[Tapper]

Tattersail, on 04 October 2012 - 08:30 AM, said:

I'll be a partner for someone. I then can grasp what is going on. It is essentially an online boardgame? I love boardgames.

Hehe, no. It is a board game that is of such length and (negotiating) complexity (the actual rules are deceptively simple) that it takes over 12 hours to play to conclusion, which makes it something for rare occassions only. As a result, it has been played by post for decades. Internet first added play-by-mail options, and now "real-time" on boards and forums.

[Tapper]

As for country choices: I'd like to play as France, Germany, GB, Turkey, Italy, Austria, Russia, more or less in that order. Played Austria last game and suck at playing Russia (which, iirc, has a bad record on these boards as well).

[Tattersail_]

i'll partner you if you are playing but no of the shenanigans of the last game, i wouldn't know what to do on my own

[EmperorMagus]

twelve, on 03 October 2012 - 04:06 PM, said:

Tattersail, on 03 October 2012 - 10:18 AM, said:

It looks to complicated for me to be honest. Who won the last game?

I had no clue how to play the game until I jumped in the last one. I was going to be Tapper's partner to learn the game but for whatever reason I ended up having to play by myself. It's not that hard actually. Especially if you use a software program to play with how the moves work. It's even easier if you team up with someone that is good with strategy then you just do what they say and you will go far in the game. If you want you can ask to be someone's partner and be included in all of the communications with other players and learn the strategy if you aren't willing to jump into the fire and learn as you go.

I think of Diplomacy as a combination of Survivor and Risk. You have the scheming and backstabbing going on as a social aspect of the game and you have the strategy aspect of troop placement, where/how to attack and defend.

Though because it is such a long game when things are going poorly for a player they have a tendacy to quit. At least on other on-line forums that I've played this year. The Malazan group was actually good about not quitting when things were going bad with the exception of one player and I'm not truly convinced that was the reason he did quit. I just don't think he was a very active member to begin with.

I would like to play. partnered or not . but I'm the underlined .

[Morgoth]

Well, I'm willing to play any team, but I just played Austria so I'd rather have another one this round.

Whent that is said I believe I've played two rounds of Austria and two rounds of Turkey now (using the standard map), so I might enjoy trying another if possible.

[twelve]

I'm putting T'renn on the signup list even though he posted in the old game thread.

[Azathmaster]

Ill try as someones partner

[twelve]

Looks like we now have 10 people interested in the game. EmperorMagus mentioned that he would be willing to jump in with both feet into the deep end (I'm holding you to that) though Gnaw has actually played the game before and signed up earlier. I say one of these two would be put into the 7th spot with Tattersail and Azathmaster getting asigned to Morgoth and Tapper as trainees.

That leaves one alternate but we already have two players already covered in case of absence so we have one sub for the other 5 players.

So Gnaw,

Do you want to stay as an alternate or will you take the 7th spot?

If you elect to be an alternate then EmperorMagus will take the last spot otherwise he will get assigned to another player or just sit as an alternate for later just in case.

Does anyone have any objections to this?

[EmperorMagus]

twelve, on 04 October 2012 - 08:33 PM, said:

Looks like we now have 10 people interested in the game. EmperorMagus mentioned that he would be willing to jump in with both feet into the deep end (I'm holding you to that) though Gnaw has actually played the game before and signed up earlier. I say one of these two would be put into the 7th spot with Tattersail and Azathmaster getting asigned to Morgoth and Tapper as trainees.

That leaves one alternate but we already have two players already covered in case of absence so we have one sub for the other 5 players.

So Gnaw,

Do you want to stay as an alternate or will you take the 7th spot?

If you elect to be an alternate then EmperorMagus will take the last spot otherwise he will get assigned to another player or just sit as an alternate for later just in case.

Does anyone have any objections to this?

Having figured the mystery of abbreviations out, I don't think the game is that difficult. I would be happy to do it alone if Gnaw wants to be an alt.

[T'renn]

I would like to participate. I played Turkey in the last game, so something else would be nic

[twelve]

Alright. Now that it looks like we got the players I am going ahead and will do a mostly randomizer for starting power selections. As Tapper is the only one that gave a clear preference France is his. Everyone else was good with a more or less random selection.

I will be using Random.Org to randomize our names and then randomize the power selections until I come up with an outcome that matches the players preferences. I'll post the results shortly.

[twelve]

I had to go through 6 or 7 attempts at the randomize to meet everyones expcetations but here are the assignments for everyone.

1. Sir Thursday - Turkey
2. Vengeance - Italy
3. EmperorMagus/Otataral Toblakai - England
4. Twelve - Austria
5. T'renn - Germany
6. Morgoth/Azathmaster - Russia
7. Tapper/Tattersail - France

Alternate: Gnaw

Edit: I went ahead and assigned the trainees to the list as well

This post has been edited by twelve: 05 October 2012 - 04:39 PM

[twelve]

We'll set the deadline for Spring 1901 Movement for Monday October 22nd.

That gives us more or less two weeks for the opening round taking into account Tapper and Vengy's request to wait a week before starting.


On a side note I was wondering how we could do a spoiler heaven for Diplomacy. I was thinking that we might want to include, say, the Hugin & Munin mafia alt on all pms to other players. Most of the game is played behind the scences and for new players it might give some insight on how the game should/can be played. Of course it wouldn't be accessible until after the current game hence why I suggested the H&M alt instead of the Adjudicator. And then I can move those PMs into the thread after the game is over. But then you would be able to see the game as a whole. We could even have each player, if they want, do a diary of their thoughs on what they think other players will do and their own thoughts on why they are making the decisions they are making.

It's a thought. Would anyone be interested in doing this?

[EmperorMagus]

great!
Now I'm in the middle of a game with no idea about what to do!
This should be fun .

[Otataral Toblakai]

I suspect I am too late. Any chance of getting in?

[twelve]

Otataral Toblakai, on 05 October 2012 - 03:51 PM, said:

I suspect I am too late. Any chance of getting in?

We can put you in as an alternate or you could take EmperorMagus spot and he can then tag along with someone else to get a feel for how to play the game. It's up to him.

[EmperorMagus]

Can we be partnered ?

[twelve]

EmperorMagus, on 05 October 2012 - 03:57 PM, said:

Can we be partnered ?

If OT doesn't mind having you as a partner the sure. I'm assuming he has some Diplomacy experience. If not then you can be my partner. Then we can have a game of mostly experienced players with only Vengy as the noob.

[Gnaw]

I slept through the final set ups apparently. Don't mind though. happy to be an alt.

I think OT and Magus are pals so they'd make a good pair. Besides, England is a good "first game" country iirc.

@tattersail (eh, all the newbies). Quadruple check your orders. A single error in orders can invalidate your entire strategy. And there is very little worse in this game than being a lying, cheating, heartless, backstabbing sumbitch and then missing the target. Now don't get me wrong; being a lying, cheating, heartless, backstabbing sumbitch can be a good thing. Just want to be a competent lying, cheating, heartless, backstabbing sumbitch.

[twelve]

Gnaw, on 05 October 2012 - 04:31 PM, said:

I slept through the final set ups apparently. Don't mind though. happy to be an alt.

I think OT and Magus are pals so they'd make a good pair. Besides, England is a good "first game" country iirc.

@tattersail (eh, all the newbies). Quadruple check your orders. A single error in orders can invalidate your entire strategy. And there is very little worse in this game than being a lying, cheating, heartless, backstabbing sumbitch and then missing the target. Now don't get me wrong; being a lying, cheating, heartless, backstabbing sumbitch can be a good thing. Just want to be a competent lying, cheating, heartless, backstabbing sumbitch.

I even go to the point where I map out my orders in JDip and then copy and paste them into my pm to the adjudicator. If you resolve in the software it will tell you if something doesn't work. It's the safest way to enter your orders if found.