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The Powers - Part 2: Vive la France!

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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.



France is often called a corner power, although it isn't really in the corner of the map.  I prefer to call it an edge power but I'm not going to argue semantics.


If you draw France, then you ought to be hoping to do well.  She can quickly get into two SCs, and may grab three at the start of the game (if she's lucky... or unlucky depending on your viewpoint).  She has only three other powers that she needs to communicate with in depth, although there really isn't any power that she can afford to short change when talking.

France has two potential weak spots that need a lot of negotiation over, however: Burgundy and the English Channel.  Burgundy adjoins Munich, a German SC; the Channel adjoins London, and English SC.

France can ensure she occupies Burgundy by combining move and support orders from her two armies in Marseilles and Paris.  But this might be costly: if she orders A Mar S Par-Bur she can use A Mar-Spa in F01.  However, if she needs a fleet in the south, France will want to get her fleet into Spain's south coast so army Marseilles can't occupy France.

France doesn't want to let Germany into Burgundy, however.  She will need to ensure that either Paris or Marseilles is ordered to Burgundy in S01 if she thinks Germany will order A Mun-Bur.

Similarly, France doesn't want England's S01 order F Lon-ENG to succeed, and only F Bre-ENG can counter it.  But that stops the French fleet heading to Iberia (Spain and Portugal).

What this means is that France will need to make sure that she can negotiate DMZs (De-Militarised Zones) in these two key spaces.  If she can do this, and is prepared to trust this, she has a great chance to start the game.

Spain and Portugal are France's bankers.  Nobody else can get close to these two SCs at this stage of the game.  The big question is whether France wants to take them straight away.

Many players expect France to be on 5 SCs at the end of 1901 and anything less shows some kind of weakness.  This isn't always the case, of course.  France needs to look at what she needs to do.  Does she need to defend against an aggressive England or Germany?  If so, taking Spain and Portugal isn't necessarily the right choice.

If France has an alliance with England, then she may be able to take both Iberian SCs and work with her ally.  This alliance - the Entente - works well for France if she can trust England.  They work against Germany and France often supports England into Belgium. 

It is a good alliance because France can often find a way to jump on England later in the game.  While England's focused east, France launches fleets to England's west and this often results in an effective stab.

The Franco-German alliance - the Rhineland - may be a little more troublesome to maintain.  At some point in the game Germany is going to have the chance to stab France while she's pushing against England.

Really France needs to extend this alliance to include Russia.  This triple alliance - the German Ocean Triple - is clearly anti-English and will keep Germany in check.

The Franconaut alliance sees France and Russia working together.  For me it's an under-used alliance.  Yes, they're opposite sides of the board and can't immediately help each other out.  But utilised as the alliance behind a false GOT or Triple Entente (the E/R/F alliance) it can be used to sandwich Germany or England.

Probably the most popular triple alliance France will find herself in is the Western Triple - E/F/G.  This isn't a terrible alliance for France but she may find herself struggling with it early on.  This is because, while England and Germany focus on Russia, France needs to look towards Italy... or stab one of her allies earlier than is ideal. 

I've not mentioned Italy a great deal so far.  This is because Italy and France often go down the easy route of agreeing to a DMZ in Piedmont and getting on with things away from each other.

But the Franco-Italian alliance can work well for France.  I've called this the Gaulish alliance for no other reason than, at the time of the Roman Empire France was known as Gaul.  You can thank Asterix for that.  Anyway, if France works with Italy to take on Germany, France is able to protect herself from possible Italian aggression and has a possible strike at Munich.

In fairness, in the early game, France and Italy are better in a triple alliance with England - the Spaghetti Western - aimed at Germany.  And it isn't a great alliance for Italy.

France has a lot more options than England and that should give her something of an advantage.  Indeed, France often out-performs England at Diplomacy.  But she also has more threats to face than England and this can cause some players to be too defensive.

THE POWERS series:

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