Diplomacy Zine -- Chapter Eight EP #267

From: Eric_S_Klien@cup.portal.com

Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1992 04:46:31 +0000

Issue #267 of ELECTRONIC PROTOCOL:

*************************************************************************
                         CON-GAMES AND SWINDLES

There are many types of con-games and swindles, but perhaps the most
common are the "pigeon drop" and the "bank examiner".

In the "pigeon drop", a stranger will show you a big roll of money that
he has "found" on the street.  He (or she) tells you he will share it
with you, however, in order to show good faith, you must withdraw a
large sum of money from your bank and place it in with the money he has
"found".  You are entrusted with the entire amount which you will later
discover, has been switched by a stack of paper.

In the "bank examiner", a person who claims to be a bank official or
FBI agent, asks to use your savings to trap a dishonest teller.  He asks
that you remove some or all of your savings and put them in an envelope
for a bank messenger to pick up.  Needless to say neither envelope nor
messenger are ever seen again.
*************************************************************************

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:

BEREZINA, PORTNOY, JUTLAND, TIBERIUS, MARENGO, PARIS, SPARROW, SNORRI
AJAX, DIEN, FONTENOY, AGINCOURT

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,
BEREZINA, FONTENOY

And needs a publisher.

Chapter Five contains:

YALTA, AJAX

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:

BATTLE FLEETS AND ARMY CORPS by Paul Botts
Responses to article by Nelson Lu and V. Everett Boyer
Diplomacy Programming Project Update by Danny Loeb
Game Opening Info
Comments by Me
----

From: prb@chinet.chi.il.us (Paul Botts)

Okay, here's a more complete idea for a new Diplomacy variant:

BATTLE FLEETS AND ARMY CORPS
Standard map, standard rules, except for the following:
Two like units can enter the same space, and move together, by being
combined into a Battle Fleet or an Army Corps. An army and a fleet
cannot be combined (and hence can never be in the same space together).

To create a BF or AC, a player must successfully move the two units into
a single space. The two units moving in cannot provide support for each
other's move, so it takes only one enemy unit trying to move into the
same space to prevent the moves and the combining. In order to overcome
such a move by an enemy unit, *each* unit of the proposed BF/AC must
have its own *separate* support from another friendly unit(s). This means in
practice that it is virtually impossible to create a BF/AC in an active
battle zone; they almost always must be created well behind one's lines,
and then moved up.

A Battle Fleet (BF) or Army Corps (AC), once created, moves and can
support as one unit, but with the power of two units. It cannot split
its strength with separate moves (that is, the two units making up a
BF/AC cannot be ordered to move to different spaces), with the
exception noted below. Nor can one unit be ordered to move while the
other is ordered to support. The two units *can* be ordered to provide
support to different spaces.

It takes three units to dislodge a BF/AC, but it takes only one
attacking unit to cut *all* support being provided by a BF/AC.

A BF/AC *can*, if dislodged, be ordered to retreat to separate spaces;
this breaks up the BF/AC. The other ways to break up a BF/AC are to
disband one or both units under normal disband rules, or *successfully*
move the two units to different spaces from a home supply center. Only
if the BF/AC is in a home supply center can it be ordered to move to
different spaces, and if neither of the moves is successful
then the BF/AC is not broken up.

A BF/AC, when moving, follows the same special rules (such as for spaces
with two coasts) as a single unit.

Units from different nations can be combined into a BF/AC. Both nations
must specify in their orders that the attempted move into a single
space is for the purposes of forming a BF/AC, and both must specify
which nation will control the resulting BF/AC if the combining move
succeeds.  Once that control is given to one player, it cannot be taken
away; only he can order the two units to move apart from only his home
supply center. Any supply centers the BF/AC takes belong to the player
who is in control of it (the Allied Commander of the BF/AC). The player
who surrendered his unit to the BF/AC can break the BF/AC only by
disbanding the unit he contributed, or by retreating it to a
*different* space than the one that the other unit of the BF/AC is
ordered to retreat to. If both the Allied Commander and the
contributing player order the BF/AC units to retreat to the same space,
the Allied Commander retains full control, even if the other player
intended to break up the BF/AC.  A player who has contributed a unit to
a BF/AC which he does *not* control can attack and dislodge that BF/AC,
notwithstanding the "no self-dislodgement" rule in regular Diplomacy.

---------------------------------
So, what do you think?

Paul Botts
prb@chinet.chi.il.us

From: claudius@leland.stanford.edu (Nelson Lu)
Subject: Paul's idea

I like it; however, I think the split should be made more flexible, to allow
splits under normal situations.

From: V. Everett Boyer <boyer@ready.eng.ready.com>
Re: Battle Fleets and Army Corps

I would have expected that combining two Armies would yield an Army Group.
                                                                    -----
I would have expected the term Army Corps to apply to subdivisions
of an Army, or combinations of Army Divisions.

Please relay to the inventor.

Everett Boyer
boyer@ready.com

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

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

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

(1) The DPP PROTOCOL has not gone any dramatic changes. However,
Antoine Bertier (new member of DPP) has discovered a number of errors
which have been corrected. (See dpp/protocol)

(2) My students Constantin Stykov and Jean-Marc Aubert have begun
programming a diplomat. CS's goal is a strategic program which
given a position searches for the best move. For the moment, the
program is written in series, and merely will maximizes the value of
the resulting position for one player given the moves for the other
players. However, eventually, I hope to have the program in parallel.
Thus, each country (or alliance) would improve its moves based on the
best moves currently being considered by the other countries. A stable
situation then corresponds to a set of moves such that no alliance
wants to change its moves unless another does.

The program will take the following inputs:
1) A new postion each turn (which is stored as a JUDGE Gnnn file)
2) Various problems. Each problem consists of:
   - an id number
   - a list of alliances (current only one alliance can be
     considered at a time)
   - time allocated to this problem, or search depth
   - a list of moves that must be done
   - a list of moves that must not be done
   - a list of default moves
Assuming the inputs are valid, the output then consists of a set of
orders for each of the alliances being considered along with a
numerical estimate of the value of these moves to each alliance.

The series version of this program is being implemented in the
following way.
1) Let D be the defaults indicated if any
2) Let the agenda A be empty

3) Let M be the set of moves which must be done
4) Complete M into a full set of moves MC by using defaults.
5) Calculate the position P resulting from MC (using the
Diplomacy Adjudicator "dip -t")
6) Calculate the value of the position P
7) Insert the pair (M,P) into the agenda sorted by value of P.

8) Let (M,P) be the first line on the agenda
9) Remove (M,P) from the agenda
9) If M is a complete set of moves AND is the best so far
   then output and store (M,P).
10) If M is a complete set of moves, go to step 8
11) Otherwise, M is an incomplete set of moves. Calculate the
    set S of possible ways to complete M with an additional
    moves (which is not forbidden).
12) Eliminate from S those sets of moves already in the agenda
13) Insert each set of moves M from S into the agenda using
    steps 3-7.
14) Go to step 8

I would like to speak a little more about step 6. It computes for each
player the set of provinces which he is closest to, and adds up the
"value" of each of these province. Fractional values are given in the
case of a tie. (In addition, a simple bonus is given for the number of
supply centers controlled.)

The base value of each province must be determined by experience. For
example, in chess, control of the central squares is of greater
importance than the sides. This is known through experience.

I have demanded the records of standard (or standard gunboat)
diplomacy games resulting in a solo win. Through a statistical
analysis of these files, I am hoping to see which provinces are key to
a win by each player.

Unfortunately, the staff of Electronic Protocol do not have the time
to give me the results from any games. Fortunately, Ken Lowe has
promised to give me the results of Judge's games as follows:
Austrian victory: Ajax, Jutland
English victory:Whip?, Xray
Franch victory:Agincourt(1898)
German victory:Jade?, Orange
Italian victory: Munk
Russian victory:Zulu
Turkish victory:Dragons, Snorri?, Turbo

The program implementing step (6) is available for examination. It
uses a fixed value of "100" for each province. Ask for

Here is some sample output for the position before Spring 1901:
nation=0 valeur=849austria
nation=1 valeur=1210england
nation=2 valeur=1258france
nation=3 valeur=1143germany
nation=4 valeur=1208italy
nation=5 valeur=1132russia
nation=6 valeur=691turkey

A future version of step (6) will allow multiple ply "deep" searches. For
example, SPRING moves can anticipate SUMMER. SUMMER can anticipate
FALL. FALL can anticipate both AUTUMN and WINTER. AUTUMN can
anticipate both WINTER and SPRING. And WINTER can anticipate SPRING.

In order to do this (for searches of greater than 1 ply), subroutine (6)
would call the program using the calculated position as input, and
with a search depth of one ply less.

(3) Now, let's turn to the other half of the project for which
Jean-Marc Aubert is responsible. His program will use CS's program to
run the negotiations.

Each turn, he will send the movements from the previous turn to CS's
program in order to determine the alliance structure in effect in the
game.

He will then inform CS's program of the new position, and begin
negotiations. The cost of specific requests can be tested via the
REQUIRED MOVE and the FORBIDDEN MOVE input on CS's program. Whereas,
the seriousness of a rumor can be tested by setting these movements as
the default and testing their stability.

General requests to ally (possible against a given target) are judged
using the ALLIANCE parameter.

A table is used to keep track of agreements in effect. For each
player, an estimate of his honesty is kept. This is done by storing
the maximum advantage he passed up by not backstabbing, and the
minimum advantage he was willing to backstab for.

Eventually, we hope to be able to generate diplomatic messages as
well.

(4) Some other new interesting files are now availble. (See the file
dpp/table.of.contents). For example, we have:
(a) a number of tables which give the distance between any two
provinces for a fleet or for an army
(b) the source for the Diplomacy Adjudicator
(c) the communication protocol in between CS and JMA's programs.
(d) some clues as to the communication protocol used by Sarit Kraus's
diplomat.

(5) Many of you have said you are going to write a diplomat. Given the
size of this project, it is normal that some of you get discouraged.
But please tell me about any progress you do make. It is important for
the group to have an idea about what is going on. If you are working
by yourself and get stuck, why not teamup with another member of the
DPP and write one diplomat together, or help out my students by making
suggestions or writting a subroutine for them.

(6) Hopefully, next update will not be so long from now, and it will
contain more sample output from our diplomat. In the meantime, what do
you all think of the not so far fetched idea of having JUDGE output
along with each set of results: the conjectured alliances and the
estimated strength of each player.

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
WORKLABRI; Universite de Bordeaux I; 33405 Talence Cedex France
PHONE(H)+(33) 56 31 48 26, (W)+(33) 56 84 69 05, (FAX) +(33) 56 84 66 69
    note new Fax number ========//

Game opening information:

If you are responding to the following, let me know what conference you
                                  saw it in.

*****************************************************************************
                               I need GMs!
*****************************************************************************

I need people who would like to standby in weird variants.  In particular,
the following games could use standbys:

LOEB9 RULES (9 players) Spain and Scandinavia are added as extra players.
GREAT BRITAIN RULES (7 players) Britain starts with 6 SC's but all armies!
1898 RULES (7 players) Regular map. Each player starts with only his capital.
YOUNGSTOWN RULES (10 players) Extended map including Asia and Africa.
ELEVEN PLAYER RULES (11 players) An 11 player game with extra countries.
SLOW WARP (7 players) Regular game with turns every three days.
WIN91 (7 players) Regular game with players who have either won or have been
                  in 2-way draws

====================================================================
Remember to give me your home phone number, work phone number, fax
phone number, home address, and list all seven countries in order of
preference when you sign up for my waiting list.  Also include a
list of your e-mail addresses.
====================================================================

Game #158 has been organized, it is a regular game.  GM is
jdr@u.washington.edu.  Players are:

England    gpk8571@dijkstra.UnivNorthCo.EDU
  Italy      bes@saturn.graphics.cornell.edu
  Turkey     ASDAV@ASUACAD.BITNET
  Germany    curly@Athena.MIT.EDU
  Russia     n0kernic@teaching.cs.adelaide.edu.au
  France     T89_DANIEL@pelle.tdb.uu.se
  Austria    JRCARR@grove.iup.edu

Game #159 has been organized, it is a regular game.  GM is
jdr@u.washington.edu.  Players are:

England    t89jan@bellatrix.tdb.uu.se
  Russia     S9GK7@starburst.uscolo.edu
  Turkey     91056703@ramsey.cs.laurentian.ca
  Austria    BRUMMM@DMRHRZ11.BITNET
  Germany    styx@Athena.MIT.EDU
  France     jss0235@dijkstra.UnivNorthCo.EDU
  Italy      bean@ra.cgd.ucar.EDU

I am organizing games #160+ of Diplomacy, I am currently looking for
GMs (for regular and variant games in both my electronic and postal
zines), GM standbys, player standbys, scribes, and players.  If you
would like to help out in a bureaucratic position, let me know.  I
have plenty of paper shuffling jobs that need to be filled!  Also if
your game ever has problems, PLEASE CONTACT ME!  Also let me know
if there are any mistakes in this game opening message.

If you don't own Diplomacy, you can buy it at your local hobby store
or from Avalon Hill directly.  Avalon Hill's prices are $25.00 for
the game, or $10.00 for the mapboard, $5.00 for the rules, $2.00 for
the basic rules sheet, $5.00 for the game pieces, and $3.00 for a set
of 7 conference maps.  They also sell a Gamer's Guide to Diplomacy
which I think is great for $8 + $3.00 shipping.  Their phone numbers
are 1-800-999-3222 and (301) 254-5300.  Address is 4517 Harford Road,
Baltimore, MD 21214.  Postage and handling is $4.00/$5.00 for U.S,
$8.00/$10.00 for Canada and $12.00/$15.00 for anywhere else with the
first number being for orders $10.01 to $25.00 and the other number
being for orders from $25.01 to $35.00.  Also, there is a neat IBM
compatible Diplomacy program named Judge.  To get it send $30.00
US/Canadian to Les Casey, 33 Nestrow Dr., Nepean, Ontario, K2G 4M2,
Canada.  Judge is fantastic for GMing!

Other programs of similar quality are avaiable for free:

"Diplomacy Adjudicator" by Ken Lowe (jdr@u.washington.edu) is
a program which accepts Diplomacy orders in a file or my electronic
mail and computes and mails the results. A very sophisticated
program.  Is written in C.

"Diplomat Interface" by Danny Loeb (loeb@geocub.greco-prog.fr) is a
program in LCS design for the Diplomacy Programming Project moves are
entered in Suntools or X windows or by other computer programs, and
the results are returned in the same way.  Is written in LCS and is
designed for use by automatic diplomacy playing programs.

**
Please indicate whether you have any preference in regards to
participating in a regular diplomacy game where the GM is assisted by
an automatic adjudicating program.  Your moves would then have to be
written in a certain format, but your results would come out quicker
and be more accurate.  For more information, send the message HELP to
judge@u.washington.edu.
**

REGULAR Diplomacy game waiting list:

gsinghma@romulus.reed.edu/Gaurav Prakash Singhmar
jrawles@leland.stanford.edu/Jody Rawles
rmk@fusion.ph.utexas.edu/Rodney Kinney (after Feb 19)
Anders.Dessmark@dna.lth.se/Anders Dessmark
kucera@cs.ucdavis.edu/George W. Kucera
set1@cec1.wustl.edu/Scott Edward Topper
Citation_-_Insurance@cup.portal.com/Doug Waidhofer
rgd3729@tamsun.tamu.edu/Greg Dilworth
celovine@COLBY.EDU/Chris Lovine
j$m@fccj.bitnet/Eddie Brown
hrs000@atl.cecafi.unam.mx/Hector Augusto Sosa Rojas
70262.3404@CompuServe.COM/Andrew Appel

WORK Diplomacy game waiting list:

tomh@tellabs.com/Tom Huber

This is a regular diplomacy game for people in the U.S. who have
access to Usenet from their work place.

BORN Diplomacy game waiting list:

sadun@math.utexas.edu/Lorenzo Sadun (Italy)
genesch@envnet2.gsfc.nasa.gov/Gene Schwartzman (Russia)

This is a regular diplomacy game where you play the country you
were born in or where your parents were born.

CHAOS Diplomacy game waiting list:

None.

Every supply center is played by a different player (and builds
are not restricted to "home" centers).  We need 34 players!
To get rules, send GET INFO.CHAOS to judge@u.washington.edu.

The ongoing Chaos games need standbys.  To be a standby, contact both
me and jdr@u.washington.edu/Ken Lowe.

REGULAR French Diplomacy waiting list:

Waiting list held by GM.

Just one more is needed!  Sign up today!

This is a game where all negotiations and press announcments are done in
French.  Let me know if you are also willing to do variants in the French
language.

REGULAR Dutch Diplomacy waiting list:

louis@mbfys.kun.nl/Louis Lenders (cf)
daniel@cs.kun.nl/Daniel Tuijnman (cf)
muts@fys.ruu.nl/Peter Mutsaers (cf)
andre@duteina.tudelft.nl/Andre Verweij (and will GM the next Dutch game) (cf)

This is a game where all negotiations and press announcments are done in
Dutch.

REGULAR German Diplomacy waiting list:

dotzek@ds0lilog.BITNET/Karl Dotzek (cf)
hottenro@informatik.tu-muenchen.de/Bertrand Hottenroth

This is a game where all negotiations and press announcments are done in
German.

REGULAR Latin Diplomacy waiting list:

mccarthy@jezebel.wustl.edu/John McCarthy
arc@mundoe.maths.mu.OZ.AU/Andrew Conway
norrish_m@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz/Jamie Norrish

This is a game where all negotiations and press announcments are done in
Latin.

ELEVEN Player variant waiting list:

randy@ms.uky.edu/Randy Appleton
stamos@suna0.cs.uiuc.edu/Bill Stamos

To get the rules send the command GET INFO.CROWDED to
judge@u.washington.edu.

1898 waiting list:

morzinpl@rosevc.rose-Hulman.Edu/Peter Morzinski

The difference is that the game starts in Winter 1898 with each
country having one unit.  Each country must capture its other
home centers before it can build in them.

1914 waiting list:

* SIGN UP -- THIS FIVE PLAYER GAME IS ABOUT TO GET OFF THE GROUND *

cubranic@usmcp6.bitnet/Davor Cubranic (cf)
BUMP@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu/Jon Rothstein (observer)
paulg@frith.egr.msu.edu/Greg Paul (cf) (or will GM)
stamos@suna0.cs.uiuc.edu/Bill Stamos
jmike@mathworks.com/J. Michael Hammond (cf)
randy@ms.uky.edu/Randy Appleton (cf)
haha@vipunen.hut.fi/Harri Haanpaa (Observer)

The 1914 variant of Diplomacy is based on an article in The General.
(The General is published by the manufacturer of Diplomacy to give
you an idea of how good this variant must be!)  This game is much
more realistic than regular Diplomacy, you even can get bombers
starting in Winter 1917.

ROUND-ROBIN GUNBOAT waiting list:

2, need 5 more.

This is where you play in 7 different no press gunboat games,
playing as a different country in each game.

GUNBOAT waiting list:

10 people.  I have sent a message to these people, the first 7
who respond get in.  If anyone else sends me mail before the game
is filled they can also get in.

In this variant, you don't know who the other people are and can
only communicate through press.

To get the rules send the command GET INFO.GUNBOAT to
judge@u.washington.edu.

NO PRESS GUNBOAT waiting list:

8 people.  Need a GM!

In this variant, you don't know who the other players are and
you can't even communicate to them through press.  I obviously
could use a GM for this game!

NO PRESS GUNBOAT WARP waiting list:

4 people.  None of these people have been confirmed yet.
You should remind me that you want to be in this game if
you haven't heard from me.

NO PRESS GUNBOAT WITH NO RESTRICTIONS waiting list:

5 creatures, need 2 more.

In this variant, players are not restricted to the human race.

BLIND DIPLOMACY waiting list:

* I need more players for this game! *

paulg@frith.egr.msu.edu/Greg Paul (in Jan (cf))
tedrick@ernie.berkeley.edu/Tom Tedrick
stamos@suna0.cs.uiuc.edu/Bill Stamos
pinky@vipunen.hut.fi/Tomi Kaartama
cheng@milton.u.washington.edu/Cheng Chi Ku (cf)

In this variant, the locations of all pieces are secret.  You
discover the locations of enemy pieces when you attack them or are
attacked by them.  You also discover the location of enemy pieces by
spying.  Each country begins with 2 spies, in any home centers.  You
lose a spy if you lose your capital, and both spies if you lose all
your home centers.  Spies that are destroyed are replaced each year
in any home territory provided that you have enough home centers to
support them.

Each spy may: move, hold, or counter espionage.  Spies themselves are
completely invisible -- they may move through any space regardless of
the presence of other units.  Spies are never dislogded, and can only
be destroyed by counter espionage.  A spy performing conter espionage
kills all enemy spies in the area.  If two spies both CE the same
area, both die.  If a spy survives, it provides complete information
on the unit occupying the area and its actions in the just completed
turn.

WARP BLIND DIPLOMACY waiting list:

akuo@scam.berkeley.edu/Augie Kuo
dm8sstaf@miamiu.bitnet/Douglas M. MacFarlane
murphy@dg-rtp.dg.com/John Murphy

This is blind Diplomacy with one or two day turns.

CLASSIC DIPLOMACY waiting list:

rnlee@sdcc6.ucsd.edu/Roderick Lee

In this game we follow the original rulebook and board from the 1958
edition of Diplomacy.  In this game you actually place armies on top
of fleets to convoy them (at the rate of one unit per turn) and have
neat places such as Mesopotamia and Persia.  My favorite change is
that Switzerland is a neutral supply center!

WARP DIPLOMACY waiting list:

None.  (I may have one opening in a brand new game, so send me e-mail
if you'd like to get in it ASAP.)

Turns will be either every day or every other day, majority vote.

SLOW WARP DIPLOMACY waiting list:

turner@alessia.dei.unipd.it/Andrea Viscovich (cf)
jrb@tahoe.unr.edu/John R Becker (cf)
germain@asylum.utah.edu/Jim de St. Germain (cf)

Turns will be every three days

WIN92 waiting list:

wcollins@eniac.seas.upenn.edu/Walter J. Collins, III
gary@chema.ucsd.edu/Gary Samad
jmodonne@owucomcn.bitnet/Jason M. O'Donnell
keithm@mips.com/Keith Mortensen

This is a regular Diplomacy game for people who have won previous
e-mail games or have participated in 2-way draws.  There will be
just one game next year, with the cream of the crop.

ULTIMATE SHAMBLES waiting list:

* I need one more player for this game! *

cheng@milton.u.washington.edu/Cheng Chi Ku (cf)
mckibbim@grin1.bitnet/Michael A McKibbin (cf)
roger@nuacc.bitnet/Roger Safian (cf)
swb@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/Steve Buffum (cf)
ccm007@deneb.ucdavis.edu or jvbanagan@ucdavis.edu/John Banagan (cf)
greg@cpsc.ucalgary.ca/Greg James (cf)

I am currently making sure all players are interested as I think
I have a GM for this game.  There is a good chance I'll be short a
player, so now is a very good time to sign up for Ultimate Shambles!

In this variant, everyone gets 4 supply centers randomly assigned
in the first turn, and then gets 3 builds the following turn.  The
game proceeds normally from there.  If you consider having your units
spread all over the place normal.  This game requires much more
Diplomacy than normal since everyone is your neighbor!

DISBAND VARIANT waiting list:

stamos@suna0.cs.uiuc.edu/Bill Stamos
pl436000@brownvm.bitnet/Jamie Dreier
fqoj@cornella.bitnet/Roger Jagoda
tedrick@ernie.berkeley.edu/Tom Tedrick

In this game you can voluntarily disband units.

YOUNGSTOWN waiting list:

stuart_s@ocf.berkeley.edu/Steven Stuart (cf)
starkey@netcom.com/Sean Starkey (cf)
llewelpj@newton.ccs.tuns.ca/Peter John Llewellyn (cf)

I have a bunch more people that I'm about to confirm, NOW IS THE
TIME TO SIGN UP FOR YOUNGSTOWN!

Youngstown is a 10 player game on a map that includes the countries
of Japan, China, and India and double the number of provinces and
supply centers.

For rules, send GET INFO.YOUNGSTOWN and GET MAP.YOUNGSTOWN or GET
YOUNGSTOWN.PS to judge@u.washington.edu.

Other Variants
--------------
Judge@u.washington.edu also has the following info:

Great Britain variant - GET INFO.BRITIAN
9 player variant - GET INFO.LOEB9 and GET LOEB9.PS
Machiavelli - GET INFO.MACHIAVELLI
Pure - GET INFO.PURE
Grey and Black press - GET PRESS

********************************************************************
                             POSITIONS
********************************************************************
Player standby list
-------------------
loeb@geocub.greco-prog.fr/Daniel E. Loeb (1 or 2 unit positions or WIN91)
paulg@frith.egr.msu.edu/Greg Paul (ultimate shambles)
sun!uunet.uu.net!tnc!m0103/David Breeding (blind, reg, no warp
copeland@mssun3.msi.cornell.edu/Scott Copeland (reg)
arc@mundoe.maths.mu.OZ.AU/Andrew Conway (French)
dotzek@ds0lilog.BITNET/Karl Dotzek (German)

GM standby list
---------------
pl436000@brownvm.bitnet/Jamie Dreier (For Judge games only)
loeb@geocub.greco-prog.fr/Daniel E. Loeb (For Judge games only)
durrell@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu/Bryant Durrell (Prefers Judge games)

A standby takes over a game that has lost its GM.  If I run out of GMs,
I will also use standby GMs to start games.

Scribes
-------
cmmjr@flight-sim.gatech.edu/Cliff McKeithan
loeb@nestor.greco-prog.fr/Daniel Loeb (Diplomacy articles only)

A scribe types articles so I can reprint them in this zine.  I will
supply xeroxes.  Let me know how many pages you wish to type.  Let's
keep my wrists brace-free!

E-mail Wizards
--------------
swb@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/Steve Buffum
andre@hern.stonemarche.org/Andre' Wood
eisen@cs.jhu.edu or eisen@jhuvms.bitnet/Hal J Eisen
wcw27974@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu/Bill Wendling

An e-mail wizard helps people with e-mail problems.  If you can't
get mail to someone, contact an e-mail wizard.

Chapter Checkers
----------------
norrish@st1.vuw.ac.nz/Michael Norrish (Chapter One)

A chapter checker helps makes sure that a chapter is running smoothly.
I.e. that it is being published and that the games in it are also
being published.  Having some chapter checkers is critical for this
zine's long term health.  For the record, Michael has been my first
competent chapter checker.  Three cheers for Michael!  Cheer!  Cheer!
Cheer!

Guest Publishers
----------------
uunet!cti1!rlister or rlister@cti.com/Russ Lister (Chapter One)
loeb@geocub.greco-prog.fr/Daniel E. Loeb (Chapter Two)
mad-2@kub.nl/Constantijn Wekx (Chapter Three)
vacant (Chapter Four)
vacant (Chapter Five)
barry@brahms.udel.edu/Barry Fausnaugh (Chapter Six)
vacant (Chapter Seven)

A guest publisher takes the results of about 5 games and publishes
them in a chapter, twice a week.  I NEED another guest publisher!  This
is my most important position.

Archivers
---------
jlitvin@swtec1.intel.com/John Litvin
judge@u.washington.edu - Receive summaries of games by asking for
SUMMARY <name-of-game>

An archiver stores on disk one or more chapters of the zine.  This
very important position will allow me to recreate records of games
in case their GMs abandon them.  You may also ask for past issues
from an archiver.  REMEMBER to include your e-mail address in any
messages sent to an archiver.

GM waiting list
---------------
niekd@cs.kun.nl/Niek van Diepen (Dutch)
wsbusr1@urc.tue.nl/Boudewijn Wayer (Dutch)
loeb@nestor.greco-prog.fr/Daniel Loeb (French and WIN92)
claudius@leland.stanford.edu/Nelson Lu (Latin)
Greg_Pearson@ub.cc.umich.edu/Greg Pearson (Eleven Player Ultimate Shambles)
pl436000@brownvm.bitnet/Jamie Dreier (no press round-robin gunboat)
thorinn@diku.dk/Lars Henrik Mathiesen (blind or shambles)
starkey@netcom.com/Sean Starkey (blind)

*-*-*-* SPECIAL NOTICES *-*-*-*

To get an updated list of the (non-unlisted) games on the JUDGE,
send the message "LIST" to JUDGE@U.WASHINGTON.EDU

Publisher comments:

Quote is from p. 247 of The Las Vegas Telephone Directory.

I'm starting to settle into Las Vegas.  I'm enjoying it a lot more than
Taxachusetts.  Not only is the unearned income tax a lot lower (0% compared
to 12%), but the state has a lot more of a Libertarian slant.  The local
grocery store has a great selection of food and ... a small casino in it
complete with cashier and policeman and a check cashing service and a
money order service and of course an ATM machine.  Wherever you go,
you see slot machines and video poker machines, it starts with the airport
and ends with the 7-11s.  It's a wild environment!  Also, all the streets
are overbuilt and they have placed highways in key places so you can go
from one end of the city to the other in twenty-five minutes.  It's a
breeze to get around in!

I should start cranking out a lot more issues now that I am now longer
a wage slave.  I only have to do a few more things to settle down such
as upgrading my computer a bit more and getting local car insurance and
then I'll have a lot more time to devote to Diplomacy.

Also, you have probably noticed that more and more of our games are
being played on Judge.  I am doing this on purpose because games on
Judge have a much better trackrecord than non Judge games.  The reason
behind this is that Judge games only have to worry about lousy players
not lousy GMs.  Over time, less and less games in this zine will be
non Judge games.  But I'll probably always have some non Judge games.

******************************************************************************
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.
******************************************************************************