by Will Haven

Terrorism! A word to strike fear into the heart of the hardest citizen. Yet, it is only the latest title for activities which have been going on for centuries – the murder of Archduke Ferdinand by the Black Hand Gang in 1914 springing immediately to mind, of course. Great Powers have always incited rebellion in the empires of their adversaries as they strove to overtake them, and used such innocent idealists for their own perverted ends…. Terrorism I allows you to simulate this, adding an extra dimension to regular Diplomacy! Now read on….

1. Except as noted below, the regular rules of Diplomacy (1971) apply. The game is played on a regular Diplomacy board.

2. There are two turns per year only, Spring and Autumn. Players receive a fixed income of 3£ per supply center owned at the beginning of each turn. This goes into the country’s Treasury, located at its capital (E: London, G: Berlin, R: St P, T: Con, A: Vienna, I: Rome, F: Paris). Capture of the capital also means capture, intact, of the Treasury, which may then be plundered, and the contents added to the captors Treasury.

If a country’s capital is captured, but it remains in the game, it is permitted to designate any other supply center is control as its new capital, though until it recaptures its original capital, income per supply center is reduced to 2£ per turn. Upon recapture, the Treasury is immediately moved to the original capital.

Treasury details should be revealed each turn.

3. An army or fleet costs 3£ to build, and 1£ per turn thereafter to field. They may be built on any of that country’s home provinces (supply centers or otherwise) not subject to terrorism and not owned by another power. The last player whose unit occupied or occupies a province – supply center or otherwise – is the owner of that province.

4. In addition to ordinary play, players may also establish, anonymously, terrorist groups in any province owned by another player, excepting the capitals (see rule 2). If there is an army or fleet in that province, the permission of the owner of that unit must be given for the terrorist group to be established. Terrorist groups may be established by either one nation or a combine anonymously contributing any amount of cash over 2£ to it. The group is successfully established if a die, rolled by the GM, comes up with a number less than or equal to the amount expended. If successful, the amount so contributed goes to form the Treasury of the terrorist group, which is located in the province so named, but not subject to rule 2 regarding capture (ie terrorists Treasuries cannot be captured). Terrorist groups must be given appropriate name upon their inception (eg PLO in Syria, Tartan Army is Clyde, Normandy Independence League in Picardy, and so on). A terrorist group can do nothing in the turn in which it is established. No more than one terrorist group can occupy one province at one time.

5. After its establishment, any player may, anonymously, contribute money in any turn to any terrorist group. The full amount thus contributed is added to the terrorists Treasury. Control of a terrorist group, i.e. the right to write orders for all its activities, is placed in the hands of the player who contributed most to the terrorist group in the last turn. Thus, in the first turn after its establishment, the establishing player has control. In the event of a tie or a consortium, the GM decides by a random method the controller. In the event of no contributions, last turns controller retains control. The controller of a terrorist group should be informed of his control privately with the previous turns moves, by the GM.

6. Instead of money, players may also add to the terrorist groups Treasury through giving them excessive publicity, ie write some press about their exploits. The GM will them make a subjective – and final -judgment on the quality of such press (he may refuse to print some or all, if he so wishes), and award the terrorist group an amount of cash, lying between 0£ and 20£. The author of the press, may, of course, remain anonymous.

7. The purpose of a terrorist group is to force another power to increase defense spending on internal security, and hence have less to spend on his other armed forces. Thus, as the beginning of each turn, for every terrorist group in its territory, a country must pay up to one-half (rounded up) of the amount in that terrorist groups Treasury at the beginning of the turn, out of its own Treasury, for anti-terrorist activity. The actual amount to be paid is decreed by the controller of the terrorist group, but, unless otherwise specified in his orders, the GM should always assume be requires the maximum. The amount so levied is not added to the terrorists Treasury.

8. Should a country be unable to meet the conditions of rule 7 out of its Treasury, it must liquidate units to obtain sufficient money. For each army or fleet demobbed, 2£ is yielded. If a player has not specified demobs and they become necessary, the GM shall decide which units to remove, IAW removal rules, and his decision is final. Should there be insufficient units to cover the cost, all that country’s units are removed, all territories subject to terrorism are ceded to the terrorist groups (see rule 11), and that country ceases to exist, the player being removed from the game.

9. Should the occupying country move a unit to the province in which the terrorist group is based, payments of the terrorist levy due to that group stop, for as long as that unit is kept in that in that province. Should the unit move away, the levy returns, as before. Contributions may still be added whilst a unit is in the province, and have immediate effect should it move.

10. Should a province subject to terrorism be captured by another Great Power, that new owner becomes subject to the terrorist levy immediately (ie at the beginning of the turn following the capture of the province), unless, in the turn immediately after capture, he succeeds in moving out of that province and cedes it to the terrorist group (see rule 11).

11. An owning country may cede a province to a terrorist group occupying that province, provided the country has no units in that province. The province then becomes independent, the terrorist group an independent nation (and the GM should change its name appropriately), and the terrorists Treasury becomes the new nations Treasury.

The new nation is then ‘auctioned off’; any of the players, except the ceding player, may submit a concealed bid with the following set of orders, and the highest bidder retains permanent control of that nation, the bidded sum being debited from his country’s Treasury. The new nation may then build units, establish its own terrorist groups, and so on. Should the new nation ever be conquered, then its original province and its Treasury revert to the status of a terrorist group. The new nation’s Treasury may not be captured as a Great Powers might.

12. In order to facilitate the transferal of money in secret (because Treasury details for each nation and terrorist group should be published each turn, and contributors could thus be easily located), players are allowed to set up money-handling agencies, whose cash-on-hand is not revealed each turn (except to their owners). No-one except their creator can ever effect such agencies, except to add money to them! (EG: England sets up, anonymously, CIA & KGB, and gives 10£ to CIA – now everyone knows he owns CIA. But he also instructs CIA to transfer 6£ to KGB; this would not be printed. The next turn, he can instruct the KGB to support terrorism, in anonymity). A player may have up to 4 such agencies at one time (they may be opened and closed at will). Should two or more players attempt to open an agency with the same name, the GM decides, randomly, who succeeds, and informs the failed player(s) accordingly.

13. Treasuries of all nations, agencies, and terrorist groups are subject to attrition. At the end of each turn, a nation or agencies Treasury to reduced by 2£ for each 10£ in it between 10£ and 50£ and 5£ for each 10£ over 50£. And if that doesn’t encourage you to spend……

14. No fractions of £ are allowed in any way. Where not otherwise specified, round to the nearest L, 1/2£ going upwards.

15. Orders are performed in a specific sequence, as follows:

1. Income (rule 2), 2. Cedes (rule 11), 3. Levies (rule 7), 4. Military moves, 5. Retreats, 6. Builds (military), 7. Contributions (rule 5), 8. Establishments (rules 4 & 12), 9. Attrition (rule 13).