[romanP]

Does anyone here play either of these games? We could play Diplomacy right here on the forum, in its own thread, in play-by-mail style.

[CapeApe]

never heard of it fill us in

[romanP]

Diplomacy is like Risk, but without the dice. It's the first World War, so the map is only a map of Europe.

This means that there are no stupid situations where you throw twenty armies at a guy that has two, and the dice fuck you over and the guy with two armies wins.

Instead of using dice, you negotiate and connive with the other players, bargaining alliances and finally writing down your orders, in secret or publicly, whichever you think is most beneficial to you gaining territory. There actually aren't very many rules at all about how to conduct the game, only how to carry out orders and who gets what resources. This can result in some very humourous and friendship-damaging situations.

Each territory you control can have one army if it's on land or one navy, if it's on sea. Your goal is to capture supply bases, so that you can supply new armies or new navies at the end of each turn. To move your armies or navies, you submit orders that would say something like "London attacks Belgium, with Picardy supporting." The supporting army could be yours, or an ally's. If the territory being invaded can't fight back, it falls to the attacker. There are some other, more complicated maneouvers that can be read in the rules, which are available all over the internet.

Here is one good source of information, though: http://www.diplom.org

[romanP]

So, I'll take that as no interest?

[Scape]

*cricket chirping sounds*

[romanP]

I'm surprised no one here wants to play a war game like Diplomacy. It would at least make all of the stupid internet tough-talk somewhat practical.

Is there at least some interest in making a Counterstrike: Source clan? That doesn't require so much thinking.

[Canadaka]

I have played Diplomacy via email i guess it could work in a forum.

[commanderkai]

I'd be interested, but I honestly wouldn't really know how to play. This IS a PC game right?

[Canadaka]

Diplomacy is a board game, you dont really need the board though, its mostly just communication between the players.

I am looking at a PHP script for running Diplomacy game, if there is interest I can install it and we can giver a go, i would play.

[romanP]

Okay, that's three. If we can get seven, that would be ideal, cause playing two countries can be a pain. I have the actual board game, so I could scan the rules into a PDF, or they might already be available on Hasbro's website.

[BartSimpson]

I'll give it a go when it comes on line - in the interim check out Cybernations where CKA has an outpost at http://tpc.b1.jcink.com/index.php?act=idx

[romanP]

Any more takers for Diplomacy?

[romanP]

I feel like giving this another try. Does anyone want to play a forum-based game of Diplomacy? It's not a very hard game to learn how to play, and it's not very time consuming given a turn per day or a turn per week. As I mentioned before, it's a lot like Risk, but without the dice.

The board is set in Europe on the eve of the first world war. The objective, for the long game, is to capture 18 supply bases, which is how your armies and navy fleets are generated. Each supply base captured can generate either a fleet or an army, depending on what type of land the base is on (a landlocked base can obviously not produce an fleet). Rather than rolling dice, maneuovers are negotiated between players either in secret or in public, depending on how conniving you want to be. There isn't really any rule that says how you can or can't bargain with other players, so things can get rather nasty and downright paranoid, just like real international diplomacy. For instance, once you have negotiated your plans with other players, you do not necessarily have to follow through with what you said you would do.

After negotiation time is over, orders are submitted and mapped out. Orders are submitted in the format of "Ukrania attacks Galicia" (refer to the map Trevor posted above), and if Galicia is empty then Ukrania wins the territory. If the territory you want to occupy is not empty, you have to reign in support. This is where negotiation is important. Say you are allies with whoever is occupying Warsaw (it may even just be yourself), and you've made an agreement with Warsaw to attack Galicia with Warsaw's support. Then you would submit "Ukraynia attacks Galicia, Warsaw supports". If Galicia does not have equal or greater support in defending, then Galicia is yours. The wording of your orders is always important, because if you screw it up, the order is null and void. There are also some more complex maneuovers that can be made, such as fleets transporting armies from one land territory across a body of water to another. This can be explained later if people decide to join.

It's that simple. The game needs exactly seven players. Who's in?

[commanderkai]

In, again.