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Diplomacy (game): Difference between revisions
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[[File:Diplomacy_box_cover.jpg|frame]]
{{quote| ''"I got my buddy. I'll trust him with my car, my computer and my rent. I will not trust that son of a bitch with Belgium, though"''}}▼
A [[Turn Based Strategy]] board game, and one of the all-time classics, created by Allan B. Calhamer in 1954 and first published in 1959. While playing the game, a practice of dealing honestly and fairly with your opponents (inside the rules of the game) can be described much more succinctly as "losing". Possibly the most intense board game experience ever created, it has incredibly simple rules, is still popular fifty years after its publication, and ''will break your tiny little mind''. As an added bonus, there is a complete absence of any influence of random chance over the game: whatever happens, happens as a direct result of player decisions. Including stabbing you in the back, taking over your entire empire, and driving you out of the game, all because you believed the guy playing England when he said he was going to invade Tunis this turn. ▼
▲{{quote|
Originally designed as a game aid to teach people about diplomacy and the world situation before World War I, the game has been destroying friendships, making people pass out from stress, and ruining lives ever since. ▼
▲A [[Turn
▲Originally designed as a game aid to teach people about diplomacy and the world situation before World War I, the game has been destroying friendships, making people pass out from stress, and ruining lives ever since.
The basic form of the game (there are many variants) is a [[Take Over the World|Take Over Europe]] scenario set in [[The Edwardian Era]]. Each of seven players, playing one of the key powers of Europe, has to gain control of 18 of the 34 available supply centres (named after cities or provinces) in order to win. Players move together (submitting their orders in written form to the adjudicator/judge) and each unit has equal strength. In order to take a territory from someone else, you have to have other units supporting your attack.
[[Switzerland]] is impassable, while Kiel, Constantinople and Denmark can have a fleet travel through them if no-one is in there.
The two types of units are armies and fleets, with fleets being able to convoy armies across seas and travel along coasts, while armies can go into landlocked territories, where many supply centers are.
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''Diplomacy'' is an example of the simultaneous-resolution campaign-level type of TBS game, and shows both its benefits (very pure strategy, as each player has the same positional information available to him - diplomatic information is another matter, making persuasion all-important) and its drawbacks (the chance for endless negotiations).
Also known simply as [[Spell My Name
{{tropelist}}
* [[Alternate History]]
* [[Attack Pattern Alpha]]: Many custom names have been created for openings, strategies and alliances, often derived from the late Richard Sharp's book, ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20130508083147/http://www.diplom.org/~diparch/god.htm The Game of Diplomacy]'', for example the Lepanto, an Austrian-Italian alliance to quickly eliminate Turkey, named after a 1571 battle.
** Many of these names are so ubiquitous that it becomes a case of [[Calling Your Attacks]]. The "Juggernaut" in particular is thrown around in every game, regardless of Russia and Turkey allying.
* [[Balance of Power]]
* [[Betrayal Tropes]] (Have fun. And we hope to ...[[Catch Phrase|Stab You Soon!]].)
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* [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder]]: Although doing it too much just means buying distrust from everybody.
* [[Color Coded for Your Convenience]]: Although it may vary, each country has usually these following colors: England is blue/pink, France is turquoise, Russia is white/purple, Turkey is yellow, Germany is black, Austria-Hungary is red, Italy is green, and neutral territories are beige/white.
* [[Do You Want to Haggle?]]: Plenty of haggling. [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin| What is that game's name again?]]
**By correspondence you cannot even see who is haggling with whom. You can do the tabletop equiv of famous secret deals.
* [[The Dragon]]: A winning player often has another player working for him, popularly called a "janissary." Be careful because he will likely be [[The Starscream]].
** Often the agenda is simply to [[Kingmaker Scenario|make sure that someone else besides the guy that rendered him incapable of winning himself is the final victor]]. Because revenge is a dish that is [[Best Served Cold]].
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* [[Gambit Pileup]]: With each nation having its own secret agenda, the negotiation table can get rather messy.
* [[Government in Exile]] (If a player's home Supply Centers are captured, the player can still survive as long as he has at least one SC left. But a home SC is necessary to raise more forces.)
* [[Gunboat Diplomacy]]: The name of a variant in which players cannot communicate with each other.
** In-universe, it provides an alternative interpretation as to why (for example) Norway would align with England after a fleet pulls into port.
* [[House Rules]]
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* [[Melee a Trois]]: And how. For a game with seven powers and no default alliances, anything goes.
* [[Playing Both Sides]]: Pretty much ''the'' best situation one can be in. [[Gambit Pileup|Cue everyone trying to achieve it...]]
* [[Pragmatic Villainy]]: It is the general consensus that players should keep their treachery level to a minimum. So that when they really need to backstab someone, it will really hurt.
* [[Put
* [[Rage Quit]]: A problem on the judges. Several systems have been put in to account for this when selecting players.
* [[Real Time
* [[Risk
* [[Take Over the World]]: Sort of. You win by having more then half the supply centers on the board in your control which means you can claim to be the most powerful [[Evil Overlord]] in the world.
** The assumption is that once you own more than half the board, you can crush the opposition by yourself.
* [[Sliding Scale of Turn Realism]]: Round by Round.
* [[Stop or I Shoot Myself]]: A desperate player may claim that he will move all his forces to face the one he is threatening, so that someone else will have a power vacuum to take advantage of, while the one threatened will get very little.
* [[There Can Be Only One]]: Depends on the game. Sure, it's played straight in some games, but other players in stalemates are more content to announce 2-way, 3-way, and even up to 7-way ties as long as no power has been completely eliminated.
* [[True Companions]]: Don't play this with them or you'll need a new set when you are done. Or take an oath to hold nothing that happens in the game against one another.
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[[Category:Turn-Based Strategy]]
[[Category:Board Games]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Tabletop Game]]▼
[[Category:Diplomacy (game)]]
[[Category:Pages with working Wikipedia tabs]]
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