I finally received the game by mail in Germany today. There has been very little in the forums about how the most important part of the game works – namely the diplomacy. For those who don’t have the game or are still considering it, I thought I’d give more detail.
To conduct diplomacy, you use a negotiation template with one or more other countries called a “brief”. This basically contains the draft orders and existing agreements for all upcoming moves and treaties relating to the other parties in the brief. The procedure is to draft a proposal (or read a proposed draft), send it to the other parties for agreement and then set your official orders accordingly if the other parties agree. You can also designate draft orders as an ultimatum, which threatens to scupper an entire set of agreements if a revision is not accepted. There is a handy tool to automatically convert agreements to real orders, and you will be warned if any of your real orders violate any agreements. The brief is nullified after resolution if your real orders violate the agreement. Alternatively, you can inform the other parties that you will no longer abide by the agreement after the upcoming resolution (this has a smaller negative on your reputation than if you renege on the agreement in the current phase). Many agreements can be made permanent (valid for the entire game) or non-permanent (valid until further notice).
These briefs can be as simple or complex as you want, though unnecessary complexity makes it more likely the AI won’t agree. There is a time limit in the diplomacy phase, but you can set it to 30 minutes so it’s not a real constraint. The interface expedites the whole process nicely once you get the hang of it. It’s basically a matter of dragging and dropping and responding to context-sensitive menus.
Here is what you can agree to:
1) Specific orders. Essentially, you issue a set of draft orders for the units of any of the parties in the brief. If they agree, you are all (theoretically) obligated to carry them out.
2) Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). A DMZ pertains to a specific province and prohibits all parties from moving to, convoying to or supporting to a province without the permission (approval of a draft order in the brief) of the other parties. If someone already has a unit there, that unit can’t do anything without permission.
3) Non-aggression pact. The NAP converts all occupied provinces and all supply centers (SC) of the two countries to DMZs. Additionally, any province the other side moves to, convoys into or supports into is subject to the DMZ rules. The NAP can be permanent or non-permanent and exceptions can be negotiated.
4) Targeted offensive alliance. Two parties can form an alliance against a specific third party. Both allies obligate themselves to show any orders (by making a draft order in the brief) for all units which border on an allied unit AND the SC or unit of the target country. You don’t need your ally’s permission to move affected units, but it ensures that you won’t issue orders that inadvertently ruin your ally’s plans and vice versa.
5) Full alliance. Both parties must agree upon all moves by units that are adjacent to eachother’s SCs and units. This can be permanent or non-permanent.
6) Builds. You can suggest and offer builds during the appropriate phase.
7) Debt. I’m not sure exactly what this means, but presumably you can use it as an IOU for future negotiations. It’s not really relevant for interaction with the AI.
So there is a pretty versatile palette of diplomatic tools. I have been an avid Diplomacy player for many years, so I’m glad to see Paradox thought creatively about this part of the game. In my next post, I’ll give my views on how all of this works in practice in terms of gameplay.
To conduct diplomacy, you use a negotiation template with one or more other countries called a “brief”. This basically contains the draft orders and existing agreements for all upcoming moves and treaties relating to the other parties in the brief. The procedure is to draft a proposal (or read a proposed draft), send it to the other parties for agreement and then set your official orders accordingly if the other parties agree. You can also designate draft orders as an ultimatum, which threatens to scupper an entire set of agreements if a revision is not accepted. There is a handy tool to automatically convert agreements to real orders, and you will be warned if any of your real orders violate any agreements. The brief is nullified after resolution if your real orders violate the agreement. Alternatively, you can inform the other parties that you will no longer abide by the agreement after the upcoming resolution (this has a smaller negative on your reputation than if you renege on the agreement in the current phase). Many agreements can be made permanent (valid for the entire game) or non-permanent (valid until further notice).
These briefs can be as simple or complex as you want, though unnecessary complexity makes it more likely the AI won’t agree. There is a time limit in the diplomacy phase, but you can set it to 30 minutes so it’s not a real constraint. The interface expedites the whole process nicely once you get the hang of it. It’s basically a matter of dragging and dropping and responding to context-sensitive menus.
Here is what you can agree to:
1) Specific orders. Essentially, you issue a set of draft orders for the units of any of the parties in the brief. If they agree, you are all (theoretically) obligated to carry them out.
2) Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). A DMZ pertains to a specific province and prohibits all parties from moving to, convoying to or supporting to a province without the permission (approval of a draft order in the brief) of the other parties. If someone already has a unit there, that unit can’t do anything without permission.
3) Non-aggression pact. The NAP converts all occupied provinces and all supply centers (SC) of the two countries to DMZs. Additionally, any province the other side moves to, convoys into or supports into is subject to the DMZ rules. The NAP can be permanent or non-permanent and exceptions can be negotiated.
4) Targeted offensive alliance. Two parties can form an alliance against a specific third party. Both allies obligate themselves to show any orders (by making a draft order in the brief) for all units which border on an allied unit AND the SC or unit of the target country. You don’t need your ally’s permission to move affected units, but it ensures that you won’t issue orders that inadvertently ruin your ally’s plans and vice versa.
5) Full alliance. Both parties must agree upon all moves by units that are adjacent to eachother’s SCs and units. This can be permanent or non-permanent.
6) Builds. You can suggest and offer builds during the appropriate phase.
7) Debt. I’m not sure exactly what this means, but presumably you can use it as an IOU for future negotiations. It’s not really relevant for interaction with the AI.
So there is a pretty versatile palette of diplomatic tools. I have been an avid Diplomacy player for many years, so I’m glad to see Paradox thought creatively about this part of the game. In my next post, I’ll give my views on how all of this works in practice in terms of gameplay.
