Diplomacy zine -- Ancient Diplomacy Rules From: Eric_S_Klien@cup.portal.com Date: Thu, 22 Jun 1989 01:53:11 +0000 Issue #73 of ELECTRONIC PROTOCOL: Sorry this issue is a few hours late. My connection to the world was temporarily broken. Summer '09 of the game PANZER (BNC number 1989H) France retreats ADR-APU Autumn '05 of the game MAELSTROM (BNC number 1989AA): Italy did not submit disbands or retreats. The new Italian player is ron@synthesis.com/Ron Lay. Adjustments are due next Tuesday. Players are: ENGLAND: Bruce Bowers GERMANY: Raymond Setzer TURKEY: MaryFW/Mark Wardell (But address yourself to Mark-W2 in messages.) ITALY: Ron@synthesis.com/Ron Lay FRANCE: Sun!ucsd.edu!hp-sdd!horizon!sweet or Sweet@horizon.css.gov/Kevin Sweet Summer '04 of the game RED STORM (BNC number 1989AB) (GM is MaryFW@cup.portal.com) Summer 1904 Results for Red Storm --------------------------- Retreats: Russia: F bul-CON Germany: A mun-RUH ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Press: None. What's wrong with you guys anyway? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Red Storm GM Notes: Well, these results are more or less on time. They're being Emailed to Eric late but that's Portal's fault. Your next order are due this Sunday, 10:00pm Eastern time in my mailbox. Spring '06 of the game PEARL HARBOR (BNC number 1989AV) (GM is Adams@multiflow.com/Steve Adams) ============================================================================== AUSTRIA : [A TRI->BUD], [A SER SA TRI->BUD] ENGLAND : F POR->SPA(sc), F WES SF POR->SPA(sc), F MAO SF POR->SPA(sc), F NTH->NWY, A STP->FIN, F LON->ENG, F NAP HOLDS, A LIV->WAL, F EDI->NTH FRANCE : A PARIS HOLDS, A BREST SA PARIS HOLD, [F SPA HOLDS], [A MAR SF SPAIN HOLD] GERMANY : A BUR->GAS, A PIC->BUR, F BEL->PIC, [A MUN->TYR], [A KIE->MUN], F BER->BAL, A MOS HOLDS, [A VEN->TRI], [A BUD SA VEN->TRI], [A ROM->VEN] ITALY : [A VIE->BUD], [A TYR->VEN] RUSSIA : TURKEY : A SMY->GRE, F AEG CA SMY->GRE, A BUL SA SMY->GRE, [A RUM->SER], F BLK->CON, [A SEV->RUM] moves in '[]' failed. ============================================================================== Retreats/Disbands : FRANCE : F SPA(sc) has been dislodged. (May disband or go to GOL) Retreats are due by Tuesday, June 20, 1989, at 10PM EST. ============================================================================== Unit Locations : AUSTRIA : A Trieste, A Serbia ENGLAND : A Finland, F Norway, F North Sea, F England, A Wales, F Naples, F Mid Atlantic, F Western Mediterranean, F Spain(sc) FRANCE : A Brest, A Paris, A Marsailles, F ???? GERMANY : A Moscow, F Baltic, A Kiel, A Munich, A Budapest, A Venice, A Rome, A Burgandy, A Gascony, F Picardy ITALY : A Tyrolia, A Vienna RUSSIA : TURKEY : A Sevastapol, A Rumania, A Bulgaria, A Greece, F Constantinople, F Aegean ============================================================================== (notes : Press should be interpreted as follows : ) ( Weekly World News : GM's notes ) ( European Gazette : "Grey Press" ) ( all others : "White or Black Press" ) ============================================================================== _The Weekly World News_ Spring 1906 Edition AUSTRIA HOLDS ON! TURKEY TAKES GREECE FROM ITALY! ENGLAND TAKES SPAIN FROM FRANCE AS GERMANS MOVE IN FOR THE KILL! Thanks to the Italians, the Austrians have held their position. In trouble since 1902, they have continued to hang tough. Germany made no headway in the Balkans. But, with the Turks knocking on the doors of Serbia, she may not hang on much longer. Turkey moved into Greece unopposed. She is in good position to take Serbia in the fall, and gain two builds. Turkey has made a fantastic comback since the coup by Fidel Ottoman. English fleets blasted their way into Spain, overpowering the weakend Frence fleet. This loss is compounded by German maneuvering for the Fall turn. France stands to lose two centers this year. Germany has 10 units on the board, and controls 11 centers, giving him a build even if he makes no progress, as it appears his centers are secure. So the Anglo-German alliance pounds on. It appears that France, Italy and Austria are soon out, leaving Germany, Turkey and England to fight for it all. ============================================================================== -Steve (gm) Summer '06 of the game PEARL HARBOR (BNC number 1989AV) (GM is Adams@multiflow.com/Steve Adams) France retreats F Spain to Gulf of Lyon. Spring '04 of D-DAY (BNC number 1989AW) Moves due next Sunday Spring '03 of NAVARONE (BNC number 1989AX) (GM is Pwoodruf@orion.cf.uci.edu/Peter Woodruff) Moves due next Sunday Summer '01 of BLITZKRIEG (BNC number not known) (GM is Dougi@astro.as.utexas.edu/Doug Ingram) Nothing happened. Spring '01 of OPERATION OVERLORD (BNC number not known) (GM is Davisje@crd.ge.com/Jon Davis) Due next Sunday Spring '01 of GETTYSBURG (BNC number not known) (GM is Adams@multiflow.com/Steve Adams) Due July 2, 1989 GM comments: Ebrosius@lucy.wellesley.edu/Eric Brosius has given me a xerox of the Diplomacy rules from a game he bought in 1971. Remember that he is helping out with the Runestone Poll and that ballots can be e-mailed to him. It is time that we showed how many people are in the electronic side of the Diplomacy hobby! Anyone who is reading this can vote, you don't have to be a player in one of our games. Now for the article: The rules are copyrighted for 1961 and are 8 pages long. Further research shows that these are probably the 1966 rules, created only 8 years after the game was first published. These 1966 rules are copyrighted by Games Research Inc and are significantly more vague than the 1976 rules that I reviewed earlier. It is worth noting that these old rules use a larger typeface, which means they probably contain about 50% of the text of the new rules. Also note that the 1966 rules only contained two minor differences from the 1959 rules, so we will be looking at nearly the original 1959 rules in this review. I will attempt to show all the major differences in the rules, minor stuff like Conference Maps were available for 10/50 cents or 25 for $1.00 will not be mentioned. Also the format of VI.1, VI.2, VI.3 etc. did not exist although the rules were presented in the same order. So when I say that rule VI.1 is different, I mean the rule that was named rule VI.1 in the latest edition. Differences: I found no alternative rules for four, three, or two players and the rulebook says from 7 to 3 can play instead of 7 to 2 in the modern version. Object of the game in the old version is to get 18 units, in the new version object is to get 18 supply centers. Draws are not allowed in this old version. (5 century games anyone?) Space is not defined in the area of VI.1, thereby allowing the Coastal Crawl. The following sequences of moves would then be legal: F SPA(sc)-POR, F POR-SPA (and vice versa) F BUL(sc)-CON, F CON-BUL (and vice versa) These two orders would not be considered an exchange of units between two spaces. The self-standoff and the beleaguered garrison are not specifically covered. The old rules don't cover the situation where two units try to retreat to the same space. The old rules don't allow you to choose to disband a unit rather than retreat it. (You could only disband if there was no place to retreat to.) The old rules clearly said that an army may not be convoyed during a retreat. The new rules must be read very carefully to figure this out. The new rules for more than one convoy route, a convoyed attack does not cut certain supports, and both a convoy route and an overland route are not in these old rules. All three rules would have to be added as houserules if you wished to use the old rules. Otherwise there simply would be no rulings for particular situations. The old text covering builds says that the numbers of units is adjusted to equal the number of supply centers while the new text says that the number of units MUST be adjusted to equal the number of supply centers. This would lean more towards the arguement that builds are optional in the old rules. I am going to change my houserules to say that builds are optional based on this new information. The civil disorder rules are really vague. They don't mention if a player can return to the game after he leaves it or if someone can replace him. The civil-disorder removals don't define what the unit farthest from home means, the new rules define this as "most distant from the nearest home supply centers as computed by the shortest availabel route, including convoys". The new rules also mention "If more units are equally eligible for removal than should be removed, priority is established by the names of the space in which they are located, the earliest in alphabetical order coming off first." The old rules don't mention this. The new rules mention that fleets in Kiel and Constantinople can't convoy. The old rules sort of imply this as would the new rules if rule XIV.5 was deleted. The new rules say you can exchange two pieces if either or both are convoyed. This would seem to be illegal under the old rules. I would definitely say that the new rules are superior to the old rules. Going for 18 centers makes the games faster, and not allowing draws is completely ridiculous. The only old rule that I like is the coastal crawl rule, it helps break up some stalemate lines and therefore should not have been dropped. Now that I have a copy of some ancient rules plus a listing of the changes from the 1958 version to the present version, I have enough info to run a variant where we use the original Diplomacy rules. Note that the map has more spaces and other changes and that you convoy by putting an army on top of a fleet and then move it along with the fleet at the rate of one space per turn among other changes. Let me know if you are interested in being a player or a GM in this variant! And remember that I am still interested in a copy of the 1958, 1959, 1971 rulebooks and any other versions that I don't have copies of. I am enjoying moderating this zine, keep that mail coming! Eric Klien Up