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 ...

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. The Super Fleet You'll never see this image in Diplomacy ... or you shouldn't! One of the keys to the game is that only one unit may occupy a space. I'm simply using it to demonstrate the power of a fleet in the Black Sea, regardless of which power occupies it. Let's look at Italy's fleet first, because if Italy occupies the Black Sea, chances are she's on her way to winning the game. To get there, she has to overcome so many obstacles and occupy ...

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. This isn't a clean division. Italy doesn't really fit into either Triangle, and only gets involved depending on how she opens. Russia sits on the dividing line and can't afford to ignore the north or the south. There's nothing wrong with this consideration; it is useful to focus your attention. And, if you are considering long-term strategy knowing the stalemate lines that split the board is an advantage. 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. The Black Sea Zone The first thing to mention ...