diplomacy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplomacy_%28game%29

like the first thing i did this morning was phone my friend ____ (<--- there are spies on this board) and talk business

(<--- there are spies on this board)

^^ changeable usernames RIP ;_;

Not for ages but I'd like to again. Is there a convenient net version?

i've never played this game, but i don't have positive associations with it as the only enthusiast of the game i have ever known was a stridently fascist cafe owner who used the coffeeshop to hold john birch society meetings.

bigtime.

the reach of the game is insidious. we were at a friend's bday this weekend and people were making back room deals about troop movements while wasted.

"hey man, awesome party! neeeeed a bberre brody?"
"totally! heyyy, are we still on for that troop convoy next round?"
"...yyyess. well, that deppends on whether i can rely on yourr support for my move into sevastopol"
"you have my word. oh shit, i love this song!!"
"let's do a shot!"

haw i played for the first time on monday, probably with some of the same dudes gbx is playing with:

i decided diplomacy was basically designed for the opposite version of me. you have to be really patient, really good at being clear and persuasive while talking, and have the ability to plan things out severla moves ahead of time. it didn't help that i was the only one playing for the first time.

-- n/a, Tuesday, January 22, 2008 4:28 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

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diplomacy has the potential to be fun, if everyone was on the same experience level. i think i was pretty much used as a pawn the entire game because i didn't know how to play. also it takes waaaaaaaay too long to play, you'd basically need to set aside a whole day.

-- n/a, Tuesday, January 22, 2008 4:45 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

bigtime = xp to gff and Ed

we're using a handy online version to manage our "long game" (one move a week)

xp to n/a haha! i didn't know you guys played!

everyone else played, i "played"

paul g is a manipulative bastard. it doesn't help that he's smarter than me, either :(

Diplomacy is ideal for play by email, turn a day type play.

xpost

Anyone Fancy an ILX game? (will have to refresh myself on the rules)

he and ben d have been pouring over tomes of theory for the last few weeks. he carries the game map in his front pocket and goes out to consult it at various times during the day, going so far as to refer to it as his "smoke break"

luckily, there are basically no rules, ed. most of the complexity lies in how disputes are resolved, which an online game will do for you.

I am impressed. I have this game and always thought about playing it but I really think it would tear up friendships and make people cry, which is not so much my scene. Still it sounds interesting.

i've always wanted to try this game.

it would be awesome to play by mail

i tear up friendship for take wien why because it intrsting

I am currently living with two hostile nations. We're all still cool.

there is also Colonial Diplomacy

http://web.telia.com/~u87734465/stabbed/rules/colonial.jpg

oh charming

lol its sort of funny being a non-bastard politically and playing games like this, esp the hyper-complicated computer descendents like europa universalis. "hmm what i need to do here is butcher my protestant population so i have the diplomatic stability to move on the slaves and spices of angola and the gold coast, what ho"

have marxists ever come up with board games where things are...different?

playing by actual mail would be dope. you could make up fake letterhead and everything.

also: a whole globe game ("youngstown" rules) would be RADICAL

xp i was kind of wondering the same thing! i want to try playing a round of non-hostile diplomacy (i guess isolationist?) and see how long that would last. problem is the rules explicitly favor expansion

i guess there's sim city

how come i've never played this game??
how is it different from risk?
how hooked will i get? i am kind of busy, i don't know if i can handle boardgame-crack addiction!

you could make up fake letterhead and everything

!!!!!seriously, i would do this.

i've never even heard of this.

it looks awesome.

What's the online version you are using, gbx?

I do a one turn / week game via e-mail with people at my office - we have a set deadline for orders to be submitted, and each week a different person takes a turn receiving all the orders and updating the map (map is nothing fancy, basically scribbling on MS Paint or equivalent). It works pretty well and leads to lots of clandestine coffee-time plotting / scheming.

My high school's AP European History class would play this at the end of the year after the AP test was done, yet there was still a month left of school.

not sure, Ed, I'm looking into it (I don't manage the game)

for serious nerds, it's entirely possible to design your own board based on whatever geeky shit you're into: middle earth, post-apocalyptic wherever, and so on

http://www.diplom.org/index.py

sooo awesome that there are diplomacy zines

For people squeamish about war there is 1960: Making of a President

http://images.boardgamegeek.com/images/pic280517_md.jpg

^^^ horrifying

playing nixon in that ccg is like being the horde in WoW or playing a bruise deck in M:tG -- t/f?

I am refereeing a game at the moment. Russia is running away with it, but maybe an anti-Russian alliance is emerging. It's all very exciting.

also: a whole globe game ("youngstown" rules) would be RADICAL

there is such a game, I think it is called Mercator. The rules are slightly different, as I think it borrows the Army-Fleet rule (or something like it) from Abstraction (a variant).

for serious nerds, it's entirely possible to design your own board based on whatever geeky shit you're into: middle earth, post-apocalyptic wherever, and so on

Downfall (a LoToR variant) used to be popular, back in the day. I don't know if anyone plays it now.

I haven't played this since high school. Shit was epic. I played it with my dad once; bad idea.

cede ruhr or else you're grounded

oh and i guess we're using jdip

I've got a different one... realpolitik or something.

Do we want to try and get a game of this together? We could diplome* by e-mail and post adjudications on a thread. Or would that all be too sad?

*I have never fully worked out whether this is a real word or not.

i vote for postal diplomacy

I'd be in. Mr Que and Rrobyn seemed keen, although mr que clearly has a stamp collection to add to.

i could be into this, if we did it weekly

postal would obv be totally hilarious, but would probably require monthly adjudicating, which means we'd be playing for basically years

also a good excuse to put maps on my wall with pins in them

i would give this a try!

overseas postal would be tough, though, right?

i'd be willing to ref, if there was need/demand for a neutral

It all sounds fun but I'm not sure I want to play against people in a not face-to-face context. It's a lot harder to call someone's bluff via email.

That's funny... I totally prefer the postal game, whether by e-mail or letter.

I think it would be difficult to stop a postal game turning into an e-mail game (as in, the players would tell each other their e-mail addresses and communicate that way, and some cockfarmer would e-mail in orders to not miss the deadline), so maybe going e-mail from the get-go is the way forward.

precisely the point!

plus there's teh added fun of bcc'ing 3rd parties and shit, too!

xp yeah, given that the only hard and fast rules are in the adjudication (eg - we openly encourage surveillance/spying), it seems like email would take over right away

I have created a game on http://www.playdiplomacy.com/. 5 days for movement orders 1 day for retreats 1 day for builds should give us 7 day cycles, no?. Game is called ILXOR and password is ile1234. standard rules. once we have 7 players we can get started.

oh, this sounds great but i don't know how to play and don't trust myself to keep up with it. :/

happily, the game isn't that difficult to understand.

gameplay revolves around the execution of orders given by players to their assets. the orders are limited to:

* move to an adjoining space
* lend support to a neighboring asset (be it yours or someone else's): support just means that, in the resolution of conflict, the supported piece will have a mathematical advantage
* convoy an army over a body of water (only fleets can do this)
* do nothing

i think that's it? the tricksy part is resolving conflicting moves (to armies moving to the same area, for instance. this is where "support" comes in: if i lend support to germany's move from A to B, germany will enjoy a numerical advantage when the conflict is resolved. ie 2 against 1.)

the REAL trick, then, is anticipating and orchestrating other people's orders. for instance: i was playing a game where, in return for having provided support for an attack on warsaw, my friend paul was going to support my move into rumania. emboldened by this, i filed the order for an attack. once the orders were resolved, it turned out that paul had NOT given support, and had instead retreated to the north. i got bounced from rumania, effectively wasting a turn.

I played this once during college. I thought it was a bag of dicks.

by "bag of dicks" do you mean "more fun than a bag of dicks"???

that sounds way less technical than i expected.

it's basically just an RPG with stupidly easy rules: all assets are created equal. the only material advantage a player can have is in the number of assets at their disposable.

Bag of Dicks = loot your WoW character picked up?

It was about as fun as a bag of dicks. Risk is way way way way more fun to me.

Also "Bag of Dicks" as WoW epic loot would clearly be hunter loot.

Risk is inherently flawed. Axis & Allies is where it's at.

I bet Axis & Allies would be fun but the only person I know who had it was a Mussolini-worshipping fascist. ;_;

danm otm!

geir went to harvard?

I bought my sister Diplomacy one Christmas after I decided we need to move on from Risk, but we got rather overwhelmed by the complexity of the thing and never played it.

Ed, I can't play to those deadlines (so you will miss playing against me, the Diplomacy master (ya rly)). I would have to play with deadlines always falling on weekends, I reckon. I am more used to the way they used to do things in UK Diplomacy zines, where people include provisional retreats (and provisional builds & disbandments) with their norma movement orders. But y'all have fun now. Post maps showing how the game is progressing.

how is the game going guys?

HOW THE FUCK DID I MISS THIS THREAD

COLONIAL DIPLOMACY FUCKING RULED

http://web.telia.com/~u87734465/stabbed/rules/colonial.jpg

JAPAN IS THE NEW UK

seriously I am pissed that I missed this thread. I must have been extremely drunk or something

it's never too late to start a second game! although... i haven't ever actually played, the only time we tried it got prematurely aborted because my firend have no drive ot do things

We never got the first one off the ground due to lack of players, it is still waiting for a full compliment.

I'm in then

I missed this thread, too, and I was at the party where gbx was plotting moves with his friends! It was pretty funny.

whoah i forgot to join, too

still room?

xp there were actual smoky backroom deals happening, it was awesome

then everyone forgot all the promises they made, and the first move went all to hell

do you guys have the patience for complete neophytes, or are you looking for people who've at least played once or twice before?

Yeah, cause I have never played this game but it sounds awesome. How many players are allowable/desirable?

7.

playing with less than seven sucks and playing with more than seven is impossible

(because there are only seven countries. also, the nature of the game itself makes uncontrolled territories into a powerful handicapper for whoever's closest to them, and an even number of players is basically a one-way ticket to lame town)

I am currently enjoying my first few games of http://www.conquerclub.com/, i.e. turn-per-day Risk. Good times.

Wrong thread. Risk is balls

you are balls

Tombot OTM.

I've always wanted to play Diplomacy, but found it impossible to find a local playgroup.

http://ilxor.com/ILX/NewAnswersControllerServlet?boardid=67

web diplo for ILXors? yes?

have spent all evening STRATEGIZIN moves for facebook diplomacy, 2 moves away from future shut-in lyfe

http://grantland.com/features/diplomacy-the-board-game-of-the-alpha-nerds/

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