Diplomacy: a Primer

I’m still on a bit of a diplomacy binge. I’ve another guest writer in who’s going to tell you all about it.

Bob Burke is an old gaming friend of mine (I don’t know him that long he’s just old). No I’ve known Bob a long time and played manys the fine game and campaign with him not to mention lots of diplomacy.

He’s good at diplomacy is Bob, he’s also good at writing in fact Bob is an Author and has published to date three books (which lets be honest is more than you’ve done).  They’re rather good I recommend you go check them out

Anyhoe here’s what the wise Bob has to say about Diplomacy….

At first glance, Diplomacy seems very ordinary. Set in Pre-WW1 Europe, it has armies and fleets, each moves one space and the greater attacking force wins the contested space. First to capture 18 supply centres wins. So far, so very conventional.

What makes it different is the diplomacy aspect from which the game gets its title. A quick glance at the board will show that getting to the magic 18 supply centres all on your own is pretty much impossible. You will, therefore, have to engage with at least one other player to work together until such a time as one no longer needs the other. At the start of each turn a set period of time is assigned for these discussions to take place. During this diplomatic period, agreements are made, treaties may be signed and, here’s where the fun really begins, nothing you say or do at this stage is in any way binding! England needs to work with either Germany or France to get its forces on the mainland. If it talks to just France, then Germany has a reasonable expectation they’re working together. If England talks to both then one will know the other is a viable ally. They won’t find out for certain until the moves are revealed. If France and Germany then also talk, then England might get left out in the cold. Result: distrust, paranoia and downright skullduggery.

When the moves are eventually made – and all moves are revealed at the same time so as not to spoil the fun of one player discovering they’ve been well and truly shafted by another – friendships are broken, seeds of mistrust are properly sown and at least one player will have discovered the folly of believing in the bountiful and somewhat incredible promises of territory from their former friendly neighbour.

It’s this combination of negotiation, simultaneous movement and lack of random events that make Diplomacy almost the perfect game. There’s no luck (other than what the players make for themselves); strategic awareness and the ability to build worthwhile (albeit short-term) alliances will determine the ultimate winner.

Diplomacy does have its weakneses: Italy is notoriously vulnerable, having no place to go after the first few turns, and Austria-Hungary – surrounded by four other nations – can make some short-term gains before becoming crushed by its more powerful neighbours. This makes it more difficult – but not impossible – to win with either country. The game can also get bogged down in a stalemate line where equally powerful forces on both sides of the map can’t make any breakthroughs while the game winds down to a slow, dull halt.

In Diplomacy, apart from actually winning, nothing can beat the satisfaction of performing the ultimate stab at just the right moment, a stab that both confirms a winning position and destroys the chances of an erstwhile ally. Ultimately, that’s what Diplomacy is all about. As to whether friendships will be maintained after a game: that’s another story!

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