Diplomacy Magazine -- Chapter Two From: loeb@geocub.UUCP (Daniel LOEB) Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1991 08:23:05 +0000 Issue #267 of Chapter Two of the Electronic Protocol By Daniel Loeb (loeb@geocub.greco-prog.fr) December 20, 1991 ------------------------------------------------------------- Electronic Protocol Games played on the Diplomacy Adjudicator ------------------------------------------------------------- **** TABLE OF CONTENTS **** PART ONE - Opinions, Letters, and Editorials: The Subtle Joys of Being Little Letter to the Editor PART TWO - Summary of all moderated games on the Judge: List of game openings List of EP games on the DA For more info PART THREE - Reports from the battlefront: Agincourt Endgame Report 1898 variant ***** PART ONE ***** **** THE SUBTLE JOYS OF BEING LITTLE **** Reprinted from RUNESTONE #91 (9/2/75) editor John Leeder by Rod Walker There is too much emphasis on WINNING in the hobby. That is as true now as it was ten years ago. The hobby has been flooded with articles on how to "win" at this, and "win" at that, how to stalemate and draw, how to make big gains, &c, &c. There is rampant a school of thought (I use the term loosely) which states that if you do not "win" or "draw", you have "lost". The most outspoken member of this bunch of egomaniacs is Andy Phillips. The most remarkable is John Beshara, who refuses to take a replacement position small than 15 units and has declared in writing that he will not play under a GM who won't guarantee to restrict his replacements list to Besh's friends. Such are the extremes to which the "win-only" school can lead. These people have lost sight of the true fun of Diplomacy; playing the game. You can do that with one unit. Does it really matter how you end up? When the game is over, it is OVER, and the fun derived from playing it is also over. I would rather play an entire game with only one unit than win it. The challenge (in this case, of staying alive), the excitement, the fun are all there. A corollary of the deluded "win" philosophy is the silly notion that a 1- or 2-unit position isn't worth finding a replacement for. ANY position, no matter how small, may be a very important one, a vital situation, ineresting and exciting to play. It may even determine the final outcome of the game. I have over the years made something of a speciality of playing small replacement positions. I enjoy them; there are very relaxing because you have nothing at stake to begin with and you can do what you want. Those who have played such positions with any regularity can certainly testify that some of them turn out to be quite suprising. There was, for instance, a 2-unit Italy which Conrad von Metzke converted into a win. An example I always cite is a 1-unit Austria I took over. I made my first moves in the Fall. In the previous Spring, my single army had been dislodged from Vienna and was in Bohemia. Russia and Turkey were allied and were sweeping the board. Hopeless? Not at all. I allied with Russia, talked him into stabbing Turkey, recovered my entire homeland and ended the game with 6 centers and 2nd place. Despite the fact that I perforce was hitched to the Russian star, it was an interestingand vital game to play, especially since I had a large hand in managing the Russian victory campaign. I've alos taken over positions which were hopeless right to the end. So what? Think of the brilliant KAMIKAZEE attacks and suicide missions, the flare of tactics that holds up the potential victor and gives the winner's laurel to somebody else. You can do that, even with one unit. Can can also help create a stalemate line. There is considerable challenge to this because the orders of two or more players have to be coordinated, and there is always the excitement of the unexpected stab, the missed deadline the leads to breakthough, and so on. Winning a game can be exciting, too, of course. The point is that ANY position can create its own blend of uncertainty and suspense and suprise which are the elements of excitement. I do not, personally, see any difference what, in the suspence of waiting to see if you've gotten your 18th center or lost your last one. So do not scorn the "little" positions. ------ [DL: I agree with the author that little positions are extremely interesting. As a GM, I let no position go unplayed. And as a player, I volunteer ONLY for small positions. As Austria, I was onlce faced with the lost of Trieste (my last center). But I convinced my opponents to convoy me to Tunis. I got bored there, and the same opponents wanted Tunis for themselves, so I got convoyed again---this time to Spain. Where could I go from there, to build, I needed to recapture Austria, so I started marching. Eventually, I got Marseilles. And I entered Piedmont several times only to run back to Marseilles to make sure I kept a supply center. Eventually, I was forced out to Spain, and then kicked to Portugal. I survived another year or two in Portugal until a fleet got around in the waning years of the game to extinguish the hard lasting Austrian flame. In another game (Tokugawa), I took over a decimated Austria, and turned it around. I finished with 10SC's in a 5-way draw due to a stalemate line held by the Northern powers against me and Turkey. Thus, you can see the interest of position has little to do with its strength. However, once I take a position. I try to play it rationally, and I expect other players to do the same. Here I disagree with the author. To me, rational play means trying for the smallest draw possible preferably a solo win. Obviously, survival is a prequisite for any kind of a draw. However, between various hopes at survival, I always chose the one that least prejudices my already miserable chances at victory. For example, in the first game mentioned above, I tried returning to Austria even though I perhaps would have been safe staying in Spain. In the example the author gives, Austria becomes a total puppet of his master. While I might engage in a temporary puppoet agreement, and I admit that unfaithfullness is a strategy to be employed only when needed. I can except being someone's toady till the very end as a sort of rational behavior. In an ideal rational diplomacy game, eliminations are rare and game balance is maintained, since everyone joins up against the current big threat. On final comment, it is *NOT* always Austria who is the small power. In fact, I think Austria and Italy are when well-played two of the best countries. All of the above examples involved Austria, since Austria is surrounded by so many powers that it (and Germany) have the best chances of recovering from a setback.] **** LETTER TO THE EDITOR **** Unindented: reply from Loeb Indented: letter from Karl Dotzek DOTZEK@DS0LILOG.bitnet why is it called EP Chapter Two? What is chapter one (,three, four,..) - am I missing something? Eric Klien publishes a ordinary magazine PROTOCOL. A few years ago he branched off into Electronic Mail. As the number of games grow, he could not control them all, and started recruiting first guest GM's and then guest publishers. These guest publishers are fairly independant. We all share the EP name, his house rules, and the EP backup player list. My chapter (Two) is the only one the covers exclusively games played on the JUDGE. I noticed a mistake in the games overview: the CROWDED variant starts with 11 players, *four* are squeezed in! Correction noted. See below. Why not list unmoderated games played on the judge, too? This would make it easier to find alternates or temporary players. Some info about the progress of the games could be taken from the summary of each game (of course quite some editing work). If there's good press going on in this games, why not mention some of it. Maybe some of the active players could send in a review from time to time (doing the job, the GM does usually). One unmoderated game I'm in is the youngstown 'java', which has many active players. We are before the moves of spring 1902. So no problem for observers and alternates to join in. It is now delayed for Christmas holidays until 14th of January 1992. Another game that finally took off is 'water': we had some difficulties in it, as two players jumped off before the first move was in. Luckily the moves for Spring 1901 have been submitted and processed. The game is delayed till 7th of January 1992. I have published from time-to-time reports of unmoderated games. The problem is finding people to write them. Regarding the capsule updates. I avoid listing unmoderated games for several reasons. One is that there is no reason to expect they are being run according to EP house rules. Another is in order to encourage people to run and play in moderated game. Finally, this information is already somewhat available direction from the JUDGE. Nevertheless, if a player from an unmoderated game, promises to serve as "game-contact" and to write regular game-updates. Then I will give him a line in my capsule summary list. Some remark to 'croatia' (which is listed and moderated by Nick, who is in holidays right now): I don't want to go over my competences going over the GM's head, sending a comment to the game, but it seems to me more actual then the 'For less experienced players'. Germany is attacked from all sides, Turkey enters Russia. Ok, modification note. I tried to get the HALLOFFAME file from DIPL-L at MITVMA, but that seems not to exist anymore, it never showed up here. The other file of game openings is not much actual neither. Should be updated! The server at MITVMA was my first contact with the email dippy world, you can imagine how disappointed I was first, when I saw, that the files hadn't been updated since a long time. The HALLOFFAME and ONGOING GAMES on MITVMA are no longer updated. Is there any volunteer to do this? By the way, I direct your attention to an earlier article where I proposed that the JUDGE automatically create listings quite similar to HALLOFFAME. After this, all went straight with the help command send to the Diplomatic Adjudicator. That was only two months ago and now there's quite some time I sacrifice for the game. One could get kindof addicted to it. I agree. Thanks Ken. ***** PART TWO ***** **** LIST OF GAME OPENINGS **** Tiberius - Germany (2/2) - Please help us finish this game. Emu - Crowded rules - Germany (3/3), Lowland (3/3) No openings at this current moment. Although some temps might be needed (Eylau, Hastings) to cover January absences. Signups available for the following games in formation: normandy, conan, cannes, iena, iona, 7senuf, vega, poverty Please volunteer to be a GM. Note in particular that there are no STANDARD ENGLISH games in formation! **** LIST OF EP GAMES ON THE DA **** --- EXPLANATION --- Here is an update on games played on Judge. Each game is represented by a line of data (followed possibly by a line of comments --- please send me comments I can use if you are a GM!). The games are sorted according the the variant rules which are used. The 1st column gives the name of the game including a "#" if the game is a "private" or "unlisted" game. The 2nd column gives its Electronic Protocol number if available. If the game is published in another EP chapter (other than number two), then that is indicated after a slash. The 3rd column gives the name of the GM (see list of GMs below). The other columns give updates on this game in chronological order with the most recent entry on the right. The updates for a game in formation indicate the number of players needed to start. For example, -5. The updates for a game in progress indicate the season (F for Fall or S for Spring), the last 2 digits of the year, and the phase (M for movement, B for builds, and R for retreats). All this is possibly followed by the indication of the number of replacement players (-1), temporary replacements (T1) needed, or needed later on (*1). I'm listing the status of each game not only for this week but for the last several weeks, so that you can see not only where the game is, but how fast it is moving. Please tell me if this extra information is useful to you. --- LIST --- Name EP# GM Sep4 Oct4 Oct17 Nov4 Nov22 Dec5 Dec20 ------- --- -- ----- ----- ---- ---- ----- ---- ----- STANDARD RULES banditos 149 j_oregan S03M S03M F03R S05M F06M S07M F07M Black press is allowed marengo 129 scottb F01B S03M S04M S05M S06M F06M F07M Turkey reborn. Many countries homeless. osijek 137 cebulad S01M F02M F03M S04R S05M paris 134 skiman -5 -4 S01M S02M S03M F03M S04M portnoy 125 koll02 F09M F10M S11M F12M S14M F14M F15M sparrow 133 casmacin -1 S02R S03M F03B F04M S05R F05B Turkey pulls ahead with England close behind. Others envious tiberius 83/8 loeb F09M S10M F10M F11M F13M S14M S15M-1 weak Germany needed for endgame. Vacation till ~Jan 5. # normandy loeb -4 -2 -3 -3 -3 -3 All press will be written in French. Le jeu sera en francais. croatia 148 nick -2 S02M F02M F02R For beginners. Ger attacked from all sides, Tur enters Rus. muddle 150 durrell S01M S02M S03M 1 day/turn game. Most/all diplomacy carried out on a MUD. STANDARD GUNBOAT - Identities of players unknown. All messages are public. boadicea 147 pl436000 -6 S01M F04M F07M F08M S09M # khafji 138 skiman S01M S03M S05M F05M-1 Fast pace. No press. Delays over a few hours unacceptable. conan pl436000 -6 -5 -3 YOUNGSTOWN RULES (10 players) Extended map including Asia and Africa. dien 124 ken F07M F07B F08M F09M F10R F10B-1 S11M giggles dwiseman S02M S03M F03B F04B S06M S06R S07R Local ERIM game PURE RULES (7 players) Reduced map with only 7 spaces all connected. cannes loeb -5 -4 -5 -5 -4 -4 -4 LOEB9 RULES (9 players) Spain and Scandinavia are added as extra players. eylau loeb -4 -3 -3 S01M F01M F01B-1 S03M Rus/Nwy clash. Tur expands. Fra/Ger hard-pressed. On vacation December 23 - January 23. GREAT BRITAIN RULES (7 players) Britain starts with 6 SC's but all armies! hastings 139 loeb -3 S01M S01M-1 F01M S03M F03B F04M England gets one of his armies ashore. Pandora's box is open. CHAOS RULES (34 players) Regular map. Each SC is owned by a different player. fontenoy 114/4 ken S05R-6 S05R-6 F05M-5 S06M S07M F07R F08M 10 players left. Austria/Italy being overrun. iena ken -21 -21 -21 -18 -17 -22 -21 Ken recommends players resign and signon "iona" below iona ken -20 -15 Will start JANUARY 16 regardless of # of players (up to 34). SC's will be evenly divided at that time 1898 RULES (7 players) Regular map. Each player starts with only his capital. agincour 120 dmb F09M S10M S11M F12M F13M F14M *OVER* France wins. See below for endgame summary by GM. bataan dmb -6 -3 S99M-1 F99M F00M CROWDED RULES (11 players) 4 more players are squeezed in, leaving no neutrals. 7senuf ken -7 -5 -5 -5 -6 -6 -6 emu C9106225 S02M-4 S02R S02R-1 F02M-2 MACHIAVELLI RULES - An economic variant of Diplomacy marketed by Avalon Hills vega cebula -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -4 -3 dagger ken F54M ??? ??? S56R F56B S57M U57R poverty andre -6 -6 -6 **** FOR MORE INFO **** 1) FOR A PARTICULAR GAME: For more detailed information about game's current status: Send "LIST <name-of-game>" to JUDGE@U.WASHINGTON.EDU For the game's history: Send "SUMMARY <name-of-game>" to the JUDGE For regular game updates: Send "OBSERVE <name-of-game> <password>" to the JUDGE For a copy of the variant rules: Send "GET INFO.<name-of-variant>" or "GET PRESS" or "GET GUNBOAT" For other information (including house rules): Contact the GM. (See list below) 2) FOR THE JUDGE IN GENERAL: For general information about the judge, Send "HELP" to the JUDGE For an update of the list of games given above: Send "LIST" to JUDGE@U.WASHINGTON.EDU For a more detailed list: Send "LIST FULL" to the JUDGE To be informed of all changes in the list of games, Send "OBSERVE CONTROL <password>" to the JUDGE. For a copy of the default house rules: Send "GET EP.HOUSE.RULES" to the JUDGE. For other information: Contact me (loeb@geocub.greco-prog.fr) or Ken (jdr@u.washington.edu) 3) FOR THE ELECTRONIC PROTOCOL IN GENERAL: For general information: Contact the editor Eric Klien (eric_s_klien@cup.portal.com) 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 archivist, jlitvin@swtec1.intel.com/John Litvin **** LIST OF GAME MASTERS **** Brian Bacher bacherb@physics.orst.edu David M Bowen dmb@bigd.cray.com dmb@sequoia.cray.com Dave Cebula cebulad@physics.orst.edu Jamie Dreier pl436000@brownvm.brown.edu, pl436000@brownvm.bitnet Bryant Durrell durrell@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu Nicholas Fitzpatrick nick@sunburn.waterloo.edu Nawwar Kasrawi skiman@leland.stanford.edu Edward J Koll koll02@snybufva.bitnet Koll02@snybscva.bitnet Danny Loeb loeb@nestor.greco-prog.fr Ken Lowe jdr@u.washington.edu ken@milton.u.washington.edu Michael Luft scottb@cs.utexas.edu Sean MacIntosh casmacin@atlas.cs.upei.ca John Aidan O'Regan J_ORegan%csvax1@iruccvax.UCC.IE Andre Verweij andre@duteina.tudelft.nl andre@hlniob.uucp ***** PART THREE ***** **** AGINCOURT ENDGAME REPORT 1898 VARIANT **** by Dave Bowen GM dmb@bigd.cray.com Agincourt, the first 1898 variant played on the judge, ended in a French victory in 1914 after several years of trench warfare. In the 1898 variant each player starts with one supply center and must capture its other home centers before they can be used for builds. It follows that if you want to have four units on the board at the start on 1901, you need to capture a home center in 1899. England and Austria forgot that rule and captured Norway and Rumania in their first year. That forgetfulness contributed to their early departure from the game. France used its home centers plus Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Liverpool to take a lead it never gave up in 1902. It expanded that lead by expanding into Germany and German occupied England while Italy, Russia, and Turkey were busy devouring Austria. Then in 1910 the juggernaut ground to a halt as the Eastern Alliance established their defense line. It wasn't until 1913 that France was able to guess right and "hit 'em where they ain't". The fall of Rome led to the downfall of Italy and a French victory the following year. Congratulations to Dave Wiseman on a well played game and thanks to all of the people who participated in it. COMMENT BY DANIEL LOEB: If as Dave Bowen says, it is a terrible mistake to take any non-home supply centers at the beginning of the game, then after spending a couple of years playing you are bound to come to a situation very similar to that at the beginning of a diplomacy game. In other words, the first couple of years are a waste of time. The interest in diplomacy is the conflict, so I don't see the point in delaying this conflict. Summary of game Agincourt Austria: Martin Snow HRSMARTY%HRS.SPAN@STAR.STANFORD.EDU England: J.J. Lehett JJL101@PSUVM.PSU.EDU France: David Wiseman dwiseman@spsd4360a.erim.org Germany: Don Kremer djk@SU19AB.ess.harris.com from S1905M: Matt Ender ender2@husc.harvard.edu Italy: Michael J. Scholl nvq@l.cc.purdue.edu from F1903M: Mauri Krouse mauri%psych@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU from F1906M: Dave Cebula cebulad@physics.orst.edu Russia: Roger Safian roger@casbah.acns.nwu.edu Turkey: Piotr Prussak pprussak@cs.buffalo.edu from F1907M: Edward J Koll KOLL02@SNYBUFVA.BITNET Historical Supply Center Summary -------------------------------- 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 1898 . . I . E . . F . . . . . . . G . . . . R . . . . . T . . . . . . A 1899 . I I . E . . F . F . . . . G G . . . E R R . . . . T . A . . . . A 1900 I I I . E E . F . F F . . . G G . G . E E R R R . T T . A I . . A A 1901 I I I I E E . F . F F F F G G G . G G E R R R R T T T T A I A A I A 1902 I I I I G G F F F F F F F E G G . G G R R R R R T T T T R I A A A I 1903 I I I I G F F F F F F F F G F G G G G G R R R R T T T T R I T A I I 1904 I I I I G F F F F F F F F G I G G G G G R R R R T T T T R T I R I A 1905 I I I I F F F F F F F F F F G G I G G G R R R R T T T T R T I R R A 1906 I I I I F F F F F F F F F F F I G G R G R R R R T T T T R T R R I R 1907 I I F F F F F F F F F F F F I F F G R F R R R R T T T T R T R R R R 1908 R I F F F F F F F F F F F F I F I F R F R R R R T T T T R T T R R R 1909 R I T F F F F F F F F F F F I F I F F F F R R R T T T T R T T R R R 1910 R T T F F F F F F F F F F F I F I F F F F R R R T T T T R T T R R R 1913 R F T F F F F F F F F F F F I F I F F F F R R R T T T T R T T R R R 1914 R F T F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F R R R T T T T R T T R R R History of Supply Center Counts ------------------------------- Power 1898 '99 '00 '01 '02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 Player Austria 1* 2 3 4 3 1 1 1 Martin Snow England 1* 2 4* 3 1 J.J. Lehett France 1* 2 3 5 7 9 8 10 11 15* David Wiseman Germany 1* 2 3 5 6 7 7 \ Don Kremer 5 3 1 Matt Ender Italy 1* 2 4 6 6 \ Michael J. Scholl 7 7 6 \ Mauri Krouse 6 3 Dave Cebula Russia 1* 2 3 4 6 5 6 7 9 10 Roger Safian Turkey 1* 1 2 4 4 5 5 5 5 \ Piotr Prussak 5 Edward J Koll Index: 1 3 10 20 26 32 32 33 38 51 Power 1908 '09 '10 '13 '14 Player France 15 16 16 17 19 David Wiseman Italy 3 3 2 2 Dave Cebula Russia 10 8 8 8 8 Roger Safian Turkey 6 7 8 7 7 Edward J Koll Index: 52 54 55 58 67 * = 1 unused build. Up