Re: The age-old problem of Diplomacy in PBM

From: kgp8d@faraday.clas.Virginia.EDU (Keith G. Parker)

Date: Wed, 02 Jul 1997 00:00:00 +0000

Andy Bodkin  writes:
> One of the reasons I had a long gap from PBM of about five years is
> something that I've just experienced again and is to do with diplomacy.
> I wonder if anyone else has any thoughts ?

...snip...

>
> For an example, I'll point out my experiences in my first game of MEPBM,
> my apologies to those who hate it and despise the fact it's the only
> game talked about on this list. Now, I know this is a high diplomacy
> game and don't begrudge that, because basically there are two teams and
> a few neutrals - to win you have to talk to your team and the neutrals.
> So, what happened in my game ? I joined as the Witch-King, which is a
> position fairly reliant on neutrals to later discover that one 'crucial'
> neutral to me (Rhudaur for those who know the game) was a school friend
> of three of the opposition. Actually, I got a victory in managing to
> convince him to stay neutral, which is the best I could hope for. As to
> my team, they haven't answered my letters, I prefer to write than phone
> though I realise some would consider that poor diplomacy. My team have
> contacted me only when they wanted money from me (in the game, another
> absurd suggestion for my position) and last turn one of my allies stole
> enough off me to near enough bankrupt me for the next turn.
>

...snip...

Sounds like you got stuck with a bunch of losers on that one,
but, as you know, not all games are that way.  "43 New
Messages?!?  You've *got* to be kidding!"

> It also annoys me slightly, in that no matter what strategic or tactical
> masterstrokes you pull, often convincing near neighbours to help comes
> down to how much you're willing to spend on a phone bill. Even in a game
> like Hyborian War, with supposedly inbuilt diplomaic orders, you will do
> better the more you're willing to spend on contacting others.
>

Okay, since you brought up HW, how's about this one:

I avoid the influence of nation X.
Nation X invades my territory.
Nation X then concludes a peace treaty during the same turn in
which it loses a battle in my home territory.

Nice "hands off diplomacy."  How does RSI reconcile a peace
treaty after my nation had avoided the other's influence.  I'm
beginning to think that all this diplomatic stuff is crap.
Adios.  KP
--
Keith Parker, Ph.D.         |  kgp8d@virginia.edu
Department of Chemistry     |  http://faraday.clas.virginia.edu/~kgp8d
University of Virginia      |
Charlottesville, VA  22901  |

References

The age-old problem of Diplomacy in PBM
Andy Bodkin <andybod@b0dders.demon.co.uk>
Wed, 02 Jul 1997 00:00:00 +0000