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Diplomacy is a strategic board game created by Allan B. Calhamer in 1954 and released commercially in 1959. Set in Europe just before the beginning of World War I , Diplomacy is played by seven or less players, each controlling the armed forces of either Austria-Hungary, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, or Turkey. Each player aims to move their units - and defeat those of others - to win possession of a majority of strategic cities and provinces marked as "supply centers" on the map; these supply centers allow players who control them to produce more units. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Image File history File links Emblem-important. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Tactics is the collective name for methods of winning a small-scale conflict, performing an optimization, etc. ... A strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal, most often winning. Strategy is differentiated from tactics or immediate actions with resources at hand by its nature of being extensively premeditated, and often practically rehearsed. ... Psychology (from Greek: Literally knowledge of the soul (mind)) is both an academic and applied discipline involving the scientific study of mental processes and behavior. ... For other uses, see Negotiation (disambiguation). ... Chess is one of the most well-known and played strategy games of all time. ... A board game is a game played with counters or pieces that are placed on, removed from, or moved across a board (a premarked surface, usually specific to that game). ... Allan B. Calhamer (born December 7, 1931) invented the board game Diplomacy. ... Year 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see Europe (disambiguation). ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... Austria-Hungary, also known as the Dual monarchy (or: the k. ...

Diplomacy was the first commercially published game to be played by mail; only chess, which is in the public domain, saw significant postal play earlier. Diplomacy was also the first commercially published game to generate an active hobby with amateur fanzines; only science-fiction/fantasy and comics fandom saw fanzines earlier. Competitive face-to-face Diplomacy tournaments have been held since the 1970s. Play of Diplomacy by e-mail has been widespread since the early 1990s.^[1] The rules allow for games with two to six players, closing parts of the standard board and giving additional world powers to players, but these are used only in casual play, and are not considered standard Diplomacy in tournament, postal, or most forms of online play. Play-by-mail games are games, of any type, played through postal mail or e-mail. ... For other uses, see Chess (disambiguation). ... A fanzine (see also: zine) is a nonprofessional publication produced by fans of a particular subject for the pleasure of others who share their interest. ...

Diplomacy has been published in the United States by Games Research, Avalon Hill, and Hasbro; the name is currently a registered trademark of Hasbro's Avalon Hill division. Diplomacy has also been licensed to various companies for publication in other countries. Diplomacy is also played on the world wide web, adjudicated by computer or by a human gamesmaster. Game Research/Design (GR/D) was a board wargame publisher, principally concerned with the Europa series of European World War II wargames. ... Avalon Hill was a game company that specialized in wargames and strategic board games. ... Hasbro (NYSE: HAS) is an American toy and game company. ... “(TM)” redirects here. ... WWWs historical logo designed by Robert Cailliau The World Wide Web (commonly shortened to the Web) is a system of interlinked, hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. ...

In its catalog, Avalon Hill advertised Diplomacy as John F. Kennedy's^{[citation needed]} and Henry Kissinger's favorite game. Dr. Kissinger described it as his favorite in an interview published in a games magazine.^[2] Walter Cronkite was also reported to be a fan of the game.^{[citation needed]} John Kennedy and JFK redirect here. ... Henry Alfred Kissinger (born Heinz Alfred Kissinger on May 27, 1923) is a German-born American diplomat, and 1973 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. ... Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. ...

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of

Diplomacy

Image File history File links Wikibooks-logo-en. ... Wikibooks logo Wikibooks, previously called Wikimedia Free Textbook Project and Wikimedia-Textbooks, is a wiki for the creation of books. ...

History

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (October 2007)

Diplomacy was created in 1954 and released commercially in 1959. It has been published since then by Games Research, Avalon Hill, and Hasbro in the USA, and licensed to others for versions sold in other countries. Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Year 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Game Research/Design (GR/D) was a board wargame publisher, principally concerned with the Europa series of European World War II wargames. ... Avalon Hill was a game company that specialized in wargames and strategic board games. ... Hasbro (NYSE: HAS) is an American toy and game company. ...

Basic setting and overview

A Diplomacy board, showing the different regions of each continent and ocean.

The board is a map of Europe divided into the seven powers of the game, further divided into fifty-six land regions and nineteen sea regions, including portions of the Middle East and North Africa. The regions on the board are named after the general regions (e.g. "Bohemia") or countries (e.g. "Serbia"); some regions are named according to the early 20th century European diplomatic language and differ from modern usage, e.g. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is referred to as England, and Tunisia is called "Tunis" on some boards.^{[citation needed]} Thirty-four of the land regions contain supply centers, corresponding to major centers of industry or commerce (e.g. "Vienna", "Rome"); this includes several home supply centers controlled at the start of the game, named after capital cities of the time (e.g. "Constantinople," "Berlin"). The number of supply centers a player controls determines the total number of armies and fleets a player may have on the board, and as players gain and lose control of different centers, they may build and must remove units accordingly. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1152x965, 114 KB)Map of the Diplomacy boardgame, from http://www. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1152x965, 114 KB)Map of the Diplomacy boardgame, from http://www. ... Flag of Bohemia Bohemia (Czech: ; German: ) is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western and middle thirds of the Czech Republic. ... Anthem: Bože Pravde [[Image:|250px|center|Location of the Kingdom of Serbia]] Capital Belgrade Largest city Belgrade Serbian Government Monarchy  - King Milan (1882-1889)  - King Aleksandar (1889-1903)  - King Peter I (1903-1918) Proclamation March 6, 1882 Area  - Total  km² ([[List of countries and outlying territories by area|]])  sq... Motto Dieu et mon droit(French) God and my right1 Anthem God Save the King (Queen) Territory of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Capital London Language(s) English² Government Constitutional monarchy Monarch  - 1801–1820 George III  - 1820–1830 George IV  - 1830–1837 William IV  - 1837–1901... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... This article is about the city before the Fall of Constantinople (1453). ... This article is about the capital of Germany. ...

All players other than England and Russia begin the game with two armies and one naval fleet; England starts with two fleets and one army, and Russia starts with two armies and two fleets. Only one unit at a time may occupy a given map region. Balancing units to supply center counts is done after each gameyear (two seasons of play: Spring and Fall). At the beginning of the game, there are twelve "neutral" (unoccupied) supply centers; these are all typically captured within the first few moves. Further allocation of supply centers becomes zero sum, with any gains in a player's resources coming at the expense of a rival. Zero-sum describes a situation in which a participants gain (or loss) is exactly balanced by the losses (or gains) of the other participant(s). ...

Game play

Turns

Diplomacy is turn-based — the game begins in the year 1901, with each year divided into two turns: "Spring" and "Fall" turns. Each turn is further divided into negotiation and movement phases, followed by an end-of-year phase after the Fall turn. Year 1901 (MCMI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday [1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ...

Negotiation phase

In the negotiation phase, players use any verbal means necessary amongst each other to form alliances, or some other form of arrangement, with one another. Such arrangements may be made public knowledge or kept secret. Since players are not bound to anything they say during this period, and thus no agreements of any sort are enforceable, communication and trust are unusually important for a strategy game; players must forge alliances with opponents and observe them to ensure their trustworthiness; at the same time, they must convince others of their own trustworthiness while making plans to turn on their "allies" when others least expect it.

Movement phase

After the negotiation period, players write secret orders for each unit; these orders are revealed and executed simultaneously. Units can move from their location to an adjacent space, support adjacent units in holding an area in the event of an attack, do nothing or assist in attacking an occupied area. In addition, fleets may transport armies from one coast square to another. One fleet per sea space traversed is required if multiple bodies of water are to be traversed. Armies may only occupy land regions, and fleets may only occupy sea regions and land regions that border the sea. Only one unit may occupy a square; if multiple units are ordered to move to the same square, only the unit with the most support moves there (if two or more units have the same highest support, no units ordered to that square move).

During an attack, the greatest concentration of force is always victorious; if the forces are equal a standoff results and the units remain in their original positions. If a supporting unit is attacked (except by the unit against which the support is directed), its support is nullified, which allows units to affect the outcome of conflicts in regions not directly adjacent.

End-of-year

After each Fall move, newly-acquired supply centers become owned by the occupying player, and each power's supply center total is recalculated; players with fewer supply centers than units on the board must disband units, while players with more supply centers than units on the board are entitled to build units in their Home centers (supply centers contolled at the start of the game). Players controlling no supply centers are eliminated from the game, and if a player controls 18 of the 34 supply centers, that person is declared the winner. Players may also agree to a draw.

Variants

There have been two commercially released variants of Diplomacy — Colonial Diplomacy and Machiavelli. Additionally, many fans of the game have created myriad variants of their own, using altered rules on the standard map, standard rules on a different map, or both. An index of over a thousand variants is available at the Diplomacy Variant Bank web site (see External links, below). The most popular variant is Youngstown^{[citation needed]}.

Colonial Diplomacy

Set in Asia in the late 19th century, much of the board is controlled by various colonial powers: England, Russia, Japan, Holland, Turkey, China, and France. The game introduces three special features:

• The Trans-Siberian railroad extends across Russia from Moscow to Vladivostok. The railroad can be used by Russia to move armies anywhere along the railroad. The TSR may only be used by Russia. Russian armies are allowed to move through other Russian armies, but foreign armies can block the passage of armies on the TSR.
• The Suez Canal is the only way to move between the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea. Use of the Suez Canal is controlled by whoever is in control of Egypt. The use of the Suez Canal increases in importance later in the game as expansion becomes both more important and more difficult.
• The ownership of Hong Kong counts as a supply centre for any country except China.

Trans-Siberian line in red; Baikal Amur Mainline in green. ... For other uses, see Suez (disambiguation). ...

Machiavelli

Set in renaissance Italy, the board is controlled by the Republic of Florence, the Republics of Venice, the Duchy of Milan, the Kingdom of Naples, the Papacy, Valois France, Hapsburg Austria and the Ottoman Turks. The game introduces many rules changes such as money, bribery, three seasons per year, garrisons, and random events such as plague and famine. The Renaissance (French for rebirth, or Rinascimento in Italian), was a cultural movement in Italy (and in Europe in general) that began in the late Middle Ages, and spanned roughly the 14th through the 17th century. ...

Youngstown

An extension of the normal map, including Asia and colonies there. For example, in addition to the usual home centers, France starts with a fleet in Saigon (in Vietnam). Some countries didn't have colonies in Asia, so they were given more home centers (e.g. Posen, next to Berlin). Also, three new Powers were added - India, China, and Japan. Named after the city of Youngstown, Ohio where the variant was invented.^[3] Location within the state of Ohio Coordinates: , Country State Counties Mahoning Founded 1796 Incorporated 1848 (village) - 1867 (city) Government  - Mayor Jay Williams (I) Area  - City  34. ...

Modern

A variant set in 1995. Every country with 30 million citizens was made a power with three centers, every country with 60 million citizens was made a power with 4 centers, and Russia (pop. 145,000,000+) was given 5. There are ten powers: Spain, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Ukraine, Turkey, Russia, and Egypt. Iran would have been made a power, but the board would have needed more extension so it was just made a neutral supply center.

Imperial

Imperial, a Spiel des Jahres recommended game, is generally considered a Diplomacy variant[3]. The map is basically the same and the armies and fleets move similarly, with armies and fleets destroying each other when they fight. The Imperial rondel. ... The Spiel des Jahres (German for Game of the Year) is arguably the most prestigious board game award for German-style board games. ...

The major difference is that the players do not move simultaneously, and that nations are controlled by whoever has the most influence with them, in the form of loaning them money. This allows changes in ownership of nations, and gaining wealth when any nation you have influence in pays out. This makes the game closer to an 18XX rail game in play style. 18XX is the generic term for a series of board games which, with a few exceptions, recreate the building of railroad corporations during the 19th century; individual games within the series use particular years in the 19th century as their title (usually the date of the start of railway development...

Tournaments

Diplomacy is played at a number of formal tournaments. In some cases, each game ends after a specified number of game-years, to ensure that all players can play in all rounds without limiting the tournament structure to one round per day. At other events, a game continues until a winner is determined or a draw is voted. Tournaments in Europe are generally played with a specific end year whereas tournaments in North America more often are played until someone wins or a draw is agreed. Some tournaments are centered on the games and have a highly competitive atmosphere; others have more focus on meeting and socializing with other players from the postal or e-mail parts of the hobby.

The World Diplomacy Championship (WDC) is held annually in different places in the world, to determine the World Champion of Diplomacy. WDC was first held in 1988 in Birmingham, England, and was held at two-year intervals before becoming an annual event. WDC's site rotates among three regions: North America, Europe/UK, and the rest of the world.^[4]

The North American Diplomacy Convention (DipCon) is held annually in different places in North America, to determine the North American Champion of Diplomacy. DipCon was first held in 1967 in Youngstown, Ohio. DipCon's site rotates among West, Central, and East regions.^[5]

The European Diplomacy Convention (Euro DipCon) is held annually in different places in Europe, to determine the European Champion of Diplomacy.

Over a dozen other countries hold face-to-face national championship tournaments.

Many of the larger multi-game conventions, such as the World Boardgaming Championships, Gen Con, Origins, and Dragonflight also host Diplomacy tournaments. On occasion, WDC or DipCon will be held in conjunction with one of these conventions. The World Boardgaming Championships is a convention held yearly by the Boardgame Players Association. ... Gen Con is the one of the largest and most prominent gaming conventions in North America. ... Origins International Game Expo is one of North Americas most prominent annual gaming conventions, second in size only to Gen Con. ... Dragonflight is the first book in the long-running Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey. ...

In addition, e-mail diplomacy players compete every two years in the Worldmasters E-mail Tournament composed of both team and individual events. A new internet interface based tournament called DNWC [4] is starting in September 2007 with the feel of a Soccer National Cup (players are in teams competing by countries).

Other ways to play

It is difficult to organize a full face-to-face game. There must be exactly seven players, as standard-board variants for less than seven tend to be imbalanced and become stagnant and predictable.^{[neutrality disputed][citation needed]} Also, there is no set time for the game to finish. Tournament games among experts have lasted twelve hours, but even typical games will last four hours or more.

To overcome the difficulty of assembling enough players for a sufficiently large block of time together, a play-by-mail game community has developed, either via Postal or Internet Diplomacy, using either humans to adjudicate the turns or automatic adjudicators. Play-by-mail games are games, of any type, played through postal mail or e-mail. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ...

Despite the length of games, there are those that organize ad-hoc games, and there are also various clubs that have annual tournaments.

Many of the problems mentioned above can be avoided by playing semi-historical scenarios involving coalitions of Powers over a defined time span ( eg in the Napoleonic period). These scenarios require less players (even two can play an interesting game, albeit with no "diplomacy" )and can be finalised in a set time (eg three game years, say the 1812 to 1815 campaign. If play balance is an issue, games can easily be scored on the basis of a ratio between Supply Centres at start, to those at end of the game. Scenarios for these shorter games are available at Board Game Geek. Screenshot of the BoardGameGeek entry for Settlers of Catan. ...

Diplomacy is sometimes played in high school history classes because of its realistic emulation of events and diplomacy between nations.^{[citation needed]} It helps students better understand the politics involved in World War I and World War II.^{[dubious – discuss]} For other uses, see High school (disambiguation). ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

Comparison with other war games

Diplomacy differs from the majority of war games in several ways: Glory, an American Civil War game by GMT This article is about the civilian hobby. ...

• Unit movement is simultaneous, not turn-based — all players secretly write down their moves after a negotiation period, and then all moves are revealed and put into effect simultaneously.
• Social interaction and interpersonal skills make up an essential part of the game play.
• The rules that simulate combat are strategic, abstract, and simple, not tactical, realistic, or complex.
• Combat resolution contains no element of randomness — no dice are rolled and no cards are shuffled. (Individual players may attempt to incorporate randomness into their choice of moves, as a strategy to prevent their opponents from outguessing them, a strategy suggested by game theory.)

Since the 1960s, Diplomacy has been played by mail through fanzines. The play-by-mail hobby was created in 1963 in carbon-copied typed flyers by John Boardman in New York and Conrad von Metzke in San Diego at virtually the same time. Each gathered old face-to-face friends independently without either one knowing what the other was doing at the time. Because of this it is unknown which one came up with the idea first, although Boardman is generally given credit as the founder of the play-by-mail hobby because his flyers became an ongoing publication under the Graustark title, and led directly to the formation of other zines. Diplomacy has been played through e-mail on the Internet since the 1980s, with adjudication by computer starting in 1988. Some games are also still played online with a human game master. “Random” redirects here. ... Game theory is often described as a branch of applied mathematics and economics that studies situations where multiple players make decisions in an attempt to maximize their returns. ... Play-by-mail games are games, of any type, played through postal mail or e-mail. ... A fanzine (see also: zine) is a nonprofessional publication produced by fans of a particular subject for the pleasure of others who share their interest. ... John Boardman (born September 8, 1932) is one of the most famous figures in the game of Diplomacy, having established the original play-by-mail setup and also the system of numbering each game for statistical purposes. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

Adaptation

Hasbro released a computer game version of Diplomacy in 1999. A major fault was that the computer AI was considered poor, one reviewer remarking "Gamers of any skill level will have no trouble whatsoever whaling on the computer at even the highest difficulty setting."[5]. Paradox Interactive released a new computer version in 2005. However, neither of the computer games supported voice chat, thus undermining the possibilities for complicated alliances. Voice chat was added to the Paradox game in a later patch. A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ... This article is about the year. ... // This disambiguation page covers alternative uses of the terms Ai, AI, and A.I. Ai (as a word, proper noun and set of initials) can refer to many things. ... Paradox Interactive (formerly a division of Paradox Entertainment) is a Swedish company based in Stockholm that is known for producing historical strategy computer games. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Screenshot from the Paradox computer game.

ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1024x768, 230 KB) Screenshot from the Diplomacy PC game. ... ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1024x768, 230 KB) Screenshot from the Diplomacy PC game. ...

References

1. ^ Bach, Deborah, "No one's bored with board games at this event", Baltimore Sun, August 5, 2000. pp. 1E, 8E.
2. ^ Games & Puzzles magazine, May 1973.
3. ^ http://www.diplom.org/bin/dipwiki.pl?VZ#Youngstown
4. ^ Peery, Larry. "A History of World DipCon", on the Diplomatic Corps website. [1].
5. ^ Birsan, Edi, et al. "The DipCon Story", on the Diplomatic Corps website. [2].

See also

• Allan B. Calhamer
• Play-by-mail game
• Slobbovia — a Diplomacy variant
• Internet Diplomacy

Allan B. Calhamer (born December 7, 1931) invented the board game Diplomacy. ... Play-by-mail games are games, of any type, played through postal mail or e-mail. ... Slobbovia was a postal Diplomacy variant played among science fiction and gaming fans in North America and Europe from 1972 to 1986. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ...

External links

Official site and hobby-wide services

• Diplomacy — official page on the Avalon Hill website
• Diplomacy Tutorial — a beginner focused game rules tutorial
• Diplomacy World — webzine with articles; post-2004 issues are at its Yahoo! group
• Diplomatic Corps — liaison, connecting groups and hobby services from many nations
• Diplomatic Pouch, The — wiki, player database, archive, webzine, and online play
• World Diplomacy Database, The — face-to-face results, player rankings, statistics

Variants

• Diplomiscellany — Model House Rules, articles on gaming philosophy, homepages of several variants, more
• Speed Diplomacy — 8-player Treaty Ports (China 1900), 7-player Europa (Europe 1901), Realpolitik files, deluxe maps/icons, player forum
• Variant Bank — listing more than 1,000 variants (although not up to date), many with rules or maps, or links to the variant sites

Software

• Crockford Diplomacy Map — for early computer play, usable as conference map
• Diplomacy AI Centre — automated play using the Diplomacy AI Development Environment (DAIDE)
• floc.net — map layouts of 48 different diplomacy servers
• jDip — Open Source computer version of the game in Java
• Njudge — automatic email Diplomacy adjudicator program
• Palmpolitik — Diplomacy for a PalmOS PDA
• phpDiplomacy — for internet play, written in PHP
• Realpolitik — Open Source computer version, online or off (no AI), supports many variants

Bold text[[Link title]] “AI” redirects here. ...

Media attention

• "World Domination: the Game" — article in the Washington Post, November 14, 2004