ALB & GSB logo

Double Diplomacy

Introduction

I was searching on variant games & came across this one, which I thought sounded pretty good.

The title can suggest anything but when you think about it, Double Diplomacy it's the right title. Put simply, each player controls two countries, which is why Double & the Diplomacy is making sure you & your colleague work together. Sounds simple but isn't!

You might be playing Germany & Turkey however your colleague in Germany has Italy as his other arm.

To the easy bit, same number as in normal Diplomacy & the same map.

Countries

This game can be played as a normal game or Gunboat & as far as the countries, there is a standard set of allocations or they can be random. I must admit I quite liked the idea of a Gunboat game where the countries are random but still, let's show the allocated countries.

Player Country
Player 1 England & Turkey
Player 2 Germany & Turkey
Player 3 Germany & Italy
Player 4 Italy & Russia
Player 5 France & Russia
Player 6 Austria-Hungary & France
Player 7 Austria-Hungary & England

Orders

This is where the Diplomacy comes into play.

Below I'll mention the winning requirement but as for your orders, you & your colleague send orders to the GM. When the GM adjudicates he reads both sets of orders & looks at each unit. If both players asked for the same, then that would happen but if not, the unit would stand.

That rule doesn't act in that way if one of the players asked for it to stand but the other wrote supportive orders, as in that case the later will work.

The following is a set of orders for Turkey:

The army in their capital will move to Bulgaria & their fleet will sail however the army in Smyrna stays put.

I mentioned about a stand & support order would be different so this is an example of it & Italy is the country:

Example 1; two of the three are spot-on & they would be fulfilled. As for A(Ven) there is a difference but seeing Player 3 wrote Stand, the orders that Player 4 wrote will be carried out.

Example 2; shows both players submitting a supportive move but as the request wasn't the same the adjudication will show, A(Ven) Stands.

Example 3; will have the adjudication showing the same as in example two.

Retreats, Builds & Disbands

Two-Season Diplomacy is played on this site therefore players do have to think about their possible requests, builds & disbands.

I think retreats are tricky so consider a French army needs to retreat from Munich. Prior to the season, the French were in Munich & Burgundy. Germany was in Bohemia, Silesia & Ruhr. As for Munich's adjacent provinces, no other units were present. The two German leaders wrote the same orders & so too the French players however the retreats were not the same:

Within the orders, no action happened in Berlin nor Kiel meaning that A(Mun) could retreat to either the pair. As the two French leaders wrote the retreats in opposite directions, A(Mun) is disbanded. If however the following orders were submitted:

In that case, the GM will ignore the written retreat to Kiel & allow it to go to Berlin.

Based on the above, I'm confident I don't have to write possible builds & disbands, as I'm sure you can see what could happen. Regarding retreats, there is one method that perhaps be used & this would be it:

No Moves Received (NMR) & Anarchy

If a player does NMR then as I'm sure you know the units are shown as Stands however in the adjudication NMR isn't shown beside that country. The very same logic applies if that player does go into Anarchy. The reason is as written above that if one player submits a Stand but his partner writes a supportive order then the latter is followed through & that will be the case for NMR or Anarchy however I hope neither happens.

To Win

If a Great Powers gets 14 SCs, then the game is won by the two that played the country.

Conclusion

I like Double Diplomacy & the country allocation is random but not so that a player can twice get the same country.

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.