Orders With Retreats/Disbands/Builds
Introduction
As you may know this site ALB & GSB, Dip2000 & other sites require with your orders; possible retreats or disbands & in autumn possible builds or disbands. Bear in mind that a player that you thought was your ally might stab you. Based on that, consider all possible retreat & disband options.
Various other sites & F-F allow a gap between orders, retreats, etc, so this is irrelevant to those. If, having played on the other sites, you're wondering why the orders & the others are combined in one e-mail, the reason is that in F-F games you can't speak to the other countries prior to these phases therefore combining them follow those rules of Diplomacy.
Retreats/Disbands
With regard to retreats, the following happens. In circumstance one, suppose the only provinces with units in them are below & the nearest provinces to Russian unit are vacant. These are the moves:
- Austria-Hungary: Army Vienna - Galicia, Army Budapest supports Vienna - Galicia
- Russia: Army Galicia - Budapest
Reading the Possible Retreats, Russia can say the following:
- Army Galicia to retreat in order: If attack from Budapest then Rumania, Bohemia. If attack from Vienna then Bohemia, Rumania. If either of the provinces have units inside them, then in order: Warsaw, Ukraine, Silesia.
If Bohemia is vacant then the Russian army will retreat to it. If Bohemia isn't vacant then the army will retreat to Rumania. If both are not vacant, then Warsaw is looked at first, then Ukraine & finally Silesia.
The word vacant is after the orders not during retreats. Let's look at these orders:
- Austria-Hungary: Army Vienna - Galicia, Army Budapest supports Vienna - Galicia, Army Tyrolia - Bohemia
- Germany: Army Munich - Bohemia
- Russia: Army Galicia - Budapest
If Russia's retreats are the same as said above, they cannot retreat to Bohemia therefore the army will move to Rumania, as long as it was vacant & no standoff.
The down side for countries happen with this scenario:
- Austria-Hungary: Army Vienna - Galicia, Army Budapest supports Vienna - Galicia
- Russia: Army Galicia - Budapest
- France: Fleet Holland - Kiel, Army Ruhr supports Burgundy - Munich, Army Burgundy - Munich
- Germany: Army Munich supports Kiel, Army Kiel supports Munich
The Russian retreat is the same as above but the German retreat says, "retreat Munich to Bohemia". At the same time, all country's retreats are adjudicated & Bohemia is vacant. The Russian & German armies can't retreat to it, which means they're disbanded! If you're thinking, that Russia did put various options, so why can't they work? The answer is that they can't happen. After the orders, the retreat goes to the first vacant province requested & as Bohemia was requested, that's the only one that counts in the Russian retreat.
Prior to the deadline (order deadline not retreat deadline), all players can discuss anything & in the example above the two countries can agree to go a particular way. Suppose this is an autumn move & Germany realises it will lose a unit but Russia will not lose one. The pair may agree that Germany disbands his unit allowing Russia to retreat to Bohemia. Germany can help Austria-Hungary by retreating to Bohemia, which disbands the Russian army together with their army.
As I've probably said, when writing your conditional retreats, remember it could be your ally who stabbed you & if you have not looked into that possibility, with regard to retreats, you may have left your pants down!
Easy Written Retreats
In many games that I've GMd, I've read retreats that were written in a very easy method. These are examples:
- Russia: Army Galicia - Budapest {ret: Bohemia, Rumania, Warsaw, Ukraine, and Silesia}
- Germany: Fleet Baltic Sea Holds {ret: provinces in alphabetic order}
If the Russian army had to retreat then the first thing to do is see if Bohemia is vacant but if not, Rumania. The last selected was Silesia.
A retreated German fleet would have Berlin first looked at with the last choice being Sweden.
Builds/Disbands
In Autumn you'll probably have to do one of the two & maybe both. Knowing these will have to be submitted with your orders, you'll not know what the others have done. By figuring out what might happen you can submit a written instruction to the GM.
Your instructions can say, that if stabbed by my ally, in retreats or disband, disband this unit & in build, I'll have a unit on a certain home SC. Needless to say, you'll have to name the province to build upon.
One thing to remember is that you can't ask to build here if another country build there. Builds, like orders & retreats, are read at the same time & that is equally the gamble within the game.
Conclusion
It may be tricky but it does speed the game & also in face-face games, you're not allowed to speak to other player until this season has finished. After a while, you'll get used to it & you too may enjoy it.
Don’t stab me!
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|