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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...
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The Black Sea Theatre (part 5): Austria Goes Balkans

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...
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How to Play Diplomacy (part 3): Corrections

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://englishharmony.com/ Calhamer's article Objectives other than Winning (first published in IDA Diplomacy Handbook, 1974) was mainly written to correct the aberrant ideas about scoring systems in Diplomacy. The system he was writing mainly about is known as the 'Strong Second' system, but it also tells us about play when any scoring system is being used. Calhamer's Design Diplomacy was designed to be played as a one-off event. It was designed to be played face-to-face, around a table with all players present at the board. As such, when the Hobby diversified with play-by-mail games, then play-by-email and websites, as well as when it was played as a tournament or league, the game became something different. Setting the game in these scenarios makes ga...
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