WHAT IS DIPLOMACY? - Part 5: Variants

A variant is a game of Diplomacy where the rules or context are different from the standard game as designed by Allan B Calhamer.  There are three types of variants: context variants, map variants and rules variants.

Context Variants

Context variants are those games that are played with a wider context.  They may be tournament games, other scored games, or remote format games.  These aren't often recognised as variants as such, as variants tend to be within the other two types discussed below.  But the context the game is being played in will have an impact on how some players will play the game, and so they are certainly a variation of Dip.

Maybe they should be called "variations" rather than variants but does it really matter?

Map Variants

Diplomacy has been adapted to different maps, or boards.  Not surprising as the general idea of the game, pitting competing powers against each other in a localised region and time in history, can be adapted to any number of scenarios.

Some of these variants have even been published:

• Colonial Diplomacy: A game set in Asia, with 7 players representing Great Britain, China, France, Holland, Imperial Japan, Imperial Russia, and the Ottoman Empire.  The game also has some rules changes. 
     

• Kamakura: A game set in feudal Japan, with 6 players.  Five players represent a clan from the period: Taira, Minamoto, Fujiwara, Hojo, and Ashikago (a misspelling of Ashikaga); the sixth player plays either as the shoei (warrior monk clan) and starts in any three SCs ("shonen" in this game).  Again, there are additional rules to standard Dip, some similar to Machiavelli below. 
  

• Hundred: A game set in Europe during the Hundred Years War.  This variant is for 3 players, representing England, France and Burgundy. 
  

• Ard-Ri: A game set in pre-Christian Ireland with 5 players representing Ulaid, Connacht, Midhe, Laigin, and Muma. There are rules variations, too. 
  

• Classical: A game for 5 players, in ancient Europe set around the Mediterranean Sea.  Players represent Rome, Greece, Carthage, Egypt and Persia. 
  

• Three Kingdoms: I couldn't find much about this variant, I'm afraid.  Perhaps this is because there is a Total War game with a similar setting.  Oh well.

Other popular variants haven't been published.  I'm not going to be able to go through all of them here so I'll go with ones I know about:

• Ancient Mediterranean: This is basically Classical above but a little different.
  

• 1900: An extended version of standard Diplomacy.  The same powers based on the map below. 
  

• Heptarchy: A game set in Britain post-Roman empire. The seven players represent Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Northumbria, Anglia, Mercia, and Cornubia (Cornwall and Devon).
  

• Versailles: A 7-player game with 14 powers.  In this game the seven major powers are: Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, USSR and Turkey.  There are seven minor powers: Spain, Egypt, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Greece, Sweden and Yugoslavia.  The players control the major powers and one randomly assigned minor power. 
  

You get the idea. 

Rules Variants

Rules variants are played on the same map as standard Diplomacy but with different rules.  These are often communication rules but may not be.

• Gunboat: A game where no communication between the powers is allowed.  A pure strategy game.
• Public Press Only: A game where the only communication allowed is in messages published so that every player can see them!
• Chaos: Often a 7-player game in which the home supply centres for each power are distributed randomly over the map.
• Build Anywhere: In this variant, players can build in any SC they own, not just in their national centres at the start of the game.
• Winter 1900: In this game, players start as they would on a regular map, but they can choose what units they build where on the board.
• Fleet Rome: Almost the standard game, except Italy starts with a fleet in Rome instead of an army.
• Fog of War: In this game, you can't see the whole map.  You can see any space your unit is in, any neighbouring space and your national SCs as long as you control them.  You also don't know what orders your opponents have entered.
• Stuff Happens: A variant which introduces some chance into Dip by having random events happen, such as a unit rebelling and not following your orders.

The Non-Diplomacy Dip Variant: Machiavelli

Finally, I can't leave a description of variants without mentioning Machiavelli.

Machiavelli is often seen as a Dip variant because many of the mechanisms in the game are the same as those of Diplomacy and it was clearly based on Dip.  However, there are two many variations to make it a variant of Diplomacy.

It's set in Renaissance Italy.  There are 8 players representing Valois France, Habsburg Austria, the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of Naples, the Duchy of Milan, and the Republics of Florence and Venice.

A game year is three turns long (Spring, Summer and Fall).  Units move in the same way as in Diplomacy with some exceptions.  Units in Machiavelli can be ordered to besiege a city or fortress, lift a siege, convert from one unit types to another.  Along with fleets and armies, garrison units are allowed.

Then there are other rules, involving money and events.  The events introduce an element of chance to the game.

Mach is not a Dip variant, but a game that uses similar game mechanisms as Diplomacy.  However, because it uses many of these mechanisms it is often seen as a variant.

WHAT IS DIPLOMACY? series:

1. A Brief Intro to Diplomacy
2. Formats
3. Tournaments
4. Philosophies of Play
5. Variants