Welcome to the Embassy

The Embassy is a blog about the boardgame Diplomacy.

I'm not going to get into the game itself on this page - you can find out about it online easily enough.

This blog is about my thoughts and comments about the game. I've played it for a number of years now and it truly is the king of games. Well, I think so and that's what counts!

I play Diplomacy online on the site Playdiplomacy. Playdip is the biggest online site for Diplomacy but by no means the only one. At some point I'll post about Dip sites.

I intend to write blog posts in a series in an attempt to keep the length of posts to a minimum. This may mean that I don't complete a topic all in one go but that's fine, I think. It'll keep you coming back for more, won't it?

You're free to comment on posts, just don't advertise. I'm not interested in your adverts, just your thoughts.

And, if you're interested in adding content to the blog, let me know. Happy to receive posts, too.

There are growing lists of Dip links under the menu icon - where to play online, publications (zines, blogs) and resources, as well as a list of Dip apps.

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...

WHAT IS DIPLOMACY? - Part 1: A Brief Intro to Diplomacy

Let's get started by discussing the game itself. The Board The map Diplomacy is played on is based on Europe at the start of the Twentieth Century. It doesn't reflect Europe literally but is stylised. Not all the countries are there and some of the spaces are given names that are a little... questionable. The Diplomacy Board The map I've used above is something like the original board published in Europe. In the Americas (well, North America, I'm not sure about anywhere outside of USA and Canada) the map was less colourful and more a physical map. But the spaces are roughly the same. Players control one of seven major powers in Europe: England (yes, not Britain or, even more accurately, the UK) France Italy Germany Austria-Hungary (usually shortened to Austria) Turkey Russia There are 56 land spaces. 34 of these spaces are called Supply Centres (SCs) that, when controlled by a major power, support an army or a fleet on ...

The Powers - Part 6: Walls of Steel

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. The witch in the east. England and Turkey are often know as the "Witch of the East" and the "Witch of the West" respectively. They are both incredibly difficult to eliminate, which earns them this sobriquet. With England, of course, it's because she's surrounded by sea spaces and will - or should - have a number of fleets on the board to protect her. With Turkey it is that she's always slow to break down. Even with a Gobbler triple alliance (A/I/R) it takes time. One of the reasons for this is Turkey's position as a corner power. You can't get in behind her... literally in this case. Turkey's most vulnera...

The Embassy

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