Since I don't want to clutter our very active 'Recent Diaries' list with a new Diplomacy diary, I've been holding off on posting anything - but then I remembered how much it annoys certain stuck-up killjoys who frequent this place, and decided to put one up post-haste.

Allow me to get the advertising/begging & pleading out of the way first. I've created a game for those who didn't get in to vinteuil's 'forvmiv' game (or for those that did, but can't get enough stabbing!); currently, three spots (Britain, Italy & Turkey) have been filled. So join up already! It's easy & fun--not to mention a safe and (somewhat) socially acceptable way to discharge that pesky will to power. For those interested, joining is easy: Send the following in the body of an email to

Boo, lack of open thread; hooray, random internet stuff!!

First up: Sorry, theists--Albert Einstein's not one of you! Guess you'll have to find some other major cultural touchstone on which to base your ad verecundiams. Good luck with that one.

(No, no, this isn't a diary about catchy's attempted coup d'etat - I wish!)

For the sake of our participants, and those who want to snipe from the sidelines, I bring you our latest map:

Poor Austria hangs on (with a little Italian help), confusion still reigns in the west - surely somebody can make sense of the French and British situations, but it ain't me! - while Germany & Italy square off with Russia and Turkey. The comparison between the two sets of allies - one keeping to their respective spheres of influence, the other interpenetrating seemingly without regard to separate interests - should prove instructive.

Our Spring 1901 movement phase has processed; let's go to the map!
Update: Retreats are in, and I have updated the map.
Double Update! A new map, with adjustments:

Diplomacy analysts, ever willing to pilfer chess for some terminology, habitually divide a game of Diplomacy into opening, middle, and end portions of the game. Roughly speaking, the opening-game lasts until at least two map powers - usually the eastern and western triangles' "odd powers out" - have been either eliminated or thoroughly marginalized (left with a proverbial "chip and a chair," if I might break with the hegemony of chess jargon); the end-game begins when a single power or alliance makes a push for victory; and the middle-game is, appropriately enough, what comes between those events.

Our first full year draws to a close; let's go straight to the map! [Edit: Now with builds!]

Well, the big news for this year comes from France; this observer had thought France's situation desperate, yet M. le President confounds its critics and enemies alike with two builds - making it, along with Russia & Germany, one of the game's early co-leaders - and friendship with Britain. The Prime Minister, however, may have some explaining to do in Parliament: friendship with France has won it only one build, while his three active fleets find themselves jammed up from the Mid-Atlantic to the North Sea. What of Norway? Of Portugal?

(Just another Diplomacy game diary, folks, nothing to see here ... .)

What first sold me on Diplomacy - and continues to sell me every time I start a new game - is the anxiety of the first season. An hour before the first deadline, no matter what has gone on for the past few days, no matter what my neighbors & I have discussed, planned, and plotted, no matter how sure I am of my position, of my pitch for alliance versus my soon-to-be opponents, I find my stomach doing somersaults. The reason is simple, I think - up until that first deadline, all you've got to go on is words. You can say anything, and your neighbors can respond as they please, but the thing you need to know the most - whom you can trust, and whom you can't - is completely undetermined. In the best games of diplomacy, this feeling never quite goes away (and why should it? this is the peculiarity of character, that it only shows itself in action, but no action or set of actions gives sufficient ground for judgment), but it's never so palpable as it is in the first season. Which brings us to this:

In case you've missed my irregular postings about the new Diplomacy game I'm running on the DPJudge, I thought we'd try once more to get a game off the ground. You can find the game's webpage here; to join, first, register with the Diplomacy Player Database (DPPD). Next, from the email address you used when you registered, send the following in the body of an email to dpjudge[at]floc[dot]net:

JOIN bodin [your password] forvm
SIGNOFF

(Where '[your password]' is replaced with a password of your choosing, of course.) You should receive an email from the site within a few minutes confirming that you've signed up. Once seven players have joined, you will receive an email with your power assignment, starting unit positions, and the deadline for the coming turn.

In case you might've missed it, another game of Diplomacy is starting up. For those of you unfamiliar, Diplomacy is a game played by seven players, each of whom plays one of the seven "Great Powers" in Europe. What makes Diplomacy different from, say, Risk is this: no power begins in a position to accomplish much of anything on his or her own; to succeed, you need to cooperate with your neighbors -- against, naturally, other neighbors. The goal is simple: be the first player to reach 18 'supply centers' (represented on the map as dots in a territory space); the map on which this game will be played has 39 total supply centers. This is no easy task; a less satisfying victory can be accomplished by declaring the game a draw with a group of your fellow players.