Diplomacy 001 (Allied Victory - FR+GB+RU+OE)

[Callid]

ALLIED VICTORY
France (c-square)
Great Britain (vittor)
Russia (Stopwatch)
Ottoman Empire (Kleene Onigiri)

Anyone interested in playing, please go to the next game here.

I thought we could play a Diplomacy match in here, if anyone is interested. I'd volunteer to GM that match.

In the game Diplomacy, each player takes control of a European great power just before World War One (yes, no USA ). Every nation's goal is to take over Europe. However it is impossible for anyone to pull this off on their own, so they'll need to engage in - you guessed it - diplomacy
Therefore, each nations goes ahead and tries to tell allies apart from enemies - which is quite difficult, as while another nation promises to do one thing, the actual, secret orders may contain a totally different plan...

The games differs strongly from Risk or similar games in multiple things. The board is divided in provinces of land as well as sea (yes, there are fleets!), but the provinces everyone is after are provinces with a Support Centre (SC), as a player can always have only as many armies as he has SCs, and the player who manages to conquer 18 of all 34 SCs first wins the match. Furthermore, all movements take place at the same times (very much unlike Risk!), and there can only be one army (or one fleet) in any province at any given time (again, completely different from Risk). However, it is possible to support moves in any province adjacent to the one the unit is standing in. This is actually vital, as there is no luck either (you guessed it, unlike Risk ). It's just the number of units that counts, and whoever has more support, wins. As the defender wins in case of a draw, it is not possible to conquer anything from your opponent without support, which is why diplomacy is so incredibly important.

The main focus of the game is therefore on the diplomatic interactions between the players, not on the tactical movements of the units - if you're able to convince everyone that you are the person they need to ally with, it doesn't matter how many tactical blunders you make, you'll definitely win (however, convincing even more than half of the people is terribly difficult). If you play the game, prepare for a lot of awesome alliances and terrible treason - you'll definitely get both.

Spoiler: RULES

First off, these are the rules, and only the rules. Most of the game is about diplomacy, i.e. bluffing, convincing, blackmailing and backstabbing, and these don't follow many rules. You'll all probably learn which kind of trick works and which doesn't while playing. As you are all beginners, noone is at a disadvantage due to this (though things were different if I were playing a well ).
Foremost, however, there is a very important rule (which is way more important than you'd think):
Do not hold anything that happens in the game against each other!

CONTENT

• Phases
• Diplomacy
• Orders and Movements
  • [li]Hold
  • Move
  • Support
  • Convoy
  [/li]
• Retreating
  • [li]Retreat
  • Disband
  [/li]
• Occupying and Building
  • [li]Occupy
  • Build
  [/li]
• End Of The Game
• Special Rules
  • [li]Coasts
  • Traversable Waterways
  • Special Situations
  [/li]

PHASES

The game is divided in years, turns and phases. There are an infinite number of years, though seldom more than 10, until the game ends (see End Of The Game). Each year is divided in two turns, or seasons: Spring and Fall (which has nothing to with hopping around, BTW). Each turn is divided into several phases, in the following order:

• Diplomacy Phase
  • [li]Hand in Orders (can happen at any time during Diplomacy phase)
  [/li]
• Execution Phase (automatic)
• Retreat Phase (if necessary)(
• Occupation Phase (only in Fall, automatic)
• Build Phase (only in Fall)

DIPLOMACY

All's fair in love and war. Well, not quite. There are some rules that need to be followed in order to ensure no "cheating" ensues:

• No unquestionable evidence (e.g. BCCs or PM-quotations)
• No interference between the game and the outside world (e.g. RL threats or similar things)

I think these two rules are pretty straightforward and obvious - as the game is about convincing and persuading, unquestionable evidence would destroy all the fun. And, of course, anything that happens in the game happens only in the game, and, for example, Conia mustn't threaten Kleene to never talk to her again  in case she doesn't move her armies how he wants. Note that especially not holding grudges is terribly important (as I stated above).
Besides these two rules, anything is allowed. Conia may swear to being Kleene's ally all the time and to never betray her while secretly plotting her downfall and allying with her enemies. Similarly, no matter how much xpon insisted in front of Conia that he will attack Kleene and not tell her about their scheme, nothing stops him from betraying Conia and informing Kleene about every of Conia's secret plans.
The only person you mustn't lie to is the GM, just like the GM won't lie to you

ORDERS AND MOVEMENTS

After diplomatic interactions have taken place and before the deadline (hopefully ), everyone sends a PM (or multiple, if corrections were necessary) to the GM. For every unit, the player can choose between four different movements: Hold, Move, Support and Convoy (if the player fails to give one, or gives an impossible or ambiguous one, it is treated as a Hold order).
After executing commands, any command that was impossible or failed for some reason is underlined in RL play. In this explanation, this rule only applies to examples outside of running text.

Hold
The easiest comment by far. The unit will try to defend and hold the province against any attacker: A Mun XXX means that the army (A) in Munich (Mun) will hold (XXX). Other examples:
A Ven XXX
A StP XXX
F Bre XXX
F NTH XXX

Move
As great as Hold may be, it isn't really productive. You won't conquer much by staying at home. This is why the Move/Attack command exists, which tells a unit to move in a neighbouring province: A Bud - Ser means that the army (A) in Budapest (Bud) will move to (-) Serbia (Ser).
However, armies can only move on land provinces, and fleets can only move on sea provinces and provinces with a coast. Fleets can either move from a coast province to a sea province (F Lon - ENG; note that sea provinces are always caps only), from one sea province to another (F ENG - MAO), from a sea province to a coast province (F MAO - Bre) and from one coast province to another (F Bre - Gas).
Note that two-way exchanges via the move order are not possible, as the armies would meet at the border ans start fighting. Three-way exchanges are, though, as no army would meet another army this way (i.e. F Kie- Ber, A Ber- Kie is not possible, but F Kie - Ber, A Ber - Mun, A Mun - Kie is. Also, any territory not named on the abbreviation map cannot be accessed (e.g. Switzerland or Ireland).
Further examples:
A Par - Pic
A Lpl - Lon - Liverpool and London are not adjacent!
A Mun - Switzerland - Switzerland is not named and cannot be moved to!
A Mun - Bur
A Ven - ADR - Armies cannot move on water!
F Edi - NTH
F Rom - Ven - Fleets cannot move over land!
F Sev - Arm
F MAO - WMS

Support
You can move your armies to conquer territory, as explained in Move. However, what happens if you encounter another unit holding the province, or another unit trying to conquer the same province? Well, in this case, your Move order fails, and you remain in the province you started from; nothing has changed. To conquer a defended province, you need another unit to support you: A Vie S A Mun - Tyr means that the Army (A) in Vienna (Vie) supports (S) the Army moving from Munich to Tyrol (A Mun - Tyr).
Now, if there was an enemy's army in Tyrol (A Tyr XXX), this unit would be dislodged. However, if yet another unit supported the army in Tyrol (A Ven S A Tyr XXX), it would be two-against-two, and, once again, a draw would ensue.
There are restrictions to this move, though:
First, a unit can only support a Move order if it could move to the province as well, and it can only support a Hold order if it could move into the province being held.
Second, supports can be cut off. If a supporting unit itself is attacked by an enemy, it will have to defend itself and be unable to support anyone. To further expand the example above, if a fifth unit would attack the unit in Venice (F ADR - Ven), the support of the army in Venice would be cut off, reducing the forces defending Tyrol to one (only the A Tyr itself), meaning A Mun - Tyr would work again, dislodging the A Tyr.
Third, only two types of orders can be supported - Move and Hold. However, both Support and Convoy can be treated as a Hold order, so instead of A Bud S A Vie S A Mun - Tyr one writes A Bud S A Vie XXX. If the A Vie were to be attacked, it would need three units (one attacking and two supporting) to conquer Vienna, though even one unit would suffice to cut off its support for the army in Munich.
Lastly, no nation can dislodge or cut off support from its own units. Yes, there might be situation where people actually want to do exactly that (for further information, see the complete rules link).
Further examples (orders in the same line take place in the same season)(assume all units belong to different nations)(if you don't understand why a certain order fails or succeeds, reread the rules above, and always look at the map):
F Edi S F Lon - NTH; F Lon - NTH;
F Edi S F Lon - NTH; F Lon - ENG;
F Edi S F Lon - ENG; F Lon - ENG;
F Edi S F Lon - NTH; F Lon XXX;
F Edi S A Lpl - Yor; A Lpl - Yor;
F Edi S A Yor - Lpl; A Yor - Lpl;
F Edi S F Lon XXX; F Lon S F Bre - ENG; F Bre - ENG;
A Hol - Bel; A Ruh S A Hol - Bel; A Bel XXX; A Pic S A Bel XXX; F NTH S A Hol - Bel;
A Hol - Bel; A Ruh S A Hol - Bel; A Bel XXX; A Pic S A Bel XXX; F NTH S A Hol - Bel; F NWG - NTH; F Nor S F NWG - NTH;
A Hol - Bel; A Ruh S A Hol - Bel; A Bel XXX; A Pic S A Bel XXX; F NTH S A Hol - Bel; F NWG - NTH; F Nor S F NWG - NTH;
  F Edi S F NTH XXX; F ENG - Pic;
A Hol - Bel; A Ruh S A Hol - Bel; A Bel XXX; A Pic S A Bel XXX; F NTH S A Hol - Bel; F NWG - NTH; F Nor S F NWG - NTH;
  F Edi S F NTH XXX; F ENG - Pic; A Bur S A Bel XXX, A Mun - Bur; A Tyr - Mun;
A Hol - Bel; A Ruh S A Hol - Bel; A Bel XXX; A Pic S A Bel XXX; F NTH S A Hol - Bel; F NWG - NTH; F Nor S F NWG - NTH;
  F Edi S F NTH XXX; F ENG - Pic; A Bur - Ruh, A Mun - Bur; A Tyr - Mun;
And now two questions on the last example: How "strong" were the attack on and the defence in Belgium, and how does the board look after these moves?

Convoy
Now, a lot of fun is possible with the rules we have until now (as the examples above clearly evidence ), but one thing is a little annoying - armies cannot move over water. This is what the Convoy movement allows: F ENG C A Lon - Bel means that the fleet (F) in the English Channel (ENG) transports/convoys (C) the army from London to Belgium (A Lon - Bel).
However, onvoy movements can only be given to fleets, and only to fleets in sea provinces, not in coast provinces, and can only transport armies. The following things should be noted:
First, convoys can continue over a multitude of provinces. Even moves like A Nor - Gre are possible if there is a fleet convoying this very move in every sea province in between.
Second, there are many possible routes for a convoy (in the case of A Nor - Gre, for example, the convoy could (among others) go via either ENG or NAO). The convoy succeeds as long as there is any possible route.
Third, a convoy can be cut off, but only by dislodging enough convoying units so that there is no possible route left.
Lastly, there are once again terribly complex situations possible, which are, again, explained in the Complete Rules.
Further examples (orders in the same line take place in the same season)(assume all units belong to different nations)(if you don't understand why a certain order fails or succeeds, reread the rules above, and always look at the map):
F BAL C A Swe - Liv; A Swe - Liv;
F Nor - NAf; F NTH C A Nor - NAf; F ENG C A Nor - NAf; F MAO C A Nor - NAf;
F Nor - NAf; F NTH C A Nor - NAf; F ENG C A Nor - NAf; F MAO C A Nor - NAf; F Bre - ENG; F Pic S F Bre - ENG;
F Nor - NAf; F NTH C A Nor - NAf; F ENG C A Nor - NAf; F MAO C A Nor - NAf; F Bre - ENG; F Pic S F Bre - ENG; F Lon S F ENG XXX;
F Nor - NAf; F NTH C A Nor - NAf; F ENG C A Nor - NAf; F MAO C A Nor - NAf; F Bre - ENG; F Pic S F Bre - ENG; F Lon S F ENG XXX;
  F Bel S F Bre - ENG; F NWG C A Nor - NAf; F NAO C A Nor - NAf;
F Nor - NAf; F NTH C A Nor - NAf; F ENG C A Nor - NAf; F MAO C A Nor - NAf; F Bre - ENG; F Pic S F Bre - ENG; F Lon S F ENG XXX;
  F Bel S F Bre - ENG; F NWG C A Nor - NAf; F NAO C A Nor - NAf; A NAf XXX;
F Nor - NAf; F NTH C A Nor - NAf; F ENG C A Nor - NAf; F MAO C A Nor - NAf; F Bre - ENG; F Pic S F Bre - ENG; F Lon S F ENG XXX;
  F Bel S F Bre - ENG; F NWG C A Nor - NAf; F NAO C A Nor - NAf; A NAf XXX; A Tun S A Nor - NAf;

RETREATING

Now that we've learned how to dislodge units, we also need to learn what to do with them. After all, they can't continue standing around dislodged for the rest of the game, right? For this purpose, we have the Retreat Phase, right after the execution of the orders. For each of his dislodged units, every player has to decide to either retreat or disband it.

Retreat
If he chooses to retreat his unit, he can move it to any province as long as:

• the respective may legally Move to this province
• the province is not occupied
• the province is not the one where the unit that dislodged it came from
• the province did not stay empty due to a draw just now

Example:
A Tyr - Pie (Yeah, there's no difference to Move orders)

Disband
A unit is disbanded if:

• there are no provinces the unit may legally retreat to
• the player fails to issue a retreat order or orders an illegal one
• two units retreat to the same province
• the player chooses to disband his unit instead of retreating it

A disbanded unit is removed from the board, and is no longer part of the game for all purposes.

OCCUPYING AND BUILDING

First off, these two phases always take place after retreats, and only in a Fall turn!

Occupy
During this phase, ownership of any province occupied by a unit from another nation than its owner's is transferred to said unit's owner. Basically, this is the phase where you actually conquer things. Yes, that's right - anything you conquered in Spring and lost in Fall never belongs to you!

Build
We've now learned everything, from moving and convoying to conquering and disbanding - but we never learned how to get new units. This is what this final phase is reserved for. In it, each player counts the number of Supply Centres he has now (after occupying, that is). If it exceeds the number of his units, he may build up to as many units as there are more Supply Centres. So, if France has 12 SCs, but only 10 units, it may build 0, 1 or 2 new ones. However, units may only build in Home Supply Centres (the SCs owned by the player at the beginning of the game), and only if the type of unit is allowed in that respective province. So, France cannot build new units in Spain, even if he owns it, and can never build a fleet in Paris (duh ). Also, you can obviously not build in provinces occupied by one of your own units, as there may be only one unit it any province.
If, however, the number of units exceeds the number of SCs, the player has to disband units until they are equal again. If he fails to order respective orders, the units furthest from the HSCs are disbanded, see here.
Example:
A Mun (same for building and disbanding, you can only do one anyway )

END OF THE GAME

There are two ways a game can end for a player:

• LOSS: A player loses when, after a Fall turn, he doesn't own any SC anymore. Furthermore, all other players lose when one player manages to reach 18 SCs.
• VICTORY: There are two ways of winning the game for a player. He can try to gain a Individual Victory by reaching 18 SCs, making him the only player of all seven to win the game. However, you can also choose to have an Allied Victory, i.e. a victory of more than one player. For this, all players still playing (i.e. anyone with one or more SCs) has to agree to that victory. Basically, you need 34 SCs or the capitulation if all your opponents for an allied victory.

SPECIAL RULES

Coasts
There are some provinces (Spa, Bul, StP) that have two different coasts, which need to be specified when moved to. So, F MAO - Spa is not a valid order, it has to be F MAO - Spa(nc) or F Mao - Spa(sc) (north coast and south coast, respectively). Also, a fleet that travelled to Spa(nc) can only start from the north coast, not from the south coast. A fleet that just moved F MAO - Spa(nc) cannot move F Spa - LYO now; it could move F Spa - Gas, though. Armies, however, are located on the land and not at one coast, and don't distinguish between coasts in any way. An army that just moved A Mar - Spa can move A Spa - Gas without any problems. The same goes for StP and Bul, of course.

Traversable Waterways
Furthermore, there are Constantinople (Con) and Kiel (Kie). Both countries' coasts are divided by landmasses, but have only one coast nonetheless, as a traversable waterway leads through them. This coast functions like a normal coast of a normal province. Armies can also move through the provinces without problems, i.e. both of the following sets of movements are possible (not at the same time, of course ):
F BAL - Kie
F Kie - SKA
F SKA - Den
F Den - BAL
As well as:
A Mun - Kie
A Kie - Den
A Den - Swe
Constantinople works the same way.

Special Situations
There are a number of very special situations that can occur in the case of intertwining supports, though, usually, their outcome is logical. Please check the Complete Rules link below the spoiler box.

Further information can be found:
Wikipedia (it's Wikipedia, what do you expect? )
TV Tropes (which actually manages to explain the whole thing rather well)
Complete Rules (there are many things you only need in very special cases)

Some other things that might be interesting:
Move simulator
Tactics and Strategy

GM: Callid
IRC: #[email protected]

History:
1901 Spring
1901 Fall
1902 Spring
1902 Fall
1903 Spring
1903 Fall
1904 Spring
1904 Fall
1905 Spring
1905 Fall
1906 Spring
1906 Fall
1907 Spring
End of Game

NationPlayerStatus     SC    
Color.
Germany.
Conia.
Lost.
1.
  â–ˆ   .
Great Britain.
vittor.
Won.
6.
  â–ˆ.
France.
c-square.
Won       .
2.
  â–ˆ.
Russia.
Stopwatch.
Won.
10.
  â–ˆ.
Austria-Hungary.
Parkur        .
Lost.
3.
  â–ˆ.
Ottoman Empire       .
Kleene Onigiri     .
Won.
8.
  â–ˆ.
Italy.
xpon.
Lost    .
4.
  â–ˆ

End of Game

Official Abbreviations - Small version
jDip file

[xpon]

Schedule From Callid.


  Day Phase    
MondayFall
TuesdayFall Retreat
Wednesday     Build
Thursday-
FridaySpring
SaturdaySpring Retreat
Sunday-

---

Progress Table:


       Nation1900190119021903190419051906
Austria â–ˆ     3    4    5    5    4   
Britain â–ˆ     3    4    5    5    5   
France â–ˆ     3    3    4    3    2   
Italy â–ˆ     3    5    5    5    6   
Germany â–ˆ     3    5    5    5    5   
Ottoman â–ˆ     3    4    5    5    5   
Rusia â–ˆ     4    5    5    6    7   

[Callid]

is this like a game called Risk?

Somewhat. There are two significant differences, though: For one, the fighting system is a completely different one, it's void of any luck, and the moves of all players are executed at the same time. Secondly, the focus of the game isn't on the fights to begin with, but instead on the diplomatic negotiations between the players - hence the name. The main similarity they share is that you move armies from one province to another
Basically, Diplomacy is significantly more logical than Risk, has no luck element (zero!), and talking with people is more important than fighting.

[xpon]

Me join then!!!!

me is master at Risk

(master at loosing)

[vittor]

You have my sword, and my deodorant!

[nomemory]

and my deodorant!

What do you know that I don't?

[vittor]

and my deodorant!

What do you know that I don't?

Axe.

[nomemory]

and my deodorant!

What do you know that I don't?

Axe.

Just a pun then, I was getting worried

[Callid]

There is now a description of the game on the first post, as well as useful links. Also, sign-ups have now officially started - remember, we can only have a maximum seven players XD
If there are further question, feel free to ask, either in here or via PM

[Callid]

Seven players have signed up, therefore signing-up is now closed and the game will start as soon as I've gotten an OK from every player. Nations have been assigned randomly, but the players are free to trade them if they want to. I'll now proceed to detail the rules in the first post.

[Callid]

The rules are now complete. Every player will receive a PM, asking for confirmation of the Status Quo, and their wish for the turn length. Once I've gotten a reply from everyone, the game will start!
(Also, perhaps every player should post here once in order to have this topic show up on his "new replies" )

[xpon]

I am in!.
no one will take away my Pizza Land!!!!!!!


Beside, i have a special agent for this missions!:

Spoiler:

---

UPDATE: i really confuse about the move or attack.

can you kindly enough gave image example please? please...

example, can the fleet from Rom move into LYO-GOL in 1 turn? or not?

[Callid]

Image examples for all kind of moves can be found in the Complete Rules. There is also a lengthy example of a possible start of a game at the end (this one is without images, though).
Nope, the fleet in Rom can only move to Nap, Tus and TYR. To get to LYO (or GOL, the two abbreviations are interchangeable), it needs at least two moves (F Rom - TYS; F TYS - LYO).
Also, xpon, there's no need to create a history, I'll make one myself

[xpon]

okay.. i get it... but i will still make a mistake..

[c-square]

Be careful not to take this game too seriously!  This game can create hurt feelings and resentment very quickly, and has been known to be the cause of many broken friendships.  You've been warned.