by Vern Schaller, 1982
with modifications by Fred Davis, 1983
This variant was inspired in a number of ways by two other variants that I have come to know quite well over the years: Colonia by Fred Hyatt, and Jimmu by Michael Mills. What I enjoyed most about Colonia was the intricacy of the sea spaces and the islands associated with them – particularly in the Pacific area. Jimmu introduced to me the concept of certain sea spaces which permitted an unlimited number of fleets – a concept I found intriguing. The most interesting features of both of these variants have been embodied in my own variant – Far East.
1. The Rules for Diplomacy as defined in the 1971 edition of the rules will apply except as modified below.
2. Play begins with the Spring, 1991 turn. This year was chosen because Viet Nam is included as one of the Powers in this game, and this obviously dictates a modernistic setting. Each year has a Spring, Fall, and Winter Season just as in regular Diplomacy.
There are five Powers in Far East. The names of these Powers and their respective Home Supply Centres as well as starting units are defined as follows:
Power: Home Supply Centers and Starting Units
JAPAN (red): A Sapporo, F Tokyo, F Nagasaki
CHINA (yellow): A Peking, F Shanghai, F Canton
VIET NAM (green): A Hanoi, F Da Nang, F Saigon
INDONESIA (blue): F Sumatra, A Java, F Celebes
AUSTRALIA (white): F Brisbane, A Melbourne, F Perth
4. All Builds must be in the Home Supply Centres initially assigned to each Power. Obviously, the Home Supply Centre must still be controlled by the Power that originally owned it and it must be unoccupied.
5. There are a total of 28 Supply Centers in Far East. The victory criterion is possession of 15 of these Supply Centers. Home Supply Centers have been defined in Rule 3. The neutral Supply Centers are as follows: Korea, Mongolian Republic, Taiwan, Manila, Guam, Burma, Cambodia, Malaysia, Borneo, New Guinea, New Zealan4 Timor & Vladivostok.
6. All sea spaces with the exception of Oceans operate the same way that sea spaces do in regular Diplomacy. The North Pacific Ocean, Mid-Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean have the following special rules:
6.1 Oceans may be occupied by an unlimited number of Fleets. No Fleet can be dislodged from an Ocean space.
6.2 An order for a Fleet to move to an Ocean always succeeds as long as the Fleet is in a space adjacent to the Ocean to which it was ordered. It is never necessary to support a Fleet into an Ocean space.
6.3 Fleets may freely exchange spaces if one or both of these spaces are Oceans. In other words, if you had the situation of JAPAN: F North Pacific – Mid-Pacific, AUSTRALIA: F Mid- Pacific – North Pacific, both orders would succeed as would INDONESIA: F New Guinea – South Pacific, AUSTRALIA: F South Pacific – New Guinea.
6.4 A Fleet ordered from an Ocean to a coastal land space, island, or a regular sea space is subject to the normal rules of Diplomacy regarding stand-offs and dislodgements with respect to the space to which it is ordered with the exception of the exchange provision defined in Rule 6.3
Example 1
AUSTRALIA: F (Mid-Pacific) – Guam
JAPAN: F (Guam) – Mid-Pacific, F (North Pacific) – Guam
Example 2
AUSTRALIA: Fl (Mid-Pacific) S F2(Mid—Pacific) – Guam; F2 (Mid-Pacific) – Guam
JAPAN: F (Guam) – Mid-Pacific, F (North Pacific) – Guam
6.5 A Fleet in an Ocean Space may convoy an Army as well as issue Support orders for units in adjoining spaces or for another Fleet in the same Ocean Space to move to an adjacent space. A Support order issued by a Fleet in an Ocean Space can never be cut.
6.6 A Fleet dislodged from a coastal land space, island, or ordinary sea space adjacent to an Ocean may always retreat to that Ocean even if the dislodging Fleet came from the same Ocean Space.
6.7 If a particular Power has multiple Fleets in the same Ocean Space, it is helpful, but not required, to differentiate the fleets when preparing orders by assigning a number to each of the Fleets such as Fl, F2, etc. These numbers do not designate specific Fleets and are not a permanent feature of these Fleets.
7. There is one double-coasted land space in Far East and that is Thailand which has both an East Coast and a West Coast.
8. There are 8 land bridges in this game which are identified by two parallel lines connecting two land spaces such as the bridge joining Sumatra and Malaysia. Both Armies and Fleets may move freely between the two connected land spaces as if there were a contiguous border between the two land spaces. A unit on one side of the bridge may issue a Support order for a unit on the other side of the same bridge, and Retreats across a bridge are permitted.
These land bridges also act as demarcation lines between sea spaces. The bridge connecting Mindanao and Manila, for example, separates the South China Sea from the Philippine Sea. Fleets may move freely, subject to the normal rules of Diplomacy, from one sea space to another as if the bridges did not exist as bridges, but were, instead, simply borders. Exception: Flores Sea exists on both sides of the land bridge between Java and Suxnbawa.
Additional Notes On Far East I-R by Fred Davis
It is presumed that the Soviet Union has disintergrated into its component parts. Of interest to this game is that the Vladivostok area has again become independent, as it did during the 1917 Revolution, and formed some sort of Far Eastern Republic. Mongolia, likewise, is no longer under Moscow’ s control. The United States and the European Powers are presumably busy with their own problems, leaving the Far Eastern states to themselves.
The size of “Guam” has been reduced on this map. “Guam” should be Considered to be a combination of Guam, Saipan, Tinian and Rota. Perhaps the Mariana Is. got together and formed an independent State, which is why the U.S. doesn’t get involved. (“Marianas”might be a better name for this space, but I didn’t want to change names where it wasn’t necessary).
The Japanese main island of Shikoku is shown on this map, without being named. For game purposes, it will be presumed that the ordinary space “Kyoto” includes the Shikoku area.
The areas formerly called “Inner Mongolia” and “Manchuria” no longer legally exist in modern China. The province shown here as “Jehol” is a combination of Jehol and Antung provinces in China proper, plus parts of of what used to be Inner Mongolia and Manchuria. Kirin is one of the Manchurian provinces, here enlarged. The remainder of that area retains the name “Manchuria” here for easy identification. Vladivostok has been deliberately separated from Korea, for game purposes, although in fact they are adjacent.
The Kyoto and Sumbawa provinces were added because I believe that every Great Power should have some ordinary spaces for maneuvering purposes. Sakhalin could be considered to be part of Japan, too, as the southern half of this island (Only part shown here) was under Japanese control from 1906 to l915.
Several liberties have been taken with this map, including omission of many islands and areas like Hong Kong and Sabah (North Borneo), for game purposes.
Spaces added in Far East I-R
Supply Centers: Timor (island), Vladivostok
Other land provinces: Kyoto, Sumbawa (is.)
Sea space: Molucca Sea
Name Changes
Inner Mongolia to Jehol; Timor Sea to Exmouth Sea (this was the wrong location for Timor Sea anyway).
Shape Changes: Kirin, Manchuria, Arafura Sea