Across the Board

When thinking about the  Diplomacy  board you may think of dividing it into zones.  A traditional division is to split the board into two parts: the Northern (or Western) Triangle, featuring England, France and Germany, and the Southern (Eastern) Triangle of Russia, Austria-Hungary and Turkey. Personally, though, I prefer to narrow down the areas of the board and consider the possibilities there. I therefore have a number of ' theatres ' that I consider, and the Black Sea Theatre is one of them. Black Sea Theatre For Austria-Hungary to get to the Black Sea, she has to take 5 turns, and that assumes there's no opposition in her way. Given that Turkey isn't going to let her enter Constantinople on turn 4, if at all, it is extremely unusual for Austria to get a fleet in the Black Sea. Even more unusual when you consider that Italy will also want to be involved in the east end of the Med, and that Austrian players regularly focus on armies rather than fleets, a

When thinking about the  Diplomacy  board you may think of dividing it into zones.  A traditional division is to split the board into two parts: the Northern (or Western) Triangle, featuring England, France and Germany, and the Southern (Eastern) Triangle of Russia, Austria-Hungary and Turkey. Personally, though, I prefer to narrow down the areas of the board and consider the possibilities there. I therefore have a number of ' theatres ' that I consider, and the Black Sea Theatre is one of them. Russia and the Black Sea Around the Black Sea theatre, Russia looks like this. Her southern fleet, in Sevastopol, is the one unit she has that can affect the Black Sea itself, but every other unit on this map (as well as the unseen Turkish army in Smyrna, south of both Constantinople and Ankara) affects the theatre for Russia to a greater or lesser extent. Russia's Fleet in Rumania Russia's southern fleet has four options: it can move to Rumania, the Black Sea or

It's been a while since I posted here. That wasn't intentional. March in the UK has been a 'bad weather' month. Well ,OK, there's really no such thing as bad weather , I know, but the 'Beast from the East' early in the month was certainly harsh, if not bad. Harsher for me, too. This wasn't me (I don't have the x-rays), but it could have been. I was hit by a skidding car, which was skidding on the icy road, and my femur was broken. I spent a number of weeks in hospital, having to drop from my game on Playdiplomacy , and not being able to access my blog. Along with my leg went my phone. Not internet connection, then, for weeks. So, my break from the game and this blog was something that couldn't really be helped. Painful but physically on the mend. The Diplomacy game, though, goes down as a surrender on my record. *sigh*

When thinking about the  Diplomacy  board you may think of dividing it into zones.  A traditional division is to split the board into two parts: the Northern (or Western) Triangle, featuring England, France and Germany, and the Southern (Eastern) Triangle of Russia, Austria-Hungary and Turkey. Personally, though, I prefer to narrow down the areas of the board and consider the possibilities there. I therefore have a number of ' theatres ' that I consider, and the Black Sea Theatre is one of them. Turkey in the Black Sea Zone Turkey starts with a fleet in Ankara. This is a frustrating position for the player: often, Turkey wants to get her fleet out into the Mediterranean but, to do that, she has to move F(Ank)-Con then F(Con)-AEG. It takes a whole year for Turkey to get where she would like her fleet to be. Now, if that's the case, fair enough. That's how long it takes so Turkey needs to deal with that. She has to ensure the Black Sea is neutral and the only