Diplomacy 101

Submitted by brendanm98 on Fri, 09/05/2008 - 2:34pm. Tags:

Culture

I enjoyed playing in a recent game of diplomacy with several Forvm regulars. Truth be told, I enjoyed it a lot more than political discussions these days; if you're also tired of the vitriol, the hypocrisy, and the mindless chanting of talking points, you should consider giving diplomacy a try... at least there you can get something concrete for misrepresenting what occurred and lying about the intentions of your team =)

Anyway, I thought I'd take the liberty of pointing out a few things that I learned in the course of the game. I'll just identify players by country, so they can claim the credit or correct me as they desire. And my apologies for not including France in this exercise; he was unfortunately eliminated before we had any direct encounters. Since I'm only a beginner, I'm probably getting this all wrong, but here's some of what I took away from this game. I'm Russia, the white pieces.

	Give up something now to get something later Germany explained it as akin to a prisoner's dilemma situation, in which neither side is comfortable trusting the other but both stand to profit if they cooperate. Germany offered me Sweden with no immediate strings attached, and for that relatively cheap price he purchased my trust. Yes, that and $5 will get you a small coffee, but still... when it came time for me to decide who to follow, I went with Germany.
	Make efficient use of the map and rules 1900 has the odd Russian Emergency Measures rule, which permits Russia to retain a unit if a home supply center is lost. Austria convinced Turkey and myself to cooperate in a win-win-win sequence that defused tension in the Black Sea and temporarily bound together an unnatural alliance.
	Talk your way out of trouble The Austrian/Turkish/Russian alliance was crumbling after Russian-German friendship became apparent, and I naively thought I could talk Turkey into turning on Austria with me. Turkey played me like a fiddle and I passed up a chance to put A SEV into ARM in favor of a futile attack on RUM. After that Turkey locked down the border and even when Austria was eliminated it was extremely difficult to break through.
	Pave the way for helpful stabs Britain had been chatting with me on and off for quite a while about striking against Germany while, as he put it, I could still do so effectively. When I got twitchy and started seriously considering whether I ought to end my productive and agreeable alliance with Germany, Britain was right there to encourage me along. After I stabbed Germany with Britain's help, Russia was no threat to the British home centers.
	Be flexible to exploit misplaced trust Italy had been planning A TYR to BOH but received word from Germany as to his planned moves shortly before the deadline. He accurately interpreted this press as genuine and planned an effective counter that resulted in Germany's army in TRI being disbanded.

Anyway, the complete game is here if anyone is interested. I know HankP is! If you haven't played but are interested, there's a new game forming -- ask hobbesist for details. It's not a huge time commitment, you can learn the rules quickly but there's still endless subtlety to the play and to the diplomatic dance, and this is a nice group of people to play with. There are all kinds of online resources and I've looked enough to realize I will never have enough time to learn a fraction of all the strategy and tactics that is out there... even ignoring the complications of different variants. Luckily that kind of deep understanding is useful but by itself no guarantee of success, since there is an element of chance and you're always held hostage to some degree to the fickle whims of your ostensible allies. If you're just starting out I do recommend Realpolitik to test out different scenarios. There might be a few map glitches but you can enter any position so it's not hard to set up the current game.

For those under the impression diplomacy is somehow a tea-and-cake sort of affair, I wanna quote from this article about how to gain alliances:

I was playing France. The wimp playing England had just finished talking to Germany in the corner. I approached him and pushed him against the wall. I gave him my best psychopathic smile and made my eyes into two slits. "hello England. Do you see this?" (At this point I open my flick-knife or cut-throat razor.) "I’m going to slice you into f*cking pieces if you don’t do as I say." I then tell him what I want and finish with, "And if you say one word to the other players, or anyone else, I’ll f*cking get you after this game’s finished." So the sucker falls for it. Or does he? If he looks as though he may scream, calm him down and say it’s a joke - your weird sense of humour. Then, when he’s calm, say, "Don’t f*cking try anything this time. I really mean it." and again produce your weapon. Simple? Yes. But so many people will not try it. Lack of confidence can be overcome with relaxation. so relax. Talk to the guy.

Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson

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Ah jeez (#116926)

by HankP on Fri, 09/05/2008 - 5:11pm

what's next, the A/V club?

I blame it all on the Internet

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Regarding your first point... (#116884)

by Wagster on Fri, 09/05/2008 - 3:49pm

It was a little more complicated than that.

I didn't just give you a gift... I gave you a gift that I could easily retract. In fact, as I remember it I pretty much coerced you into an alliance by leveraging the threat of an alliance with England. Perhaps the hangover from that genesis helped to account for the eventual rupture of the alliance.

Overall, I think I played this game better than the ones I won. Sure, I made mistakes... I should have been more cautious with you, but the danger of that was that our progress might have been slowed and the rest of the board might start working together against. Looking back, I probably overrated that threat, and underrated your threat.

I also unnecessarily aggravated people at points... not a good idea.

On the plus side, I'm proud of how I managed to gain your alliance. I loved the misinformation scheme that I pulled off early. And even though it failed, I think the "madman" play -- threatening to throw the game to Russia if Italy and Britain didn't ally with me -- was the best play I could make at the time. Sorry if I spoiled anyone's fun by carrying out the threat. In a one-time game I probably wouldn't, but in a serial game I had no choice.

More Wagster!

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Sorry if I spoiled anyone's (#116889)

by Model 62 on Fri, 09/05/2008 - 4:03pm

Sorry if I spoiled anyone's fun by carrying out the threat. In a one-time game I probably wouldn't, but in a serial game I had no choice.

Throwing the game is a legitimate tactic, especially when approaching the end game. Players need to be reminded of the stakes from time to time.

I made the same calculation. After Britain attempted to force Turkey into becoming its Janissary* (without even the courtesy of dinner and a movie first), it became necessary to deliver messages for subsequent games.

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*Speaking of playing the power, the Sultan employs Janissaries; he does not become one himself.

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A new diplomacy diary! (#116849)

by hobbesist on Fri, 09/05/2008 - 2:51pm

I hope it gives catchy an ulcer.

Anyway, nice stuff, Brendan - and well-played. I have to say, I was completely and totally flummoxed by Germany's decision to back off against you when (IIRC) he had you on the ropes. What Germany needs - on the 1900 map no less than on the standard - is to get himself up against a map edge; he had a real chance at that, passed it up, and so squandered, I think, a really powerful opening game position. So maybe I'd add: Play your power - there's a lot of flexibility in the kinds of strategies one can pursue as any given power, and probably anything can conceivably work under the right circumstances, but you have to have the dynamics of the power you're playing in mind.

I look forward, by the way, to GMing another game, just so I can remind myself that BG doesn't talk much to anyone, and it's not just me ;^D

Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.

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I don't get ulcers I just get even (#116872)

by catchy on Fri, 09/05/2008 - 3:35pm

more incredulous when gamers start actin' superior to the rest of the site.

Get real, losers!!!!

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Just wait till we start posting (#116878)

by hobbesist on Fri, 09/05/2008 - 3:39pm

... pictures of you from your Facebook site, big boy.

Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.

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I don't have a Facebook site. (#116879)

by catchy on Fri, 09/05/2008 - 3:41pm

How many times do I have to tell you gamers to play you power???

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We'll make one up, then. (#116880)

by hobbesist on Fri, 09/05/2008 - 3:42pm

We're used to being sneaky.

Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.

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Maybe our Facebook profiles could attack each other (#116882)

by catchy on Fri, 09/05/2008 - 3:47pm

where the stakes are the natural resources of early 20th century Europe!!

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You mean like this? (#116931)

by tomsyl on Fri, 09/05/2008 - 5:21pm

Link.

Even a dead midget is far from light. - Confucius

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At what stage are you talking about? (#116867)

by Wagster on Fri, 09/05/2008 - 3:28pm

More Wagster!

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I guess I was thinking (#116876)

by hobbesist on Fri, 09/05/2008 - 3:38pm

... right there in 1901 - when you two initially started swapping around SCs - but if there was an R/A/T (however briefly), I guess that changes things quite a bit.

Nice to see you're still talking to me, btw ;^D

Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.

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I knew (#116936)

by Wagster on Fri, 09/05/2008 - 5:31pm

There was either a R-A or a R-A-T... if I didn't bust it up I was dead.

More Wagster!

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There was a RAT (#116883)

by brendanm98 on Fri, 09/05/2008 - 3:47pm

and it would have been interesting to see how far it might have gone. Germany (and to some extent Britain) pried it apart... I seem to have been the weak link in alliances this game :-0

Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson

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What can I say? (#116852)

by Bernard Guerrero on Fri, 09/05/2008 - 2:56pm

I can't resist taking a ridiculous gamble if there isn't too much riding on it. One way bet; I either win big or get knocked out early and I don't have to worry about deadlines anymore.

The ultimate result of shielding man from the effects of folly is to people the world with fools. -Herbert Spencer

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I've seen (#116856)

by hobbesist on Fri, 09/05/2008 - 3:05pm

... a no- or minimal-press strategy take a player pretty far in a game of Diplomacy, but it always seems to catch up with him sooner or later.

But flat-out 'no press' games can be kind of fun. There's an abandoned slot in one of those games on the DPJudge right now, if anyone's interested (the game is 'np1900e').

Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.

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