Diplomacy zine -- Blind Diplomacy From: Eric_S_Klien@cup.portal.com Date: Wed, 23 Aug 1989 22:56:37 +0000 Issue #91 of ELECTRONIC PROTOCOL: Chapter One contains: D-DAY, NAVARONE, BLITZKRIEG, OPERATION OVERLORD, GETTYSBURG, and HMS HOOD And is published by Daybell@aludra.usc.edu/Donald Daybell Chapter Two contains: DRAGONSPLAYER, DOUGHBOY, BISMARK, COLD WAR and JACAL And is published by Tedward@cs.cornell.edu/Ted Fischer (I will print all the chapter twos that have been missed, our first two chapter one guest publishers had inadequate mailers. All GMs please send future turns to Ted, thanks!) ------------- Chapter Three ------------- The game MAELSTROM (BNC number 1989AA) I will gladly print any endgame statements that I receive. Fall '01 of the game TANNENBURG (BNC number not known) (GM is Ebrosius@lucy.wellesley.edu/Eric Brosius) All Twelve Neutrals Overrun! AUSTRIA (Ledoux) F alb-GRE, A SER S F alb-gre, A TRI H. ENGLAND (Hosek) A edi-NWY, F NRG C A edi-nwy, F nth-HEL. FRANCE (Snyder) A bur-BEL, F mid-POR, A SPA S F mid-por. GERMANY (Krywolt) A kie-DEN, F HOL H, A MUN H. ITALY (Farebrother) A tus-PIE, F tyn-TUN, A VEN H. RUSSIA (Jordan) A lna-SWE, F BOT C A lna-swe, A ukr-RUM, F SEV S A ukr-RUM. TURKEY (Shook) ((A BUL-gre)), ((A CON-bul)), F ank-BLA. Supply Center Chart: A (5 ctrs): vie, bud, tri, SER, GRE build 2 E (4 ctrs): lon, lpl, edi, NWY build 1 F (6 ctrs): par, mar, bre, SPA, POR, BEL build 3 G (5 ctrs): ber, mun, kie, HOL, DEN build 2 I (4 ctrs): rom, ven, nap, TUN build 1 R (6 ctrs): mos, war, sev, stp, SWE, RUM build 2 T (4 ctrs): con, smy, ank, BUL build 1 GAME NOTES The deadline for Winter, 1901 builds is ***Tuesday, August 22 at midnight EDT*** [that's Tuesday!!!] You must all submit build instructions by then. I hope to mail out the Winter adjudication early Wednesday morning. Your deadline for Spring, 1902 will then fall on Sunday, August 27 at 10PM EDT. Thanks for getting your orders submitted in plenty of time for me to check things over. This makes the game better for everyone. Whenever I must deduce a move from your other moves I feel obliged to report it. I'm not trying to be critical or show you up, but I feel funny fixing your moves even if it's clear what you wanted. England did not write a separate order for A Edi, but I could easily guess what he wanted by the convoy order given to F Nrg. Again, please write a separate order for each unit; it's easier to catch mistakes that way. PRESS GM-Board: The moves and negotiations are the most important part of the game. Nevertheless you are welcome to submit press. Sometimes a clever piece of press is more memorable than the moves. END OF PRESS Autumn and Winter '01 of the game TANNENBURG (BNC number not known) (GM is Ebrosius@lucy.wellesley.edu/Eric Brosius) Not received yet. (I don't have the world's fast connection with Eric.) Spring '01 of the gunboat game VERDUN (MNC number not known) (GM is Sccs6069@iruccibm.bitnet/Michael O'Regan) Due date not set yet. GM comments: My wrist is falling apart, does anyone have a scanner machine? (Or would like to become the human equivalent for an article or two?) I need two more people for my first game of Blind Diplomacy and two more for my first 1914 game of Diplomacy. The following message was posted by okamoto@hpccc.HP.COM/Jeff Okamoto: dougi@utastro.UUCP (Doug Ingram) asks: > I've never heard of the "Blind Diplomacy" variant, but > from reading the previous posting, it sounds great! Could someone > please post (or mail) a summary of the rules for this variant? > Sounds like a perfect pbem game...perhaps a variant that Eric > would care to run through his zine (Eric?). Here are the set of rules that I will use for any future Blind Diplomacy that I run. It's based on the BAD (Blind Armor Dip) rules that Richard used in 2BAD, with some minor clarifications. (Although I am thinking about the order of spies moves: do they move first, or does CE work first? If CE works first, then you could conceivably set up a "Line of Death", which Scott and Pete and I attempted to do in order to deceive the West.) -----Begin Rules Rules for the "Blind Diplomacy" variant: Regular Diplomacy rules apply except that one cannot "see" the entire board. A country can always "see" within its own borders. However, a country can not see around its own borders unless it has units in its border territories. E.g., France can't see what's in Piedmont unless it has a piece in Marseilles (or another territory adjacent to Piedmont). The following territories are consideed "within a country's borders": Austria: Trl, Boh, Gal, Vie, Bud, Tri England: Cly, Edi, Lpl, Yor, Wal, Lon France: Bre, Pic, Par, Bur, Gas, Mar Germany: Kie, Ber, Pru, Ruh, Mun, Sil Italy: Pie, Ven, Rus, Rom, Apu, Nap Russia: Fin, StP, Liv, Mos, War, Ukr, Sev Turkey: Con, Ank, Arm, Smy, Syr A country's units (and Spies) can "see" *all* territories adjacent to their current position. The only other way to discover the positions of foreign units is through diplomacy. A ranking of countries in order of supply centers owned will be made public at the end of each year. The number of supply centers is NOT made public. SPIES: Each country will have two Spies (abbreviated by 'S'). Spies can start in any home territory. 1) Spies can do one of three things in a turn: a) move (abbreviated '-' or '->'), b) perform counter-espionage (abbreviated 'CE'). c) hold (abbreviated 'H'). Spies cannot do both in one turn. Spies may move into *any* territory. A counter-espionage action kills all enemy Spies in the same territory or moving into the same territory as your Spy. 2) One can never have more Spies than home supply centers. 3) A country will lose one spy if its capital is controlled by an enemy unit. The capitals are considered to be: Austria: Vienna, England: London, France: Paris, Germany: Berlin, Italy: Rome, Russia: St. Petersburg, Turkey: Constantinople. The spy will be regained when the country's capital is controlled. 4) A country's original Spies may be "rebuilt" in a home supply center provided that rule (2) is not violated. Spies may be rebuilt during any season. 5) Spies may occupy the same territory as other units. 6) A Spy can only be killed by counterespionage, not by the usual dislodgement rules. Two or more Spies may exist in the same territory provided that none perform counter-espionage. 7) Spies are usually invisible. However, if two Spies occupy or move into the same territory, they can see each other. 8) The gamesmaster will not report whose Spy has killed any of your Spies through counter-espionage. However, if your Spy kills another Spy, you will be advised of the deceased Spy's identity. 9) If three or more Spies occupy or move to the same territory and two of them are ordered to perform counter-espionage, all Spies in that territory are killed. 10) If three or more Spies occupy or move to the same territory and one of them is ordered to perform counter-espionage, all other Spies in that territory are killed. 11) No spies are allowed in Switzerland. Any spy that attempts to enter will be interned. In practical terms, the spy is lost, but may be rebuilt as per rule (4). Remember: a Spy can only move or perform counter-espionage in a turn. MISSING MOVES, RETREATS, DISBANDS, BUILDS: 1) If no moves are received for a country, that country's forces will hold or support each other. I make this ruling to improve the integrity of the game--if moves don't arrive in time, complete Civil Disorder will not reign. I will assume that a country will at least defend itself. This change will not allow a country to take easy advantage of another's Civil Disorder. 2) If conditional retreats are not received with a set of orders and a unit must retreat, that unit will make a random, "homeward" retreat. 3) If conditional disbands are not received with a set of orders and a country is required to disband a unit, the one furthest from the homeland will be disbanded in accordance with Diplomacy rule XIV.4 (Civil Disorder Removals). 4) If conditional builds are not received with a set of orders and a country has builds available, a supply center will be randomly chosen, and then a legal unit will be randomly selected to be built there. END GAME: One country may declare victory, of course, after capturing 18 SCs or upon the surrender of all remaining powers. An alliance of two countries may declare victory after they have captured 24 SCs between them. They must each have at least 9 SCs and must not have attacked each other, or supported an attack upon each other, for one full year. An alliance of three countries may declare victory after they have captured 27 SCs between them. They must each have at least 7 SCs and must not have attacked each other, or supported an attack upon each other, for one full year. -----End Rules Taken from Tell it to the King by Larry King: Ted Koppel is an exception -- a very tough, brainy newscaster -- but so many of his colleagues are airheads. They make happy talk and joke with each other and do shtick, and they have no notion of what is going on. A lot of these airhead newspeople do shows like Good Morning Des Moines. Now if I tell you it's called Good Morning Des Moines, that it's on from nine to ten, and there's a male host and a female host, you already know what they look like. And, dear reader, you're right. So picture this. The cohost, who of course is a blonde with lots of hair, is interviewing me. The blonde is an airhead. She anchors the four o'clock news and she occasionally does feature interviews on that show, too. I see she's got five questions written out, and I can tell that somebody else wrote them for her. She introduces me and asks me the first written question. While I'm answering, she looks not at me but at the monitor, and as soon as she sees that I'm on the monitor and she isn't, she starts fixing her lipstick. Then she goes to question number two. The crew know me from my show and they can see that I'm aware of what's going on. I've been on the road a lot lately and I'm really tired. She is everything that I think should not be in broadcasting. Her third question is "What in your opinion makes a good talk show host?" She is holding a pencil against her chin, trying to look very bright. The camera goes back to me and this time she starts fiddling with her hair. I say, "Well I don't know about the other talk show hosts, but in my case it's helped a lot to be an agent of the CIA at the same time." I know she's not listening. The crew starts to crack up. "What the CIA does for me," I explain without being asked, "is that they get me guests. And what I do for them is that, once or twice a night, I say certain words that are clues to operatives that we have in and around the Western Hemisphere." Now the camera is bouncing because the cameraman is laughing so hard, and I can see the director laughing too. The interviewer, oblivious to anything resembling an adlib, smiles and says, "That was interesting Larry. So tell me, how do you like the single life?" It could have been a sketch out of Bob and Ray. I am enjoying moderating this zine, keep that mail coming! Eric Klien Up