by Patrick McHale

1. All rules in the 1971 edition of the Diplomacy rulebook apply unless amended below.

2. In the rules that follow (only) Warsaw is not considered as a center, it has no financial relevance, but provides a unit, and counts in any Victory consideration.

3. Each player starts the game with a balance of £1,000 of his own currency; all are referred to as pounds (Russia has “purple pounds”, Italy has “green pounds”, etc).

a. All currencies are equal at the start of the game, but may be modified each Autumn.

b. Moneys are valued relative to the strongest currency; the value of currency equals (no. supply centers held by country)/(no. supply centers held by strongest country). e.g. Russia holds 14 centers,

Italy holds 8; a green pound is worth 4/7 purple pound.

4. Additional money may be gained in the course of the games as follows:

a. A player receives £100 (own currency) each season, for each home supply center held.

b. Upon capture of a center (i.e. this rule applies to Autumn only) the owning player must pay £100 (own currency) to the player who has captured the center.

c. On capturing a neutral center (never held by any player), the captor receives the £100 bonus in his own country; capture can only occur in an Autumn season.

d. A player must pay £100 (own currency) each season, for each home center held by another player; this is paid to the player holding that center when the season ends.

5. Game money may be paid between players during the game, in the form of bribes.

a. A player may submit a second order for a unit (no unit may have more than one such conditional order) which will be used if a bribe of sufficient value (“color” and minimum number of pounds specified) is paid to him by a single specified player.

b. A player may make his bribes conditional on a particular order being given.

c. Money is paid out for bribes conditional on an order, even if the order was not conditional on the bribe being received.

d. Money is paid regardless of moves by different units ‑ a player could give the order required, accept the bribe, but deliberately order so as to “standoff” or similar.

e. A sum can be transferred from one player to another without conditions attached.

6. A player may bid from holdings in his own currency, to support a particular order.

a. If the order is only prevented by an equal opposing force (as per standard Diplomacy rules) the amount bid is actually paid out (and removed from circulation).

b. When money has been paid to support opposing orders (which would standoff without any bid), the order with the highest total bid in its favor will succeed.

c. All money bid for an order that a unit should stand will count double for that purpose.

d. Players may give financial support for other player’s orders, converting money from own currency to the supported player’s in the process (even if the money is not paid).

e. Bids for orders which do not actually occur are ignored completely.

7. Players may convert their holdings from one currency to another as follows:

a. A player may convert from his own currency to that of another player at last season’s final exchange rate, but will not have use of that money until the following season.

b. Similarly, a player may convert from another currency to his own (same restrictions).

c. It is not possible to convert direct from one foreign currency to another.

d. The net effect of all such conversions in a particular currency is a temporary change in currency value (which affects use of money as in rule 6 only). An m% fall/rise in net holdings temporarily reduces / increases the value of that currency by m%. e.g. There are 2000 purple pounds in circulation, but conversion leads to a £700 net reduction; a purple pound is reduced in value by 35% (£700 is 35% of £2000).

8. Players may declare an Alliance of Currency to add stability to their currencies:

a. Each player is considered to hold the average of total centers in the A.o.C. (Warsaw excluded) plus one, in deciding the exchange rate; e.g. countries in an A.o.C. hold 5, 4, and 3 centers respectively, each has exchange rate determined as if each held 1/3 (5+4+3) + 1 = 5 centers; by no means should the currencies be considered identical.

b. To form an A.o.C. each player involved should express a wish with the a season’s orders; the GM will publish the A.o.C. and the new exchange rate applies from the end of the season concerned (even if that season is a Spring turn).

c. A player may withdraw from the A.o.C. immediately on informing the GM of this.

d. Any player may deal in currencies protected by an A.o.C. precisely as if each owned the assumed number of centers, but must state only the number of pounds to be spent (if the A.o.C. breaks you may buy a different number of pounds than otherwise).

e. Such dealing effects only pounds of the specified colors (others in the A.o.C. have temporary fluctuations determined separately) e.g. No Italo‑Russian currency exists.

9. Game reports will also list all player’s currency holdings and currency values as they stand at the end of each season, as well as amounts spent supporting orders.

10. A player whose balance is zero may not spend any money (no deficits are allowed); a player whose units are eliminated loses all holdings in foreign currency (as well as having his currency devalued to zero according to rule 3b.

11. Since this is a playtest, the GM may change the rules as the game progresses.