Communication
Introduction
As you may know, there are a lot of articles written about Diplomacy. I've read some articles & in many cases I believe them & in some cases thought about acting as they where saying. The down side, to me, is the communication within the game.
Examples I Have Had
I was France & following along with an article I'd read, I should have allied with Germany. The point being that in the Western Corner, England gets a nightmare from the pair. Great idea, so I wrote to England & Germany. My e-mails to England were intended to lead him up the wrong path, i.e. "how about us two beating up Germany, etc"? His answers agreed with what I was saying however Germany's reply didn't match up with my intention. Germany wanted an alliance between F/E/G. (On more than one occasion I’ve done this in F-F & the results in some cases were good & in others not). England & I agreed to ally & turn our forces into Germany. It worked! Sadly later on I made a wrong judgement & it gave England an opportunity to stab me, which he did. My mistake, not England's! The game ended with a T/E draw but at least I was the last off the board.
In other games I've not received e-mails from players for a long period of time & occasionally, not at all. Sometimes I've not heard from them for a few seasons & then an e-mail from them due to the fact that they're in trouble. My general attitude is why should I bother with them unless there is a good reason for me. You'll might disagree but consider it this way. Suppose you're England & you're doing well. You've heard from Austria-Hungary during the game but you haven't heard from Turkey. All of a sudden the pair are being beaten my two other countries. If you think that you would rather keep one in the game but not the other, which one would you work with?
Often a case happens when you stab someone. They will not write to you, why? Recently I was in a game playing Turkey & my ally was Russia. Austria-Hungary & Italy were together & we had two countries against two countries. Russia & I were going very well & the Juggernaut was going to happen. Then, bang, it happened! Autumn 1902, Russia switched his alliance & formed one with Italy & Austria-Hungary. I ended up with three units as Russia got Ankara & Austria-Hungary had Bulgaria. I had the weakest units on the board with the closest to me had four units.
Prior to the first moves (spring 1901), I was writing to all countries & after the attack on me, I wrote to Germany & France asking for help. With regard to those in the Eastern Square, I wrote to both Austria-Hungary & Russia & suggested a bit of this & a bit of that. The overall result was that Austria-Hungary attacked Russia & vice versa. The last move, autumn 1911, had France with seventeen units, Germany with sixteen & me with one. France supported Germany into Ankara, which finished me off. The pair then called it a two-draw.
The main point about the above is not my ego trip but simply to say that communication works. If I kept quiet & to be fair if the countries around me decided to finish me off, I would have been out quickly.
If you want a big laugh, two things happened outside that game, which was due to the stab in autumn 1902. My son Graeme, only 11 at that time, was staying with me the weekend prior to the move. He said to me that I should cover Ankara & I said it would be all right as Russia is my ally. You can imagine how much he was laughing when I told him what happened. It's true; take advice from your kids! 
One great ending to a game happened when Jeff Simard played Austria-Hungary & I was Russia. We were allies from 1902. The communication between us was spot on. In fact, he & I have become good friends & we never knew each other prior to the game. The last move was convoying my army from St Petersburg to Syria. His fleets & mine were involved. By the way me writing about the convoy is a personal ego trip!
Press is another way of making the adjudication seem funny. Simply add a short note in your orders & the GM will input it to the adjudication.
Conclusion
If you're able to play a standard game & you don't write to any player but you win, then re-write all books!
The other aspect of communication is that it helps you make new friends. I'm fortunate to have met players & during the game we become good mates.
The final comment is about Gunboat. There is a form of communication in that variation game but I suppose I will have to keep it secretive!
Keep writing!
Diplomacy Links
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Site Links
NB If you do e-mail, notice I've changed @ to AT to stop possible e-mail spammers so before you send, swap it back.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|