by Michael Allaway

1. The 1971 Diplomacy rulebook applies except where amended below.

2. The board represents the Earth in the year 3900A.D. After a nuclear war and several millenea there have been some geographical changes:

The North Sea, English Channel, Gulf of Lyon and Barents Sea have all become land spaces with the following names; The North Plains (Npn), The London Plain (Lop), The Mediterranean Plain (Mpn) and the Ice Plain (Ipn).

Gascony, Trieste and Livonia all become sea spaces with the following names; Gulf of Gascony (GoG), Bay of Trieste (BoT), and the Livonian Sea (LVS).

Switzerland becomes passable and a supply centre.

3. Players will represent the members of the seven European powers who were on bases on varies bodies in the Solar System when the war started. Now, they are returning to Earth, the home planet, to recolonise. In the centuries since the war, however, all scientific knowledge has been lost and they are on a technological level the same as that of about the early 20th Century. The spaceships they use are relics from the move out in the preceding centuries, and, like the bases are falling apart.

4. All players will be given 3 supply centres (4 for Russia) at the start, chosen at random by the GM. Once each player knows his starting sc’s he may exchange them with other players provided both players’ orders indicate that such an exchange takes place. A separate season at the start of will be arranged to allow players to swap in this manner. Once the game proper starts it is not possible to exchange sc’s in this manner. 

5. There will be an eight player representing those inhabitants of Europe that survived the war. This player (called natives) will start the game with 4 supply centres chosen at random and may also exchange as above.

6. Once the swap season is over the players may form their initial forces in any combination. The type and number of units will be given with the players first set of orders. In the event of a Spring 3900 (first seasons) NMR the GM will choose the players forces. The natives start with four armies and can build no fleets at all (no raw materials, and no specialised knowledge).

7. The seven powers will build these units in their supply centres and can only build in these supply centres in the future (they are the only supply centres with spaceports). The Native player may build in any controlled supply centres.

8. The swap season is Winter 3900, the first season is Spring 3901, the Autumn 3901 etc.

Comments by the Designer

I think that this variant can be very interesting and requires some thought. For example although the Natives cannot build any fleets there is only one supply centre (Tun) that is not part of the general land-mass. It may seem that the natives have an advantage over the seven powers in that they can build in any controlled supply centre, this can be counteracted in a couple of ways, and you’ll have to work them out for yourselves.