by Colin Hemming

1. The rules of Diplomacy apply with the following exceptions.

2. At the end of each season, a player is able to see who is occupying only those provinces to which he has a unit adjacent (see also Rule 4, below). A fleet in a coastal province can see inland, and an army in a coastal province can see out to sea. EXAMPLE: F. (Bul)sc can see into the Black Sea.

3. During movement and combat, the vision of a unit is dependent upon the move being made.

i) A unit Holding is able to see what happens in all adjacent provinces.

EXAMPLE: France – A.(Bur) Holds; England – F.(Spa)sc -Mar, A.(Gas) Holds; Italy – F.(Pie) – Mar. The French player is informed that A(Bur) sees the English Army remain in Gas, and a conflict in Mar resulting in a stand-off between an English and an Italian fleet. Had A(Gas) been ordered unsuccessfully to Spain, the French player would have received no different information. He is only informed the unit remains – not that it is ordered to Hold.

A unit ordered to Hold is told of any attack on itself, and where the attack comes from.

ii) if a unit order to move moves unopposed, the player is merely told it succeeded ( the player is not told, for example, if another unit just vacated that province); if the move results in a stand-off, and the destination province stays empty, the unit “sees” where the opposition is coming from, including supports, though he is not told which units are moving and which supporting (EXAMPLE: A.(Mar)-Bur S by A(Mun) FAILS, stood off by FA(Pic) and EA(Par) ); if the move is stood off at the border by a unit in the neighbouring province, the player is told who his opponents are, but not where).

EXAMPLE: A.(Mar)-Bur S by A(Mun) FAILS stood off by 3 French Armies ); if the move is opposed but successful, the moving unit and those supporting it deemed to enter the province whether or not it was occupied, and the results are the same as if the province had been unoccupied; in none of these cases is an attacking unit told of an attack upon itself unless it is dislodged.

If the support which any unit is giving is not needed, that unit is to be considered as having received an order to “Hold”, and treated as such (NOTE – Presumably this applies ONLY to supports given to units which move unopposed, NOT where a unit receives multiple supports and needs some, but not all of them). This rule also applies to a unit supporting a move by another player which is not ordered by that player. On the other hand, if a support is needed, the supporting unit sees exactly the same as the attacking unit – this is particularly important when one player supports another player’s move.

A fleet convoying an attacking Army is deemed to have the same vision as the Army in the event of conflict (again, this is immaterial unless one player convoys another’s unit). In the case of a multiple convoy, if the “chain” is disrupted before a particular fleet is reached by the Army, that Fleet treated as if ordered to “Hold”.

4. GARRISONS: Once a province is left unoccupied, it is deemed to be garrisoned by a small, non-combatant body of men. When the province is taken by an enemy at least one member of the garrison is assumed to escape to report the capture (e.g. “Piedmont captured by a French army”).. Thus, in addition to being told who occupies adjacent provinces at the end of a turn, a player is told of any unoccupied provinces he has lost, and to whom they have fallen.

5. CHANGE OF CONTROL OF SCs: Since the garrison is non-combatant and (apart from escapers) considered destroyed, then if the province is taken in a Spring move, it changes hands even if the captor moves out in Autumn. Thus it is quite possible for a game of DIPLOMYOPIA to end on a Spring move.

First published in XL No.1 (January 1972) with minor modifications over the next few issuesSA: Diplomyopia was the first hidden movement variant played in the UK, indeed the zine XL was founded just to run a postal game of it, though it never really caught on, principally due to the amount of work involved for the GM in preparing separate reports for each player. Andy Evan’s Stab! was a reaction to Diplomyopia in that it tried to ensure that what little information was revealed to the players was done in a public game report and therefore got round the need for the GM to give different information to each player.