Diplomacy zine -- Convoying From: Eric_S_Klien@cup.portal.com Date: Wed, 17 May 1989 23:37:40 +0000 Issue #63 of ELECTRONIC PROTOCOL: Autumn '06 of the game PANZER (BNC number 1989H) France disbands A TRI Italy disbands F ALB Winter '06 of the game PANZER (BNC number 1989H) Germany builds A BER Turkey builds F SMY Press, here's some fake press: Germany: Diplomacy is the art of saying "nice doggy" until you can find a rock. France: That was taken from the BIX BBS chinese fortune cookie section. And here's some real press: The mail machine I regularly use will be moved to a new location next week. It will be down from 5/21 thru 5/24 (Sun thru Wed). I'm told that mail will only work intermittently during that time. Sorry for any trouble that may cause. ((I'll try to stop any delays from being caused by this!)) Frank/Germany/Panzer Summer '03 of the game MAELSTROM (BNC number 1989AA) Austria disbands SER. Bye-bye Austria! Press: Press, none here's some fake press: Austria: You can't take any money or property with you into the after-life. England: Very seldom will an individual's contribution to society be remembered after passing away. France: Very seldom will anyone (including realtives and close acquaintances) remember the deceased 50+ years later. Germany: The very concept of an after-life has come under serious and credible attack for at least the last 100 years. It may not be there for you. Italy: The importance of any human being, even at the highest strats, is of no significance from a cosmic perspective. Russia: The benefits of living must be struggled for, whereas adversity will come at no effort at all. Turkey: Can anyone tell me, then, what keeps people motivated to live on? GM: Press taken from Passchendaele #85 Summer '03 of the game RED STORM (BNC number 1989AB) (GM is MaryFW@cup.portal.com) Delay due to player errors. Results will be direct e-mailed. Autumn and Winter '03 of the game PEARL HARBOR (BNC number not known) (GM is Adams@multiflow.com/Steve Adams) I MAY BE CHANGING MY MAIL ADDRESS! WATCH THIS SPACE FOR INFORMATION!!! Fall 1903 Pearl Harbor Diplomacy Builds : Steve Adams, GM ============================================================================== Builds : (number of total supply centers are in []) (+ = build, - = disband, 0 = no change) AUSTRIA : 0 [3] ENGLAND : 0 [6] FRANCE : 0 [5] GERMANY : +1 [7] Build A Berlin ITALY : 0 [5] RUSSIA : -1 [4] Retreat A Bulgaria to Constantinople, Disband F Skagarak TURKEY : 0 [5] ============================================================================== Unit Locations : AUSTRIA : A Vienna, A Budapest, A Serbia ENGLAND : A Finland, F Sweden, F Norway, F North Sea, F English Channel, F Mid-Atlantic FRANCE : A Picardy, A Brest, A Paris, A Burgandy, F Spain(sc) GERMANY : F Denmark, A Warsaw, A Munich, A Ruhr, A Belgium, A Piedmont ITALY : A Venice, A Bohemia, A Trieste, F Adriatic, F Albania RUSSIA : A Galicia, F Black Sea, A Ankara, A Constantinople TURKEY : F Sevastapol, A Bulgaria, F Aegean, A Smyrna ============================================================================== _Weekly World News_ 1903 Builds Edition Germany is beefing up it's land forces. The disbandment of the Russian northern fleet will free English fleets for battle in France. It looks like Russia is going to fight it out with Turkey until the end! By retreating to Constantinople, Russia denied Turkey a build. Of course, Turkey could have prevented this by covering Constantinople with Smyrna. The English-German alliance looks even more unstoppable, now that there is no threat to them in the North. Moscow looks like it will fall soon, and France could be in real trouble! ============================================================================== Spring 1904 moves are due Sunday, May 21, at 10PM EDT. Happy Diplomacy! Fall '02 of D-DAY (BNC number not known) (GM is MaryFW@Cup.portal.com) Fall 1902 Results for D-Day ------------------------- Orders: England: A StP-Mos, F Nwy-Stp, F NWS-Nwy, <F NTH S F NWS-Nwy> Germany: A Kie-Mun, A Ruh S F Hol-Bel, F Hol-Bel, F BAL-Den, <F HEL-NTH> Russia: A Arm S F BLK-Ank, F BLK-Ank, F Sev-BLK, F Swe-H, A Rum S A Gal-Bud, A Gal-Bud Austria: <F Alb-Tri>, <A Ser S F Alb-Tri>, <A Bud S F Alb-Tri> Turkey: <F Ank-BLK>, <A Gre-Ser>, A Con-Smy Italy: A Tri-Vie, A Tyr S A Tri-Vie, <A Ven-Tri>, F ION-Tun France: F Sap(sc)-WES, A Mar-H, A Par-Pic, <A Bel-H>, F LYO-TYR Orders in <> are failed orders. Positions: England: A Moscow, F St. Petersburg(nc), F Norway, F North Sea Germany: A Munich, A Ruhr, F Belgium, F Denmark, F Helgoland Bight Russia: A Armenia, F Ankara, F Black Sea, F Sweden, A Rumania, A Budapest Austria: F Albania, A Serbia, <A Budapest> Turkey: <F Ankara>, A Greece, A Smyrna Italy: A Venice, A Tyrolia, A Vienna, F Tunis France: F Western Mediterranean, A Marseilles, A Picardy, <A Belgium>, F Tyrrhenian Sea Units in <> must retreat. Builds/Centers: England: +2/Lon, Liv, Edi, Nwy + Mos, StP Germany: +1/Ber, Kie, Mun, Hol, Den + Bel Russia: +0/War, Sev, Rum, Swe + Ank, Bud - Mos, StP Turkey: -1/Con, Smy, Bul - Ank Austria: -2/Ser - Bud, Vie Italy: +2/Rom, Nap, Ven, Tri + Vie, Tun France: +0/Par, Bre, Mar, Spa, Por All builds & retreats are due in my mailbox by Midnight EASTERN time this Wensday. This is a special deadline because of the late posting of these results. All regular deadlines are still in effect. (Sunday 10:00pm Eastern for regular orders and Midnight Eastern for builds/retreats/disbands) GM Notes: We had one player late with his orders due to communications problems. He should still consider himself to be on probation. Everything else is going well except nobody had any press this week. Oh well. I feel lucky just to get orders at times. And before I forget.... Our original Italian player has been called out of town for the time being. (In fact, all the way out of the country) So, until his return Italy will be run by Keith Mortensen. You can send him Email at Keithm@synthesis.com Keith will be keeping in touch with the real Italy so I don't expect any great change in how Italy is playing as a result of this. < Mark > Fall '01 of NAVARONE (BNC number not known) (GM is Pwoodruf@orion.cf.uci.edu) Game delayed until Sunday the 21st due to serious illness in the family for one of the players. One of the players has requested two week turns, send your votes to the GM. Majority rules, if you don't vote we assume that you like one week turns. GM comments: Anyone who wishes to be on my direct mailing list may get on it just by asking. You don't have to be a player! Get the zine while it is hot off the presses! HELP! HELP! HELP! HELP! HELP! HELP! HELP! HELP! HELP! HELP! As many of you know, I seperate friends from being in the same game so they don't have an unfair advantage over others. I just had three friends sign up for my postal zine, PROTOCOL, which means that I will need to start three seperate games. So if you want to join my postal zine, now would be a good time to do it. Especially people who have unreliable e-mail access due to summer vacation. Sign up today! Taken from Diplomacy World #42: THE LONG HAUL by R. C. Walker The "convoy" order is perhaps the single most interesting technical aspect of Diplomacy. It is, for instance, the single most frequent cause of potential and actual rulings difficulties for players and gamemasters...and enough ink has already been spilled on THAT topic in these pages, so we'll avoid it like the plague here. The convoy---although we can argue it's not used to its fullest possible poetential---is a key element in speeding up the game, plus increasing its excitement and interest. You can do all sorts of bold and sneaky things with convoys. But in Diplomacy it wasn't always so. In its very earliest incarnation (1958), Diplomacy had no convoys. Armies instead rode piggyback on fleets, proceeding at the one-space- a-season rate at which everything else moves in the games. Since there were several more sea (and land) spaces in that version, you can imagine how much slower (and therefore less interesting, perhaps) the game was when it was first being player. Anyone who is interested in that original version of Diplomacy will find the map & rules included in my book, The Gamer's Guide to Diplomacy (available from Avalon Hill for $4.50 + 10% postage and handline). A modern version of the "piggyback" idea also exists in Fred Davis' "Army- Fleet Module", available from the North American Variant Bank, of which Fred is the present custodian (1427 Clairidge Rd., Baltimore, MD 21207). If you're interested in seeing how a Diplomacy game would go without convoys, you might look these versions up. The 1958 version of the game was replaced quickly enough; in 1959 a new edition was introduced, having 6 fewer sea spaces (and 13 fewer land spaces) than its predecessor, plus new rules introducing convoys...virtually the game we play today. We have had convoys (for better or worse) ever since, faster game, ruling problems, and all. As you know, the convoy allows a quick shuttle of an army from coastal province to coastal province, not infrequently over a long distance. This of course brings up the perennial argument among Diplomacy aficionados y aficionadas regarding that old bugaboo, "realism". If fleets (as well as armies) must crawl along at one space per season, it's argued, how can it be realistic for an army to skip along a string of fleets which can extend over as many as 9 spaces? This seems to be one of those instances (all too common in wargaming) in which exaggerated concern for "realism" is the altar on which playability is sacrificed. The convoy (for all its occasional rules-interpretation problems) makes for a much better game. In any event, it could be counter-argued that the rule is "realistic." Each "season" in Diplomacy, after all, represents a campaign of some months' duration. The actual move of a unit from one space to another takes very little time, probably, most of the elapsed time would be spent in pullin up stakes and getting all that manpower organized to move, and then (if the move is successful) getting settled into the new area of occupation. An army being convoyed has to do these same taks, its actual movement consisting of sailing through friendly and protected seas to its destination...an actual elapsed time which is still a small fraction of the months- long campaigning season. "Realism", obviously, can cut both ways in discussions about Diplomacy. Really, the prime factor in the convoy is not how "realistic" it is, but how useful it is. There are circumstances, furthermore, in which that usefulness might be overlooked. I've seen players use a convoyed attack in an attempt to gain a supply center, but somehow miss the opportunity to put an army in a strategic location which doesn't have that all-important dot. It's good to bear in mind that landing an army in a non-supply center province can often yield great strategic gains. Such an army may be able to get in behind enemy lines, or threaten several supply centers at once. Either is a good position to be in. A quick glance at the board will show you how strategically located some of these coastal provinces are. I won't name all of them, but here are some of the most frequently used in games I've seen: Livonia in Russia; Yorkshire or Wales in England; Gascony in France; Apulia in Italy; Albania; Syria in Turkey. On offense you should always consider convoys to these and similar places; on defense, you should always consider whether your opponent can do you in by getting an army into such a province. No general survey of convoys (and boy, is this general!!) would be complete without at least a quick mention of one use of the order which its inventor didn't initially consider: the symbolic act! I'm told this isn't as popular nor as much-used as it was in the early days of the hobby. However, once upon a time, a convoy was often used to symbolize the victory of a two-way alliance. Specifically, this was the longest haul of all, the convoy of an army from St. Petersburg to Syria (or vice versa, sometimes, if this didn't significantly affect the supply center count). It was a symbol of the unbreaking alliance of the two, and their absolute mastery of the board. This convoy would extend over 8 or 9 spaces, depending on whether the route ran through the North Atlantic or North Sea-English Channel. However, a truly redundant route could be constructed through Barents-Norwegian-North Sea-English Channel-Irish Sea-North Atlantic-Mid Atlantic-West Mediterranen-Gulf of Lyon-Tyrhennia Sea- Ionian Sea-Aegean Sea-East Mediterranean, a stunning 13 spaces! Now, that is truly a LONG haul! Taken from CostaGuana Volume XI, Number 7: HEAVEN AND HELL By Nhan Vu There was once a man. He had lived a good life and had been a kind man, so when he died he went to Heaven. There, he met God. But there was something that troubled him. So he said to God, "Please, God, could I see what Hell is like?" "Very well, my son, " God said, "as you wish." Instantly the man was in another place. He was in a beautiful field, and there was a slight breeze blowing. He walked through the field and came upon a forest. The forest, like the field, was also beautiful. It was tall and majestic. He walked through the forest and came upon a small house on a hill. The hill, like the field and the forest, was extremely beautiful. The man walked up the hill, thinking to himself that surely this could not be Hell. It was far too beautiful and peaceful. The man opened the door to the house. He peered inside. The house consisted only in one small room. Most of the space within the room was taken up by a long dining table. Seated around the table was a variety of people. None seemed content or happy. In front of each person was a place-setting with plates, cups, bowls and all the other usual things. The only oddity was that all the utensils were extremely large, about three feet long. The man waited and watched for a while. He noticed that, whatever type of food the person wished for, it appeared on his plate. The room was so small, though, that each person had to shove the people on either side of him, and across from him, to be able to use his large utensils. In this way, a shoving fight would develop because everyone would try to eat at the same time. Eventually, the food would suddenly disappear and the fighting would stop. The man watched for a long time, but it seemed to him that noone got even one bite of his food. Finally, the man said to God, "God, I have seen enough misery. Please send me to Heaven." Instantly, the man was in the beautiful field again. He walked through the beautiful field and came upon the same majestic forest. He walked through the forest and came upon the same house on the same hill. He thought to himself how strange things were. Surely he must still be in Hell. He opened the door and peered in. The inside was exactly the same as before, except that the people were different and they all looked very content. He decided once again to watch the people. Eventually, the food appeared, and as it did, each person picked up his food, scooped some of the food on his plate, and slowly fed his neighbor. I am enjoying moderating this zine, keep that mail coming! Eric Klien Up