Skip to main content

The Website

The following links take you to pages on the Across the Board website:

Home

Contributing

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How to Play Diplomacy (part 5): Excuses

Diplomacy  is a complicated game.  Now,  there's  an understatement! However, when learning how to play it, there is one source which can't be ignored: the creator of the game, Allan B Calhamer. https://bdn-data.s3.amazonaws.com/ What can you get away with in Diplomacy ? The article The Coast of Moscow  (published in Diplomacy World 74 , 1995) gives an idea about how you can sway a game. The article itself is a lot of nonsense; it describes a game where Russia built a fleet in Moscow! However, it is useful in showing how 'cheating' can be achieved, and how persuasion works. Nonsense In the article, Calhamer reports that Russia ordered a build for Moscow. However, the build was of a fleet. Let's take a look at a map. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/02/a1/61/02a161065c2c65eb352e9e63bf057f83.jpg Unfortunately, most game maps won't feature the 'coast' in question (see quote below) simply because the far eastern edge of the board is usually s...

They Don't Like It Up 'Em! (part 1): The Wrong End of the Bayonet

There are some things to remember that help you play Diplomacy better. Some of them are tactical, some of them strategic; some are about the way you communicate, or negotiate. Very few of these things are a collective of everything to do with Dip. Knowing how to take action to prevent defeat, and knowing when to carry home your advantage, are two of these. Any excuse to get a belly button on the blog. www.artistshot.com/ There are times when you'll find yourself in the position of having a Diplomacy opponent who is being very aggressive towards you. Unfortunately, this might be by being nasty; even in a game like Dip there are still those idiots who think being online is a free pass to let out the abusive side of their natures. More often it will be part of the game. They're able to press you relentlessly and they intend to take it. There's nothing wrong with this; it is part of the game. It's a tactic that enables the aggressor to grow and which means...

How to Play Diplomacy (part 2): Origins

Diplomacy  is a complicated game.  Now,  there's  an understatement! However, when learning how to play it, there is one source which can't be ignored: the creator of the game, Allan B Calhamer. http://hybridsrising.com/ In the Diplomacy Archive , there are two articles which deal with how Diplomacy came into being: A Dozen Years of Diplomacy  (1966; First published in Diplomania, issue 12, Aug 1966.) The Invention of Diplomacy  (1974; First published in Games ad Puzzles, issue 21, Jan 1974.) Both articles explain the forces that led to Calhamer creating  Diplomacy and they are, pretty much, repetitive of each other. Although they explain how the game was formed, they also have implications on how Calhamer intended the game to be played. The Influences From A Dozen Years of Diplomacy : At the end of World War II, I came across an article on "post-war planning" which reviewed the European diplomacy of the period 1815-1914 and...