by Richard Young

Following the success of Future Tense Star Wars Mark II Nuclear Dwarf Throwing Diplomacy it seems to me that the hobby is ready for another equally authentic variant.  As usual, I’ve sacrificed playability for the sake of historical accuracy.  As for the name, well its component parts pan out as follows:

Nuclear: You get loads of missiles to much about with.
Yuppie: This is a variant for the dipper on the move, with limited time available, who wants to see a quick result.
Evil Empire: Russia gets one less missile than everyone else which serves it right for being communist for all those years.
Diplomacy: Er, not sure about this one.  I’ll let you know after I’ve seen the first set of orders.

The Rules:

1. All those worn rules of Diplomacy apply (but not for long) except for the following, ever so minor, modifications.

2. Pre Spring 1901, in addition to the normal complement of units, each player starts with five missiles, except for Russia who starts with four.  The missiles are not located anywhere in particular, or if they are, it’s a secret, and you needn’t worry about it.

3. All missiles must be fired in Spring 1901.  If they are not fired, they are deemed disbanded.

4. Missiles obliterate provinces the land on, making them impassable, and destroying their supply centers (if any).  They also cut support.  They do not destroy units successfully moving out of the targeted province, but they do destroy those successfully moving in, or those already there that did not move out.  They are as effective against sea as land provinces.  And that’s pretty damned effective.

5. The winner is the person with the most supply centers at the end of 1901.   It is possible, therefore, to have joint winners.  It is also possible to have no winners since there are 34 missiles and 34 supply centers.

6. The decision of the GM on all points of interpretation of these rules is open to question, but will stand nonetheless.