Diplomacy: Standard - Spring 1903

[Gabu]

I've volunteered to run this thing, so here we go.  I've randomly assigned countries to the first seven who signed up, so without further ado, here are our players:

England: bullmoose88
Germany: TN2024
France: Jas
Italy: Emsworth
Austria-Hungary: ilikeverin
Russia: Colin Wixted
Turkey: Supersoulty

And here is our initial map:

SPRING 1901



A map with region names can additionally be found here.  Be sure to make note of this; the names of regions is invaluable when playing the game.

A full explanation of the game rules can be found here.  A not-quite-so-in-depth overview of the rules, for the benefit of the players, is as follows:

All players begin with three units, except for Russia, which begins with four.  There are two types of units: armies, represented by cannons, and fleets, represented by battleships.  Each player may make one move with each unit per turn.  The moves that can be made are as follows:

- Move/Attack (identical actions)
- Hold
- Support
- Support attack
- Convoy (fleets only)

Moving or attacking is straightforward: you merely specify what army or fleet you want to move (by what region it currently occupies) and then specify where you want it to go.  If there is no unit occupying the space or who is moving into that space, then the unit will simply move there.  If there is indeed a unit moving there or who was already there, then the move counts as an attack, whose mechanics will be specified later.

Also, it should be noted that one can see on the map the abbreviations "NC", "WC", "SC", and "EC".  These stand for "north coast", "west coast", "south coast", and "east coast", respectively.  If a fleet lands on one coast, it cannot leave from another coast.  It may only travel to regions adjacent to the coast on which it landed.

Holding is even more straightforward: the unit does nothing.  To execute a hold, simply specify what army or fleet you want to hold.

Supporting another unit is essentially defending that unit from attack.  More on this later when attacking is described in detail.

Supporting an attack is the opposite of supporting another unit.  Here, you are helping a unit move into another region, rather than holding the region it currently occupies.  Again, more on this later.

Convoying a unit is something that only fleets can do.  Essentially, a convoy counts for the move of two units at the same time, and involves both an army and a fleet.  When a fleet is parked into an water region, it and an army bordering the water region can both act in tandem to allow the army to cross the water region and land on a region bordering on the water region on the other side of it.  For example, a fleet in the Baltic Sea can convey an army from Sweden down to Prussia.

Attacking is one of the more complicated points of the game, and a brief overview of its mechanics follows.  Every unit in the game is deemed as having the same power as every other unit (which we will conveniently designate as a power of "one").  Whenever a unit is supported by another unit, its power is increased by one.  If a unit attacks another position, the unit with the most power wins.  If both units have the same amount of power, the unit who is holding wins.  If neither units are holding (e.g., when two units move to the same location), neither wins, and both are forced to retreat.

If a unit is dislodged by an attacking unit with superior power, that unit is forced to retreat to a neighboring region with no units in it that is not the one from which the attacker came.  If no such regions exist, the unit is disbanded and removed from play.

If a unit is supporting another unit, that unit's support can be cut by having another unit attack it on the same turn in which it attempts to support another unit.  In this case, play continues as if that unit never attempted to support the other unit.

Any region with a dot in it appearing on the map is considered a "supply center".  These are invaluable regions that all players should strive to capture (more on capturing in a bit).  First, any player who comes into control of at least eighteen of the thirty-four supply centers is declared the winner of the game.  Second, a player may have as many units on the board as he has supply centers under his control.  After fall of each year (more on seasons in a bit), each player may either add units to the board if he owns more supply centers than units, or must remove units from the board if he owns less supply centers than units.

Each turn is considered either one or two seasons (seasons being spring, summer, fall, and winter).  Actual moves are taken in spring and fall.  If any units are dislodged by an attack, the retreat takes place in the intervening season.  A player comes into control of a supply center if the player occupies that supply center after the fall turn.  If a supply center is unoccupied after a fall turn, it does not become uncontrolled; it simply does not change hands.

Players are free to openly or secretly discuss strategies among any other players.  It should be cautioned, however, that no agreements in the game are binding in any way; a person fulfilling their end of a bargain is entirely up to the trustworthiness of the player in question.

For the benefit of myself, here is the format that I would like players to give their orders in (for everything but convoy commands; those will come afterwards):

(A/F) (occupied region) (move type) [destination region]

Where:

- "A" or "F" designates whether the unit is an army or a fleet (this is sort of just a sanity check to make sure the player is moving the right unit)
- "occupied region" is the name of the region occupied by the unit the player would like to move
- "move type" can be either "moves to", "holds", or "supports" (this should be self-evident)
- "destination region" is the region (if applicable) that the unit is acting on

For example, Germany could do the following:

A Berlin moves to Prussia

For convoy commands, the format should be as follows:

F (occupied water region) convoys A (occupied land region) to (destination region)

For example, the Baltic Sea example would look like this:

F Baltic Sea convoys A Sweden to Prussia

With all of this said, the game is now officially open.  Please PM me your orders when you are ready to move.  Once all moves are in, I will post in this thread the new map.  DO NOT POST YOUR MOVES IN THE OPEN!  Your moves must be secretly transmitted to me.  You are free to announce your intentions in private to your allies, however.  Also, PLEASE specify that it is the standard variant of diplomacy, as well as what season and year it's for.  This will greatly help me organize my PMs, especially if we get another variant going.

This thread can also be used for ongoing discussion of the game.

And... go.

[Gabu]

I've volunteered to run this thing, so here we go.  I've randomly assigned countries to the first seven who signed up, so without further ado, here are our players:

England: bullmoose88
Italy: Emsworth

What does that remind me of?

I swear that I used random.org and had no hand whatsoever in picking the allocations.

[Gabu]

Will there be due dates for moves?

I hope not to need any, but if some players are incorrigibly slow, I may enforce a deadline of having a week to get moves in.  I will only employ that if absolutely necessary, however, as it would put the players who did not get to move at a massive disadvantage.

[Gabu]

Perhaps asking the players whether they were ready to start would be a good idea, as I will be gone from tomorrow 'till next Saturday without any internet access whatsoever

Perhaps you should SHUT UP and accept your loss like a man.

Okay, fine, we'll put the game on hold until next Saturday.

[Gabu]

Perhaps asking the players whether they were ready to start would be a good idea, as I will be gone from tomorrow 'till next Saturday without any internet access whatsoever

Perhaps you should SHUT UP and accept your loss like a man.

Okay, fine, we'll put the game on hold until next Saturday.

Nah, let Lewis take over for the week, srsly.

Well, okay, if you really want to.

[Gabu]

oh, sorry, I just got home.

If you can tell me gabu, do I have some time to plan my moves, or would you need them in really really soon?

Take your time; Diplomacy wouldn't really be Diplomacy if people were rushed to make their moves.

[Gabu]

oh, sorry, I just got home.

If you can tell me gabu, do I have some time to plan my moves, or would you need them in really really soon?

Take your time; Diplomacy wouldn't really be Diplomacy if people were rushed to make their moves.

Well I wasn't sure if everyone else had put their moves in while I was away for the weekend.

Absolutely no one has gotten any moves in yet.

[Gabu]

oh, sorry, I just got home.

If you can tell me gabu, do I have some time to plan my moves, or would you need them in really really soon?

Take your time; Diplomacy wouldn't really be Diplomacy if people were rushed to make their moves.

Well I wasn't sure if everyone else had put their moves in while I was away for the weekend.

Absolutely no one has gotten any moves in yet.

So whenabouts d'ye want our moves in?

Whenever you're ready, though I would prefer people take at most a week to get them in.

[Gabu]

Gabu,

Just curious, will you be doing a newspaperesque interpretation of moves after the first turn?

I don't consider myself nearly enough of an expert at Diplomacy to be able to make sense of what people are doing, but if someone else wishes to do so, they're welcome to.

[Gabu]

How bout, workweek for moves, weekend for retreats and builds?

I suppose that could work.

[Gabu]

Maybe muon2 should be running this, since he seems to know what he's doing a lot more than I do.

[Gabu]

So the deadline is today, right?

Normally yes, but I'm going to give people until Sunday this time (since there is no way any retreats will occur on the first turn).  Mostly because I'm not sure two or three of our players are even aware that this is going on.

So the deadline is today, right?

It is? When did he say that?

I didn't say it explicitly, which I suppose I should have, but muon2 suggested weekdays for moving and weekends for retreating/building, and I agreed that that would work.  But as I said above, I'm giving people until Sunday this time only.

[Gabu]

SPRING 1901 - THE MOVES



FALL 1901



Players have until Friday, June 22 to get in their Fall 1901 orders.

[Gabu]

FALL 1901 - THE MOVES



AUTUMN 1901



Italy has been defeated at Trieste, and must retreat.  Italy has until Saturday, June 23 to get in its retreat.  Thereafter, all players will have until Sunday, June 24 to get in their winter builds.

[Gabu]

AUTUMN 1901 - THE MOVES



WINTER 1901



England captures:

Denmark
Sweden


Germany captures:

Belgium
Holland

and loses:

Munich (to France)


France captures:

Munich (from Germany)
Portugal
Spain


Italy captures:

Budapest (from Austria-Hungary)
Tunisia


Austria-Hungary captures:

Serbia

and loses:

Budapest (to Italy)


Russia captures:

Sweden
Rumania


Turkey captures:

Bulgaria


Thus, the following players may alter their unit counts:

England: build up to 2 units
Germany: build up to 1 unit
France: build up to 3 units
Italy: build up to 2 units
Russia: build up to 2 units
Turkey: build up to 1 unit

Players have until Sunday, June 24 to get in their builds.  Remember that you may only build units in your original supply centers; you may not build units in supply centers that you did not own in Spring 1901.

[Gabu]

Hmmm.... This is not the usual rules I play by.... I should have read the ones we were using and not assumed otherwise....


I Doubt I can recover but I will try

These are standard Diplomacy rules, as far as I know... what rules do you play by?

[Gabu]

Any chance of an update on the reason(s) for the current pause?

Sorry about that; I had two builds that I received yesterday that were invalid, and I didn't want to penalize the two people for my not having read their orders before it was too late, so I decided to give them an extra day to revise their orders.  Both of them are in now, so I'll have the new map up in just a bit.

[Gabu]

WINTER 1901 - THE BUILDS



SPRING 1902



All players have until Friday, June 29 to get in their spring moves.

[Gabu]

Whoopsies, accidentally left map names on for those screenshots.

Oh well, you know what it should look like.

[Gabu]

Well, we're now well into Saturday and I still have yet to hear from either Supersoulty or TN2024 in response to the PM I sent them, so... we're gonna have to just carry on without them.

SPRING 1902 - THE MOVES



SUMMER 1902



Austria-Hungary has been defeated at Trieste.  It has until Sunday, July 1 to get in its summer retreat.

[Gabu]

Wait, what?  Disband?

Gabu said he didn't receive any orders from Turkey.  That placed it in Civil Disorder.  Since Russia's attack on the Black Sea Fleet from Romania (and supported by Sevastapol) was able to dislodge it, the lack of orders for all of Turkey's forces caused it to be sunk instead of retreat.

Wait just a damn minute... I thought the discussion period was the work week, then we have until the end of the weekend to give orders.

No, you have the work week to get in orders and then the weekend to get in any retreats or builds.  I said this earlier, I posted the note that all players had until Friday to get in orders, and I sent you a PM on Friday telling you that your orders were due and then gave you until mid-day Saturday to respond.  I don't know what more I could have done to get across that orders were due on Friday.

[Gabu]

SUMMER 1902 - THE RETREATS



FALL 1902



All players have until Friday, July 6 to get their moves.

[Gabu]

I'm considering Germany to be in civil disorder as I haven't heard a single thing from him regarding his absence last time, so I'm not gonna wait up for him this time.

FALL 1902 - THE MOVES



WINTER 1902



England captures:

Sweden (from Russia)
St. Petersburg (from Russia)


Germany loses:

Belgium (to France)
Kiev (to France)


France captures:

Belgium (from Germany)
Kiev (from Germany)


Italy captures:

Greece
Serbia (from Austria-Hungary)
Trieste (from Austria-Hungary)


Austria-Hungary captures:

Rumania (from Russia)

and loses:

Serbia (to Italy)
Trieste (to Italy)


Russia captures:

Bulgaria (from Turkey)

and loses:

Rumania (to Austria-Hungary)
Sweden (to England)
St. Petersburg (to England)


Thus, the following players may (or must) alter their unit counts:

England: build up to 2 units
Germany: remove 1 unit
France: build up to 2 units
Italy: build up to 2 units (theoretically up to 3, but no room exists for the third)
Austria-Hungary: remove 1 unit
Russia: remove 2 units
Turkey: build up to 1 unit

Players have until Sunday, July 8 to get in their builds.  Remember that you may only build units in your original supply centers; you may not build units in supply centers that you did not own in Spring 1901.

(note: Austria-Hungary had only one possible retreat and deleting the unit would have brought no benefit whatsoever, so the retreat was made automatically)

[Gabu]

What do I do with Germany?  Is there a rule for disbanding something when need be when a player has effectively resigned his post?

[Gabu]

That error has now been corrected.