Vapourware Let's conquer Europe for the 4 years-old Franz Ferdinand in Computer Diplomacy

[ValeVelKal]

What is GAB? It reads like 2/3 GALicia, 1/3 BUDapest but your comment makes me think it is BUDapest.

Updated the orders.

 

[Hag]

What is GAB? It reads like 2/3 GALicia, 1/3 BUDapest but your comment makes me think it is BUDapest.

Updated the orders.

Sorry, I meant GAL. If I understood the rules from both GAL and BUD you can support an attack on RUM, but GAL offers more flexibility to deal with Russia if needed.

 

[ValeVelKal]

What is GAB? It reads like 2/3 GALicia, 1/3 BUDapest but your comment makes me think it is BUDapest.

Updated the orders.

Sorry, I meant GAL. If I understood the rules from both GAL and BUD you can support an attack on RUM, but GAL offers more flexibility to deal with Russia if needed.

You are correct. I ll use GAL. GAL can't do anything about Serbia though, but SER is defenceless.

 

[Catacombs]

A BUD - SER
A VIE - TRI
F TRI - ALB

 

[ValeVelKal]

Well, for some reason I assumed everyone knew Diplomacy, but I was wrong and I apologise.

Diplomacy is a 1959 board game and probably the most analyzed one after Chess and, possibly, Go. It is really, really cool. And also really, really intense, I lost one childhood friend over it, and I am lucky to have lost only one.

It gives 7 countries of equal strength 14 turns to control as many "supply centres" as possible, with an immediate victory if a country controls half the centres. Here is a map of the game with all the regions & centres as dots:

The game progresses through "years", each split into two turns: Spring and Fall. Each turn has
- a negotiation phase if you play tabletop - typically 15 to 45 minutes because that's a LONG game,
- an order writing stage. That's the weird notation I ask you to vote for,
- an order resolution stage - because it is all simultaneous and there will be backstab
- a retreat phase, for those armies that are dislodged. This is usually done without negotiation if you follow the official rules, but in a friendly setting with loose discipline, there is always the good-damn player with one fleet left who tries to negotiate with say Russia and Italy whether that one fleet retreats to Aegean or Ionian. No one cares, you are eliminated next turn mate!

At the end of the year (so after Fall), control/loss of supply centres is checked. Supply centres change hands IF and ONLY IF another army or fleet is in its province at the end of Fall. Passing through in Spring is not enough, and there is no need to "keep" an army on a supply centre to keep provided no other player occupies the region.

Once the supply centres change hands, each player counts the number of supply centres and the number of Fleet+Army they control and must adjust the difference: removing the fleets/armies of their choice if they can't maintain them, or building new ones but ONLY in their starting centres. Cue to more negotiations by the kind of people who are OK with finishing the game at 5 in the morning.

Rince & Repeat until Fall 1907 or until a player controls half the supply centres.

Finally, orders. Well, I explained a bit already - it is easy. Each army has only 4 actions possible:
- Hold. It is the default, but it is good practice to write it down anyway
- Move (aka "Attack"; no difference). Army/Fleet goes from one location to another location
- Convoy: Fleets on high seas can convoy an army moving from one coast province to another, provided the army receives the move order that matches. Convoy is instantaneous, and you can convoy several "sea spaces" in the same turn (chain of convoys),
- Support. This one is tricky and confusing for new players, because that's actually two different orders:
You support defensively an army/fleet that holds, supports or convoys if you are next to it.
You support offensively an army that moves to another province you are next to.

You CANNOT support defensively an army that moves. You can support an army that also supports you. You can support (or convoy) an army of another nationality (hence "Diplomacy").

So a typical mid-game order set could be, for a British player and using a super-formal notation :

A LON - BEL => The Army in London moves to Belgium
F NTH C A LON - BEL => The Fleet in the North Sea Convoys the Army in London to Belgium
A PIC S A LON - BEL => The Army in Picardy supports the Army moving from London to Belgium
F ENG S F NTH => The Fleet in the English Channel supports [defensively] the fleet in the North Sea.

Combats (Armies trying to occupy the same province, or armies trying to dislodge another army) are resolved without randomness. Each army/fleet has a value of one, add +1 by support. Whoever wins chases the other, else both forces stay where they started.

Last important note: an army/fleet supporting stops supporting if ATTACKED. A fleet convoying stops convoying if pushed away by an attack.

There are some edge rules I did not cover (eg North/South Coast in Spain, Bulgaria and St Petersburg, a few illegal moves, etc) but you don't need to know them.

And now, the turn resolution, so you understand all this better.

 

[ValeVelKal]

Here is the orders that went in:

Massive majority for punishing the Serbs and, err, the Albanians. They look like the Serbs, but they are also not very far geographically from the Italians, so if we average out the responsibility of the Italians and the Serbs in the death of our meh-loved Emperor, it's their fault.
Close vote for the movement of the Landwehr in Vienna, but quelling the irredentists in Trieste is seen as the priority. No more bombs. No more pies, thank you very much.

We don't meet any opposition and our movements are unopposed.

Meanwhile, I am happy to report that the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire both tried to move in the Black Sea:

This is 1vs1, and both fleets returned to where they started (Sebastopol and Ankara).

With a fleet in Sebastopol, a movement from Moscow to Sebastopol is blocked (only one army/fleet by province):

The Russians also don't move their Saint Petersburg army (what?) and do a weird retrograde movement Warsaw-Ukraine.



Fall 1901

Time to vote. List of possible orders.

Army in Trieste:
A TRI Holds
A TRI-VIE
A TRI-TYR
A TRI-VEN
A TRI-ALB
A TRI-SER
A TRI-BUD
A TRI S A SER

Fleet in Albania
F ALB Holds
F ALB-GRE
F ALB-ION
F ALB-TRI
F ALB - ADR
F ALB S A SER-GRE

Army in Serbia:
A SER Holds
A SER - RUM
A SER - BUL
A SER - GRE
A SER - ALB
A SER - TRI
A SER S F ALB-GRE

 

[Catacombs]

A TRI S A SER (defend block from A BUL)
A SER S F ALB -> GRE (support in case A BUL goes for GRE)
F ALB-GRE (main point of attack; capture supply center to get F GRE for next year)

 

[Lucumo]

Once the supply centres change hands, each player counts the number of supply centres and the number of Fleet+Army they control and must adjust the difference: removing the fleets/armies of their choice if they can't maintain them, or building new ones but ONLY in their starting centres.

So you can only ever build three new armies/fleets per year?

And since we have given up RUM for now, as well as any power projection towards the East, this seems to be the most prudent thing to do.

A TRI S A SER
A SER S F ALB-GRE
F ALB-GRE


Any reason you switched from AAF listing the last time to AFA listing this time? Makes no sense.

 

[Modron]

A TRI S A SER (defend block from A BUL)
A SER S F ALB -> GRE (support in case A BUL goes for GRE)
F ALB-GRE (main point of attack; capture supply center to get F GRE for next year)

+1, pretty reasonable both Turkey and Russia are probably going to bounce off eachother in RUM. Plus it positions us to begin our true goal, retaking Constantinople.

 

[tindrli]

im confused¸. little bit less now that there are several posts explaining things. but still. anyway. do we even control turkey? who gave an order to move SMY to CON?

 

[ValeVelKal]

im confused¸. little bit less now that there are several posts explaining things. but still. anyway. do we even control turkey? who gave an order to move SMY to CON?

That's an AI movement I used to show a "bounce" (two armies trying to move with equal support, or lack thereof, in the same region). We only control Austria.

 

[ValeVelKal]

Once the supply centres change hands, each player counts the number of supply centres and the number of Fleet+Army they control and must adjust the difference: removing the fleets/armies of their choice if they can't maintain them, or building new ones but ONLY in their starting centres.

So you can only ever build three new armies/fleets per year?

And since we have given up RUM for now, as well as any power projection towards the East, this seems to be the most prudent thing to do.

A TRI S A SER
A SER S F ALB-GRE
F ALB-GRE


Any reason you switched from AAF listing the last time to AFA listing this time? Makes no sense.

Yes, max 3 armies/fleet a year.
No reason to have switched from AAF to AFA. Everything is simultaneous anyway.

 

[Luka-boy]

A TRI-VEN
F ALB - ADR
A SER - GRE

 

[Lucumo]

No reason to have switched from AAF to AFA. Everything is simultaneous anyway.

Yeah, but keeping things orderly by listing armies first and then fleets (or keeping it consistent at the very least instead of mixing it up every post) makes for better reading/a better overview.

 

[ValeVelKal]

No reason to have switched from AAF to AFA. Everything is simultaneous anyway.

Yeah, but keeping things orderly by listing armies first and then fleets (or keeping it consistent at the very least instead of mixing it up every post) makes for better reading/a better overview.

You must be the kind of person who writes their orders like this "F [AUT] ION C A [AUT] APU - TUN"

 

[Hag]

A TRI S A SER (defend block from A BUL)
A SER S F ALB -> GRE (support in case A BUL goes for GRE)
F ALB-GRE (main point of attack; capture supply center to get F GRE for next year)

Sounds good. Should gain us two supply centers and prepare a supported attack on BUL next time.

 

[Lucumo]

Yeah, but keeping things orderly by listing armies first and then fleets (or keeping it consistent at the very least instead of mixing it up every post) makes for better reading/a better overview.

You must be the kind of person who writes their orders like this "F [AUT] ION C A [AUT] APU - TUN"

Hm? Nah, I'm also a new player after all. So it's just for keeping things orderly and seeing it better (should help the other newbies as well)

 

[ValeVelKal]

14 votes in total - I find it more interesting to say who voted what, esp. where there are forum blocks of votes:

Army in Trieste:
A TRI Holds
A TRI-VIE: 1
Premu (OT-PDX)
A TRI-TYR: 2
elektrizikekswerk (OT-PDX)
LouisStColombe (OT-PDX)
A TRI-VEN: 3
Avernite (OT-PDX)
Luka-boy (Codex)
Strange Fellow (Codex, ZG)
A TRI-ALB
A TRI-SER: 2
Operative Lynx (ZG)
KarbonKitty (ZG)
A TRI-BUD: 2
Trinitrotoluen (OT-PDX)
Flockingbird (OT-PDX)
A TRI S A SER: 4
Catacombs (Codex)
Lucumo (Codex)
Modron (Codex)
Hag (Codex)

Fleet in Albania
F ALB Holds
F ALB-GRE: 12
KarbonKitty (ZG)
Premu (OT-PDX)
Avernite (OT-PDX)
Trinitrotoluen (OT-PDX)
elektrizikekswerk (OT-PDX)
Catacombs (Codex)
Lucumo (Codex)
Modron (Codex)
Hag (Codex)
Flockingbird (OT-PDX)
LouisStColombe (OT-PDX)
Strange Fellow (Codex, ZG)
F ALB-ION
F ALB-TRI
F ALB - ADR: 1
Luka-boy (Codex)
F ALB S A SER-GRE: 1
Operative Lynx (ZG)

Army in Serbia:
A SER Holds
A SER - RUM: 1
KarbonKitty (ZG)
A SER - BUL : 1
Strange Fellow (Codex, ZG)
A SER - GRE: 2
Operative Lynx (ZG)
Luka-boy (Codex)
A SER - ALB
A SER - TRI
A SER S F ALB-GRE: 10
Premu (OT-PDX)
Avenite (OT-PDX)
Trinitrotoluen (OT-PDX)
elektrizikekswerk (OT-PDX)
Catacombs (Codex)
Lucumo (Codex)
Modron (Codex)
Hag (Codex)
Flockingbird (OT-PDX)
LouisStColombe (OT-PDX)

 

[Catacombs]

Kind reminder that some people NEVER played Diplomacy in their life

A shame, really.

 

[Hag]

Kind reminder that some people NEVER played Diplomacy in their life

A shame, really.

Yeah, I wish I did. But my friend group did play Junta, with was already good enough for the casual alliance and backstabbing business. Funny game, a bit too random and baroque sadly.

 

[ValeVelKal]

Fall 1901

(either non-standard notation or the notation was slightly different in 1984. Tsss)

The KuK easily conquers Greece from Albania. The last words of George I were, allegedly, "what did I do?"

Meanwhile, Russia takes Rumania despite an attempt from Turkey to retake it:

[It is not easy to read, but what happens is that:
Turkey did : A BUL - RUM
Russia did : F NOI - RUM and A UKR S F NOI-RUM. Russia had 2 in strength and Turkey only 1, so Russia took Rumania]


After that, all the Turkish movements, which were foolishly counting on the Bulgarian army clearing the way, were blocked: the army in Constantinople could not move to Bulgaria, the fleet in Ankara could not move to Constantinople.
Honestly, the other moves were even more puzzling: Italy renounced Tunisia, but still moved one of its armies, uselessly, toward the bottom of the boot. United Kingdom decided to move its fleets West. The only good moves were French (3 centers captured) and to a lesser extent Germany (2 centres captured).
I had hoped the AI to be better, but well...


Before the new year starts, we take control of Serbia and Greece (+2 centers), so we can build two armies. There are only two possible locations: VIEnna and BUDapest, so no vote on army building this turn. We have 5 armies.


For the record, there was no risk of losing Serbia, and so no reason to support it defensively. The Turkish could only attack Serbia with one army, so it would have bounced due to 1:1 battle, and we would have kept Serbia. Saying this for the more junior diplomats here .


Spring 1901:

We now have 5 armies to command (France: 6!). I am not going to write all the possible orders because there are a lot of them. Time to vote for the movements of:
A VIE
A BUD
A SER
A TRI
F GRE

 

[Modron]

A TRI - VEN
A BUD - RUM
A SER S A BUD - RUM
A VIE - BUD
F GRE S A SER (woud rather not move it)

 

[Hag]

A VIE - GAL
A SER S A BUD - RUM
A BUD - RUM
A TRI - VEN
F GRE - AEG

 

[Lucumo]

A VIE
A BUD S A SER - BUL
A SER - BUL
A TRI - SER
F GRE - S A SER - BUL

Since BUD is connected to BUL apparently, we can attack with three vs the two defenders (BUL and CON). It makes the most sense to use SER to move forward as TRI can backfill and we don't really need it in TRI (and we need the space to recruit more fleets). The Italian fleet is in GOL, which is great. We can use the fleet in GRE for a defensive action (ION) if it comes back or an offensive one against Turkey (AEG) next round. Possibly also defend BUL if necessary.
SER can't support an attack on RUM, as both provinces are not connected. Not to mention it makes no sense anyway, as Russia can easily defend with RUM and UKR, making it a 2 vs 2, and as such a waste of valuable time (especially since France gained three units).

 

[tindrli]

Kind reminder that some people NEVER played Diplomacy in their life

A shame, really.

not that i never played. I never HEARD about it either but then i live in the ass of europe so its all good