The seven wonders of the diplomatic world

[Snake IV]

The seven wonders of the diplomatic world

Once upon a time there was a continent which was for the millions of people living there known as Europe. The people of Europe lived in peace and prosperity, until one day in the year 1901. The seven equally strong superpowers suddenly lost all their respect for the ordinary way of war and peace. Everyone fought everybody until one was the master of their devastated hell. None of the powers could alone become the strongest, everyone had to make allies, allies who you would cooperate with until you could get as much as possible out of stabbing your ally in his back.

This is what Europe looked like the spring 1901.

Far away in the south-east there is Turkey ruled by the sultan Stonehenge. Turkey has not much to pick up right away but on the other hand they do not have any back to watch, at least not yet.

Going north we find giant Russia, biggest of them all, ruled by the czar Dweomer. Russia might be big but has a very long border, and if he wants to advance and gain he must be sure from which front he has to transfer the troops. There are many possible allies but also many possible enemies and in the end it is often more of the latter.

Slightly south west there is the double eagle, Austria, under emperor and king Number1. Austria is surrounded from all sides but there are provinces to pick up in the Balkan if you play your cards right. On the other hand one might want to take out the usual enemy Italy as fast as possible, and leave the Balkan to Turkey and Russia.

Then comes the boot of Europe, Italy, under king SirMaru. It does not take much luck for Italy to go undetected from the other powers of Europe but on the other hand easy picking is a rarity in the neighbourhood. If you want to see other areas you have to make a bigger offensive against one of the others, and there is only two options. East or west.

Just North West there is France ruled by the digital minded president Owl. France use to have Iberia for themselves and some in the Low Countries but then would have to move on into someone’s core area which might take some force. France has to know who the enemy is. Going naval there might be to weak land defence, going land means harder to defend from fleet attacks. This might apply for all countries but it does more for France, mostly due to its neighbours.

If we cross the channel we have England with king Pax25. The task for someone to take out England should prove very difficult, but on the other hand England is very naval and has problems with conquering inland territories for not to speak about effectively holding them. The free gain for England is extremely small, so to get something you have to choose your enemy and strike at him fast.

And lastly there is, in the centre of Europe, Germany under the most glorious Kaiser Snake IV, me that is. Germany is surrounded on three sides, and there is no doubt that it soon will be four. However Germany’s homeland has a very nice buffet zone around almost the entire area which makes surprise attacks more difficult to do on them. There are some pick ups in the north west and when Germany once have turned that way they use to stay with that. But one has to make sure having an ally for the situation All Quiet on the Western Front is not very fun, on land and on sea.

This is my 1000th post.


EDIT: I would like to note, that usually we negotate more, and think more, then I have done in this AAR. So if you find that it seems that the game is too boring form this AAR, that is not how it is.

[stnylan]

Well you've set the scene beautifully. And congrats on reaching 4 figures!

[Duke of Wellington]

Nice start Snake. I'm sure this will be good if its up to your usual standards. I know nothing about Diplomacy so I'm keen to find out

[Henry v. Keiper]

Hm...this Diplomacy AAR catches me eye. And I got that eye on you. Don't lose it.

[Stroph1]

Nice set up.

[anonymous4401]

You'd better single-handedly bring this Diplomacy AAR forum to life, boy!

[kenneththegreat]

Looking good

[Gagarin]

this looks good.

[Snake IV]

Thank you for showing up here guys. Seven readers in two day are not all too bad, at least for being Dippy. I am however a bit disappointed that no one from the dippy community has shown up here yet, I have asked them to came, but they’re hopefully just taking their time. That is what I believe and what I want to believe. I see that most of you have not registered a dippy copy; something I dream of will be changed when this AAR is over, even if I doubt it. But for you that have not been in contact with dippy before this is how it works.

EDIT: Well Duke. I can't say this will be in my ordenary standard. Writing MP Dippy AARs is hard work, especially as there's no game log to look back on. However I have done the best I can.

Anonymous4401, yes, I hope that the Dippy AAR forum will come to life now. Even if it might only be in my AAR. I have material for three weeks already so it won't be 100% dead for at least some time ahead. Then how much alive is up to the readers, how many that will show up and post.

EDIT2, as of 2 Dec 2006: The old link to the rules are no longer valide. Here is a new one. Just do not choose the draft of the rules in the first link there.

[Snake IV]

Spring 1901

I had no time to begin to plan my strategy, only to check where I and the other guys had landed, before proposals began to fall in. The first dropping in was from Austria, a non-aggression pact. Declining would almost mean openly saying that I planned to wage war on them and at this stage I could not see that I should get much of attacking them, especially if they were ready for it so I gladly accepted. I wanted to see Austria as my friend. After that Russia was up to the same thing. Russia is a place with easier taking than Austria, but again a decline would mean attention from their side. I agreed. Of course I could agree to both and then stab one them in his back taking him totally on the bed and grabbing territory before he could give proper resistance. But my interests lie in another direction. When I had accepted the proposals a third one shows up. This one was from England and asked for more action than the others. England asked for an offensive alliance against France. This would be a good move, France is AI controlled and therefore smart as a coconut, or a Frenchman. Their supply centres were almost free and I had a sea based ally who did not have many possibilities to take much from France. I accepted and began to think about the moves I was planning to take. Then came a sad message to everyone, Stonehenge was no longer with us. He did not say anything about leaving so he did probably drop.

Suddenly I heard a beeping sound. Time was almost over; I panicked and did the standard German attack-France-moves. Munich to Burgundy, Kiel to Holland and Berlin to Kiel. Or that was at least what I had hoped for. Just when I was about to finish the order Berlin to Kiel time ends and the guys in Berlin stayed where they were. This was frustrating as the gains the first year may determine the course of the game, and here I stood without the possibility of taking Denmark, a natural German gain.

Moves Spring 1901

I took my time to pay notice that neither Austria nor Russia was doing any anti-German moves and England made an ordinary opening. I also saw that France moved the northern way towards Belgium but that their fleet was opposed by the English and my move towards Burgundy from Munich therefore was unopposed. Both my moves were successful. There were no retreats this turn.

[Duke of Wellington]

Looks interesting. This game looks like one involving fine balances between allies and enemies.

[stnylan]

I take it from the map Russia is attacking Austria and Turkey looks like it is preparing for war with Russia?

Regarding the AARs, if you look at the others games the great majority of AARs are single-player. I don't know for sure of course by Dippy has the reputation of not really being a SP game (quite apart from its natural MP audience). That would naturally have an impact.

[lifeless]

hmm this looks very interesting! congrats on reaching 1000+ posts

[stnylan]

hmm this looks very interesting! congrats on reaching 1000+ posts

I didn't notice that. Congratulations Snake IV.

[SirCliveWolfe]

I see that most of you have not registered a dippy copy; something I dream of will be changed when this AAR is over, even if I doubt it.

Indeed it is a shame... but I, personally, can not find a copy for "love nor money" and I do so hate downloading games... I like a shiney cd for my money

But for you that have not been in contact with dippy before this is how it works.

but I still play the bord game and still love it, my hope was to track down a copy of Dippy and make an AAR...

[Snake IV]

I have planed to usually have three updates a week, spring on Mondays, fall on Thursdays and build on Saturdays. However I will not be home on Saturday and I will maybe not be able to do anything at all in the forum until in the middle of the next week, but I can promise you one update every day from when I’m back to until we’ve cached up to what it would have benn normally.

Duke: The game is originally a board game so it is very balanced, one of the most balanced to find I would say.

stnylan: Yes, Diplomacy is a MP game. No one that has owned the game for more than a week will play it in SP. SP is worthless, something that only can be used to learn the game rules with.

lifeless and stnylan: Thanks guys. But how come you didn't notice that when saying in the first post: And congrats on reaching 4 figures! What was that about then

Wolfe: You can't get a copy?? Can't you order it from paradox shop? That's how I got mine.

[Snake IV]

Fall 1901




My moves Fall 1901

First I made sure that my Berlin army moved to Kiel. This was actually not a very good move. The better would have been to not move any unit to Kiel and build a fleet there during build phase. Then I could have moved it to Denmark at the same time as I would have done it with the army otherwise. A fleet is surely more useful than an army in Denmark. But I did not think on that then, I concentrated on France. France was in a very bad defence situation at that moment. Belgium was under my mercy and French SC was undefended right next to me. Italy sent me a message to suggest that I should move to Marseilles as I easily would take it. I would, the possibility of France moving to Marseilles from Spain was most unlikely, especially as they would not get Spain if I did not make the move. Besides from Marseilles Paris was also undefended, however there was the army in Picardy and a move from there to Paris would not be a totally intelligence liberated move. Although a French SC would be better than Belgium as France then would not be able to do any build I was not very wily to take any of their SC. The gains of the first year may affect the whole game from then on so I wanted to get as much as possible and as Belgium was a safe move I decided to make it. I told Italy that I would not attack Marseilles. I first ordered Holland to Belgium and supported from Burgundy as it would give a good position to attack France from later but then I recalled that I did not have Holland yet so I attacked with Burgundy and supported with Holland in the end.

Moves Fall 1901

I did not pay any notice to the south and the east but it looked like a Russian offensive against the Balkan and especially Austria. In the area of interest for me England made an ordinary move to Norway and France only made a move to the English Channel which utterly failed. I could have moved to Paris without opposition and still take Belgium (but lose Holland though). That would have given a good position. All my moves were successful. There were no retreats this turn.

[Duke of Wellington]

Turkey getting quite aggressive there. Do you not have to declare war to invade as in other games? Do you simply move into the provinces to attack? Sorry for the newbie questions I'm completely unfamiliar with the game

[anonymous4401]

What will the Turkish army in Armenia's move into Sevastopol coupled with the Russian fleet in Sevastopol bouncing from the Black Sea do? Does the Turkish move into Sevastopol fail?

[Snake IV]

Turkey getting quite aggressive there. Do you not have to declare war to invade as in other games? Do you simply move into the provinces to attack? Sorry for the newbie questions I'm completely unfamiliar with the game

Oops. Forgot to make that clear. You've got it right, you don't have to declare war, there are no formal actions to do at all.

What will the Turkish army in Armenia's move into Sevastopol coupled with the Russian fleet in Sevastopol bouncing from the Black Sea do? Does the Turkish move into Sevastopol fail?

It is a standoff in Black Sea as the fleets are equal, no support for any of them, so both stay where they are. The Armenian army therefore meets the resistance of the fleet in Sevastopol and can't defeat it as they again are equal. There are some rules I have forgot to tell you about but as I don't have the time now you will get it when I come back or you might ask SirCliveWolfe to explain some about standoffs and cutting support and similar for you. It is all based on that all units are of equal strange and to defeat another unit you must have more units attacking than defending.