Diplomacy (board game)

Template:Infobox Game Diplomacy is a board game, war game, and strategy game set in Europe in the era before the beginning of World War I. Diplomacy was the first commercially published game to be played by mail; only chess, which is in the public domain, saw significant postal play earlier. Diplomacy was also the first commercially published game to generate an active hobby with amateur fanzines; only science-fiction/fantasy and comics fandom saw fanzines earlier. Competitive face-to-face Diplomacy tournaments have been held since the 1970s. Play of Diplomacy by e-mail has been widespread since the early 1990s. Created by Allan B. Calhamer in 1954 and released commercially in 1959, Diplomacy is played by seven (or fewer) players, each of whom controls the armed forces of a European power: France, Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Turkey or United Kingdom in an effort to win possession of a majority of strategic cities and provinces marked as "supply centers" on the map. (The rules allow for games with two to six players, closing parts of the standard board and giving additional world powers to players, but these are used only in casual play, and are not considered standard Diplomacy in tournament, postal, or most forms of online play.)

Diplomacy differs from most war games in several ways: All units move simultaneously, with players writing down their moves during a negotiation period, and all moves are revealed and put into effect simultaneously. All units are of equal strength, and combat resolution contains no element of randomness — no dice are rolled and no cards are shuffled. The result of a move depends on the support or opposition of the units in neighboring spaces, making social interaction and interpersonal skills, the formation and violation of alliances, and calculated lying and backstabbing, crucial parts of the game play.

The game ends when one player gains control of more than half of the continent, or by agreement among all surviving players.

Diplomacy has been published in the United States by Games Research, Avalon Hill, and Hasbro; the name is currently a registered trademark of Hasbro's Avalon Hill division. Diplomacy has also been licensed to various companies for publication in other countries. Since the 1960s, Diplomacy has been played by mail through fanzines, and more recently, through e-mail and on the world wide web, adjudicated by computer or by a human gamesmaster.

In its catalog, Avalon Hill advertised Diplomacy as John F. Kennedy's and Henry Kissinger's favorite game. Dr. Kissinger described it as his favorite in an interview published in a games magazine. Walter Cronkite was also reported to be a fan of the game.

Basic setting and overview

The board is a map of Europe showing political boundaries as they existed at the beginning of the 20th century, divided into fifty-six land regions and nineteen sea regions.

Every player other than Russia begins the game with three units (two armies and one naval fleet, except for England which due to its status as an island, starts with two fleets and one army); Russia has four units (two armies and two fleets) to compensate for her larger area and the need to defend two disjoint coasts.

Only one unit at a time may occupy a given map region. Thirty-four of the land regions contain supply centers, corresponding to major centers of industry or commerce (e.g. "Vienna", "Rome"). The number of supply centers a player controls determines the total number of armies and fleets a player may have on the board, and as players gain and lose control of different centers, they may build and must remove units accordingly. Balancing units to supply center counts is done after each gameyear (two seasons of play: Spring and Fall). At the beginning of the game, there are twelve "neutral" (unoccupied) supply centers; these are all typically captured within the first few moves, allowing all the powers to ramp up their military strength. Thereafter the allocation of supply centers becomes zero sum, with any gains in a player's resources coming at the expense of a rival.

Players who control no supply centers after a Fall turn are eliminated from the game, and victory is achieved if a player controls eighteen of the thirty-four supply centers, or if all players agree to a draw.

The regions on the board are named after the general regions (e.g. "Bohemia") or countries (e.g. "Serbia"); however, home supply centers (i.e. supply centers that are occupied at the beginning of the game) are named after the relevant cities (e.g. "Ankara," "Berlin").

The map represents Europe just before World War I, with the notable omission of Montenegro, which is included in Austria-Hungary. Some of the regions are named according to the early 20th century European diplomatic language and differ from modern standard usage, e.g. United Kingdom is referred to as England, and Tunisia is called "Tunis" on some boards.

Game play

Diplomacy is turn-based — movement turns, alternately designated "Spring" and "Fall" moves, by convention begin in the year 1901. Prior to each movement phase, there is a negotiation period in which players entice, wheedle, bluff, cajole, and threaten each other in an attempt to form favorable partnerships. Secret negotiations and secret agreements are explicitly allowed, but no agreements of any kind are enforceable. A player is not bound to anything he says during the negotiation period.

After the negotiation period is over, players secretly write orders for each unit and these orders are revealed simultaneously and simultaneously executed. Choice of orders include "move" (to any space adjacent to the unit's current location), "support" (help a unit hold an area, in case it is attacked by two units), "hold" (do nothing), "support attack" (assist in attacking an occupied area), and fleets may "convoy" armies (carry an army from one coast to another, e.g. Brest→Wales or Trieste→Apulia). Armies may only occupy land regions, and fleets may only occupy sea regions and land regions that border the sea. Fleets and armies in combination can execute a "convoy," which allows transport of an army across either one (or multiple) bodies of water to a distant land square. One Fleet per sea space traversed is required if multiple bodies of water are to be traversed.

Since only one unit can occupy any particular game space, conflicts (such as two armies ordered to enter the same space), are resolved according to rules determining how much "support" a unit has for its movement. When two units attempt to occupy the same region, the one with more support wins. The greatest concentration of force is always victorious; if the forces are equal a standoff results and the units remain in their original positions. If a supporting unit is attacked (except by the unit against which the support is directed), the support is nullified, which allows units to affect the outcome of conflicts in regions not directly adjacent.

Occasionally these conceptually simple rules result in situations that are difficult to adjudicate, or seemingly paradoxical. Therefore the official rules contain comprehensive details and examples. Also, one person may be designated as Gamemaster to execute moves and adjudicate disputes.

After each Fall move, previously uncontrolled supply centers become owned by the occupying player, and each power's supply center total is recalculated. At that point players with fewer supply centers than units on the board must disband units, while players with more supply centers than units on the board are entitled to build units. Units may only be built in that player's "Home" centers, that is, those centers with which each Great Power begins the game. Therefore, a player may not build units in any captured "neutral" center or in another player's "Home" centers.

A game of diplomacy ends either once one player controls an outright majority of supply centres (18 on a standard map), or when all remaining players agree to a draw.

Although the boundaries on the Diplomacy map are those of 1914, not 1901, seasons are labelled from Spring 1901 to make it easier to count the turns.

The Powers

England

England is the name given by the game to the area known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

England is protected by the sea and is the only power starting with more fleets than armies. What it gains in defensive position by virtue of its island status and by being wedged in the corner of the map (like Turkey) is counterbalanced by the fact it is one of only two powers on the map (with Italy) that cannot gain a neutral supply centre in one move (Spring 1901). Norway and Belgium are the only "natural neutrals" that can be reasonably assured in the Fall of the first game-year, though Norway can be contested by Russia and Belgium denied by either Germany or France. Any number of articles detailing this by Diplomacy's most famous players can be found at 'The Diplomatic Pouch' website. [3]

While all the seas surrounding the islands are important, the North Sea is surely the most vital defensive area for this country throughout the course of the game. [4] The North Sea borders more supply centres than any other spot on the map in the game at six, with the Black Sea tied with Serbia coming in both a close second with five. It is strategically vital to both England's defense and offense (as well as England's demise) and rarely is it seen that a strong and expanding England does not control this space. In most cases, the loss of the North Sea spells disaster for the English.

Of note as well is the English Channel, often the centre of intrigue in the initial year of the game. A move by either the French or the English into the Channel in 1901 generally causes fireworks across the board. Sometimes ruse, sometimes D-Day; the Channel plays an immense role in the early game diplomatic efforts. The Channel affords England a bargaining chip in initial negotiations. Its technical implications are beyond the scope of this article but can be further explored in readings such as Stephen Agar's Prising the French Snail Out Of His Shell or Edi Birsan's Sealion Opening as examples. The Channel's significance tends to die down during the mid-game but it generally pops back into play later in the end-game.

England's latent power resides in its ability to pressure a vast number of supply centres directly and indirectly. As a result the 'Eastern' power of Russia can even be brought into the fray of Western discord (at the expense of its Southern border). A combined assault by both England and Germany can deny Belgium to the French in Fall of 1901. An Italian / Anglo alliance can wreak havoc on Munich or Marseilles. England in many ways holds the balance of power in the region and is generally played (when played well) to maximise its options at the expense of its neighbours while it shores up its own position for the mid game — where it can truly shine in terms of brute force.

Arguably, it is vital that English armies move into Europe early enough to enable a substantial expansion. Due to the fact that England is an island and is in the corner of the map it is very easy to sit back and not be truly threatened by any other opposing country. However, this will eventually lead to the English forces being boxed in and not being able to find a way into the game, particularly if the French have the English channel and another country is occupying the North Sea.

For a statistical breakdown of England's overall winning percentage (1969–1991) visit Stephen Agar's statistics for this period.

For a statistical breakdown of Spring 1901 opening moves used in Diplomacy Postal play in th UK (as a benchmark) see Stephen Agar's breakdown.

Germany

As a central power, Germany has a rather complex position. This is partly balanced by the fact that it is the only country that is likely to conquer three neutrals the first year, having two practically secured. Also, Germany commonly has a non-aggression pact or some other sort of alliance with Austria-Hungary (something favored by the board design), which reduces its dangerous neighbours to only three (Russia, France, England) in practical terms.

Even not counting Austria, Germany has lots of areas to expand: Scandinavia, the Low Countries, and also any of its three other neighbours. [5]

One of the best strategies is to ally with England (because allying with France usually results in Germany being stabbed in the back soon after they have gotten rid of England) and with Russia. If Germany can trust Russia to move into Galicia and attack the southern part of the board, Germany can then easily deal with France. It is key that Germany makes France feel secure the first year and then gets England onto France's west coast.

France

France is sometimes considered the easiest power to play: it has two uncontested neutrals to annex in 1901 (Spain and Portugal), as well as a third that it sometimes also gains (Belgium). As well as having quite flexible lines of expansion France benefits from a defensible corner position making it a difficult power to eliminate. This results in good records both for victories and survivals.

Italy often (but not necessarily) avoids conflict with France early on, allowing France to focus on England and Germany, in what is commonly called the western triangle (par [6], although in some parts of the world (notably Australia/New Zealand) the English, French and German players may combine in a "three-way" alliance with the aim of eliminating the other powers before fighting amongst themselves.

A common strategy in the beginning is to ally with Germany, while on the side, secretly allying with Russia against Germany and England, not actually encroaching on German territory until England has been eliminated. The common approach to the first move is to move Paris and Marseilles into Spain and Portugal, respectively, while bouncing England out of the English Channel. The second turn, France should move its fleet into the Mid-Atlantic Ocean, allowing itself a build in Brest. It's best to ask Germany to support France's newly built fleet in Brest into the English Channel, and also supporting with its fleet from the Mid-Atlantic. If England has a fleet in London and the North Sea, it can be assumed that he will support his fleet in the English Channel with both of these. When this happens, it is best for France to move its fleet from the Mid-Atlantic into the North Atlantic so it can gain Liverpool with a convoy he set up out of Spain, while his remaining army quells anything on France's eastern border with Italy.

Assuming England doesn't obtain another supply center (remember the alliance with Russia to stop England's advances), England will be forced to disband. Once England disbands (which will likely be in the English Channel), France and/or Germany will be able to obtain the remaining supply centers England has without much difficulty. It is crucial to, after France has a foothold in England, back-stab Germany. A good player would have moved into Burgundy as soon as possible and lied to Germany about them gaining any supply centers in England. France should try and take all of them for itself and move into German territory at the same time as Russia (and possibly Austria.)

After France has about 10 supply centers (and hopefully they are all on the west side of the board), it is very likely the other countries will team up to stop France's expansion. This is when diplomacy is key. Play the countries off of each other (usually getting the countries further away from you to attack the ones on your border is the best way to go). What makes the closer countries weaker makes you stronger.

Italy

Italy is considered, not without some reason, to be the weakest power and most difficult power to play successfully. However difficult the military strategy looks, the most appalling feature of Italy is its unique diplomatic situation. While it is not as exposed as Austria-Hungary, Germany or even Russia, it has few places to go after the invariable conquest of Tunis. Additionally, the border between Italy and Austria-Hungary is the only one that has two adjacent home supply centers: Venice and Trieste, creating tension and fear between the two powers. Yet, as a Mediterranean power, it has relatively little to gain from fighting Austria, which is almost exclusively a land-oriented power.

The case of Italy has been subject of many analysis and suggestions for strategies. The classical, almost intuitive, opening strategy is attacking Austria, but this may favor Turkey too much and also Russia can become unstoppable after Austria is dispatched. The most frequent strategy may be the Lepanto, a special alliance with Austria against Turkey, often combined with surprising naval movements by Italy. But this often leaves Italy with few gains as well. Alternatively, some propose the Triple Alliance, with Germany and Austria, especially oriented against France. Italy can get a jump on the south of France due to the lack of a French navy there.

Then there are still other ideas, like invading Munich by surprise. Another alliance can see Italy, Turkey and Russia invade Austria and the Balkans, but this usually leads Russia to become dangerously powerful. In any case, Italy is a power that has quite a good defense, as long as it sustains an adequate navy, but unclear lines of expansion or sets of alliances. [7]

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary is probably the most challenging power to play in Diplomacy. It is exposed to attack from all sides, and unlike Italy cannot use its initial weakness as a bargaining tool.

Austria's main considerations in 1901 are that 1) it is outflanked, and 2) it negotiates from a weak position from the outset. In spite of appearances to the contrary, Turkey has little to no effect on Austrian affairs in the initial phase of the game. Of siginificance is Italian and Russian moves in 1901. Germany can generally be relied upon to leave Austria well alone for the greater part of the game. When played well Austria is a power-house. In fact, an alliance between the German, Austrian and Italian can easily win a Diplomacy game if the players involved are willing to remain loyal to one another. Due to its precarious starting position, playing Austria is sometimes like rolling a pair of dice. Chance, and the whims of Austria's neighbours, determine to a large extent whether Austria is knocked out of the game rapidly or able to prosper.

The key areas that determine Austria's fate are Galicia and Trieste. If Austria loses control of either in 1901, a quick defeat is highly likely to follow. An Austrian player cannot therefore afford to cede Galicia to anyone else. There is no scenario where ceding it works to the Austrian advantage, particularly in the early part of the game.

Russia

Due to its immense size, Russia is the only power that begins the game with four units. In many ways, its size is more a matter of optics rather than actual power. What makes the Russian unique is its ability to influence events in the Western and Eastern theatres from the outset of the game; it is able to influence the acquisition of supply centres in 1901 by every power save France. In that respect Russia is very much a 'wildcard' in terms of diplomacy.

Most commonly Russia focuses in the southern area: Balkans and Austria, though there are also opening strategies for the north. Normally Russia tries to secure Rumania and Sweden in 1901. Also Russia has no clear allies and has to work hard in the diplomatic arena to gain them. Russia's major roadblock to diplomacy (and ironically its greatest weapon) is simply put... fear. Russia is the power that wins most frequently [8] but also the one that is eliminated first most often. It has a lot of potential but also vulnerabilities. Generally speaking, powers both west and east are vulnerable to a hysterical and over-stated fear of Russian power. Fear is the Tzar's best friend, and a skilled Russian player will use this to maximum effect.

Undoubtedly, Russia's main concern from the outset is the Black Sea. Like the North Sea, it is a strategically vital asset for the Russian. The Black Sea is the key to controlling the Balkans, as a fleet in this naval space can swing the tide in any contest for Rumania, Bulgaria, Constantinople, or Ankara. Russia generally focuses its initial diplomatic efforts on either gaining this space or ensuring that it remains unoccupied (via a bounce with Turkey). Often, what happens in the Black Sea in 1901 decides what strategy the remaining powers take in the long-term. A skilled Russian player will use the Black Sea to maximum diplomatic effect to achieve his/her aims.

There has been much written in the Diplomacy community about the Russian/Turkish alliance (aka 'the Juggernaut').[9] Much of the fear of Russia has its roots in the popular myth of this alliance. It is a strategy that is generally poorly understood, rarely executed well, but universally feared, and with good reason. The Russo/Turkish alliance when executed with determination has the advantage of having no rear line to defend and thus cannot be outflanked easily. This is a powerful advantage as compared to a power like Germany, which must constantly work to maintain a defensive line that encircles its home centres; not an easy task. Within the alliance, Russia enjoys the advantage of a relatively easy advance through Scandinavia, Germany and Austria, while Turkey often becomes bogged down in the Balkans and can be later eliminated for the requisite 18 supply centers.

Also of note is the Austrian/Russian alliance. Though less obvious than an alliance with Turkey it can quickly clear out the south and even make Russia a power in the Mediterranean. However, Russia loses its flanking advantages as Austria will likely be able to attack many Russian supply centers, putting it in a good position to ally with England or Germany and wipe out Russia. The goal of this alliance is to eliminate Turkey as quickly as possible, often with the help of the Italians.

A note on Germany: it is suicide for Russia to attack Germany in the early game, and vice versa. Though tempting, Russia gives up its solid defensive position only to leave its flanks exposed.

Russian strategy is dissected in great detail in the readings found at [10]

For a statistical breakdown of Russia's overall winning percentage (1969–1991) visit Stephen Agar's statistics for this period.

For a statistcal breakdown of Spring 1901 opening moves used in Diplomacy Postal play in the UK (as a guide for new players) see Stephen Agar's breakdown.

Turkey

Much like England, the Turks find themselves in a corner of the board and have few options in the beginning. Like England, they are likely safe from an invasion, being almost impenetrable as long as they don't let the Black Sea fall into enemy hands: but in order to expand, Turkish armies and fleets must travel far from home. An alliance with Russia is considered by some to be one of Turkey's best options, although this can often be more beneficial to Russia than to Turkey itself. Alternatively Turkey can decide to attack Russia in an uneasy alliance with Austria-Hungary.

Strategy

Because numerical superiority is crucial to success, alliances are vital in Diplomacy. Each country is initially roughly equal in strength, so it is very difficult to gain territory except by attacking with the support of a neighbor. The excitement of the game is less in the tactics than in negotiation, coalition-building, and intrigue. Each player's social and interpersonal skills are at least as important to the game as the player's strategic abilities.

Diplomacy commands a respect among aficionados of multiplayer games similar to the respect accorded to chess among two-player games. Most multiplayer games can't help but involve coalition-building to some degree, but only in Diplomacy is the negotiation so critical and so multi-faceted. The game can't be won by going it alone, except in a last mad dash of aggression from a strong position. In the mean time one makes compromises and promises to one's allies while spreading fear and misinformation among one's enemies. And the attacking of one's allies (or the "stab") has a central role in the culture of Diplomacy. A stab can be crucial to victory, but may have negative repercussions in interpersonal relations.

All of the countries on the map have a real chance for success if played properly. Each power requires a different style of play. Italy and Austria-Hungary are often thought to be the weakest countries — Austria-Hungary because it has many neighbors and can be eliminated early, Italy because it has a hard time expanding. However, if they survive and prosper through the starting phase of the game, their central position can be a great advantage. England and Turkey are generally considered to be the easiest to defend. Under Calhamer scoring (where an outright victory is worth one point and participants in a draw split the point equally) Russia and France typically score the most points, Italy and Austria-Hungary the fewest.

There is a natural buffer of spaces without supply centers between the western and eastern halves of the board. Therefore the first few turns of a game usually break down into fighting amongst the western powers (England, France, Germany) and eastern powers (Russia, Austria-Hungary, Turkey) for dominance in their areas followed by a break out based on the results. Italy is a wild card with a relatively weak position, though if it commits to an alliance in either of the two threesomes, the alliance can be pivotal.

In some circles cheating is not only allowed, but also actively encouraged. Players are allowed and expected to move pieces between turns, add extra armies (the so-called "Flying Dutchmen"), listen in to private conversations, change other players' written move orders and just about anything else they can get away with. In tournament play, however, these forms of cheating are generally prohibited, leaving only the lying and backstabbing, which is prevalent wherever Diplomacy is played.

Variants

There have been two commercially released variants of Diplomacy — Colonial Diplomacy and Machiavelli. Additionally, many fans of the game have created myriad variants of their own, using altered rules on the standard map, standard rules on a different map, or both. An index of over a thousand variants is available at the Diplomacy Variant Bank web site (see External links, below).

Colonial Diplomacy

Set in Asia in the late 19th century, much of the board is controlled by various colonial powers: England, Russia, Japan, Holland, Turkey, China, and France. The game introduces three special features:

• The Trans-Siberian railroad extends across Russia from Moscow to Vladivostock. The railroad can be used by Russia to move armies anywhere along the railroad. The TSR may only be used by Russia. Russian armies are allowed to move through other Russian armies, but foreign armies can block the passage of armies on the TSR.
• The Suez Canal is the only way to move between the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea. Use of the Suez Canal is controlled by whoever is in control of Egypt. The use of the Suez Canal increases in importance later in the game as expansion becomes both more important and more difficult.
• The ownership of Hong Kong counts as a supply centre for any country except China.

Machiavelli

Set in renaissance Italy, the board is controlled by the Republic of Florence, the Republics of Venice, the Duchy of Milan, the Kingdom of Naples, the Papacy, Valois France, Hapsburg Austria and the Ottoman Turks. The game introduces many rules changes such as money, bribery, three seasons per year, garrisons, and random events such as plague and famine.

Tournaments

Diplomacy is played at a number of formal tournaments. In some cases, each game ends after a specified number of game-years, to ensure that all players can play in all rounds without limiting the tournament structure to one round per day. At other events, a game continues until a winner is determined or a draw is voted. Tournaments in Europe are generally played with a specific end year whereas tournaments in North America more often are played until someone wins or a draw is agreed. Some tournaments are centered on the games and have a highly competitive atmosphere; others have more focus on meeting and socializing with other players from the postal or e-mail parts of the hobby.

The World Diplomacy Championship (WDC) is held annually in different places in the world, to determine the World Champion of Diplomacy. WDC was first held in 1988 in Birmingham, England, and was held at two-year intervals before becoming an annual event. WDC's site rotates among three regions: North America, Europe/UK, and the rest of the world.

The North American Diplomacy Convention (DipCon) is held annually in different places in North America, to determine the North American Champion of Diplomacy. DipCon was first held in 1967 in Youngstown Ohio. DipCon's site rotates among West, Central, and East regions.

The European Diplomacy Convention (Euro DipCon) is held annually in different places in Europe, to determine the European Champion of Diplomacy.

Over a dozen other countries hold national championship tournaments.

In addition, e-mail diplomacy players compete every two years in the Worldmasters E-mail Tournament comprised of both team and individual events

Many of the larger multi-game tournaments, such as the World Boardgaming Championships, Gen Con, Origins, and Dragonflight also host Diplomacy tournaments. On occasion, WDC or DipCon will be held in conjunction with one of these conventions.

Other ways to play

It is difficult to organize a full face-to-face game. There must be exactly seven players, as standard-board variants for less than seven tend to be imbalanced and to become stagnant and predictable. Also, there is no set time for the game to finish. Tournament games among experts have lasted twelve hours, but even typical games will last four hours or more. To overcome the difficulty of assembling enough players for a sufficiently large block of time together, a play-by-mail game community has developed, either via Postal or Internet Diplomacy, using either humans to adjudicate the turns (like at Diplomaticcorp and Redscape) or automatic adjudicators (such as njudge or DGMS at Diplomacy.Ca). One way to get into a game is via the queues available via the Diplomacy Online Resources page, the DC Open Games, or the New Game Openings via the Redscape Forum or Diplomacy.Ca. There are already many excellent tools to help assist play, such as floc.net game pages and DipTool.

The DPjudge hosts about half of all judge adjudicated Diplomacy games [11] and provides a web front-end for players and games masters.

Njudge and DpJudge game results are used to create JDPR, the Judge Diplomacy Player Ranking system.

BOUNCED, diplomacy.denes.nl, andthe official phpDiplomacy installation provide an entirely web-based approach.

Diplomacy.ca has been running online Diplomacy via a BBS since 1985 and as a web site since 1999 and offers a fully automated and online experience for "standard" and "gunboat" game play.

"STABBEURFOU" is entirely web-based and biligual English/French, suited for hosting tournaments but also hosts free games.

Despite the length of games, there are those that organize ad-hoc games, and there are also various clubs that have annual tournaments.

Diplomacy is sometimes played in high school history classes because of its realistic emulation of events and diplomacy between nations. It helps students better understand the politics involved in World War I and World War II.

Comparison with other war games

Diplomacy differs from the majority of war games in several ways:

• Unit movement is simultaneous, not turn-based — all players secretly write down their moves after a negotiation period, and then all moves are revealed and put into effect simultaneously.
• Social interaction and interpersonal skills make up an essential part of the game play.
• The rules that simulate combat are strategic, abstract, and simple, not tactical, realistic, or complex.
• Combat resolution contains no element of randomness — no dice are rolled and no cards are shuffled. (Individual players may attempt to incorporate randomness into their choice of moves, as a strategy to prevent their opponents from outguessing them, a strategy suggested by game theory.)

History

Diplomacy was created in 1954 and released commercially in 1959. It has been published since then by Games Research, Avalon Hill, and Hasbro in the USA, and licensed to others for versions sold in other countries.

Since the 1960s, Diplomacy has been played by mail through fanzines. The play-by-mail hobby was created in 1963 in carbon-copied typed flyers by John Boardman in New York and Conrad von Metzke in San Diego at virtually the same time. Each gathered old face-to-face friends independently without either one knowing what the other was doing at the time. Because of this it is unknown which one came up with the idea first, although Boardman is generally given credit as the founder of the play-by-mail hobby because his flyers became an ongoing publication under the Graustark title, and led directly to the formation of other zines. Diplomacy has been played through e-mail on the Internet since the 1980s, with adjudication by computer starting in 1988. Some games are also still played online with a human game master.

Adaptation

Template:weasel Hasbro released a computer game version of Diplomacy in 1999, without much critical or commercial success. A major fault was that the computer AI was considered poor, one reviewer remarking "Gamers of any skill level will have no trouble whatsoever whaling on the computer at even the highest difficulty setting."[12]. There were also considerable flaws in the adjudication routine, leading to erroneous turn results. Paradox Interactive released a new computer version in 2005. However, neither of the computer games supported voice chat, thus undermining the possibilities for complicated alliances. Voice chat was added to the Paradox game in a later patch.

File:Diplomacy pcgame screenshot.jpg

Screenshot from the Paradox computer game.

See also

• Allan B. Calhamer
• Lepanto opening — one of the best-known Diplomacy openings in existence.
• Play-by-mail game
• Slobbovia — a Diplomacy variant
• Internet Diplomacy

External links

(Alphabetical lists, categorized by primary purpose when sites are multi-purpose)

Official site and hobby services

• Diplomacy — official page on the Avalon Hill website
• Diplomacy Archive — hobby-wide repository of FAQs, rules editions, scoring systems, links, and articles including Allan B. Calhamer's essay on inventing Diplomacy
• Diplomacy Tutorial — a beginner focused game rules tutorial
• Diplomacy World — hobby-wide webzine with articles; post-2004 issues are at its Yahoo! group.
• DipWiki.com — community driven repository for Diplomacy information. Strategy, variants, database, play
• Diplomatic Corps — hobby-wide liaison, connecting groups and hobby services from many nations
• Diplomatic Pouch, The — hobby-wide player database, resource archive, webzine, and online play.
• World Diplomacy Database, The — face-to-face results, player rankings, statistics
• DipWiki — hobby-wide Wiki for all things Diplomacy related.
• European Diplomacy Association — hobby-wide of the European Diplomacy Association (calendar, charter, tournament results...)

Variants to play

• Variant Library - Hundreds of variants, indexed with detailed descriptions. Realpolitik variants for many.
• Diplomiscellany — site containing the Model House Rules, articles on gaming philosophy, homepages of several variants, and more
• Speed Diplomacy — variants include Treaty Ports (China 1900) 8-player and Europa (Europe 1901) 7-player, with Realpolitik files, deluxe maps and icons, and The Whispering Gallery player forum with archived games.
• Variant Bank — listing more than 1,000 variants, many with rules or maps, or links to the variant sites

Software to play

• Crockford Diplomacy Map — made for computer play, can be used as conference map
• Diplomacy AI Centre — for automated play using the Diplomacy AI Development Environment (DAIDE)
• floc.net — a site devoted to presenting the map layouts of 48 different diplomacy servers.
• jDip — Open Source computer version of the game in Java
• Njudge — an automatic email Diplomacy adjudicator program
• Palmpolitik — Diplomacy for a PalmOS PDA
• phpDiplomacy — Internet based implementation of Diplomacy, written in PHP.
• Realpolitik — an Open Source computer version of the game, highly popular for internet play. Many Realpolitik variant files available in the Variant Library

Where to play

• STABBEURFOU — site featuring automated judging and mapmaking, code translations (English and French)
• Diplomacy Chicago — official page for the Chicago based Diplomacy email clan.
• 18 Centres — French pbem
• Diplomaticcorp - A play-by-email Diplomacy community - Ratings, stats, all games run by human GMs with many variants offered.
• BOUNCED — site featuring automated judging and mapmaking for several variants
• Casus Foederis — site offering multilanguage Diplomacy play
• DAANZ — Diplomacy Association of Australia and New Zealand
• Diplodocus — Brazilian site hosting online games and more
• Diplomacy.it — Italian Language Diplomacy community
• diplomacy.denes.nl — online webbased version of diplomacy.
• Diplomacy.ca — games, tournaments, player rankings, forums, Standard & Gunboat, online results, automated processing.
• Diplomatic Corp — Online Diplomacy community with human judges, standard/variant games, player stats, and comprehensive database.
• Dip2000 — Emailed based fansite, player rankings (1,000+ players)
• Diplomail Russian website, human judges, negotiations by email and in the Diplomail Forum; Standard and Variant games; FtF games in Moscow.
• Diplomatie Online — French site, playable online and accepting all variants. tournaments, player rankings, archives.
• Diplored — Spanish language Diplomacy community
• Finnish Diplomacy community
• German Diplomacy Association with a FTF database
• Lepanto — mostly German Diplomacy Games
• Ludomaniac — German pbem and Hobby site, one of the largest communities in the world
• Norwegian Diplomacy Association
• Objectif French website, human judges, negotiations by emails.
• Oxford University Diplomacy Society — site about the organisers of the annual Diplomacy Tournament at OxCon
• phpDiplomacy Official Server — The official and most widely played on phpDiplomacy installation.
• Primavera de 1901 — Brazilian site with help for starters on online playing and helpful links
• Redscape — games, tournaments, player rankings, extensive player forum for maps, variants, strategies and general discussions.

• Weltkonflikte — German pbem site for World Diplomacy Games WWIV and World 2200 Variant, Welsh (Gymreig), 1939.Blitzkrieg and the Jihad2 Diplomacy Variant
• DipWorld — Yahoo Groups based site featuring standard and variant games, tournaments, player stats and an open forum

Das Gropewill Publications contact GM at arguajardo@earthlink.net Monthly magazine for players and interested parties in playing.

Media attention

• "World Domination: the Game" — article in the Washington Post, Nov. 14, 2004

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