Heroscapers - Diplomacy

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- Other Games (https://www.heroscapers.com/community/forumdisplay.php?f=19)

- - Diplomacy (https://www.heroscapers.com/community/showthread.php?t=53767)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper (Post 2140765)

My preference is the DPJudge. I think it will help, given that most of the volunteers are new to the game, to have a neutral GM available for consultation about the rules and the interface.

Mmm also a very good point. Sounds good to me!

Ok, I set up a game on the DP Judge. Shoot me a PM and I'll send you some info, including the name of the game, and we can sign start signing up. There will be a bit of a learning curve at the start, for all of us because this is a next-gen judge for me, but we'll get there pretty quickly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper (Post 2140741)

I set up this thread to help the conversation along. I do love Diplomacy, but I don't have the burning need to play right now. I'll make some inquiries about what systems the game veterans are using to play online now. I encourage others to do the same, and we'll try to get a platform nailed down.

The more people who are interested in playing the better, because I don't expect that, when push comes to shove, all the listed names will sign up.

edit: Apparently, the cool kids are using this platform, which is the heir to the "Ken Lowe judges" that dominated online Diplomacy a few years ago: http://www.floc.net/dpjudge/

I can GM, which would allow me to help people manage interacting with the judge. Please have a look at it and post your thoughts, or share a different platform you'd prefer. Don't worry about the technical aspects of interacting with the judge; it's quite simple once you're used to it, and you get used to it quickly.

Other people were on this before me, so I'll give them a chance to sign up before I go for it.

From a quick read-through the rules, I can already tell I would be missing the more granular aspects of some of the orders, at least at first. Broadly, though, I think I could pick it up after a few mistakes. The presumably-important Diplomacy aspect of Diplomacy I will probably remain bad at, but who knows?

It's easy. Army units move one space at a time on land. Fleets move one space at a time one the water and on coasts. All are processed simultaneously. If two units try to move to the same space they bounce. Units can also support other units to hold in place or to move somewhere. You can only support an action in a space you can move to. With support, a unit can overpower a unit that is stationary in, or moving into, a space.

Let's say there's an English fleet in the North Sea and a French fleet in the English Channel. They both move to Belgium. They have equal strength landing there, so they bounce. Let's say instead that the English fleet stays still - holds - while the French fleet tries to enter the North Sea. Both have strength of 1 so it bounces. Movement is simple and intuitive.

There are a couple fancier ways to move. Fleets can convoy armies across water spaces. Dislodged units must retreat. Again, the rules for these advanced forms of movement are intuitive.

Every game year is basically two movement phases, and then at the end of the year there's a reckoning called the build phase, or the adjustment phase. You modify the number of units you have out to match the number of supply centers you control. You start with 3, unless you're Russia with 4, and you win when you get 18.

The challenge is, of course, the diplomacy. Write your neighbors and work with them because you will need their cooperation, before you need their doom.

Just sign up if you're interested. If I don't get 7 I'll say so. If I get more we'll discuss it then.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper (Post 2140858)

Oh sure, the basics seem pretty simple to wrap my head around. But if it gets to the point where I'm, say, convoying a unit across a channel to support another unit that's holding a province, I might miss a point where my opponent could easily break that chain somehow, or I might miss a path that would allow me to do something more useful. Or I might not submit my order properly, heh. Basically the sorts of higher level maneuvers a newer player might be expected to miss but I have a bad habit of trying to be a perfectionist.

That being the case, though, I'll go ahead and sign up. PM incoming.

Yeah just sign up. Like all games if it looks interesting, give it a try and accept that your first game is a learning game. You're not going to play perfectly and the quickest way to becoming a better player is to just play and make the mistakes.

Now of course trying to avoid mistakes is still a good plan and all. Just don't sweat it that you might not know everything.

Truly, as you say, the Diplomacy is the most important part anyhow. Plus I'm always willing to help provide you ideas that will lead to your doom you to success. ;)

Ok, so I'm now giving out the name of the game to those who PM me. I set the game to "private" so people trolling for games can't just hop in, but that may also mean that I have to configure it some other way to allow you to sign up. So let me know if there's a problem signing up to the game.

Tagging @Kinseth , @MegaSilver , @quozl , @Zetsubo , and @dok . I have three PMs so far, so we need 4 more to get started. Send a PM if you're interested.

Ok, I've sent a PM with a game name *and a password*. It might now work.

What's going to happen when there are seven is the game may or may not start automatically. Even if it does, I've set it to "wait." That has the effect of pausing the game, for the purpose of deadlines. The reason why I do that at the beginning is that at the dawn of the game, before S1901M moves, there needs to be a lot of time for players to introduce themselves to their neighbors near and far.

So you'll get about a week for S1901M negotiations. After that, it'll be 3 days for each movement phase, and 1 day (I think) for the minor phases.

Also, after everyone is signed up and the game starts, I'll share the game name here so people can sign up as observers, and if I can, I'll also post images of the game state here.

edit: Good news! One of you signed up. So it's now possible, with the game name and password I sent you.

Well three powers are signed up now. Looks like we all had the option to choose our country but didn't, so it'll be fun to see what random one I wind up with.

Took me a little while to get the syntax just right for that join command. I figured it out after a few minutes of getting emails informing me of invalid commands though.

Looking forward to the game! Hoping we can get 7 soon. Out of curiosity who has all signed up thus far?

EDIT: Nevermind, it's fairly easy to deduce who has already signed up by looking at the OP and cross referencing with who you sent mentions out to. Thus far it's presumably AYP, kevindola, and myself in the game.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ranior (Post 2140991)

I had similar problems signing up but hopefully it's all good now. I was second to sign up

You should be able to set country preferences up until game start, if you'd like.

@Dad_Scaper , I didn't get a password.