Across the Board

England is one of the powers that doesn't often raise a lot of enthusiasm among players if they draw her in the game.  This is mainly because, while it is a power that can do well enough, being in an highly defensible position and therefore a power that is likely to keep a decent player in the game until the end, it is one of the more difficult powers to win a game with. In short, she's seen as 'boring'. Well, no power in Diplomacy should be boring to play; you're doing something wrong if this is the case. And England is just as good a prospect to win the game as any other power. Just think outside the box. In this series of posts, I'll be looking at England's position on the board, her opening strategies, her potential alliances, and a strategy that can lead to victory for the English player. https://assets2.hrc.org/ But first, let's look at how the history of Britain may well give some clues to playing England in Diplomacy. Wait - that...

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...