by Teun Spaans

1. All rules of regular diplomacy apply except where modified below.

2. In the winter, after all retreats have been executed and s.c. ownership has been determined, players can order builds/breaks as usual, with one exception.

3. Players may voluntarily withhold one unit build and order a s.c. build instead. The notation for such an order is s.c. province name.

For example : A Lvp, s.c. Yor orders an army to be built in Liverpool and a s.c. to be constructed in Yorkshire.

4. A s.c. built must fulfill the following conditions :

a. The power must have a build to spare.

b. The province must be in the power’s home country.

c. The province may not already be a s.c..

Condition a. is the same as rule 3. Condition b. excludes the usage of such provinces as Albania. Condition c. prevents a s.c. to grow on until double, triple centers and worse. That would cause the units to be crammed onto the board until no unit could move an> longer.

5. A s.c.‑to‑be becomes effective in the next winter if and only if no unit of another power is ordered into the province. All self‑standoffs, such as G A Pru ‑ Lvp, G F Bal ‑ Lvp, are considered as an order into the province for the purpose of this rule.

6. New s.c.’s can be used to build army’s and fleets and are treated in all aspects as equal to the “normal” s.c.’s.

7. To win the game a player must control a number of s.c.’s equal to : (number of s.c.’ s + 1) / 2

(The total number of supply centers, plus one, divided by 2, rounded up).

This means that for 34 or 35 supply centers a player must control 18 s.c.’s, for 36 this becomes 19, etc.

8. No country may build more than one s.c. a year.

9. Map change: Syria is split up into two provinces, Syria and Jordan, by a line from the coast to the east edge of the map.

The effects:

The countries best situated to sacrifice a build are those which can be easily defended, it is Italy, England and Turkey. Incidentally these countries are also the ones with the poorer results in terms of the number of games won. So I hope that this opportunity to strengthen their home base will have a positive influence on their chances of winning. The only country which is notorious for its poor results and which doesn’t have an easy build is Austria‑Hungary. But Austria’s reputation is mainly due it’s chances to be eliminated early in the game, and its chances might well be improved if Italy decides to build a new center in Tuscany or Apulia. Perhaps a province Croatia between Trieste, Vienna and Budapest will be necessary to bring it’s chances to an equal level with that of the other countries.