by Martin Dean
1. All the conventional rules of’ Diplomacy apply with the following exceptions.
2. There are eight major powers in the game: Anglo-Dutch, Austro-Hungarians, French, Russians, Spanish, Swedish, Turks and Poles. The game starts in the year 1700, the initial set-up is listed next to the map.
3. Each turn represents a full year of standard Diplomacy time. Consequently most units have a movement/capability allowance of 2 (see section 4), and each set of orders should include moves, possible retreats and build/removals, as there are builds on every turn.
4. Each unit has a movement/capability allowance of’ 2 (exceptions below). This means it can either move two areas, move then support etc. in the two consecutive impulses. Alternatively a unit may be ordered to move one area with double strength or support with double strength. This split movement affects conflicts in the following ways. They are usually resolved in the sequence all first impulses, then all second impulses – however, when a unit is using its double strength capability, all attacks and supports for the whole turn are added up and compared to all holds/attacks and supports with the greatest number succeeding. All unit capabilities: convoy, support, hold, move etc. remain the same as regular Diplomacy, apart from the added complexities of double impulses movement. Nevertheless, simultaneity must be maintained; a double strength support for a single impulse move is not permitted, or rather it would only count as a single support. Second impulse orders which do not make sense because of first impulse conflicts become stand orders.
5. Retreats should be ordered as in regular diplomacy and executed after the impulse (or turn, in double impulse conflicts) of the attack. However, due to the complexity of the game, the GM will make all unordered retreats as follows. All retreats made by the GM will be towards the nearest controlled supply centre – if there is a choice, preference goes to home centres and then alphabetically. If a unit cannot retreats closer to a controlled supply centre it is disbanded.
6. Conditional orders are not admissible under any circumstances. Orders should be written at the beginning of each turn in the following manner:
Sweden 1700
CXII(Got)-hold-Den (x2);
2F(Sca)-COS-C CXII(Got)-Den;
A (Sca)-Hold-Got;
A(Liv) S A(Fin)-Kar (x2);
Retreats: A(Liv)-Kur;
Builds: A(Fin), A(Dal).
Removes: A(Got).
7. In the interests of historical variety, leader units have been included in the game representing the better generals of this period. Each leader has a movement/capability allowance of 3 and behaves as a normal army with the following exceptions. A leader’s second and third impulses are simultaneous with all other second impulses, a leader may move and support with triple strength, and a leader unit may not be disbanded through lack of retreat orders. Once destroyed a leader may never be rebuilt (we cannot rebuild him, we do not have the technology). The Turks, in the absence of any general of note, rely on weight of numbers instead. When retreating a leader displaces a friendly army.
8. The regular rules concerning fleets have been extensively revised to make them more realistic. Each supply centre supports 2 fleets, so that a player building/ disbanding fleets does so at a rate of 2 per supply centre. Fleets may only be built in home coastal supply centres (for exception see case 10a). Fleets may be stacked up to a limit of 2 in a coastal province, but there is no stacking limit on the open sea. Fleets may occupy coastal provinces simultaneously with friendly land units. Fleets may only occupy friendly coastal provinces, i.e. provinces last occupied by a friendly/allied army or initially belonging to such a player and since unoccupied (allied implies with the permission of the owning player written in his orders). If at the end of a turn a player has fleets in enemy coastal provinces, they must immediately be retreated as a land unit would be. If an allied player revokes his permission for an allied fleet to be in one of his provinces, the fleet concerned must retreat. Movement of fleets is as with regular land units with two impulses, and convoys are as in regular Diplomacy with one fleet required per strength point convoyed per impulse. Fleets exert no influence on land units, nor may they occupy a supply centre for supply purposes.
Supply rules: At the end of each turn, before builds/removals are executed, all units must check that they are in supply. Units are out of supply if they cannot trace a line of supply uninterrupted by enemy units, avoiding armed neutrals, enemy supply centres and Switzerland. A line of supply may pass
through a province containing a unit if the owner of that unit so permits in his orders. Units out of supply are disbanded.
10. Special Rules
a. Land-locked fleet building: The Russian player may build fleets in either Cri or Liv from the second turn onward of uninterrupted control. Similarly, Austria may build in Ven after the same time period.
b. Armed neutrals: All neutral supply centres have an intrinsic defence strength against attack (marked on the map). This effectively means that it requires a double strength attack or a supported attack to enter a previously unoccupied neutral supply centre (exceptions being BPr which has a strength of 2 and EPr which is not a supply centre). This intrinsic strength may be supported by any Great Power. Once occupied, a province permanently loses this defence strength.
c. Switzerland: Due to mountainous terrain all actions across the Swiss border require two impulses to complete at single strength. A unit holding in Swi would defend at double strength, but could only give one support per turn or move one area the following turn. Hence it would take an attack and two double strength supports to dislodge a unit in Swi.
d. Geographical notes: COS is a sea area which may not be occupied by land units. AEG is a sea area between two halves of a land province, any unit in Con is considered to be on both
sides of the straits. The move F(AEG)-WBS is allowed. There is no land bridge between And and Mor.
11. Game length/Victory conditions
The winner is the first player to control sixteen additional supply centres, or the game may be declared over at any time by unanimous player agreement. Alternatively the GM may declare that the game will end in either 1713 (Treaty of Utrecht) or 1721 (Treaty of Nystad), when the winner will be the player with the greatest number of additional centres
Designer’s Notes:
1700 is an ideal date for a Diplomacy variant. The twenty years following saw a period of almost incessant conflict throughout Europe, during which most powers threatened to dominate the continent at one time or another. The control of provinces represents the occupation of the key towns and fortresses in those area which was a slow business, hence yearly turns. However, the period also included subtle marches, like Marlborough’s masterstroke down the Rhine, and rapid shifts like Charles XII’s transfer from Denmark to Narva. Therefore, leaders and double strength movement were improvised to accommodate the incongruities of siege warfare combined with occasional rapid advances. I have converted ships into something more akin to the reality of ships in war – this does not make them an attractive investment, but their influence on strategy should be considerable.