NationStates Jolt Archive

this sounds like it could be my kind of game, wanna tell me a bit more about it?

Just an overview.

Would anyone be interested in playing in a Diplomacy game through email? The portal site we'd be using to set up a game would be found at Diplomacy Pouch (http://diplom.org/index.py)
There is a lot of material there for people not familiar with the game, including manuals, tools, and lengthy essays on strategy and ...well...diplomacy.

I need 6 other people who'd be willing to sign up for a game. Be advised that these games require you to log in moves/respond to emails from other players on a fairly prompt schedule, as each individual turn is generally 72 hours. The games, on average, last anywhere from 3-6 months.

Hell yeah I'm in. How does this work exactly?

Extremely long explanation
Very informative - thank you. How do I sign up for this?
EDIT: what is with the crazy time warpage lately??

Diplomacy is a lot like Risk, in that the central premise of the game is multiple nations battling for control of an area of land sectioned off into regions. That's about where the similarity ends.

The game consists of alternating phases between Spring and Fall, with adjustment phases in between for retreats and build/removes.

It's diceless. There are no random acts of chance to save you from a tight situation, but there's also no "bunching up troops on a choke point" as seen in Risk Strategy 101. Instead each region can only be occupied by one unit. There are two types of units, Fleets and Armies. Armies can occupy any inland and coastal space, but can't cross oceans on their own. Fleets can occupy and sea and costal space, and have the added ability of being able to Convoy an army from one coastal region it touches to another (this can also be used in a chain to convoy a single army across multiple stretches of ocean, using more than one Fleet).

Combat is straightforward. An "attack" is initiated whenever a unit Moves from one region to another. A defense simply occurs when a unit is Holding in a region another unit is attempting to move to. However all units have functionally the same strength. Therefore a one-on-one between two units (regardless of type) will always result in a standoff, with the engaged units returning to their original locations. What I mean by this, is that two different units can attempt to move into a single region, and this will result in the exact same stand-off as if a unit was trying to move into a region occupied by another unit.

You might then ask "well how do I capture a piece of land that's being occupied?" Well the fourth and final action a unit can take is to Support another unit's Move or Hold. A unit A that is bordering a region that another unit B wants to move to can Support that unit's move. Now if another unit C attempts to occupy the contested region, the unit B counts as "2" for purposes of the attack, and unless the unit Cis similarly supported, it wins and occupies the region. A unit that is bordering a region held by another unit can support that unit. Now if an attack is made on that region, the unit in the defending region counts as "2" units. Ties always go to the defender in a region, while ties between two attackers always results in a bounce for both of them, returning them to their point of origin.

Each player starts with 3 units (except Russia), and it can have as many units as you control Centres, which are special regions littered all over the map. If you have fewer centres than you have units at the end of a Fall turn, you must choose one or more units to disband until you have an equal number. On the other hand, if you have fewer units than you have centres, you can choose to build a unit at your home centre (one of the three-four centres you start with at the beginning of the game.) Because of this limited size, the game forces you to make and break non-binding moves agreements with other players, constantly forming and disbanding alliances to jockey for more centres.

The object of the game is to accumulate 18 centres. This results in a win. On the other hand, if a stalemate forms and a number of countries can't make any more headway, than a draw can be called, where all survivors are declared winners.

That's diplomacy in a nutshell. The email system uses a specific series of commands in order to communicate all this decision making and message-sending through a computerized judge system, which is overseen by a GM.

The game requires exactly 7 players, one representing each major power in Europe at the turn of the 20th century (England, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Russia, and Turkey), and starts at 1901, continuing until one of the two ending conditions are met.

Very informative - thank you. How do I sign up for this?
EDIT: what is with the crazy time warpage lately??

No clue, but it's pretty bad.

Once I've got a full 7 (we need exactly 7 people to play) I'll either try and register a game or start one that's just forming, and post the name/signup information here. If everyone gets in within 24 hours or so, we should all make it on there without having to worry about other players outside NSG.
The process for signing up to a game there is generally fairly smooth. Once a game is found, you have to register with the server that that game is on, then send an email to the server with an email along these lines:

signon ?[nameofgame] [password]
signoff

Note that this is the password you will be using from now on to log in, so you should remember it.

If you wish to set preferences for what country you'd like to play, you can add this line:

set preference (first letter of each nation in descending order of want.)

between the signon and signoff, everything on its own line. For instance, if I really wanted to play an eastern nation, and really didn't want to play Turkey but was more or less indifferent to which western nation I got stuck with, I could type:

signon ?game pass
set preference RAG[EFI]T
signoff

The brackets will tell the system that each of those three countries (England, France, and Italy in this case) should receive equal priority when handing out nations.

There are vastly more detailed explanations available at this site:
Newbies Guide to the Judge (http://diplom.org/Online/FAQ/newguide.html)

All right, tg me when we have enough people if you don't mind...

I'm in.

All right, tg me when we have enough people if you don't mind...

Will do.

yeah, me too.

So that's... 4? awesome, only three more. Consider thread bumped.

I get my fill of roiling arguments right here on NSG, thanks.

Diplomacy is excellent fun. Wish I had the time to participate.

Is the rest of the posting process going to be as confusing as the registration process seems to be? Help! :eek: :headbang:

I'm Italy online right now, and about to get rolled over. As something of a newbie myself, I'd be happy to sign on to a new-players game game. [FG]ERATI, if you please.

TG me when you hit seven, thanks and looking forward to it!

Is the rest of the posting process going to be as confusing as the registration process seems to be? Help! :eek: :headbang:

Don't bother registering until you know what server the game's going to be on, as you'll likely end up registering with a different server anyway.

Once the game actually starts, all of the in-game stuff is handled through emails. The commands may look complex and complicated, but they're streamlined to be as easy to read through as possible for the automated system.

Don't bother registering until you know what server the game's going to be on, as you'll likely end up registering with a different server anyway.

Once the game actually starts, all of the in-game stuff is handled through emails. The commands may look complex and complicated, but they're streamlined to be as easy to read through as possible for the automated system.

ok.

Would anyone be interested in playing in a Diplomacy game through email? The portal site we'd be using to set up a game would be found at Diplomacy Pouch (http://diplom.org/index.py)
There is a lot of material there for people not familiar with the game, including manuals, tools, and lengthy essays on strategy and ...well...diplomacy.

I need 6 other people who'd be willing to sign up for a game. Be advised that these games require you to log in moves/respond to emails from other players on a fairly prompt schedule, as each individual turn is generally 72 hours. The games, on average, last anywhere from 3-6 months.

This is the only board game I ever played that resulted in a fistfight.

If we get pissed, how are we going to beat each other up via email?

ok.

For instance, sending an email to another player consists of:

press to [letter of player's country, E for England in other words]
Body of Text
endpress

Always make sure to put the endpress, or the system will continue sending everything below the press to [letter] to the recipient (including intended commands and other messages to other players!)

Commands for units are even easier:

Moves
[letter of unit type, F for Fleet, A for Army] [Initial location] - [intended destination]

Ex: F Con-Bul or Fleet Con - Bul

Holds
[unit letter] [location] H

Ex:
F Con H

Support a Hold
[unit letter] [location] S [location of unit to be supported]

Support a Move
[unit letter] [location] S [location of unit to be supported]-[destination of unit]

Ex:

F Con S F Bla (Fleet Constantinople Support Fleet Black Sea)

F Con S F Bla-Bul (Fleet Constantinople Support Fleet Black Sea - Bulgaria)

Finally
Convoys from the Fleet
[letter] [location] C [location of Army to be convoyed]-[final destination]
F Bla C A Con-Sev

Convoy from Army
[letter] [location]-[location of Fleet convoying]-[final location]
A Con-Bla-Sev

Don't forget to tell Maineiacs about the "diplomacy" part, which often descends into bitter in-game backstabbing...

Don't forget to tell Maineiacs about the "diplomacy" part, which often descends into bitter in-game backstabbing...

I was going to save that for after the first backstab or two.

This is the only board game I ever played that resulted in a fistfight.

If we get pissed, how are we going to beat each other up via email?

Well, we could just come on here and shout at each other...not that we don't do that anyway.

For instance, sending an email to another player consists of:

press to [letter of player's country, E for England in other words]
Body of Text
endpress

Always make sure to put the endpress, or the system will continue sending everything below the press to [letter] to the recipient (including intended commands and other messages to other players!)

Commands for units are even easier:

Moves
[letter of unit type, F for Fleet, A for Army] [Initial location] - [intended destination]

Ex: F Con-Bul or Fleet Con - Bul

Holds
[unit letter] [location] H

Ex:
F Con H

Support a Hold
[unit letter] [location] S [location of unit to be supported]

Support a Move
[unit letter] [location] S [location of unit to be supported]-[destination of unit]

Ex:

F Con S F Bla (Fleet Constantinople Support Fleet Black Sea)

F Con S F Bla-Bul (Fleet Constantinople Support Fleet Black Sea - Bulgaria)

Finally
Convoys from the Fleet
[letter] [location] C [location of Army to be convoyed]-[final destination]
F Bla C A Con-Sev

Convoy from Army
[letter] [location]-[location of Fleet convoying]-[final location]
A Con-Bla-Sev

OK, I remember that shorthand from the board game (which I haven't played in more than 15 years), I assume registration procedure will be made clearer when it's time to do so.

This is the only board game I ever played that resulted in a fistfight.

If we get pissed, how are we going to beat each other up via email?

We'll just flame each other on the boards like normal. :D

No, I've played Diplomacy before, and it's no good unless I can throttle you in person.

Who says you can't? you just have to find me first...
Or failing that, mercilessly thrash my online persona.

*Shameless bump*....
Come on people, we only need a couple more...

*Shameless bump*....
Come on people, we only need a couple more...

No, I've played Diplomacy before, and it's no good unless I can throttle you in person.

Me
Arthais101
Maineiacs
Eve Online
Nova Boozia
Hunter S Thompson


Come on NSG, we need one more person who'd be willing to play!

Oy, I've found a game with 6 slots left that's in the process of forming. I'll be sending out a TG with information on how to register and sign up, but I'll also post it here for anyone who doesn't check their nation often.

Go to this site:
http://www.diplom.org/Email/registration.html

The Email box is the only field you can't fake (you need to put the email you'll be using to access the Judge Server)

Then at the bottom, select USOS from the list of judges, and hit the Submit Registration button.

The listing for the game can be found here:
http://diplom.org/openings/j37/alterego.game.html

It's a Gunboat game, the only principle difference between it and a Standard Diplomacy game is that you don't actually see the email address of the other players, so you don't know in advance who you're playing against (which is really only an issue if you've been playing long enough to know the regulars)

Once you are ready to actually sign up for the game, send an email from the email address you registered with to:

usos@onesite.org

The subject can be anything you want.

The body of the email should contain:

signon ?alterego password
(If you want to set preferences, type the set preference information here)
signoff

You should receive an email soon after saying your registration for the game was successful, or if unsuccessful why it was unsuccessful.

I've just been informed by the Gamemaster of the game I listed here that the game is closed to non-members of one of the Diplomacy gaming circles. Sorry guys.

I'll continue looking for open games.

I've just been informed by the Gamemaster of the game I listed here that the game is closed to non-members of one of the Diplomacy gaming circles. Sorry guys.

I'll continue looking for open games.
I see in your sig the reference to Voltaire - I take it you've read 'candide'? it's one of my all time-favorite books, and he's one of my favorite authors.

I see in your sig the reference to Voltaire - I take it you've read 'candide'? it's one of my all time-favorite books, and he's one of my favorite authors.

Yes, I've read it. Enjoyed it immensely.

Guys, I've talked to the GM of the game I tried to get us into. H'ed be willing to set up an exclusive game for us (setting it up so that only players with our email addresses can sign up, in other words) and get a reliable 7th member for us.

What I need you all to do is either send me a message at wingprevailer@yahoo.com so I can give him your email addresses.

Yes, I've read it. Enjoyed it immensely.

Guys, I've talked to the GM of the game I tried to get us into. H'ed be willing to set up an exclusive game for us (setting it up so that only players with our email addresses can sign up, in other words) and get a reliable 7th member for us.

What I need you all to do is either send me a message at wingprevailer@yahoo.com so I can give him your email addresses.
Sent you a mail;
HST

I just got this message from the judge for the game - what's the deal, deus?

Hello Hunter:

If you read the game listing for the Diplomacy game, AlterEgo,
you will see that it is restricted to members of either
the Dipsters Group or the Vermoant Group.

I have not found you in either group.

Please write back to me if you are in one of those two groups.

If not, I will have to resign you from that game.

Best,

Alan Mennel
GM for USOS AlterEgo

I just got this message from the judge for the game - what's the deal, deus?

I already explained it. We couldn't get into AlterEgo because Alan Mennel had set the game up to be exclusive to members of Diplomacy Direct and VG. He then offered to set up a new game for us.

I'm still waiting on email addresses from people. I've gotten yours and (I think) Maineiacs'. So that leaves Arthais, Nova Boozia, and EO.

I already explained it. We couldn't get into AlterEgo because Alan Mennel had set the game up to be exclusive to members of Diplomacy Direct and VG. He then offered to set up a new game for us.

I'm still waiting on email addresses from people. I've gotten yours and (I think) Maineiacs'. So that leaves Arthais, Nova Boozia, and EO.
Ohhh okay...
I followed the instructions in the tg you sent out. Now I realise you must have sent that before you found out we couldn't join the game after all. Okay, there's no problem then.
EDIT: man Jolt sucks...

OK so where do we stand, right now? What do I have to do?

OK so where do we stand, right now? What do I have to do?

You need to send me an email so I can add your email address to the list of addresses being sent to Alan Mennel. Once I've sent that list, he'll set up a game and set a filter so that a set number of slots are available only to our email addresses, so we don't get locked out of our own game. Given that we don't have a full 7, he'll then locate any additional players required and get them to sign up.

I'm also waiting on NB and EO.

You need to send me an email

to?

to?

D'oh. wingprevailer@yahoo.com

I'm a moron. :(

So, we're still waiting, then?

So, we're still waiting, then?

Yep.

You're already full on members, I take it...

You're already full on members, I take it...

We've only got 6. We need 7. If you're up for it, send me an email so I can add you to the list.

We've only got 6. We need 7. If you're up for it, send me an email so I can add you to the list.Sweet. Are you going to be passing out the countries randomly or do we get to pick? I'd personally prefer the former.

Sweet. Are you going to be passing out the countries randomly or do we get to pick? I'd personally prefer the former.

The judge uses a preferences system, you have the option of assigning a list of nations in descending order of desire. It then compares that list to everyone else's list of preferences and assigns them.

Also: Maine and Arthais, have you sent me that email yet?