In this series, I'm going to take a brief look at the seven powers in the game of Diplomacy. This will be not much more than a brief introduction to each power, looking at their position on the board, their neighbours and the pros and cons of playing them. More detailed strategy will follow in future posts.
England - not Britain, or even the UK, mainly due, I suspect, to the ignorance of the fact that a significant proportion of the UK population are distinctly unimpressed with being called English - is a tricky power to play well.
If you take a look at her position on the board, you can see that she is described as a corner power.
If you take a look at her position on the board, you can see that she is described as a corner power.
Her immediate neighbours are France, Germany and (stretching a point) Russia. These are the powers she comes into contact with at the start of the game.
The unique thing about England is that she has two fleets and one army at the start. This isn't really that surprising as, to get into contact with another SC, she has to cross sea spaces, so she needs fleets. In her area of the board, she has as many fleets as her neighbours, which is important (I'm ignoring Russia's northern fleet, here, because it starts on St Petersburg's south coast and therefore cannot immediately interact with England).
Now, this should tell you one thing about England that lots of people dismiss - England is a maritime power at the start and should remain a maritime power throughout the game. If she needs this fleet dominance at the start of the game, it should continue throughout the game. Again, I'll come back to this point in a later post.
England is often seen as a comparatively boring power to play. I disagree; I think she is a challenge. Still, being surrounded by sea, she is difficult to eliminate, making her a good defensive power. All things being equal, if you draw England you should be there at the end of the game. I guess this is why she's seen as boring.
For the reasons mentioned above, she is also seen as a tough power to win games with. Personally, I like this because I get a decent set of results with England! How great a player I must be, eh!?! Well, no, not really, I just see playing England differently.
It takes some time for England to get a grip on the mainland. So, if you utilise a "balanced build" strategy, meaning that you build a roughly equal number of armies and fleets as England expands, you'll struggle to do well. However, if you build fleets instead of armies, you should be able to get control of the seas and this will make moving onto the mainland, when you need to, much easier.
There is a lot of nonsense written about allies and enemies. I say nonsense because, whichever power you're playing, your choice of ally should be based on the players in the game, not the powers they represent.
The Anglo-French alliance - the Entente - allows England to concentrate on fleet builds while France concentrates on armies. England's fleets should stay in the northern sea spaces; any French fleets should stay in the southern.
The Anglo-German alliance - the Saxon - does exactly the same as the Entente, but England will need to get her army into France if she can, and her fleets should focus on the Mid-Atlantic Ocean as soon as possible.
Another popular option - and a great one for England - is the E/F/G triple alliance, the Western Triple. This allows England to flourish and isn't as good for France who, has to focus in the south alone, and is dangerous for Germany, who has both her other allies behind her.
The Anglo-Russian alliance - the Anglonaut - allows the two to push south against Germany and (probably eventually) France. There are some creative possibilities with the Anglonaut.
The A/G/R triple alliance - the Northern Triple - lets the three sort out who gets what in Scandinavia and then E/G move against France, and G/R move against Austria. Not a bad choice for England, but equally good for Russia. Again, Germany may find herself at a disadvantage as the game moves on.
If a Triple Entente alliance is formed - E/F/R - then Germany shouldn't have long to survive, as she could be attacked from three sides. In the long run, this isn't a great alliance for England, as she's at the back and can quickly face the limits of her expansion without stabbing one of her allies.
Other alliances aren't going to be important until later in the game in most circumstances. Having said that, if an E/I/G alliance - the Guillotine - is formed, this can make life impossible for France. England will then be isolated if she isn't careful, however, with Italy and Germany focused westwards. And an Anglo-Italian alliance - the Hadrian - will put pressure on France if France can be separated from Germany.
You can see, then, that England has a limited number of options at the start of the game. She doesn't need to communicate much with Austria or Turkey, and will only need to communicate with Italy to any great extent if she can build an anti-French alliance.
England realistically has the possibility of just three SCs to choose from to build into 1902. The usual banker is Norway. England can just about guarantee Norway if she uses a northern opening, either the Churchill or the Tyne. The only power that can prevent her from getting Norway is Russia, and only if Russia order her army in Moscow to move to St Petersburg in Spring 1901. Belgium is often the second choice but she'll probably need support from either France or Germany - or both! - to take it. Brest is another option... France won't be chuffed by that, though.
England will often gain just one SC in 1901. Occasionally, if she's being risky, and if she has help, she'll take two, which will be Norway and Belgium. If she goes for Brest, chances are she will only get Brest, but this is a great way to start against France, if that's the way she wants to go.
If you draw England, you need to be patient. She isn't going to race into the lead but she can become very competitive by the early mid-game. And you can win with England, but you may need to be prepared to play her differently from most.
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