Diplomacy Magazine From: loeb@geocub.UUCP (Daniel LOEB) Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1992 11:10:10 +0000 Issue #283 of Chapter Two of the Electronic Protocol By Daniel Loeb (loeb@geocub.greco-prog.fr) April 27, 1992 Distributed via: rec.games.pbm rec.games.board dipl-l ------------------------------------------------------------- Electronic Protocol Games played on the Diplomacy Adjudicator ------------------------------------------------------------- **** TABLE OF CONTENTS **** PART ONE - Opinions, Letters, and Editorials: Diplomacy Article Archives Service CanCon V Diplomacy Pun Test Judge Deadline Calculations Diplomacy Dictionary Italian Openings Openings Contest PART TWO - Summary of all moderated games on the Judge: Editorial For more info about the Judge For more info about the Electronic Protocol PART THREE - Report from the Battle Front Fontenoy 1912 Update ***** PART ONE ***** **** DIPLOMACY ARTICLE ARCHIVES SERVICE **** Mark Nelson <amt5man@ecusun.leeds.ac.uk> maintains a fairly large list of Diplomacy Articles. I would like to see as many of them in Electronic form as possible. Please write to Mark and request the articles that you are willing to type into your computer. Send the articles to me and I will print them in EP Chapter 2 and in that way they will be permanently archived in electronic form. If possible, also send money or stamps or international postage coupons (self-adressed stamped envelope) to cover photocopying and postage. If you edit/write diplomacy material, Mark will take that in exchange. Otherwise, you can always try asking VERY NICELY! In the next several issues of EP Chapter 2, I will present parts of the DAAS catalog. Here is the list of articles dealing with ITALY. *** ITALY *** Code Title (Length in pages) ---- ----------------------- cI01 The First Two Seasons (4) cI02 What If? - A New Approach for Italy (2) cI03 The Italian Wins (4) cI04-06 Italy-Austria: An Unholy Alliance. Parts 1-3 (6) cI07 The Tactics of Diplomacy (2) cI08 Italian Strategy--A personal view (2) cI09 New Options for Italy (1) cI10 The Flexible Lepanto (2) cI11 The Classical Alliance Lepanto (3) cI12 The Winning Lepanto (3) cI13 The Lepanto Opening (1) cI14 A Mittish Musing (see Humor06) cI15 Italy (1) cI16 The First Two Seasons (3) cI17 Superpower! (1) cI18 The Western Lepanto (1) cI19 The Key Opening (2) cI20 The Italian Fillers (Order with cI19) cI21 Two Key Openings (3) cI22 Why I hate Italy (1) cI23 Italian Opening Strategy (4) cI24 Italy (2) cI25 The Italian 3 Fleet Opening (Includes cI26) cI26 Reply to cI25 cI27 Lepanto: A tool for the early destruction of Turkey (2) cI28 Italy (1) cI29 Veni, Vedi, Vici (1) cI30 Italy-Austria: An Unholy Alliance (2) cI31 Italy's Problem (2) cI32 Italy (2) cI33 A Metternich, A Metternich, My Kingdom for a Metternich (2) cI34 Quo Vadis!? A look at Italy in 1901 (4) cI35 Stiletto (3) cI36 The Lepanto Opening (2) cI37 The Reverse Lepanto -- Who said it couldn't be done (1) **** CANCON V **** From: M.N Nelson <amt5man@ecusun.leeds.ac.uk> Canada's National Diplomacy Convention will be held at the University of Toronto, Scarborough Campus on the Civic Holiday weekend, 31 July --- August 2nd. Details from Cal White, 1 Turberry Avenue, Toronto, CANADA. M6N 1P6 Phone (01) (416) 6541722 Cal also runs *Northern Flame*, winner of the Runestone Poll in 1990 and 1991 (the Runestone Poll is a Poll for North American diplomacy zines). An excellent zine which prints a diplomacy article every issue or so and has a large, rambling letter column with letter writers from all over. Recommended by this scribe to fans everywhere. **** DIPLOMACY PUN TEST **** From: Harold Reynolds <harold@rainbow.physics.utoronto.ca> See Eric's chapter 8 (Issue 271) for Part 2 of this test. **** JUDGE DEADLINE CALCULATIONS **** From: Judge Dash Request <jdr@u.washington.edu> > I received a deadline missed message which was processed at 00:30 on > Tuesday morning April 7th. Is this the correct time for processing? Yes and no. It was the scheduled deadline as appeared at the end of the previous turn's result report, but it really ought to have been 23:30. It has to do with daylight savings time. We switched from PST to PDT on Sunday morning April 5th. The way the judge computes deadlines is to add the appropriate number of hours (72 for a movement phase) to the current time when the prior phase is processed (Tue Mar 31 23:35 PST) to get a starting point (Fri Apr 3 23:35 PST) and then advances that time until it becomes 23:30 (Sat Apr 4 23:30 PST) if it is a movement phase. It then checks to see if the time is in the allowable day of the week range (--TWTF-) and advances it by 24 hours until it is. Well, we had a 47 hour weekend, so Sat Apr 4 23:30 PST plus 24 hours is Mon Apr 6 00:30 PDT! Another 24 hours gave us Tuesday morning which is in the set of allowable days so that's what the judge stuck with. The easiest fix would be to have movement phase deadlines fall at 22:30 instead of 23:30. Then the deadline would have been computed as 23:30 Tuesday night in April or 21:30 in October rather than nearly a full day off. The reason the deadlines fall at 23:30 instead of 00:00 is due to the confusion caused when people see "Tue" and figure they can wait until Tuesday to submit their orders. That's one of the good things about being fairly far west as far as timezones go. Folks in Hawaii will have a bit more trouble meeting deadlines, but there's only one of them so far and he's not in any games yet. If the judge worked in GMT, something that said Tuesday night would be Tuesday afternoon over here; it's better if it says Tuesday night and it's really Wednesday morning. **** DIPLOMACY DICTIONARY **** From: Harold Reynolds <harold@rainbow.physics.utoronto.ca> HELL There is a special place in Hell reserved for Diplomacy players. It's called Carebearland. Everyone is forced to play cooperative games, with no lying, cheating, double-dealing or backstabbing allowed! DIPLOMACY QUOTATIONS: 1. Diplomacy dichotomy: Getting stabbed is as much fun as sucking lemons when you have the mumps, but stabbing someone is as much fun as switching his chocolate bar with one of Ex-Lax. 2. Famous last words of a Diplomacy player: "But you promised!..." 3. Playing Diplomacy is like juggling knives on a greased floor. Make one slip and you'll get stabbed. 4. The Ultimate Compliment: "I'm glad I'm not your neighbour!" DIPLOMACY EMOTION Satisfaction: That your moves went off as planned. Delight: That your backstab worked. Glee: The opponent you stabbed was also stabbed by someone else. Gloating: Seeing an opponent who critically stabbed you get crushed. Exultation: When it's you who delivers the coup de grace. Bliss: 18 supply centres. Anxiety: Wondering how many of your neighbours are plotting against you. Fear: Finding that it's all of them. Desperation: Trying to get their neighbours to stab them. Despair: When they insist on fighting each other. Exasperation: Just when you've fought off 2 of your neighbours, the third comes barging in. Frustration: Getting a build when all your home dots are occupied. Vexation: Getting a build when someone else is occupying your home dots! Shock: Getting unexpected support from another player. Loneliness: Exile in Iceland. Sympathy: What's that? **** ITALIAN OPENINGS **** This 7 part series presents the Spring 1901 openings for each country. If you have any, please send me: data for any games that were NOT listed below, the final results for the games listed below, any corrections, commentaries on the openings, rebuttals to the player's guide's commentary SUMMARY OF OPENINGS FOR ITALY ----------------------------- A Rom A Ven F Nap #Games Game Names ----- ----- ----- (#wins) (Wins are marked in parenthesis) Ven Trl Ion 9 MANHATTAN, DPPB, DRAM, EVOLT, (Player's Guide Opening 3) Hyperwar, Portnoy, Rose, Spam, stanford Apu HOLD Ion 8* austerlitz, hastings, mystery, (Player's Guide Opening 1 - Variant) orange, topple, vittle, xenon, jutland Ven Pie Ion 8 100andup, Blind, Canon, Croatia, Drewids, Leipzig, Ludwig, snorri Apu Trl Ion 7 JutEland, khafji, osijek, swift, (Player's Guide Opening 1) water, zounds, Ajax Ven Pie TyS 5 Grossc, King, Sparrow, Warp, Yellow Apu Pie Ion 4 Berezina, Eylau, 1966AA, Boadicea (Player's Guide Opening 1 - Variant) Tus Pie TyS 4 Cubit, Gold, Lobo, Under (Player's Guide Opening 2) Apu Tri Ion 4 Dday, Fast, Asia, Radar (Player's Guide Opening 4) Tus HOLD TyS 3 Sugar, Bolt, Marengo Ven Tri TyS 2 Guadal, Purple Ven Tri Ion 2 Munk, Squid Nap HOLD Ion 2 Banditos, Paris Nap Trl Ion 1 Cannon HOLD Tri TyS 1 Muddle HOLD HOLD TyS 1 Quebec Nap Apu Ion 1 Nifty Nap Tri Ion 1 Quartz Tus Trl TyS 1 DPPA Tus Pie Ion 1 Land Tus HOLD Ion 1 Acre Ven Trl TyS 1 Bach Notes ----- In JUTLAND, Venice actually ordered support for ROME->APULIA. Excerpts from the Player's Guide. --------------------------------- Opening 1: "This is the so-called Lepanto opening, designed to carry Italian power into the east rapidly. This was the first opening ever to be discussed in depth in an article. Edi Birsan's work on the subject is still considered a model effort. In subsequent seasons, Italy orders: Fall 1901: A Apu-Tun, F Ion C A Apu-Tun, build F Nap Spring 1902: F Ion-Eas, F Nap-Ion, A Tun H Fall 1902: A Tun-Syr, F Ion & F Eas C A Tun-Syr This is an attack on Turkey is alliance with Austria. It is often enormously effective. Turkey can block it by building F Smy and ordering F Smy-Eas. However, Italy can order F Ion-Aeg instead, threatening a convoy into Bul, Con, or Smy. The order A Ven-Trl is not favored in many quarters (the alternatives are A Ven H or A Ven-Pie). Of the alternatives, the first is too passive and indicates distrust of Austria; it does, however, have the advantage that A Ven H, A Apu S A Ven, F Ion-Tun in Fall 1901 saves Ven if Austria puts two units on it and still allows Italy to build. The second alternative needlessly antagonizes France. It can be used, however, if there is an Anglo-French alliance for sure and Italy wants to help Germany. A Ven-Trl is positive and powerful. It allows A Trl-Mun if there is an Anglo-German alliance threatening France. This will bolster the French defense and help keep the West stalemated. A Ven-Trl may also stand off a German sneak attack from Munich. It also gives the possibility of A Trl-Boh (and thence to Gal), adding to Austria's defensive line if this is necessary. On no account should Italy stab Austria. The short-term gains may be all right, but the long-term price is not something Italy would wish to pay." Opening 2: This is an anti-French opening. It allows (A Tus-Tun, F TyS C A Tus-Tun), keeping powerful forces poised against Spain. France must also play a guessing game. If she moves (A Mar-Spa) but not (A Par-Bur), she must now decide whether to order (A Spa-Mar). If Italy then orders (A Pie-Mar), the center is saved; if not, Spain is lost, and a fleet can't be built in Marseilles. (See 1966AA.) Opening 3: This is the best anti-Austrian opening: there are those rare occasions where Italy will want to Attack Austria. A Ven-Tri may be stood off. A Ven-Trl, A Rom-Ven concentrates two armies on Trieste and creates a guessing game around Vienna. The fleet can pick up Tunis or even move to Greece or the Adriatic. Getting Tunis is better; Italy needs a build. Opening 4: This is a variant of the Lepanto Opening (DL: Key Lepanto). It is followed in the south as before. But in the north by (A Tri-Ser) or (A Tri-Alb). The purpose here is to get another army into the Balkans against Turkey. If Italy holds Serbia at the end of 1901, the purpose is to allow her to build two fleets. The second fleet is used to help France against England/Germany or to challenge England/France. Austria has got to have enormous trust in Italy to allow this movement... but that's Diplomacy. **** CONTEST **** I have proposed the following contest related to the game opening series. People can propose up to three openings for each country. It is not too late to participate!!! Here are the rules... You earn 3 points each time opening 1 was used, 2 points each time opening 2 was used, and 1 point each time opening 3 was used. Here are the results to date (maximum score possible so far is: 105(a) + 140(e) + 91(f) + 98(g) + 51(i) = 485 points): Contestant Totals A Rom A Ven F Nap Freqncy Points ---------- ------ ----- ----- ----- ------- ------ Matt Ender Austria = 91 Ven Pie Ion 8 24 TOTAL = 433 England = 137 Ven Trl Ion 7 14 France = 60 Apu HOLD Ion 8 8 Germany = 93 Italy = 46 Dave Cebula Austria = 68 Ven Apu Ion 0 0 TOTAL = 413 England = 137 Ven Trl Ion 9 18 France = 91 Tus Pie TyS 4 4 Germany = 95 Italy = 22 Chris Lopez Austria = 68 Ven Pie Ion 8 24 TOTAL = 398 England = 140 Ven Tri Ion 2 4 France = 91 Ven Trl Ion 9 9 Germany = 62 Italy = 37 Pete Jennings Austria = 75 Apu HOLD Ion 8 24 TOTAL = 393 England = 140 Ven Trl Ion 9 18 France = 74 Ven Trl TyS 1 1 Germany = 61 Italy = 43 Jamie Dreier Austria = 36 Apu HOLD Ion 8 24 TOTAL = 359 England = 137 Apu Tri Ion 4 8 France = 79 Ven Trl Ion 9 9 Germany = 66 Italy = 41 Torben Mogensen Austria = 62 Nap HOLD Ion 2 6 TOTAL = 281 England = 99 Ven Tri Ion 2 4 France = 12 Nap Pic* TyS 0 0 Germany = 98 Italy = 10 Next week, Openings and contest results for RUSSIA! ***** PART TWO ***** **** EDITORIAL **** Starting with this issue, Part Two will only be published once a month. For more regular information about game openings, it is better to send the command LIST to JUDGE@U.WASHINGTON.EDU. With the recent improvements to the JUDGE, this listing contains all of the information in Part Two except for the record of the progress of each game in real time. Until JUDGE provides this information, you can find it once a month in chapter two of Electronic Protocol. **** FOR MORE INFO ABOUT THE JUDGE**** For X: Send Y to JUDGE@U.WASHINGTON.EDU: ------ --------------------------------- (*QUESTIONS ABOUT A CERTAIN GAME*) More detailed information about a game: LIST <name-of-game> History of a game: SUMMARY <name-of-game> Regular updates for a certain game: OBSERVE <name-of-game> <password> Copy of variant rules: GET INFO.<name-of-variant> or GET PRESS or GET GUNBOAT (*GENERAL QUESTIONS*) General information HELP Update of the list of games above LIST More detailed list LIST FULL To be informed of all game changes OBSERVE CONTROL <password> Default house rules GET EP.HOUSE.RULES Other information: Contact me (loeb@geocub.greco-prog.fr) or Ken Lowe (jdr@u.washington.edu) or your game master (see list below) **** FOR MORE INFO ABOUT THE ELECTRONIC PROTOCOL **** To solve Email problems, contact one of the email wizards: swb@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu, andre@hern.stonemarche.org eisen@cs.jhu.edu, eisen@jhuvms.bitnet, or wcw27974@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu For back issues: Contact the archivists, jlitvin@swtec1.intel.com/John Litvin, or nick@sunburn.uwaterloo.ca (Nick Fitzpatrick) or Anonymous FTP from 137.248.151.12, directory: /pub/incoming/Ep-chapter Other information: Contact Eric Klien (eric_s_klien@cup.portal.com) ***** PART THREE ***** **** FONTENOY 1912 UPDATE **** No eliminations this year, but lots of action. StP fights back against Mun who had backstabbed him last year by joining the southern powers. Bulgaria's move to Ankara last year frightened Ankara a little, but it turns out to have just been a typographical error as the unit moves back to Armenia. The question now is how much will this error cost St Pete in the North. Misplay by Rome allows Belgium to swarm over the Iberian pennisula. But Rome avoids exinction by regaining his capital. Belgium has transfered a supply center (Holland) to Munich in order re-equilibrialize the alliance --- or was that a backstab? In any case, Belgium has lost its forward army in Piedmont. This will be rebuilt in the rear.... This shifting is of tactical value to the Southern alliance, and perhaps strategic value as well as this might now encourage Belgium to attack the now weakened Munich --- rather than fight his way through to well defended Tunis/Italy. ***REBUTAL BY MUNICH ( mauri@whidbey.stanford.edu ) Yes I can see the stalemate lines being drawn. However, there are a few leaky spots yet. Where will X-Rom disband. Will he really leave Rom and Naples open???? What will STP do with those 2 centers when Moscow and Sev fall??? I admit that the game is now very interesting. I congratulate STP on the unexpected moves. But what will you disband next year when Mos and Sev fall into enemy hands??? I will admit I can see that advancing is going to be very hard. But I also count that I and Belgium have 19 centers. Why don't we just stop now and declare it a win for S-Mun and B-Bel. I still love the attacks against my country in the yearly reports. In fact the reading of such propaganda has recently been outlawed in my countries. ***NUMBER OF SUPPLY CENTERS Bel Bre Bul Den Gre Kie Lon Mos Nap Par Rom Ser Smy StP Tri Ven War Ank Ber Bud Con Edi Hol Lvp Mar Mun Nor Por Rum Sev Spa Swe Tun Vie A B C D E F G H I J K L N P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1900 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1*1 1 1 1 1 1901 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1902 2 2 1 2 1 1* 1 2 1 2 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 2*1 1 1 2 1903 1 2 2 2 1 2 2 1 3 1 1 1 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 1 1904 1 3 1 1 1 1 2*2* 4 1 1 2 2 2 1 2 2 2* 2 1* 1905 1 4 1 1*1 2 2* * 4 1* 1 3 3*2 * 3*2 1 2 * 1906 2 4 2 1 2 4 6 4 2 2 3 2 1907 3 5 2 3 3 6 4 2 4 2 1908 3 7 3 2 1 7 4 6 1 1909 2 6 4 2 7 5* 8 1910 2 6 4 1 9 4* 8 1911 2 7 4* 11 4 6 1912 2 8 4 11 3 6 Bel Bre Bul Den Gre Kie Lon Mos Nap Par Rom Ser Smy StP Tri Ven War Ank Ber Bud Con Edi Hol Lvp Mar Mun Nor Por Rum Sev Spa Swe Tun Vie Note: number = number of supply centers at the END of that year blank = no supply center left at the END of that year * = 1 change of command DURING that year ***OWNERSHIP OF SUPPLY CENTERS Ven Nap Edi Lvp Par Por Bel Mun Ber Swe Stp Mos Con Smy Rum Ser Vie Year Rom Tun Lon Bre Mar Spa Hol Kie Den Nor War Sev Ank Bul Gre Bud Tri 1900 7 X T 6 I P N D V Q W 2 B K S L C H 4 U 3 9 R 0 G A 1 F Y J Z E 8 5 1901 7 X T 6 I P N D V Q W W B B Q K S L 4 4 U 9 3 R A A 1 1 F J Z Y 8 5 1902 7 X T X I P N P V Q W 6 B B S K S I 4 4 3 9 9 A 1 A 1 Z F J Z Y Y 5 1903 7 X T X I P N P V Q W N B B S S S I 4 4 3 9 3 A Z F 1 Z F J 5 Y Y 5 1904 7 X T X 4 P N P B Q W Q B B S S S I S 4 3 9 3 A Z F 1 Z Y J 5 Y 7 5 1905 7 X X X 4 P N P B N W B B B S S S I S 4 3 3 3 A Z F Z J Y T Y Y 7 5 1906 7 X X X B P N P B N B P P B S S S S S I 3 3 3 A Z F Z A F X Y Y S 7 1907 7 X X X N P N P B N B B P B S S S S S B 3 3 3 A Z A F Z A X F 3 S 7 1908 7 X X X N B B B B N B P B B S S S S S S 3 3 3 3 F A F A A X F 3 S 3 1909 3 X X X N B N B B X X B B B S S S S S S 3 3 3 3 F A F F 3 A F 3 S 3 1910 3 S X X S B N B B B X X B B S S S S S S 3 3 3 3 F A F F 3 A F 3 S 3 1911 S S X X S B B B B B X X B B S S S S S S 3 3 3 3 F A F F 3 A F 3 S S 1912 3 X X X S B B B B B B B B S S S S S S S S 3 3 3 F A F F 3 A F 3 S S Ven Nap Edi Lvp Par Por Bel Mun Ber Swe Stp Mos Con Smy Rum Ser Vie Year Rom Tun Lon Bre Mar Spa Hol Kie Den Nor War Sev Ank Bul Gre Bud Tri ***RECENT CHANGES SC Spa Por Stp Hol Rom Ven Was X X 3 B S S Now B B S S X 3 ***RETREATS/BUILDS A-Ank retreat Tri -> Alb or disband Tri, and 1 build (Ank,Gre) B-Bel disband Pie, and 2 builds (Lon,Lvp,Bre,Par,Bel) F-Bul --- S-Mun retreat Pru -> Ber, and 1 build (Mun,Kie,Den,Swe) or disband Pru, and 2 builds (Mun,Kie,Ber,Den,Swe) 3-StP --- Up