Overview of Opening Strategy

There is a lot written about opening strategy in Diplomacy. This isn't, perhaps, surprising; the start of a game is when it can be lost, although not won.

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Never come across this? Where've you been? The Diplomacy Archive has a section devoted to opening strategy; each power has it's own section on the Archive, featuring named openings. Richard Sharp's book, The Game of Diplomacy, discusses openings, again under each power's chapter. There are discussions about openings in Playdiplomacy's forum, in the Strategy section. And there's a Wordpress blog devoted to Diplomacy Openings. As you might expect, Wikipedia discusses Diplomacy. WikiBooks has Diplomacy, which has some sketchy ideas. 

However, as good as some of these pieces and articles are, they tend to miss the most important aspect about a good opening strategy: the diplomacy.

Know Your Enemy

It doesn't matter which power you're playing, there's no point in believing a set strategy is going to work. What might have worked for one player, what might have worked in one game, is not guaranteed to work in this game. Every game will be different.

Let's assume that there are just seven players in your group. Let's assume that the game you're playing features all seven players controlling the same seven powers they played in the last game. Is this game going to be the same as the last? I'd hope not, especially if you were the player tricked into an early exit in the first game. You change your approach, surely. And, if you try the same thing this time because it worked last time, you're giving everyone else a heads-up.

Now, take a much bigger player base. Take playing different powers in different games, against different players. Take different personalities, different approaches to the game, different ideas about how to play each power, different interactions between players. Just how is any one strategy going to work each time?

So you'll need to throw the strategy discussions to the side because you'll have to find out as much as you can about each opponent before deciding what you're going to do. And the way to do that is to talk. Once you have an idea about the ability of each opponent, about how she thinks, then you can firm up your ideas about what to do.

Be Reactive, not Proactive

OK, this is not great advice most of the time. But, when you're planning what to do, you need to react to what you've found out about your opponents.

If you go into a game where you're playing England, you'll have an idea about what you want to do, assuming you have some experience of playing the game. You might want to deal with France before anyone else. You might want to try the 'Churchill Opening'. You might aim to take Belgium and ignore Norway to begin with. 

Any of that's fine but, if you're planning what to do and not taking account of your opponents, you're laying up trouble for yourself. No strategy is going to work, long-term, if you don't know who is going to be the best ally for you, when they're going to be the best ally for you, and what the players are like generally.

Putting this kind of research and thought into the game isn't exciting, but it's key. Diplomacy isn't a game of pure strategy; it's a game of relationships.

Which brings us to the final section...

Communication

In Diplomacy, communication is king.

At the start of the game, you get twice as long a period to communicate with other players. And yet, some people will want to get things going straight away. They'll want to put their orders in, and get on with it. For them, communicating is second place to seeing those little units change places on the board.

The problem might be that some players don't see the difference between communication and negotiation. They are quite different.

Negotiation is about reaching agreements with other players, about agreeing combined moves and combined strategy. Most players recognise that this is a major part of the game.

Communication is about opening the paths for negotiations. You can't negotiate with someone if you don't communicate with them. More pertinently to this stage of the game, you can't negotiate without successfully establishing your presence.

"Well," you say, "I establish my presence on the board. That's what it's about."

You're right, to some extent. Negotiations of any kind are likely to be more successful from a position of strength. However, in 1901, you're not in a position of strength; everyone is as strong as each other. Admittedly, if you make silly mistakes in Spring 1901, you might weaken your position in Fall 1901, but let's assume you're not that stupid. Let's face it, though, if you're Turkey, how are you going to establish your presence with France on the board?

"I'm Turkey; why would I want to establish my presence with France?"

And here is the main mistake players make: communication should be started in 1901, with everyone.

There's no doubt that your immediate neighbours are the players you ought to be concentrating on. These powers are going to have most impact on you during the early game. But ignoring the others is as silly as opening with the Yorkshire Pudding as England.

S01: The Yorkshire Pudding

You see, eventually - providing you can survive long enough, you'll want to work with these other powers, the one's you ignored at the start of the game. At this point, they will have a strong relationship with a close neighbour.

So, tell me: How are you going to make yourself more relevant as an ally to these powers if you haven't already established communications with them?

This is what communicating is about. It lays the ground for negotiating with players when you need to negotiate. Ignore it and your chances of making a good start to negotiations are hugely hampered.

But do the Reading

Knowing the possible moves in Spring and Fall 1901 is a good thing to do. Some of them do lead to a more successfully start than others... in most games, against most players. So don't ignore this.

But the most important aspect is the diplomacy. If Austria attacks Italy because, well, it works, and then finds out that Italy would have been a fantastic ally while Turkey, the power Austria decided to work with, is clueless, Austria has shot himself in the foot.

Keep the tactics close by; know them. But keep them in their place.

Heathley Baines (Nibbler)

Editor