Diplomacy Zine -- Chapter Eight EP #270

From: Eric_S_Klien@cup.portal.com

Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1992 08:41:07 +0000

Issue #270 of ELECTRONIC PROTOCOL:

*************************************************************************
 "I myself have sometimes thought the aging process could be delayed if
             it had to make its way through Congress."
*************************************************************************

Chapter One contains:

BAGHDAD, BLITZKRIEG II, KING'S GAMBIT, PASSCHENDAELE,
DRAGONS, BLACK OCTOBER, OPERATION DESERT STORM, THE SOMME

And is published by uunet!cti1!rlister or rlister@cti.com/Russ Lister

Chapter Two contains:

BATAAN, BOADICEA, CONAN, CROATIA, CUBIT, DAGGER, DIEN, DRAM,
EMU, EYLAU, FONTENOY, GIGGLES, HASTINGS, IONA, KHAFJI, MARENGO,
OSIJEK, PARIS, PORTNOY, QUEBEC, TIBERIUS, VEGA

And is published by loeb@geocub.greco-prog.fr/Daniel E. Loeb

Chapter Three contains:

SQUALANE, BRUSILOV OFFENSIVE II, CULLODEN, GANDALF'S REVENGE,
GOODBYE BLUE SKY, MASTERS OF DECEIT, PANDORA, NOW AND ZEN

And is published by mad-2@kub.nl/Constantijn Wekx

Chapter Four contains:

DEADLY DAGGERS, MONTREUIL-SUR-MER, FIRE WHEN READY, THUNDERDOME,

And needs a publisher.

Chapter Five contains:

YALTA

And needs a publisher.

Chapter Six contains:

BERLIN WALL, HIROSHIMA, GENGHIS KHAN, SEA LION, GIBRALTAR

And is published by barry@brahms.udel.edu/Barry Fausnaugh.

Chapter Seven contains:

RIYADH'S RECKONING

And needs a publisher.

Chapter Eight contains:

TIBERIUS, BETELGEUSE, IRON CROSS, GUERNICA, TEUNISGEK, WOLF BLITZER,
THE COMMANDERS, THE SUTHERLAND CONFLICT, NOW AND ZEN

-------------
Chapter Eight
-------------

Table of Contents:

Finnish Diplomacy Rules Discussion
Wooden Diplomacy Pieces Request
Don't Be a Turkey:  Play Turkey! by Mark Fassio
Repeating What You Never Heard by Mark Berch
Diplomacy Programming Project Update
Tournament Scoring Discussion
----

I received a rules question from haha@vipunen.hut.fi/Harri Haanpaa
and I responded with the following:

"Under the rules I have, one of the possible convoy
> routes is disrupted and the convoy isn't successful."
>
> Rule XII.4 says that all possible convoy routes must be disrupted
> to stop the convoy.
>
>                                                        Eric Klien

Harri responded with the following:

"That must have been changed, in the rules I have (revised 2/5/89) it reads
under II.4 :

begin_quote

Non-specific convoy orders

If two or more convoy routes are available and the convoy order doesn't
specify which, the convoy will take place provided that none of the
possible routes is disrupted.

end_quote

In the Finnish rules the XII.4 rule states something similar. Has this
really been changed?

How were the unwanted convoy cases to be ruled?

Harri H."

Has anyone heard of this new rule?  I use the 2nd Edition Feb '82 rules
which I thought were the latest and greatest.  Send comments to
eric_s_klien@cup.portal.com.

Subject: WANTED: wooden diplomacy pieces

I am looking for wooden pieces from the old diplomacy games. I am interested
in all powers and I do not care if you want to sell an incomplete set.
send E-mail to: chojnows@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu/Brian Chojnowski

The following was scribed by cmmjr@flight-sim.gatech.edu/Cliff
McKeithan:

From Diplomacy World #64:

Don't Be a Turkey:  Play Turkey!
  by Mark Fassio

Disclaimer:  Most of you Old Heads in the hobby already know all this
stuff.  I'm writing this more for the beginners entering into this
august body (and to quell my egomaniacal desire to see my name in
print!)

I. Introduction: Turkey is Good

Turkey.  The images conjured up by this country are generally of a
notorious nature militarily:  Bashibazouks and Mamelukes.  Pillagers
of Constantinople and twice besiegers of Vienna.  Impalers of
heretics and, of course, "The Sick man of Europe."  Well, put away
that thermometer and body bag and break out the dancing girls and
hookah!  When playing Diplomacy, you'll find that Turkey is one of
the strongest countries on the board when properly played.

Granted, I (a self-proclaimed Hobby Old Fart since 1976) have played
Turkey in most of my games.  My bias thus naturally leans toward the
Yellow-Pieced Country.  And while it's generally true that a mediocre
Turkish play can outdo a good Italian or Austrian (the Carusos and
other Hobby Legends aside, of course).

Turkey's geographic location offers a natural "hedgehog" position.
It's a nice, compact area that is hard to be rooted out of early
unless a solid AI or RA develops.  Even then the hostile alliance
usually tips their hands by Fall 1901, giving the Turk time to
prepare a defense and seek help.  But let's discuss the Turk's
offensive potential versus its defensive prowess.

II. Drang Nac Westen (or, Go West Young Man)

Turkey should be able, through astute Diplomacy, to link up with one
of his Balkan neighbors and cause some tensions between the other
two.  As to choice of allies, I personally prefer the Russians
because almost all the considerations of playing that duo are
positive.  Geographically, an RT has no rear or flank enemies, due to
the good ol' board edges.

Militarily, you're in like Flynn when it comes to coordinating moves.
Once the land bridge of Ukr/Rum/Bul is established, you've got a
natural springboard for joint operations.  (Alas, poor Archduke; I
knew him well...)  The Russian should keep peace with a least Germany
in the west, so that full attention can be devoted to the Balkans
early.

As far as moves fo, a good option is to simulate war between
yourselves by moving to Arm/ABla, writing obfuscatory letters, etc.
Then at a later date (Fall 1901 to Spring 1903 is good) you can use a
Black Sea fleet to convoy into Austrian Areas, optimizing surprise.
A truly trusting alliance will also try to get the Russian fleet into
the Med.  Or you can arrange a Turkish "stab" (aided by the
Austrians, no less) into Russian occupied Rum in Fall 1901.  Russia
can retreat his fleet off the board and build an army to use against
Austria in the Balkans.  Hey, the RT has more options than a Chinese
Menu!

Diplomatically, you and your Tsarist ally can smokescreen the board
long enough to get positioned against any expected western
counterattack that will organize.  (Western players worth their salt
will indeed organize to stop an RT, given its lethality.)

The best thing for Turkey and Russia is to immediately write both the
Austrian and Italian early and often.  Don't let them even think of
forming an IA "Lepanto" against you in Turkey, instead offering each
of the nebulous gains for neutrality while you do your deeds.
Promise Italy you won't build fleets, even though "Austria wants me
to sail against you." (It's probably a fib, but so what?  We're not
playing bingo here.)  Tell Austria (rightly so) that you encourage
him to go for two in 1901, if he'll let you get the other two in the
Balkans.  I reccomend getting him to support you to Rum from Ser
while he gets Gre and Ser.  Austria will be more than happy to bide
his time with an amenable Turk who's preoccupied "elsewhere."  The
true unsheathing of blades is best saved for the moment when Austria
is out of position (diverted west or sucked north versus Gal/Rum) -
that's when the RT is best poised to strike.

Once you get rolling and Austria or Italy is weakened, you must write
furiously and heavily to Germany, France, and England.  Stress that
this "aparent" RT is temporary at best, that it's expedient for you
to eliminate the "obvious AR" that was forming, etc.  Solicit their
help in "keeping Russia in check" while offering lots of vague
promises of assitance to them.  With a little luck and a lot of
letters (remember that this game is called "Diplomacy") you can
divide-and-conquer while the West fights among themselves.  Timin is
everything in an RT: when to strike, when to move, when to begin your
disinformation campaign against the board, etc.  Always stay friendly
with others, since one never knows when the time may arrive for you
to realign your priorities!

One word of caution:  while the RT alliances are very strong, perhaps
even more so than the EF on the opposite edge, don't get
overconfident or smug about your power and position.  I remember a
game back in 1988 where I was the Sultan and was allied with Don
Williams.  (I consider Don to be one of the great all-time Dip
players, by the way.)  We figured that our aggregate 30+ years of PBM
experience and our RT geography would let us run rampant over the
unknowns to our immediate front.

We were rudely awakened by a competent AI, which literally had our
backs to the wall until the previously-mentioned factors of luck
(Italian player resigned) and skill (we badgered and persuaded two
other sharp players to help us out) came into play.  We eventually
won with a 17-17 two way draw, but in the first 3-4 game years all we
could think about was survival as two-center puppets.  Moral of the
story:  be humble with yourself, be smart versus enemies, and write
incessantly.  First impressions and continued writing mean more to us
old gamers than any jazzy new move you can think up.

I also recommend play a "tactical game", in which you look 1-3 turns
ahead and look for short gains.  This would be as opposed to a
"strategic game", in which you would do things like plan coordinated
moves for 1906 while still in 1901!  With your "nibbling" strategy
and hoped for suppression of anti-RT coalitions, you should be well
on your way to imposing the Turkish crescent over half the board.

III. Conclusion:  You Can Have Your Cake and Eat It Too!

Even puttin aside the main advantage of an RT alliance as the ideal
Turkish policy, playing Turkey can offer a myriad of options.  An AT
works well when you strictly lay out demilitarized zones and growth
plans, while the IT (very rare) can work at least until Midgame if
you do an Italian fleet/Turk army mix.  Turkey can always project
itself as the friend of the country "over the horizon" (France's
buddy against Italy, Italy's buddy behind Austria, etc.)  You should
get away with that most of the time, since everyone likes to have
their neighbor made into the middle of an Oreo with your help.

Playing Turkey occasionally requires breaking some eggs (lying) with
respect to your neighbors early on, but keep in mind that this is how
successful omelets are cooked up!

Well gotta go.  I have real Turks to talk to here (I write this from
Zakho, Iraq.)  Hope this article stimulates some interest in playing
The Best Country among any closet Turcophiles out there.  Good
hunting!

>Mark Fassio is indeed a Hobby Old Fard of the First Order, but since
this article was written has returned from the Middle East.  One
wonders what new insights into Turkish play he learned there....

The following was scribed by cmmjr@flight-sim.gatech.edu/Cliff
McKeithan:

From Diplomacy World #64:

Repeating What You Never Heard
  by Mark Berch

Usually, when you lie in a Diplomacy game, you speak for yourself.
You discuss moves you have no intention of making.  You give
explanations that have nothing at all to do with why you actually did
what you did.  But these have severe limitations.  These explanations
are generally not verifiable.  And anything we say of ourselves is
treated as self-serving and hence very suspect.  But a lie about
someone else can get around these problems, and therefore be much
more believable.

I had the opportunity to do this in a postal game, 84HW in _Fol Si
Fie_.  I was France, corresponding actively with England and Germany
at gamestart.  Neither seemed to be interested in a western triple
(EFG).  So I wanted to poison any and all EG relationships.  But how?

Germany had, early on, written me a very specific and very aggressive
proposal for an FG attack on England, starting right in Spring 1901.
I knew him to be an active and thorough diplomat, so it occured to me
that he had probably written a very analagous letter to England.  I
figured that he had probably proposed an immediate F Lon-Eng, A Mun-
Bur plan for Spring 1901.

So I wrote Germany, and casually mentioned to him that England had
told me of the F Lon-Eng and A Mun-Bur proposal.  I fleshed it out a
bit to add plausibility.  I did this for two reasons.  First, I
needed an explanation for why I had moved A Par-Pic, A Mar-Bur that
first Spring.  I said I wanted to take some precautions against this
plan without doing something as drastic a F Bre-Eng.  Second, I did
this to sow EG discord.  Of course, the truth was that England never
told me of any such plan!

The German player did believe this fabrication about England.  He
confirmed my guess by pointing out that there was nothing wrong with
him having made such a proposal to England early in the game.  And
during the crucial pre-Winter 1901 negotiations, he expressed
distinct annoyance that England had done this.  My plan basically
worked.

Germany could have asked me for his original letter to England, but
that would not have exposed my fib since I had never said that
England passed me a copy of that letter.  The German could also have
asked for a copy of England's letter to me, though, in which case I
would have fallen back on a general policy against letter-passing.

But Germany didn't ask me for anything, and I wouldn't expect him to.
The point here is, if a lie appears on its face to be plausible, then
suspicions are never aroused as to its authenticity. Since my guess
about the German letter was correct, it probably never occured to him
that the "England told me" part wasn't correct.

Opportunities to pull this particular type of deception on someone
aren't gong to come very often, obviously.  But you should be alert
to the possibility of passing along non-existent gossip that the
recipient would have good reason to believe.  And, as a more general
rule, if one aspect of what you are saying is true, it's a lot easier
to slip in another aspect of it which is far from the truth.  This is
the case particularly when what is ostensibly to most important part
of the message is true.  That was the case here, and it will be the
case other times as well.  Pay attention, and capitalize.

Mark Berch is the Strategy and Tactics Editor for Diplomacy World, and
publishes his own zine, Diplomacy Digest, which reprints articles on
various topics from zines of old.

From: loeb@nestor.greco-prog.fr (Daniel LOEB)

DIPLOMACY PROGRAMMING PROJECT
                    UPDATE ------- MARCH 12, 1991

Here is a status report of progress on the diplomacy programming
project.

(1) The Strategic part of our diplomat is now being tested. The games
DPPA and DPPB are already full and are being run on
JUDGE@U.WASHINGTON.EDU. DPPC is taking sign ups. Please contact me if
you would like to play or simply observe. The following rules and
comments have been sent to all (human) players.
    Rules:
    (1) I will be GM, and will run the DIPLOMAT.
    (2) In order to keep the game fair, since our current DIPLOMAT does
    not negotiate. This game will be NO PRESS - GUNBOAT.
    (4) I reserve the right to upgrade the DIPLOMAT to a higher version as
    our program progresses.
    (5) I reserve the right to replace players who quit with DIPLOMAT.
    (6) If the DIPLOMAT is eliminated, I reserve the right to inform the
    players of that fact, and resign as gamemaster. The remaining players
    can continue as an unmoderated game, or can find a new gamemaster.
    (7) Copies of the DIPLOMAT will probably *NOT* be available to the
    players.
    (8) As far as possible, play as if this was an ordinary game of
    diplomacy.

Comments:
    I would appreciate if you write to me, when you discover (or even
    suspect) that a country is played by an automat. Also, give me your
    reasons. Your comments will be taken into account so as to eliminate
    all non-human behavior.

These comments will be very useful for discovering any inhuman
behaviors exhibited by the DIPLOMAT.
Observe these games if you are interested, since I really can't
comment on them myself without spoiling their GUNBOAT nature.

(2) The AGENDA algorithm for the strategic part of the program has
been temporarily set aside. The reasons were as follows:
- Once a move is considered by the diplomat, the algorithm
  will not consider it again regardless of what changes
  the 6 pseudo-diplomats have made in their conjectured moves.
- Thus, to have accurate results, it is necessary to run the
  AGENDA algorithm several times, using the result of each
  search as the side for the next search.
- Unless a large number of seeds are used, or the search is allowed to
  continue a long time, the research is likely to only consider moves
  which are fairly "similar".
- A special routine must be written to prevent "short" searches from
  terminating with an incomplete set of moves.
- The algorithm is fairly difficult to program compared to the amount
  of time allowed for a project in Bordeaux.

For this reason, we are adopting a new algorithm which generates
random moves. These moves are adjudicated along with the "best" moves
so far for each other alliance. The value of the resulting positions
determines if this is a new best move for our alliance.

The new algorithm can thus consider the same move several times. There
is no need to repeat a given search although this can be done. The
moves being considered are bound to cover the whole spectrum of
possibilities. All moves being generated are by definition "complete."

The main disadvantage of this new method is that it wastes time
looking at non-interesting moves. The AGENDA method delays looking at
the least promising branches of the search until the end.

Another slight change.  It was forseen that the strategic program
would be written in parallel. In fact, this is not necessary. It
suffices to have the program examine a move for each alliance in turn
as it repeats the main loop of the program.

(3) A new file DPP/LIST has been created and sent out to all
participants. It contains a list of all people who have contributed in
ANY way to this project along with their contribution. I'd like to
thank you all for your continued help. I'm sending it out to the list.
Please check if your entry is accurate.
If people outside of Bordeaux, continue to be interested in working
together. It might be worthwhile looking into scientific funding for
this travel related to this project. Please contact me if you are
interested in this idea.

(4) The development of the negotiation module has forced us to
finetune the DPP/PROTOCOL. Please request a new copy if you are
interested in the syntax. The file DPP/CONVERSATIONS has been updated
in a very comprehensive way to indicate how the various messages can
be used together. I'm sending you all a copy of this file.

(5) Jean-Marc Aubert has written a program in Prolog which translates
standard English sentences into the DPP Protocol (which our diplomat
can understand). He says a program from DPP to English would be even
easier to write. (Ask for ~aubert/prolog/projet if you are
interested.)

Yours, Daniel Loeb, DPP                 |       "Hello, I'm a signature
                                        |       virus. Join in the fun,
E-MAIL  loeb@geocub.greco-prog.fr       |       and copy me into yours."
HOME    150, cours Victor-Hugo; Appt D45; 33000 Bordeaux France
WORK    LABRI; Universite de Bordeaux I; 33405 Talence Cedex France

In EP #249 I printed the following:

From juhnke@reed.edu/Fritz Juhnke

I basically agree with Jeff McKee's aritcle on how tournaments ought
to be scored, although I have some refinements to suggest.  I think
one point should be awarded for each win, and 1/N for each N-way
draw.  Supply center counts should not play any part in the scoring,
nor should survivals.  If the game must be terminated prematurely,
all remaining players should participate equally in a draw, as per
the rulebook.

The improvement I have to offer over Jeff's system is a method of
breaking ties.  I borrow the idea directly from chess, where
tournament scoring is also simply one point for a win and one half
point for a draw.  Ties are usually broken by adding up the final
scores of all the opponents of a given player.

For example, in a three-round Diplomacy tournament, two players in
the middle of the pack end up tied at 1/2 point each, say by two
4-ways vs. a 2-way.  One, however, played against several of the
eventual tournament winners, while the other played against sad
sacks.  The sum of the final scores of the eighteen opponents of the
first is 5 1/6, while the latter's opponents scored only a total of
3.

This system is quite effective at breaking ties in chess.  In
Diplomacy the situation is even more favorable, since ties which
can't be resolved in this way are very rare.  In my humble opinion,
this is a much less arbitrary way of breaking ties than using supply
center counts.  It matters to me _who_ I beat or tie much more than
what the board looks like at the end of the game.

Fritz Juhnke, 9 October 1991

Here are two comments on this article:

From: AMT5MAN@cms1.ucs.leeds.ac.uk/Mark Nelson
Subject: _Electronic Protocol_ 249

I dislike Fritz's method for breaking ties in dplomacy
tournaments, there aren't enough rounds to justify using a
tie-breaker; it's almost pure accident who you play against.

I would be quite happy to see no tie-breaker.

Mark

From: AMT5MAN@cms1.ucs.leeds.ac.uk/Mark Nelson
Subject: LOC _Electronic Protocol_ 249

Dear Eric,
Fritz Juhnke claims that sc-count should play no part in
the scoring of a tournament, but why should the number of players
surviving to be included in a draw play a part in the scoring?  WHy
not just simple say that a winner gets 1 pt and all players in a draw
score 0.5 pt regardless of sc count or the number of players in the draw?

Publisher comments:

Quote is from U.S. President George Bush, during the 1992 State of the
Union Address.

Note that I am looking for GMs!  If your lifelong ambition has been to
become a GM, I have the players to help you fulfill this worthy goal.

I need an article about Diplomacy e-mail for publication in the
world's largest postal zine, Diplomacy World.  Send me e-mail if
you're interested.  Or send me an article if you've already written
something that could be published.  Note that you can subscribe to
Diplomacy World by sending $12 for four issues to David Hood, 2905
20th St NE., Hickory, NC 28601.  $15 for Canadians and $20 for
others.

I am also out of material for this chapter, feel free to flood me
with stuff!

******************************************************************************
To join in the fun, send your name, home address, home and work phone numbers,
            and country preferences to Eric_S_Klien@cup.portal.com.
******************************************************************************