A previous post talked about “old school”. Well it doesn’t get more old school than Diplomacy. For many Diplomacy is the king of games. For me it’s practically unplayable because for some reason everyone I’ve ever played this game with straight away attacks me the next time we play. Haters have gotta hate I guess
Diplomacy. “The art of letting someone have your way”. It’s well named the game is all about making deals and knowing when to break them. You cannot hope to win without the help of others so if ever there was a game you will learn life skills from diplomacy is it
Some of you are old hands at this game and I’m sure more of you have crossed swords with me in the past. In which case I apologize now, I’m not sure what I was thinking when I double crossed you and there’s no way I would do it in a future game, double cross is a very harsh term. It was a misunderstanding, let’s work together! I don’t trust that other guy he said things….
Diplomacy is a simple game. It’s not a million miles from Risk, in fact the rules are even simpler. The whole sizzle of the game is movement is simultaneous and the orders are hidden. The classic version is played with seven players on a 1900 map of Europe. Each player starts with three units. A mix of ships and armies. Each turn you submit a set of orders which consist of move here, support A unit to move somewhere or convoy a unit across the sea. The magic here is you can support or convoy other players units so it’s all about making deals
Dip is a long game, playable in a variety of ways. The classic is face to face where you have half an hour to take your turn. I’ll say that again, yes half and hour. The majority of this time is taken up with making deals and let’s be honest barefaced lying to your opponents.
Deals are non binding. I remember teaching a group of newbies this game at a con years ago in UL and saying just that. Two of them grinned a little. One of them won it
Half an hour may seem like a lot for a turn but it’s not. A week when playing by email is more like it. I’ve known People to play it with a months turn. Bare in mind this is before you send in orders to move chances are three units from one region to another
The objective of the game is to capture territories some of which start neutral. Some of these contain supply centers (cities) and you gain extra units the more supply centers you control. Capture enough and you win. Easy as that. Not
This game is hard. There’s six other players gunning for you and you have to trust them at some stage or you won’t get anywhere. Get your revenge in first. Actually I’m terrible at this game and I’m going to let better (all) guest writers have their say on this game later on
Volumes could and have been written on strategies for this game and make no mistake there are no games more strategic than this. It’s all about the planning.
I love this game. It really is the king of games and if you have never played it then I’m going to give you a chance to soon otherwise you’ll be missing out and I can’t have that. I might even throw a prize for the eventual winner.
Keep a eye out for my next post on this. It’s going to be fun. Trust me*
Huzzah
Vic
*If you Trusted me there, you’ve already lost
Victor Gannon Games 
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