Diplomacy A-Z, Version 6.0

Variants exist which transfer the game from a European milieu to the world of Tolkien's Middle Earth, to a worldwide setting or to medieval Italy. Others add new units like submarines and air forces, increase the number of players or provide for hidden movement, like Kreigspiel chess. So many variants have appeared over the years that a number of Variant Banks have been established within the postal hobby to collect them into archives. Most prominent among these are the United Kingdom Variant Bank (UKVB) and the North American Variant Bank (NAVB).

It is, however, often difficult to find enough players to get up a game of one of the less well known variants. Most variant GMs are reluctant to run variants that they themselves have not created. The early stalwarts of the variant hobby were Don Miller and Rod Walker, with major contributions from Bob Sacks, Lew Pulsipher, and Fred Davis. Don Miller ran the first diplomacy variant in 1965 through _Diplophobia_, although by the standard of today some of the early diplomacy games (eg 1963A) would be classed as variants. See Bomb, Country Variant, Global Variant, Hidden Movement, Hyperspace, Madman, Spoof, Tolkien, Variant Jargon (KW) and Variant (KW).

First published variant was Middle-Earth Dip II in _Graustark_ in 1965.

The main problem with the construction of an email variant bank is the distribution of maps. Many variants use the regular board, or a simple extension of it which can be readily described (some simple variants which use a non-standard map can also be described) but many variants do not fit into either of these categories. Judge contains PostScript files for some variant maps but obviously this is not a realistic route to take.

The conclusion would seem to be that e-mail fans should use their local bank for variants which require a new map and someone should volunteer to set up an email variant bank for those variants which do not require a new map. See Variant Jargon (KW).

If you are interested in diplomacy variants you are advised to read the Variant.AZ file.

The Wales Opening is properly called the Wales Variation of the Southern Opening, but it has always been known as the Wales Opening. See English Openings (KW).

Nominators are requested to enclose a photocopy of the nominated article, if it does not exceed about 4 pages. If the nomination is for a book or a long series, just produce a copy of the material when making the final selections. Each member of the selecting committee receives a copy of this material when making their selection. A list of winners:

1984 Mark Berch: For the fictional piece "The Sleaziest player of all Time: Shep Rose" in _Diplomacy World_, Spring 1983.
1985 Bruce Linsey: For five years of publication of _Voice of Doom_, including the most active letter column in the hobby's history, and producing and distributing the novice publication, Supernova.
1986 Daf Langley: This was for a factual piece she wrote for Diplomacy World 39, "The Making of a Major Con".
1987 J.R. Baker: For the various cartoons he drew for _Diplomacy World_ over the years.
1988 Mark Berch: For an article in _Diplomacy World_ and
(tie) Fred C. Davis Jnr: For production of "The North American Variant Bank Catalog, 1987-88".
1989 Rex Martin et al: For producing a Diplomacy-featured special issue of _The General_ (Vol 24 No 3) in 1988.
1990 Larry Botimer: "Playing Italy" in Kathy's Korner #155. and (tie)
Francois Cuerrier: "Lowballing: in _Passchendaele_ #97.
1991 Mark Berch: "The Power The Glory" in _The General_, Vol 25 No 4.
1992 Garret Schenck: work on _The Zine Directory_.
1993 Conrad von Metzke
1994 David Smith: "The Crimean Opening", _Diplomacy World_ 70.
1995 - Ken Walker
1996 - Tim Hoyt
1997 - Mark Fassio
1998 - Conrad von Metzke
1999 - Heath Gardner
2000 - Paul Windsor
2001 - Allan B. Calhamer
2002 - Joe Brennan and Glenn Ledder (tied)
2003 – Paul Windsor
2004 – Manus Hand
See Hobby Awards.

The second type is where a waterway runs *between* two provinces; the Denmark/Sweden border in the regular game is an example. Any fleet may move through the waterway using the adjoining land provinces as if they were coastal provinces, entering either province from one side and then leaving on the other side of the waterway on the next turn. Here the waterway also forms the boundary between the two adjoining provinces. Armies may cross the line of the canal; their movement is in no way affected by its presence. In neither of these types of waterway may armies cross or be convoyed through canals. The Direct Passage link also creates a situation whre army and fleet movement cross each other at right angles. See also Variant Jargon (KW).

WDC    Location       Year  # Players Winner        #team   #Winner
WDC I {ManorCon} VI   1988
WDC II North Carolina 1990
WDC III Australia     1992
WDC IV {ManorCon} XII 1994   94 P. Montagna (France) 17     Sweden

Though they are on opposite sides of the board, they can still be sometimes found in alliance courtesy of their mutual rivalry with Russia: an alliance of the Wicked Witches is often what Russia fears most. But despite the advantages of their opening positions, these two powers are not especially favoured to win games: their corner positions are difficult to expand from, and will usually rely on a fleet-oriented strategy (there are seven supply centres on the board which fleets cannot occupy).

_Wild 'N Wooly_ was the first warehouse zine in the hobby. Dan's second wife Christina, an extremely talented artist, contributed a number of drawings that were just about as spectacular as one could get on a mimeo master. These drawing, in black and white, were reprinted in the first and second edition of The Gamer's Guide To Diplomacy and have oft been reprinted in diplomacy fanzines.

It was one of the earliest zines to adopt the rule that no replacement players would be used (Dan had a codicil, "unless all other players agreed," but this only happened once), and when the zine became erratic there were numerous dropouts whose absence in effect ruined the games.

But what _Wild 'N Wooly_ did, better than anything else in its day, was recruiting new players to the hobby; Dan made extensive use of mailing lists he acquired, and sent endless samples to people he ran into at SF conventions --- he even ran off vast numbers of extra copies to pass out at these meets. In effect he became the first hobby 'ambassador,' and his success was not equalled into until the flyer in the game box came to be.

Folded with issue 144 on June 24th 1972.

Year  #Voters Top Three
1988  43       Chaos II (25) & Downfall (all marks 25), Somewhat Demiurgic
               Diplomacy. (16)
1989  43       Africa II (32), Downfall X (20), Utter Ludicrous Diplomacy (18).

All games played at ManorCon and MidCon are rated. To qualify for the final results table a player must have played at least five games, two of which must have been at MidCon. Details taken from _Smodnoc_ 37 (February 1992). See Rating Systems (KW).

1980AB (reported in _Everything_ 53) was an interesting game. Austria (played by Dick Martin) reached 17 centers in 1907 whilst England had 12. The original England player dropped in S08 and was replaced by Mark Lew. By 1912 England had captured the 5 Italian centers and it was 17-17. In 1913 Austria captured all of the English centers to finish on 34. Dick Martin and Mark Lew are old friends...

Except against novice competition, novices don't usually win. Occasionally, they get lucky and another novice makes a mistake in their favor.

An intermediate can hold their own against experts. In an intermediate/expert game, they stand as good a chance winning as anyone else. However, introduce one novice into the game, and the intermediate immediately gets destroyed by the novice; the novice destroying himself in the process.

An expert gets the novices to make the stupid mistakes that hurt the intermediates and themselves at the same time.

The real test of how good a Diplomacy player is is how well he deals with poor players, not how well he deals with good ones.

GAME                      WIN NUMBER
NAPG Non-orphaned games*    48.07%
NAPG Orphaned games*        64.62%
COMPU Non-orphaned games*   46.6%

"France is - not surprisingly - the strongest country, with an average CP Score of about 0.17. The Maginot Opening, comfortably the most popular French opening, justifies that status by producing an average of 0.199, well above average. Of openings played 10 or more times, those that outscore the Maginot are a motley bunch: top is the unnamed (F(Bre)-MAO, A(Mar)H, A(Par)-Gas) with 0.233, good if it works as you can convoy Gas-Por and jump England in 1902. A modern favourite, the Vineyard also does well with 0.219. The Northern Dash seems to achieve its objective quite frequently (0.209), closely followed by the Belgian Gambit, representing a good overall score for the Bur and Pic brigade; the Belgian Gambit is the most successful opening of those so far played over 100 times. But the most interesting aspect of all this is the woeful inadequacy of the other two highly popular openings, which score below the French average: the Burgundy Opening does surprisingly badly with 0.132, while the third-ranked Picardy Opening is one of the most unsuccessful of all French openings, netting only 0.104. Two minority openings, (F(Bre)-MAO, A(Mar)H, A(Par)-Bur) and the Inverted Vineyard are so spectacularly unsuccessful that they actually rate below a Spring 1901 NMR!

I don't know what all this proves, except perhapes that those who favour the Maginot seem to be right to do so. I've never played it myself; I am slightly surprised to find, checking the records, that I have played the English Maginot three times out of four, with no success whatever, while my solitary French win was achieved with the intereesting aberration (F(Bre)-MAO, A(Mar)-Pie, A(Par)-Gas)! Hmmm. I must try the Maginot next time..."

Opening                        CP Strike Rate       Number of Games (1)
Ship of the Desert                   15.69           17
Russian Attack                       14.64
Russian Defence                      14.02
Bosphorus Opening, Ankara Variation  12-13%
Houseboar Oppening, Constantinople Variation 12-13%
Russian Defence, Ankara Variation    9.85% < ?? < 12% (2)
Bosphorus Opening, Smyrna Variation  9.85%
Bosphorus Opening, Armenia Variation 8.60%

The first woman to play in a Postal Dip game was Dion Pelz, who finished second to her husband. Europa Express #12 (1982) was a special theme issue on "Women in Diplomacy". There were articles on women in Canada, Belgium/France, Great Britain and others. Also included was a tasty selection of original and reprinted stuff, including a "centerfold" listing of 31 women from the present and the past in the US Hobby, though many of them have only the most tenuous connection to the hobby. A splendid collection. See Beyerlein, Crayne, Kathy Caruso and Gemignani.

Year Voters 1st                  2nd            3rd
1991 15     Comrades In Arms (*) Kathy's Korner D.O.G.S of War

Survivors get 1 point for each supply center held at the end of the game (if the game ends in the Spring turn, treat it as a Fall turn and count new acquisitions). Bonus points as follows:
Solo Win = +21 points
2-way draw = +10 points
3-way draw = + 5 points
4-way draw = + 3 points

Draws can be determined with 29 center vote. Thus a 6 center country, or a combination of countries totalling 6+ centers can block a draw, or force their inclusion. See also Rating Systems (KW).

The added players are China, India and Japan. The game uses an expanded Europe plus Africa and Asia. Keeping things connected are off-board boxes and the ability of some European countries to build in remote ("colonial") parts of the world. Later versions added an African and American power. Game tends to produce static slugfests and large draws. See Variant (KW).

Note that the sum of the losers is equal to the sum of the winners: the sum of player scores in any game is zero. See Rating System (KW).

In the past often a forum for stirring up controversy in the hobby over such matters as which zines are eligible, whether you need to be a subber to vote for a zine, and what weighting scheme is best. The 1979 Poll even included a separate Poll on this last question.

For an editor, the highlight of the hobby calendar--all editors and subscribers are asked to vote on the zines they receive to establish the zine of the year.

Zine Poll winners have been: 1974(a) Ethil The Frog 1974(b) Dolchstoss; 1975: Dolchstoss; 1976: Chimaera; 1977: Chimaera; 1978: Dolchstoss; 1979: Greatest Hits; 1980: Greatest Hits; 1981: Greatest Hits; 1982: Ode; 1983: Greatest Hits; 1984: Hopscotch; 1985: Mad Policy; 1986: Home of the Brave; 1987: War and Peace; 1988: Realpolitik; 1989: Nertz; 1990: Electric Monk; 1991: Dolchstoss, 1992: Dolchstoss, 1993: Spring Offensive, 1994: Spring Offensive and Take That You Fiend and 1995: On The Game. [Note: _zine_ format not used.]
See Hobby Awards (KW).

Just a listing of zines with their vital statistics and game openings. Mimeographed issues.
Roy Hendricks 3-4 (July 1983--???) Digest issues. Added some commentary to the listings.
Simon Billenness 5-8 (January 1986--???) Established TZR as a recognised worthwhile hobby service.
Ken Peel 9-14 (July 1987--???) Laser-printed on full-faced paper. Wide circulation. Finished 2nd in the 1988 Zine Poll.
Tom Nash 15-16, 18 (December 1989--???) Issue 17 was a fake.
Garret Schenck 19-21 (October 1990--???) Highly controversial editor.
Pete Gaughan 22+
See Zine Names (KW).