Diplomacy -

[champthom]

When I was at Gen Con, I got to try Diplomacy and while I wasn't crazy about it the first time I played it, it's grown on me and I recently signed up for an online game recently.

Here's the gist - you're a European power pre-WWI (UK, Austro-Hungary, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, and Turkey) and pretty much the goal of the game is to control all of Europe. It's quite simple really - you write out orders where you want to move your forces and at the end of the season, all the orders get read off and resolved. But in order to successfully, you'll need support from others, and that's the heart of Diplomacy - diplomatic negotiation. You have to go to the other powers. Like you might go to someone and say "Hey, I'll support your army here if you support one of my guys here" or you can threaten them like "So help me God, if you get involved in this conflict I have with such and such nation, I will fuck you up" (which happened to me when I played IRL). But here's the thing - you're under no obligation to honor your promises, you're more than welcome to make a promise to someone and stab them in the back (for all you know, your ally might be planning on stabbing you in the back). The game has a bad rap for destroying friendships and ending marriages. But the beauty of the game is that the only random element is human nature.

As a result, there's a lot of depth to the game and more importantly, it's super easy to play online. It's like chess where you can find hundreds of articles online about how to play countries and discussions of opening theory, midgame, etc, that element is what's been drawing me in. And unlike chess or Go, it was invented by a postal worker in his free time in the 50s. Also as a result, it's really easy to play online - there's a bunch of sites where you can play it (back in the day, people would actually play by mail) and it's actually more convenient than trying to play it IRL because the best game requires exactly 7 people and it can take hours to play IRL. But online, moves can be done say, on a daily basis so you have a full day to communicate with other players.

I was thinking of starting a game with people here on the forum if anyone's interested. I've found a site with a very easy to use interface = http://www.backstabbr.com/. It plays pretty well on phones and tablets and it looks like everyone is anonymous, so if you fuck someone over you don't have to worry about them hunting you down and murdering you in your sleep IRL. I was thinking we could play a game of us. I'm no expert and I can sorta explain the rules but the site links to some videos that do a good job conveying the rules (which are pretty simple, you could explain them in about 10 minutes).

So would anyone be interested in playing online?

 

[Foulmouth]

So it's a bit like an online Risk but with mindgames ?
Sounds good, I'd be keen, I'm a mad wargamer.

 

[Dork Of Ages]

Looks very interesting. I remember seeing some of my older cousins playing it IRL and I wanted to play Diplomacy till then.

 

[exball]

I'd play. Expect me to fail horribly though.

 

[Surtur]

Depends on the time.

 

[champthom]

Depends on the time.

Dude, it's turn based. You have 24 hours to plan a move. Things get resolved and then you have 24 hours to plan your next move. Looking closely, it doesn't even have to be every day - we could do it every other day or once a week. It'll take a long time to finish but it's not like we have to get together to actually do this, we just have to agree that we'll visit the site once a day or at least commit to making your orders whatever period we decide. So you can wake up in the morning, see what orders were done, then you can mull it over in your mind as you go through the day, then when you get home from work or school, you can execute your orders. That's the beauty of it, it's not real time based, it's like one of the few games where it works out.

Pretty awesome, eh?

 

[A-Stump]

Do the different nations have different bonuses/specialities? Are they set apart in any way or is everything vanilla with even playing fields?

 

[champthom]

Do the different nations have different bonuses/specialities? Are they set apart in any way or is everything vanilla with even playing fields?

Short answer - not really, it's all pretty much the same. Everyone starts with three military strength (except Russia, see below).

Longer answer - some countries have a different distribution of starting force than others - some might have two armies and one fleet (like France) while an island nation like the UK gets two fleets and one army. The cool thing about fleets is you can convoy them though, you can use them to transport your army across the sea. Russia gets an extra fleet though because it's so damn big but it also has more to protect.

The site I linked to has the videos, but if you don't manage to find it, here's the first part:

[youtube]e2ub5lqItoI[/youtube]

There's about three other videos from the same guy that explains the movements and stuff, and they're really short, less than 10 minutes for all 4 videos. It's the same basic principle for an online one, except with pieces you click on where you want to send your armies and whatnot.

 

[Surtur]

If that's the case, sign me up.

 

[champthom]

I was going to PM people, to make it feel special, but I figure I'd save time and just post it here.

Here's an invite to a private game I've set up just for us CWCki Forums folks:

http://www.backstabbr.com/game/6540232988033024/invite/HTSWEM

Orders will be due every other day, though orders won't be processed over the weekend, so you pretty much have two days to talk to other players and issue your orders. Adjudication, which is pretty much resolving the effects of all the orders, takes a day. It'll be a very leisurely pace game, it's not like you have to spend 24/7 in front of your computer to play it, it'll be more the opposite.

We're all pretty much beginners, so I think it'll be a pretty fair game. Also, as a disclaimer, remember that this is just a game and don't take it personally if someone backstabs you.

Once we get the game going, I might start a new thread devoted to our game.

 

[kagayaki]

Please count me in.

 

[champthom]

If you wanna join, click the Backstabbr link. We've got 3 people so far, we need 4 more. Unfortunately, to be Game Master, I can't actually play the game but that's cool.

In the game I in, I fucked up an adjudication period so my armies got disbanded and I'm out the game.

 

[Dork Of Ages]

Joined.

 

[Grand Number of Pounds]

I joined, too. It sounds kinda complicated, but I'll give it a shot.

 

[champthom]

We've got two more spots people, like I said, I'd play but I'm game mastering and if I played I'd probably have an uneven advantage because I'd know who's who and stuff.

For those who need convincing, JFK was a big fan of the game and would often play it with his White House staff. Unsurprisingly, this was Henry Kissinger's favorite game as well.

 

[champthom]

Oh man, we just need ONE more player. I'd totally do it but like I said, because I'm running it I can't play. But if you're vaguely interested, sign up.

 

[The Level Up King]

It sounds awesome so I joined. I figure if I screw up majorly it'll be to everyone else's benefit anyway.

 

[Dork Of Ages]

Game has started.

You guys wanna an alliance? We can be very gentlemanish about it

 

[champthom]

THE GAME HAS BEGUN!

For some reason, the first adjudication period is only 3 hours, as I set it so it ends at 7 a.m. EST, but I think after that you'll have two days to make a move and communicate with other players.

FYI, there's "press" on the top bar which lets you talk to other players and myself.

 

[The Level Up King]

Should we say who's who, or just keep it secret for the purpose of the game? I think we should keep our identities secret to make it all more interesting.