Diplomacy Game 3 Organizing Thread

[Mardoc]

I would very much prefer this doesn't start until Monday. Mostly so I can spend the weekend reacquainting myself with strategy and opening moves.

It certainly won't start until Monday, both for you and for Mattimeo's GPA. It might end up delayed even further, depending on how hard it is to find a seventh.

[Tatan]

Sign-up confirmed. I will be away until Monday afternoon anyway though so no rush.

1) Country assignment can be done lots of different ways. I'd vote for sending in a ranked list to Mardoc and letting him use our preferences (and randomness to break ties) to assign countries. Open to alternative suggestions.

Sounds good, yeah.

[Bigger]

how are we going to assign countries? Random, or GM assigning based on a list of top picks, or what?

[rho21]

I don't think this particular game is intended to be gunboat

Yeah, I didn't think it was, and that wasn't an attempt to sign-up. Sorry if I was unclear.

I wouldn't be surprised if a gunboat game could run in parallel or right after this one, though. So I'm assuming that you're out, since this isn't gunboat, but willing to be the first signup in said gunboat game?

Sounds good.

For country assignment, I think it's slightly fairer if everyone sends in a ranked list, then the GM chooses people at random, giving each in turn their top remaining pick (subtly different to scooter's suggestion).

[Mattimeo]

Last person chosen gets whatever is left, their submission being completely ignored? I'd actually prefer scooter's version where everyone who chose a unique first pick gets it. That way, if you get shafted it's at least partially due to your own actions, rather than entirely determined by randomness.

[rho21]

Last person chosen gets whatever is left, their submission being completely ignored? I'd actually prefer scooter's version where everyone who chose a unique first pick gets it. That way, if you get shafted it's at least partially due to your own actions, rather than entirely determined by randomness.

Yes. My way means you should always put down your true preferences. The other way means you can get a pick further up your true preferences by correctly adjusting your submitted preferences. Doing this accurately requires second-guessing your opponents.

As a non-real-world example, imagine that everyone has true preferences of FERTAGI. In this case, everyone should have an equal chance of each power. This will happen for both methods if true preferences are submitted. Suppose, however, I guess this is going to happen and adjust my preferences to EFRTAGI; everyone else submits their true preferences.

Under scooter's method, I "steal" E, everyone else has a 1/6 chance of each power. I gain my second choice automatically at the cost of a chance of my first choice.

Under my method, I have a 1/7 chance of being assigned England first, in which case I have lost out (I would have been assigned France, my true first choice, had I put it first). The rest of the time, France has been assigned elsewhere, so the list of my remaining preferences now matches everyone else's. There's no way to game the system.

The disadvantage of my method is that it tends to give a slightly lower overall satisfaction with power choice, across all players. (Aside: truly maximising this requires a much more sophisticated method, incidentally. Scooter's method has a bias towards first choices, your second choice can only happen if no-one chose it as a first choice. A small improvement could be had by allowing players to submit grouped choices, though this makes randomisation more complicated.)

Overall I can't think it matters too much, especially given that this is RB, where people can be trusted not to game the system if asked not to.

[Mattimeo]

Whereas I'd argue that you system ranges the outcomes significantly more - it's garunteed that one person will get their exact choice, and it's garunteed that one person will have theirs decided completely randomly (except, actually worse than that - they get the country that no-one else wanted). If you're going to do that, why not make it actually fair and just assign everyone randomly?

If you're savvy enough to accurately determine a country that a) you want to play and b) no-one else ranks first, you deserve to get it. Also, you yourself claim that your method tends to give a lower overall satisfaction rate...

[scooter]

Whereas I'd argue that you system ranges the outcomes significantly more - it's garunteed that one person will get their exact choice, and it's garunteed that one person will have theirs decided completely randomly (except, actually worse than that - they get the country that no-one else wanted). If you're going to do that, why not make it actually fair and just assign everyone randomly?

If you're savvy enough to accurately determine a country that a) you want to play and b) no-one else ranks first, you deserve to get it. Also, you yourself claim that your method tends to give a lower overall satisfaction rate...

I agree with this. To again use Rho's example if everyone truly wants FERTGAI, is it so bad if someone recognizes this and decides they'd rather just get Turkey than play the Random Chance France game? It's a game of risk to some extent, so I think it's fun. After all, this is a game of second-guessing opponents, why not include that in country choosing . Also the main reason I'm not a fan of rho's method is you have a 1/7 chance of your list being entirely disregarded.

In the end though I'd be ok with either method, I just prefer the one I brought up rather than what rho suggested.

Also, still one spot left. If we don't get a signup for that anytime soon, we may just wait for Molach.

[Tasunke]

How does this game even work? Tentative sign up by an utter noob.

(I'll be a bit more active once in town I promise ... probably)

-> But yea, if its between me and another guy, just give it to the other guy

[Tatan]

How does this game even work?

Taken from the Diplomacy 1 tech thread:

Diplomacy proceeds by seasons, beginning in the year 1901, with each year divided into two main seasons: the "Spring" and "Autumn/Fall" moves. Each season is further divided into negotiation and movement phases, followed by 'retreat' or 'disband' adjustments and an end-of-the-year Winter phase of new builds or removals following the Autumn adjustments.
[edit] 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. A well-timed stab can be just as profitable as a long and trustworthy alliance.
[edit] 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 space to another when in a chain called a "convoy". Armies may only occupy land regions, and fleets occupy sea regions and the land regions that border named seas. Only one unit may occupy a region; if multiple units are ordered to move to the same region, only the unit with the most support moves there (if two or more units have the same highest support, no units ordered to that region move). A unit giving support that is attacked has its support broken, except in the case the support is being given to an invasion of the region from which the attack it suffered comes.

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.
[edit] End-of-year and supply centers

After each Autumn 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 controlled at the start of the game). Players controlling no supply centers are eliminated from the game, and if a player controls 18 or more (that is, more than half) of the 34 SCs, that person is declared the winner. Players may also agree to a draw; this also happens when (infrequent) stalemates occur.