Board 8 > Diplomacy interest gauging topic (board game - online version)

(+) Yeah! (+)

What is this thread about?

I recently fell into the hobby of the board game Diplomacy and I have nobody local to play with consistently so I'm trying to start up an online game or two so that I have people to at least share the interest with.

Anyone here ever played before? Interested in playing online?

What is Diplomacy?

Diplomacy is an area control/world domination board game (similar genre to Risk, minus all the dice).

Similarities to Risk:

-world domination
-moving pieces around a map based on the real world
-every man for himself

Differences from Risk:

-way less numbers/dice, way more interpersonal negotiation.
-at its core it's a social game. Tactics and strategy are secondary (but essential). Ideally everyone is convinced you're their ally, but when it comes down to it, you WILL have to backstab people in order to win. (a.k.a promise you will help them then...don't...or worse, attack them directly)
-no dice, period.
-no randomness, period.
-no more than 1 piece/army can occupy a space at a time. So you win not by accumulating an overwhelming force but by persuading your neighbors that it's better for them to team up with you to kill the other guy as opposed to teaming up with the other guy to kill you
-no downtime (you're never sitting around waiting for "your turn"...everyone's moves are processesed simultaneously)

How much commitment is involved?

Not a lot.

The flow of the game is in "seasons". A season just means you have X amount of time for diplomatic negotiations (a.k.a "talking to the other players") and at the end of each round, you submit orders for each of your pieces defining how and where they will move.

Example: If I'm France, my first season orders might say:

Army in Paris moves to Gascony
Army in Marseilles moves to Spain
Fleet in Brest moves to Mid-Atlantic Ocean

How many players?

Exactly seven.

Each player will control one of these countries:

England
France
Germany
Russia
Italy
Austria-Hungary
Turkey

How long will it take?

Depends on how long we choose to make the seasons last. We can agree on any arbitrary amount of time. 12 hours? 24 hours? 48 hours? 72 hours? For online play, there's no strict rule.

Could take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. But within each phase, you can discuss as much or as little as you want with the other players. It's not like mafia where if you don't speak for 24 hours you're messing up the game for everyone.

Board game online? How will we play?

There are a number of free websites that let you sandbox a board state and/or host friend games, for free. Might have to provide an email address at most.

I'm more interested in hosting/adjuticating than actually playing, at first, if it means getting people interested.

https://www.backstabbr.com/ is my personal favorite interface.

Other questions?

Ask!

in

if I get fucking Italy again...
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FBike1 posted...

in

if I get fucking Italy again...

Italy was down in the meta for a while, but it's recently had a resurgence as players adjusted to knowing that it kinda sucked! Metas evolve, etc. Good stuff.

@TotallyNotMI @IfGodCouldDie

hi
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Put me down for an entry.

I will break you Scare.
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I expect to be hilariously bad at this but I don't mind giving it a try
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Confirming in.
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@Corrik7 makes 7
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Still in

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In
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Hell yeah, this is so much more convenient than the online games I tried signing up for. The process was slow then not all the players would confirm. My millenial need for instant gratification is satisfied.

I vote for 48 hour days.
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I'm creating a game on backstabbr, give me an email address if you're interested and it'll send you the invite

Maybe we'll have enough to start up a second game

1. Lea
2. MI
3. IGCD
4. FBike
5. @ScareChan is that a sign up?
6. Eddv
7. @Shonen_Bat signing up?

Corrik was 8th and shad was 9th I think, chronologically

Corrik didn't sign up though?
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Shaduln posted...

Corrik didn't sign up though?

He did in the mafia discussion topic.
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yeah sorry I was kinda messy with it because I first pitched the idea in the mafia discussion topic then realized it was becoming a bit much to run sign ups and discussion of a totally different game within that thread

Leanansidhe posted...

I demand Shad

I too demand Shad
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Third'd

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Shaduln posted...

Leanansidhe posted...

I demand Shad

I too demand Shad

I do not object to Shad.
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In
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Sorry for being a flake, I'm out though. Not feeling it as much as I was yesterday.
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Don't worry about it!

It looks like we might land somewhere between 1 and 2 games atm

I would like to see whats up but I dont mind giving shad the spot
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Are you doing 7 per game or if we have 8 are you doing 2 4 player games?
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Anything not 7 is a bastard game honestly. It's just not designed for it

Imagine making a 15 player mafia setup but you only had 13 people, and instead of adjusting the setup you just randomized the last 2 slots votes and powers.

turbopuns3 posted...

Anything not 7 is a bastard game honestly. It's just not designed for it

Ok fair enough, when I was reading up on it, it said 2-7 players, that's why I was curious.
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I also demand shad

if Corrik is playing as the 7th, I will drop out to make room for Shad.
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Can I watch the first game to understand it and play the second one though
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In fact, it now looks like Corrik is playing no matter how this shakes out, so I am out.

No interest in gaming with him.
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I guess @ScareChan is in.
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So I have

1. Lea
2. MI
3. IGCD
4. FBike
5. Scare
6. Corrik
7. Shad

8. lolgravy

Gimme an email if you haven't already and you want to play

@TotallyNotMI
@FBike1
@ScareChan
@Corrik7

if you still want to play send me an email address and I'll send you the invite to the game.

if anyone wants to drop then maybe gravy will play

once we get the actual game filled on backstabbr we can have a brief talk about deadlines and other things

I hope that wasn't stated as a slight towards me, Eddv. = (

That said, I am assuming u are going to email us the details for how this specifically will work?


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The email will have an invite link to join the game

Set up an account with your email address

Once 7 players are signed up I will set a start date

From that point on you don't really need me, technically. The site will carry out the game on its own, but I will have mod powers and can help settle any issues that might come up

I'll also give you all a quick cliff note crash course on game basics

The questions we need to answer are:

- How long between deadlines. In other words how often will you need to have looked at the board, chatted with people, and decided your next move. Shad I think suggested 48 hours

- Country assignments. Randomized? Preferences? Bidding? Some other system?

That's basically it.

The site itself has built in means for communication (they call it "Press"). When you post you can either make it public (everyone sees) or private to a specific country (just between you and 1 player)

But of course you all can use whatever means you want to talk, doesn't have to be on the website necessarily

Say probably just random countries right?

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Most likely. You all probably wouldn't have a preference in terms of country but technically if there was an order to the choosing you might like to be able to choose who you start out as neighbors with

Random is probably fine

There's a ton of content out there online about advice for strategy, openings for each country, etc.

however

I would caution you that almost everything you can find will be advising you from a viewpoint of everyone else in the game is totally competent and playing with a general meta. With it being an all (or rather, mostly) newbie game a lot of those concepts won't apply as much

I say this having just a month ago started my first ever game which was an all newbie game and then proceeding to binge every bit of diplomacy content I could find

Can you link me to an article that explains the basics well.

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I feel like it would be awesome if we did our posting on gamefaqs and we could just PM each other for private convos.
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I for one support world peace. Breathe calmly my warmongering neighbors.

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Everyone kill Corrik.
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official rules if you wanna read them:

https://www.wizards.com/avalonhill/rules/diplomacy.pdf

I'm working on a watered down basics post. It'll still be a relatively long post but in a bunch of small pieces.

There's a bunch of spaces on the board.

34 of the spaces have a dot on them. Those spaces are the ones that "count".

A player wins by controlling 18 (half plus one) dots at the end of a year.

Each country starts out controlling 3 dots, except Russia which starts with 4.

The dots you start out controlling are called your "home centers". Whenever you build additional units, they must be placed on one of these 3 home centers. You may only build new units in an unoccupied home center which you control. If all your home centers have pieces on them or are controlled by other countries, you can't build at that time.

The number of pieces you can have on the board equals the number of dots you control. You start with 3 (or 4) dots and 3 (or 4) pieces. Take control of more dots = build more units, lose control of dots = remove units.

It's important to understand the difference between Spring and Fall. Each move alternates between Spring and Fall. The game starts in Spring 1901. So the moves will be described as:

Spring 1901
Fall 1901
Spring 1902
Fall 1902
Spring 1903
Fall 1903
etc
etc
etc

The Fall is when it matters how many dots you have. After every Fall move you will either build additional units or remove units so that the number of units you have equals the number of dots you control.

Example: You start as France with 3 dots and 3 pieces. At the end of Fall 1901 you have moved into Belgium and now you control 4 dots. Thus you may now have 4 pieces. So you choose which of your home centers you wish to place your new unit it and build it there.

If you leave Belgium in the Spring 1902 turn and somebody else puts a piece in Belgium, that doesn't affect your number of units right away. If you kicked them back out of Belgium on the Fall 1902 turn, then it would be like you never lost it.

So you can think of Spring as a free turn to just get yourself into a better position in order to attack/defend dots better in the Fall. So you're kind of looking forward a move or two to make sure you control things after Fall.

There are exactly 2 types of units - Army and Fleet. Armies can only go on land. Fleets go on sea OR a land space that has a coast.

You may also use a Fleet that is in a sea space to move an Army across to a different land space which borders the same sea. (hence why England starts with an army even though it's an island. Would be kinda pointless if there was no way to move armies across water)

How pieces move and how you force people out of spaces

Every unit is equally powerful. So, if I send 1 Army to Paris and you send 1 Army to Paris, our armies "bounce" out of Paris, and neither of us gets to move into it.

You overcome that by issuing a support order. Let's say I send 1 Army to Paris and you send 1 Army to Paris, but you have a 2nd army nearby which also borders Paris. Then you can order your second army to support your first army into Paris. Now you are approaching with a power of 2 and I only have a power of 1. So you get the space and my army is bounced.

Forcing units out of a space also works the same way. Let's say my army is already sitting in Paris. If you approach Paris with 1 army, nothing happens. You just bounce back to where you started. But if you come with 1 and another supporting it into Paris, then my army is forced out and I have to choose a nearby empty space to retreat to. If there is no valid space to retreat to, my army is instantly disbanded (removed).

Note that sending two armies to a space at the same time is NOT the same as sending 1 in and the other supporting it. If I send 1 and you send 2 separately, it all still bounces.