Strategy

Here you will find links to articles discussing Diplomacy in general.

General Strategy

The Art of Diplomacy in The Art of War by Simon Szyman

Endgame Strategy

The Endgame by Jamie Dreier

The Endgame II by Jamie Dreier

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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 adapte...

Tournament Scoring - Part 4: Supply Centre Scoring

The thing with tournaments is that a lot of games end in a draw. This means that DSS systems aren't necessarily going to produce a great result because a lot of players could well finish on the same score. An alternative to DSS is a Supply Centre Scoring (SCS) system. I'm going to use the game above as an example to explain SCS systems. (The game is from Playdiplomacy and so the colours are different from those I use for my maps.) The game ended with the following outcome: England - 12 SCs Russia - 9 SCs Turkey - 8 SCs Italy - 5 SCs France , Germany and Austria-Hungary were eliminated, with 0 SCs each. Supply Centre Scoring systems are based on the number of SCs the players owned at the end of the game. The basic pattern is: A solo results in all the points available. No other player scores points. A draw will be scored using the number of SCs the players hold at the end of the game. In the above game, on ...

Tournament Scoring - Part 5: Other Scoring Systems

There are, perhaps, three other types of scoring system: Placement or Rank scoring, hybrid systems that seek to combine DSS and SCS, and Tier scoring systems. I want to have a look at each system. Placement or Rank systems Essentially, these are Supply Centre Scoring systems with the addition of bonus points. I'm going to have a look at some more regularly used systems. Again, here is the map I will use as an example: England - 12 SCs Russia - 9 SCs Turkey - 8 SCs Italy - 5 SCs France , Germany and Austria-Hungary were eliminated, with 0 SCs each. C-Diplo In a drawn game points are awarded for: Participating in the game: 1 (for an online tournament, I'd only award this for participating and not surrendering). Each SC held at the end of the game: 1 . The player that 'tops the board' (has the most SCs): 38 pts. The second placed player (second highest number of SCs): 14 pts. The third p...

The Embassy

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