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Diplomacy is a board game of "International Intrigue," trademarked by Avalon Hill. In its introduction it is described as "a relatively simple game in principle, but complex in execution." This is very true, however it is significant that the second half of the statement is truer than the first. The first problem you will encounter with Diplomacy is the rules. These are split, by Avalon Hill, into fourteen sections. I split them into two sections -- the section you will understand on the first reading, and the section you will have to read 42 times to even begin to understand. Unfortunately, the first section is approximately 5.5 lines, and the second section is 11 pages, less 5.5 lines. Persevere. Play a sample game or twenty, until you understand the rules. The big "thing" with Diplomacy is that there are no elements of chance. So the cover of the rules tells us. "Diplomacy is a game of skill and cunning negotiations. Chance plays no part." The first page then proceeds to inform you of the first (admittedly only) element of chance. But this is what Diplomacy is all about: lying until you have to tell the truth. The "chance" is which power you will play. Diplomacy (standard Diplomacy, that is) is played on a European map. The seven Great Powers are England, Russia, Turkey, Austria, Italy, France and Germany. Different people will tell you different things about which powers are better. However, take note that there is a reason why the person who is assigned Italy will look glum for a while. (Usually until they are eliminated from the game.) The board is divided into "provinces." These can be land, sea, or coastal. Each power is made up of five to seven provinces. This doesn't matter. What does matter is how many "supply centers" you own. A supply center is a special case province, as it contains a little black dot. And you get one unit (army or fleet) for every little black dot you own. Every power starts with 3 little black dots, except Russia, which starts with 4. New players often wonder why Russia starts with one extra. If they start by playing Russia, as I did, they find out relatively quickly. The general gist of the game is to move your armies and fleets around the board in a bid to control as many little black dots as possible. Remember that you get one army or fleet for each dot. If you start losing them to other players, you start losing your units. Should, however, you gain 18, Europe is magically yours. This leads to an interesting problem. To win, you basically have to overpower everyone. But you cannot do this by yourself. The solution is to "stab" people. This is where you start to lose friends. (Did I forget to mention this earlier?) Playing the game actually centers around diplomacy. Before each move, you have 15 minutes to talk with the other players, make alliances, and decide to attack other people. You then have 5 minutes to write down your moves. The trick is to tell someone you are doing one thing, but actually to do another. The second trick is to do it at the right time, causing them the most damage, and giving you the most profit. The third trick is to do it to them before they do it to you. The fourth trick, and possibly the most difficult, is to make sure they still talk to you afterwards. In a nutshell, you can't win the game by yourself, but you can only win the game by yourself. Because of this, the primary skill a good Diplomacy player must have is the ability to lie convincingly. There is a good reason that there exists a document entitled "Diplomacy Players' Top Ten Favorite Lies." There exist over 600 Diplomacy "variants." These are games which change either the rules, or the map. Or both. There are even variants which remove the diplomacy from Diplomacy -- you don't know who the other players are, and you cannot talk to them. (Naturally, this does not work very well if you play with friends, but can be implemented well if you play by mail or e-mail, sending all your moves to a Game Master, who will process them.) There are many Diplomacy games being played over the InterNet. These are generally played via computer programs that take commands from players from e-mail. A good place to start is the UseNet group rec.games.diplomacy, but if you do want to play, you will probably want your own copy of the game and rules.