Diplomacy A-Z, Version 6.0

Suppose you play Italy in a standard (7-player) game and that Germany is eliminated in Fall of 1903. Then after 1903, the game is really just a six-player game. With fewer minds to work against, the complexity of the game has been reduced by one dimension.

Continuing the example, suppose that Russia and France are eliminated in Fall 1906 and Austria in Fall 1912, when the game is called a three-way draw.

The points available are 3/12 for beating Germany (since he was only a factor in 3/12 of the game) PLUS 6/12 (for Russia) PLUS 6/12 (for France) PLUS 12/12 (for Austria). This comes to 27/12 or 2.25 points. This is evenly split among the three winners, giving them .75 points apiece. See Rating Systems (KW).

Generally applied to childish editor who takes on too many games, is illiterate, inefficient, and liable to go supernova. Needless to say, none of this is necessarily true. Two stolid schoolboy editors were Pete Mearns and Greg Hawes. Failure to carry on usually comes about because of going to University, when girls/drink/work/social life seem more interesting.

Schoolboy editors, even if still at University, have been rare in the UK since the late 1980s; the only obvious candidates are James Nelson and Mark Nelson. Both of these managed to produce a multitude of zines whilst still at School/University without running too many games, running their games efficently and neither went supernova.

Otherwise, Dippy might just be duplicated game reports and very boring, too. Much of the cohesion of the *UK* hobby can be put down to the fact that many early Diplomacy players in _Bellicus_, _Ethil the Frog_, _War Bulletin_, and _Grafeti_ (produced by Brian Yare and brought many of the St. Andrew's crowd into the hobby) were either already members of the SF 'hobby' or were personal friends. The 'invasion' of the BDC was successfully absorbed into this 'personal' tradition, rather than into the style of _BDC Journal_ and _Courier_ from Don Turnbull.

It began as a sort of live role-playing game in 1969 (to explain would take a while in itself), and was adapted to Diplomacy in 1972. A map was drawn up (and expanded several times until it circumnavigated the globe) based around a local lake in Canada and the 'zine Slobinpolit Zhurnal was created to document the proceedings. Players could enter at any time, and there was no way to actually end the game - in fact, there was one supply center entirely surrounded by impassable mountains that no one ever owned. The real purpose of the game was to write "press" of the story variety documenting the various characters in the game and the cultures, sub-cultures, counter-cultures, and various and sundry institutions, savory and unsavory, that went along with them. It was a shared "novel" with a game at its core to give it substance. At its peak there were over 40 players and upwards of 100 pages of press every month. As players graduated from college and otherwise had to actually earn a living, it finally broke up in 1984 (it is not still going, as listed).

Here's a link to an article that appeared in the gaming magazine Different Worlds that Greg Costikyan wrote that gives some background to the game - the original article was illustrated by me, but those, alas, don't appear here: http://www.costik.com/slobbovia.html.

Entering a centre in spring only makes it neutral, to take possession you must also retain it in Fall. Use in regular games very rare, but was seen in 1966F and 1966K.

When used in Diplomacy variants the usual rule is that SCs can be captured in Spring. See Variant Jargon (KW).

An early example is the one discovered in 1965 by Conrad von Metzke, which uses ten units to hold fifteen supply centres: A(Sev) A(Gal) SA(Ukr), A's(Ukr, Boh Bud) SA(Gal), A(Tyr)SA(Boh), F(WMS) F(Pie) SF(GoL), F(NAf) & F(GoL) SF(WMS). This amply fulfills the primary requirement of a successful stalemate line: that it should contain at least as many supply centres as it requires units to maintain it. In this case, the player could afford several 'roving' units beyond the line. However, this remains a 'minority' stalemate line, rather than a 17-centre position from which it is possible to force a draw: there are countless variations of minority stalemate lines. Note than many will depend on which countries are still active - a line established by England to stop Turkey at the mouth of the Mediterranean would only be secure if France (or Russia or Germany) were not likely or able to raise a fleet in Brest (or St Petersburg, Kiel or Berlin). Stalemates can, of course, be achieved by alliances as well as single powers.

The most complete collection ever published is in _DD_ #10/11. See also Dynamic Stalemate Line, Holcomb Line and Static Stalemate Line.

There have been many hundreds of subzines over the years, perhaps as many titles as actual full-fledged zines. While the first subzine may have been contained in John Koning's sTab, subzine did not become widespread until the advent of cheap photographic reproduction in the late 1970s. The 1980s saw a proliferation of subzines (often several to a zine, and often one title roaming from zine to zine), as it was an easy way for a budding publisher to get his feet wet and discover if publishing was a venture for him.

Year  # Voters # Subzines Subzine (Editor, Zines)
1993    32        29 1st  Holgate's Happy Hour (Paul Holgate, Bloodstock)
                     2nd  The Blue Nose Special (John Colledge,
                          Arfle Barfle Gloop and Smodnoc)
                     3rd  Novelty (David Tittle, Smodnoc)

Super-nations are found in many Tolkien variants, in particular there is a class of Tolkien variant known as "Super-Sauron" which features Mordor as an extremely super super-nation. See Variant Jargon (KW).

Points are awarded as follows:

Place: 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8 9 10 11 12 13 14
R1    10  7  5  4  3  2  1
R2    15 11  8  7  6  5  4  3 2  1
R3    20 16 12 11 10  9  8  7 6  5  4  3  2  1
R4    25 21 17 14 13 12 11 10 9  8  7  6  5  4

Year Voters First       Second  Third       Fourth
1994 26     Avalonia    Mu      Red Dwarf   Lepanto 4-Ever
1993 24     Avalonia    Mu      Gr{nslandet Dipsosis
1992 40     Gr{nslandet Rosten fran Avgunden   Dipsosis