Let's play Diplomacy
Posted: 16 Apr 2017, 14:29
Hey all,
Yesterday friends and I played Diplomacy for the first time and the game is pretty great. One can compare it to Risk, but without the dice and with the gameplay and rules built largely around the diplomacy between players. The game is all about intrigue, alliances and betrayal. Because it seems like the perfect game to play online I decided to organize a game here.
It will be hosted on https://www.backstabbr.com (you can sign in with gmail).
There is a maximum of 7 players. 5 spots are already reserved, so the 2 who reply to this thread first will get a spot. Be quick!
But also be patient. There will be 2 days reserved for diplomacy (negotiating) per turn so the game will take some weeks to finish.
The game map
Below is the game map. 7 players each start play as one of the following countries: Russia (purple), England (blue), Austria (red), Germany (black), Italy (green), France (light blue), Turkey (yellow).
The large coloured circles on the map are armies. The triangles are fleets. Fleets can occupy ocean provinces as well as land provinces adjacent to oceans (aka coastal provinces). Only armies can occupy inland provinces. The map above shows every country's starting positions. As you can see all countries start with 3 units, except Russia which starts with 4.
The smaller circles are supply centers. These are the important provinces because they sustain armies (also, sidenote: having 18 of them is how you win the game). The white circles start out as neutral provinces which are up for grabs (eg Spain). Every other turn, countries count how many supply centers they control and how many units they have. If they have more units than supply centers, they have to disband (remove from the game) a unit of their choice. If they have more supply centers than units, they get to build new units in a home province of their choice. Each country's home provinces are where the starting armies are on the map above.
Game play
There are 2 seasons, each spanning 6 months. Spring and Fall. The Spring season is played as follows:
1. Players get time to negotiate with other players and plan their actions for that turn.
2. Players all write out their orders privately. Per turn players can order each army once. More about orders below.
3. All orders are revealed at the same time and resolved simultaneously.
In the fall season (every other turn), there is an extra step as mentioned previously:
4. Each player counts the number of supply centers they have and the number of armies they have, and builds/disbands armies if necessary.
Orders
Important: Each province can only ever contain one army or fleet. If a unit attempts to move to a province where there is already a unit, nothing happens. It can only overpower and force the defending unit to retreat if it has support (see below).
There are 4 types of orders:
1. Move
An army or fleet can move to any province adjacent to the province it currently occupies.
A fleet can't move inland, but it can move to coastal provinces which are adjacent to the province it currently occupies. There are exceptions to this: If a fleet occupies the northern coast of Spain, it can move to Gas but not to Mar. It is however considered to be occupying all of Spain.
2. Hold
An army or fleet can stay where it is and hold the province it occupies.
3. Convoy
This order is only available to fleets. This allows a fleet to transport an army overseas. For example, in the above map England could move an army from Edi to Nwy if there was a fleet on NTH. This would be 2 orders: Army move from Edi to Nwy and fleet convoy.
4. Support
An army or fleet can support a province adjacent to it. This means it's not moving there, but supporting that province in its defense or offense. For example, in the above map Austria could attack Gal by moving from Bud to Gal and supporting from Vie to Gal. This would give Austria 2 strength in that province, and if the defending player would have only one army there it would be forced to retreat.
Support can be both offensive and defensive. You can support other players' units.
Retreating
If an army holds a province and is overpowered by an attack, it's forced to retreat. It can retreat to any province that it would be allowed to move to. If it has no provinces available to retreat to because they are all occupied, it's disbanded (removed from the game).
______________________________________________________
That's the gist of it. There are some tricky situations with resolving orders sometimes, when you are in doubt about something simply ask in the discord which you will be given a link to if you participate in the game. Or you can look up a more detailed version of the rules.
Important: If you fail to submit orders on a turn, all of your units are assumed to be holding position. If you fail to submit orders two turns in a row, the policy is that you will be removed from the game and someone else will take your place. It's also possible to leave the game whenever you want and give control of your country to a substitute player.
Questions about the rules? Ask in the discord, there is a separate channel for it.
Yesterday friends and I played Diplomacy for the first time and the game is pretty great. One can compare it to Risk, but without the dice and with the gameplay and rules built largely around the diplomacy between players. The game is all about intrigue, alliances and betrayal. Because it seems like the perfect game to play online I decided to organize a game here.
It will be hosted on https://www.backstabbr.com (you can sign in with gmail).
There is a maximum of 7 players. 5 spots are already reserved, so the 2 who reply to this thread first will get a spot. Be quick!
But also be patient. There will be 2 days reserved for diplomacy (negotiating) per turn so the game will take some weeks to finish.
The game map
Below is the game map. 7 players each start play as one of the following countries: Russia (purple), England (blue), Austria (red), Germany (black), Italy (green), France (light blue), Turkey (yellow).
The large coloured circles on the map are armies. The triangles are fleets. Fleets can occupy ocean provinces as well as land provinces adjacent to oceans (aka coastal provinces). Only armies can occupy inland provinces. The map above shows every country's starting positions. As you can see all countries start with 3 units, except Russia which starts with 4.
The smaller circles are supply centers. These are the important provinces because they sustain armies (also, sidenote: having 18 of them is how you win the game). The white circles start out as neutral provinces which are up for grabs (eg Spain). Every other turn, countries count how many supply centers they control and how many units they have. If they have more units than supply centers, they have to disband (remove from the game) a unit of their choice. If they have more supply centers than units, they get to build new units in a home province of their choice. Each country's home provinces are where the starting armies are on the map above.
Game play
There are 2 seasons, each spanning 6 months. Spring and Fall. The Spring season is played as follows:
1. Players get time to negotiate with other players and plan their actions for that turn.
2. Players all write out their orders privately. Per turn players can order each army once. More about orders below.
3. All orders are revealed at the same time and resolved simultaneously.
In the fall season (every other turn), there is an extra step as mentioned previously:
4. Each player counts the number of supply centers they have and the number of armies they have, and builds/disbands armies if necessary.
Orders
Important: Each province can only ever contain one army or fleet. If a unit attempts to move to a province where there is already a unit, nothing happens. It can only overpower and force the defending unit to retreat if it has support (see below).
There are 4 types of orders:
1. Move
An army or fleet can move to any province adjacent to the province it currently occupies.
A fleet can't move inland, but it can move to coastal provinces which are adjacent to the province it currently occupies. There are exceptions to this: If a fleet occupies the northern coast of Spain, it can move to Gas but not to Mar. It is however considered to be occupying all of Spain.
2. Hold
An army or fleet can stay where it is and hold the province it occupies.
3. Convoy
This order is only available to fleets. This allows a fleet to transport an army overseas. For example, in the above map England could move an army from Edi to Nwy if there was a fleet on NTH. This would be 2 orders: Army move from Edi to Nwy and fleet convoy.
4. Support
An army or fleet can support a province adjacent to it. This means it's not moving there, but supporting that province in its defense or offense. For example, in the above map Austria could attack Gal by moving from Bud to Gal and supporting from Vie to Gal. This would give Austria 2 strength in that province, and if the defending player would have only one army there it would be forced to retreat.
Support can be both offensive and defensive. You can support other players' units.
Retreating
If an army holds a province and is overpowered by an attack, it's forced to retreat. It can retreat to any province that it would be allowed to move to. If it has no provinces available to retreat to because they are all occupied, it's disbanded (removed from the game).
______________________________________________________
That's the gist of it. There are some tricky situations with resolving orders sometimes, when you are in doubt about something simply ask in the discord which you will be given a link to if you participate in the game. Or you can look up a more detailed version of the rules.
Important: If you fail to submit orders on a turn, all of your units are assumed to be holding position. If you fail to submit orders two turns in a row, the policy is that you will be removed from the game and someone else will take your place. It's also possible to leave the game whenever you want and give control of your country to a substitute player.
Questions about the rules? Ask in the discord, there is a separate channel for it.
