see a problem with it. And now we're all going to lose, like I said!

[riariadne]

I'd personally prefer it to be 7 players and just have you judge anyways, because that could be exploited fairly easily.

[_____]

It's Life's game; Why would he ruin it? I doubt he cares that much about actually winning.

[riariadne]

I meant the person elected as "judge" could lie.

[_____]

The person who is the judge would obviously be a third party.

[Psych]

[Life]

Psych, you wanna be judge?

[Psych]

Well, since you asked.....

Sure.

[Tables]

...Uhh... actually, it's an online game. I don't think it matters at all who's judge and who isn't although who knows what people would be willing to cheat at.

Hmm...

Meh, I actually have no preference on who Judge is but would be willing to do it myself.