Warhammer Diplomacy (fm05)

by Daryl Lonnon

Download Map

Download Map

Honestly, I’m not 100% sure why I’m doing this. I recently had a desire to do a Diplomacy variant, and while reading through the Mighty Empires rules on GW’s website (here), I noticed similiarities between Diplomacy rules and Mighty Empire Rules (namely in how supports are “cut”). Thus was born the odd desire to make a Warhammer Diplomacy map, that could also be used to do “modified” Mighty Empire campaigns (potentially fighting the battles using Warmaster and/or Man’O’War).

Issues …

  • Some of the positions of nations I’m not 100% sure are in the right place. Cathay feels like it should be further north, and the Undead Lands (from the fluff I can find) appear to be mixed in with Araby.
  • What are the Hinterlands of Kuresh?

The Nations

  • Chaos (Dark Grey) (top of map) (4 regions) Capital: Eye of Chaos (EYEC)
  • Norse (Cyan) (top of “Scandinavia”) (2 regions) Capital: SJOK
  • Kislev (White) (2 regions) Captial: KISL
  • Empire (Yellow) (8 regions) Capital: MIDD
  • Brettonnia (Pink) (5 regions) Capital: COUR
  • Dark Elves (Purple) (4 regions) Capital: Naggarond (NAGG)
  • High Elves (Light Blue) (5 regions) Capital: Avel-Loren (AVEL)
  • Wood Elves (Bright Green) (1 region) Capital: Athel-Loren (ATHE)
  • Vampire Counts (Dark Red) (1 region) Capital: Sylvania (SYLV)
  • Dwarves (Brown) (6 regions) Capital: Karak-a-Karak (KARK)
  • Chaos Dwarves (Black) (2 regions) Capital: The Ziggurat (ZIGG)
  • Skaven (Light Grey) (1 region) Capital: Skavenblight (SKAV)
  • Dogs of War (Tilea & Estelia) (Medium Grey) (3 regions each)
  • Orcs & Goblins (Dark Green) (5 regions) Captial: Karak-Eight-Peaks (KARE)
  • Tomb Kings (Off-White) (5 regions) Capital: Desolation of Nagash (NAGA)
  • Araby (Tan) (4 regions) Capital: MEDA
  • Lizardmen (Medium Green) (3 regions) Capital: TLAX
  • Kingdoms of Ind (Red-Brown) (4 regions) Capital: Audresh (AUDH)
  • Cathay (Orange) (6 regions) Captial: Baijing (BAIJ)
  • Nippon (Red) (4 regions) Capital: Oktyo (OKTY)

Map Features

A short list of special map features.

  • The Tempest Ocean (NTEM, MTEM, STEM), wraps around. They are the same spaces on the right and left side of the map.
  • Karak Dum (KDUM) is connected to the Frozen Sea (FROZ). Karak Dum is not connected via a coastline to any province surrounding the Frozen Sea (in particular, The Kurgan (KURG)).
  • Ironfoot Glacier (IFGL), Southern Eye of Chaos (SEYE), The Vaults (VAUL) and the “Himalayas” are impassable.
  • Naggarond (NAGG) has no East/West coast. A fleet on Naggarond can move out either side.
  • Skaven symbols represent the underway, a Skaven army may move (and support) from this province to Skavenblight and vice versa.

Rules (Version 1)

Here are the rules for Warhammer Diplomacy. This assumes that the battles are fought using Warhammer, Warmaster, and/or Man-o-war (or whatever current GW game fills those shoes). The following is the “standard” game. Basically the way I envisioned it working when I originally drew up the map. Afterwards, there will be a list of variant ideas which can be used to customize the campaign (or change to your hearts content (even chucking them completely)).

National Abilities

Certain powers in Warhammer/Warmaster are just not large enough to deserve more than one center. In order to make them more playable (and appealing), they gain some special ability.

  • The Wood Elves: (Illusion) the home center of Athel-Loren always has a virtual army on it. This army is always on hold orders or, if a real unit is holding on Athel-Loren, it supports that unit to hold. It is also possible for a unit not on Athel-Loren (say the Grey Mountains) to support the virtual army on Athel-Loren in it’s hold.
  • The Vampire Counts: (Immortality) During Fall Moves, if the home center of the Vampire Counts (Sylvania) is controlled by foreign power, a virtual Vampire Count army moves to Sylvania This represents the Vampire Counts retaking their ancesteral lands. A second Vampire Count army may support this move.
  • The Skaven: (The Underways) The Skaven are able to move armies via the Underways. This allows Skaven armies on Skavenblight to move (or support) to an Underway Entrance (marked by the Skaven symbol on the map) and vice versa.
  • The Dog’s of War: (Fledgling Nations) A Dog of War player gets one center at the start. You may choose a center in Tilea or Estelia. Also choose a fleet or an army. From there, they must conquer their neighboring city. They may build in either of these cities, after they have conquered them. As such they are a 2 center power from that point on.
  • The Norse: (Sea Raiders) Norse fleets attack with a strength of 2 when assaulting a coastal province. This does NOT count when holding in a coastal province or supporting an attack on a coastal province.
Pre-game
  • Choose powers and positions. Places pieces (pins or whatnot … in the past I’ve used colored push pins with colored marker symbols written on the heads pushed into a print out of the map) to represent your starting units. Starting units are as follows:
    • Chaos
      • Army at the Eye of Chaos (EYEC) (Capital)
      • Fleet at the Hung (HUNG)
      • Army at the Kurgan (KURG)
      • Fleet at the Man-chu (MANC)
    • Dark Elves
      • Fleet at Naggarond (NAGG) (Capital)
      • Fleet at Hargneth (HARG)
    • Norse
      • Fleet at Skojtraken (SKOJ) (Capital)
    • Kislev
      • Army at Kislev (KISL) (Capital)
      • Army at Praag (PRAA)
    • Chaos Dwarves
      • Army at The Ziggurat (ZIGG) (Capital)
      • Fleet at Karak-Dum (KDUM)
    • The Empire
      • Fleet at Middenhiem (MIDD) (Capital)
      • Army at Altdorf (ALTD)
      • Army at Nuln (NULN)
    • The Brettonians
      • Army at Couronne (COUR) (Capital)
      • Fleet at L’Anguille (LANG)
    • The Dwarves
      • Army at Karak-a-Karak (KARK) (Capital)
      • Army at Karak-Ungor (KUNG)
      • Fleet at Barad-Var (BARV)
    • The Vampire Counts
      • Army at Sylvania (SYLV) (Capital)
    • The Wood Elves
      • Army at Athel-Loren (ATHE) (Capital)
    • The High Elves
      • Army at Avelorn (AVEL) (Capital)
      • Fleet at Yvresse (YVRE)
      • Fleet at Lotherien (LOTH)
    • The Skaven
      • Army at Skavenblight (SKAV) (Capital)
    • Tilea and EstialiaSpecial Rules govern their starting positions.
    • Orcs and Goblins
      • Army at Karak-Eight-Peaks (KARE) (Capital)
      • Army at The Darklands (DARK)
      • Fleet at The Bloodhorns (BHOR)
    • The Tomb Kings
      • Army at The Desolation of Nagash (NAGA) (Capital)
      • Army at Istrabul (ISTA)
      • Fleet at Domaszuk (DOMA)
    • Araby
      • Fleet at Medaj (MEDA) (Capital)
      • Army at Bulstaj (BULS)
    • The Lizardmen
      • Army at Tlax-Tlan (TLAX) (Capital)
      • Fleet at Xlan-Huapec (XLAN)
    • The Kingdoms of Ind
      • Army at Andradesh (ANDR) (Capital)
      • Fleet at Bombai (BOMB)
    • The Empire of Cathay
      • Army at Bai-Jing (BAIJ) (Capital)
      • Army at Hong (HONG)
      • Fleet at Calith (CALI)
    • The Empire of Nippon
      • Army at Yotok (YOTO) (Capital)
      • Fleet at Oktyo (OKTY)
  • Decided on how large of battles you are willing of fight. The Warmaster/Mighty-Empires rules recommend the following:StrengthTotal Army Size (based around 1500 and 2000 pt standard)1100%1500 pts2000pts2125%1875 (2 armies of 940)2500 (2 armies of 1250)3150%2250 (3 armies of 750)3000 (3 armies of 1000)4175%2625 (4 armies of 660)3500 (4 armies of 875)5200%3000 (5 armies of 600)4000 (5 armies of 800)

Turns

The turns are very similiar to diplomacy. The difference being the addition of a Decisive Battle Phase which occurs after Movement has been revealed but before Movement is carried out. The Decisive Battle Phase may adjust which units bounce and which units are dislodged.

  • You will require a copy of Diplomacy to play, I will not elucidate how Diplomacy works with regards to various Diplomacy rules.
  • It might help to have familiarity with the Mighty Empire rules here.
Orders Phase
  1. This is exactly the same as Diplomacy Orders phases. Valid Orders are:
    • Move
    • Support to Move
    • Support to Hold
    • Hold
    • Convoy (fleet only)

Decisive Battle Phase

The Decisive Battle Phase occurs after movement has been submitted, but before movement is carried out. This phase might change which units bounce and/or which units are dislodged.

Declaring Decisive Moves/Holds

Decisive battles occur due to decisive moves or decisive holds

  1. After determining the strength of each move/hold, each player then declares one decisive move/hold.
  2. You may declare a decisive move with any unit which would normally bounce against an opponent’s unit during its move, or you may declare a decisive hold if with any unit that would normally be dislodged.
  3. After determining where decisive battles will occur (see Determining Where Decisive Battles Occur), Each player then assigns a Sepoy/Mercenary/Himself (from now on known as a Battle Commander) to fighting any decisive battles they are involved in. You must assign your Battle Commanders as equally as possible. In example, if there are 6 decisive battles you are engaged in and you have 3 Battle Commanders (2 Sepoys and Yourself), then each player will fight 2 battles.
  4. Any player who has unassigned Battle Commanders declares an additional decisive battle. Go back to step 1.
Determining Where Decisive Battles Occur

The purpose of a decisive move or hold is to modify the standard Diplomacy movement results in your favor.

To determine the strength that you are facing, recall (or recalculate) the strength of the defense that you faced. To calculate the strength that you have, recall (or recalculate) the strength you held or attacked with.

A unit and all of it’s supports is considered one group for the purpose of determining where a decisive battle occurs. So if A moves to C supported by B, and D moves to B supported by C, and both moves are decisive moves, then only one battle is fought to determine if A moves to C or if D moves to B.

If you are the victor of the decisive battle, then you have sufficient strength to either take the province or hold the province, recalculate the results of the diplomacy move.

You might find yourself in a position where the results of one decisive battle effects the participants of other decisive battles. In example, if A moves to B, C moves to B, D moves to A, and E moves to A; A declares a decisive move and D declares a decisive move; Whether or not A is involved in the battle for the province A is moving from is dependent on whether A is successful in taking province B. Decide before the campaign begins, how you want to deal with this. One way is to allow anybody who potentially might bounce back into a province where the decsive battle will occur, to fight in that battle providing an additional strength of 1. Another way is to immediately dislodge any unit that bounces back into the province where a decisive battle is occuring. A third way is to schedule battles in such a way that the outcome of one effects the particpants of others. I prefer the immediate dislodge effect.
How to fight a Decisive Battle
  1. A decisive battle can be fought between fleets (using Man’O’War), fleets and armies (using Warmaster/Warhammer) or just armies (using Warmaster/Warhammer).
  2. A decisive battle (between armies (although it should be simple to adjust for fleets)) setup and outcome is determined using a variation of the rules from Might Empires found here. To paraphrase, in order to become the victor in a decisive battle you must break the opposing army(s) (you need not win on points).
  3. Multiple opponents moving and attempting to gain control of a single province, results in multiple armies fielded on the same battlefield.
  4. A unit supporting a second unit combines the two armies together if they are of the same nation. (Empire Army in Altdorf support Empire Army in Nuln into the Rieksland Forest (Reik), meeting a Brettonian Army coming from the Cheton Forest. The Empire would field a single 1875 point army, while Brettonia would field a 1500 point one.
  5. A unit supporting a second unit does NOT combine the armies together if they are of different nations. (Empire Army in Altdorf supports Vampire Count Army in Nuln into the Rieksland Forest, meets a Brettonian Army from the Cheton Forest. The Empire would field a single 940 point army, the Vampire Count would field a 940 point army and the Brettonian would field a 1500 point army.
  6. Forcing the majority of the strength facing you (in a multi-nation army) to withdraw results in all the forces of that army to withdraw. In example, a Kislev force is being supported by a High Elf, a Dwarf, and a second Kislev force in an assault upon Altdorf. If the Empire player can break 3 of the forces facing him (either the Kislev and the Dwarf, or the Kislev and the Elf), he wins. If he’s only able to break 2 or less (before being broken himself) than he loses.
  7. If supporting, an army of a foreign power is declared the victor, then the power being supported by that army is the victor. If it happens that the foreign power is supporting two or more powers at once, that power may choose who is the victor from amongst his “allies”.
  8. Convoys: convoys are auto disrupted if they are met with a strength great enough to dislodge them (even if the player decides to use his decisive battle to attempt to allow the fleet not to be dislodged). Convoys are NOT disrupted if they are met with less than the needed strength to dislodge them (even if they are hit with a decisive battle which causes them to dislodge). This is to simplify movement.
It’s possible for the above system to be abused. In particular, two allies, by not using supports, can field two seperate armies instead of just one. If these two armies then work together, they effectively increased their respective army sizes (an increase of about 60%). Don’t do this.If you don’t think your players can help themselves. Here are some ideas on how to limit the problem:Make increases in army point size (more) linear with strength. So a strength 1 attack might generate 1000 pts, a strength two 2000pts, strength three 3000pts. And so on. Unfortunately, this will also lead to more lopsided battles. The more linear it is, the less the problem.Any unit involved in a decisive battle, but is not initiating a decisive battle, potentially fights for the status quo. Combine the strength of all of these units into one army (using the rules above). The primary defender (the non-decisive player(s) who arrives with the most strength with ties broken in favor of the player whose unit began the turn on the province), may choose to not accept the help of a “weaker” non-decisive player.
In example, the Orcs, Kislevites, Chaos all attack an Empire player at Nuln. Normally the Empire would stay and everybody would bounce. The Orcs declare a decisive move into Nuln. The Empire is the primary defender, and knows that the Chaos player would just as soon see Nuln in Orc hands, but also knows that the Kislev player would prefer the Empire have it over the Orcs. The Empire player accepts aid from the Kislevites, and turns down the Chaos player. The Orcs now field a 1500 pt army versus a combined Empire/Kislev army of 940 pts each. If the Empire player accepted aid from all three, then 3 armies of 750 pts would face a single 1500 pt Orc army (except it’s likely the Chaos army would just move off the board). 
Adjustments Phase
  1. Same as Diplomacy adjustments with the following exception. You may perform builds in the capital city of a nation which began the game with more units. (In example, Skaven my perform builds in Middenheim, Kislev, Couronne, Bai-Jing, etc. Brettonnia may perform builds in Middenheim, Karak-a-Karak, Avelorn, etc. The Empire may perform builds in The Eye of Chaos.) This gives small powers the chance to compete with the larger powers if they can manage to grow enough.
Example Turn

The Empire is beset by enemies.

The Empire has the following Units in play:

  • Army in Nuln.
  • Army in Altdorf.
  • Fleet in Middenheim.

The Brettonians have the following Units in play:

  • Army in Wastelands
  • Army in Reikland Forest

The Kislev has the following Unit in play:

  • Fleet in the Sea of Claws

The Vampire Counts has the follow Unit in play:

  • Army in the Great Forest (GFOR)

The following orders are submitted.

Empire

  • Altdorf supports Nuln Move to Riekland Forest.
  • Nuln Move to Rieklands Forest.
  • Middenheim Holds

Brettonnian

  • Wastelands Moves to Altdorf
  • Riekland supports Wastlands move to Altdorf

Kislev

  • Sea of Claws Moves to Middenhiem

Vampire Count

  • Great Forest supports Sea of Claws Move to Middenheim

First determine the strength of various attacks.

  • Nuln cuts Riekland Forests support of Wastlands move.
  • Wastland cuts Altdorfs support of Nulns move.
  • Nobody cuts Great Forests support of Sea of Claws move to Middenhiem.

As it stands now, Claws dislodges Middenhiem (strength 2 versus strength 1), Nuln bounces in Reiklands Forest (strength 1 versus strength 1) and Wastelands bounces in Altdorf (strength 1 versus strength 1).

Decisive battles are declared. Brettonia wants Altdorf and declares a decisive battle versus Altdorf. Kislev and Vampire Counts are happy with the result which will occur in Middenheim (ie the fleet will be dislodged) and so declare nothing on this front. The Empire doesn’t want to lose Middenhiem so declares a decisive battle at Middenhiem.

Determining battle sizes. Altdorf is fought with straight 1500 point armies. If Brettonia is victor, Altdorf is dislodged. If Empire is victor, Brettonia army in the Wastelands bounces. In Middenhiem the Empire battles with a 1500 point army. The Kislev arrive with a 940 point army and the Vampire Counts with another 940 point army. Since at least one army is involved at Middenheim, Warmaster is used to determine the outcome (the Kislev fleet disembarks an army to take the province). Should the Kislev army be broken, but the Vampire Count army still comes through and saves the day by breaking the Empire Army, the Kislev are still considered the victor and take the province.

Sepoys & Mercenaries

Conquered players may still play on as either a Sepoy or a Mercenary.

A Sepoy is a player who fights for the player who controls his capital. The player who controls the capital must give each epoy under him at least one decisive battle to fight each turn. After 3 successful decisive battles, the Sepoy player may revolt and during the adjustments phase after the last succesful battle pick any one province outside the nation of his master (but still controlled by his master) and claim it as his new capital. Placing either a fleet or an army in that province. This is his new capital. Note: the player controlling the Sepoy MUST give him a decisive battle each turn … it does not need to be an easy decisive battle, however. If the capital changes hands, the Sepoy must either become a Mercenary or fight 3 successful battles for the new owner.

A Mercenaries is a player who picks a second player to fight along side. This player need not control his capital. The player who has been picked may declare an additional decisive battle and have the Mercenary fight it for him (the same as a Sepoy). The only difference between a Sepoy and a Mercenary is that a Mercenary may never revolt. A Mercenary may switch employers (and/or may become a Sepoy).

Pulling it all together
Diplomacy is a game that is played mostly in parrallel. This means it’s particularly well suited for long breaks between turns (you run a turn, then wait a week, collect orders, and run the next turn). This is one of the reasons that Diplomacy is a good fit for a campaign system, battles can be fought during the downtime/negotiations between turns.The declaration of decisive battles (as I’ve written above) weakens this strength of Diplomacy. In order to recapture this strength, you can follow the following sequence:Negotiate with various other Empires.Submit Diplomacy Moves (by a certain time).Once Diplomacy Moves have been submitted, calculate (and publish) results.Each player submits an ordered list of Decisive Battles they wish to declare and the battle commander who will command those battles.Everbody “gets” their first decisive battle. If you’re the primary defender in one of these battles, the last commander/battle on your list is crossed off. They will be the commander at this battle (and will decide if any other defenders arrive).Now goto the second (third/fourth/fifth/etc.) uncrossed off decisive battle on your list and goto step 5.Fight the battles.Republish the results of the turn.Perform readjustments (retreats and disbands).Goto Step 1 

Variants

Not having enough powers

    Finding 19+ people to play a game might be well nigh impossible. It should be possible to limit the board (to just the Old World probably, cutting out all of asia). Also allow any 2+ power nations to start with their initial armies on board (potentially also making their home centers worthless). That is, if their is no chaos player, all the chaos centers would start with there respective armies and fleets, but would not generate any supply points if taken. This would need to be tweaked, depending on the number and composition of players.

    Chaos Daemon Nation

    A new army list is being developed representing Chaos Daemons. If you want to play with a pure Daemon nation, then I suggest making it a two center power. With a capital at the Northern Eye of Chaos (containing an army) and a fleet at the Southern Eye of Chaos. Any Chaos players would lose the Northern Eye of Chaos from their starting provinces and their new capital would be The Kurgan.

    Goblin Nation

    There is also an all goblin list. It should be possible to play the Orcs and Goblins using just the all goblin list.

    Orcs in the Hills

    In the Warhammer universe, Orcs can be found in many more places than represented on the above maps. Start an Orc Army in the Pale Sister (Orc Massif), this army is lost forever if destroyed, but does not require a support center to maintain. This army could also be a Goblin army (see above).

    In addition, you could start an Orc (or Goblin) army in the the World (WRLD) mountains. Doing both (and running them using the Goblin list) gives a feasible Goblin Nation.

    Non-Standard Starting Positions

    There is nothing written in stone saying you must start in certain positions. You could play the Chaos Powers of Ind, or the Revolting Empire Colonies of Lustria, or the Dark Elves of Ulthuan, or the Brettonian-Like Samurai of Nippon or the Lizardmen of Araby. You could also pick what type of units you want in your starting positions. The skies the limit, it’s your campaign (I just wanted to play around with Gimp and make some maps!).

    You could also cram the number of players you have into some portion of the map to fix the problem of not having enough players. (i.e. assuming you have 5 players, you could have the Orcs of Karak-A-Karak, the Undead of Tilea, the Dark Elves of Brettonia, the Great Empire, and the Chaos of Kislev … everything outside the old world is off-limits … this represents a time when many of the smaller nations have been destroyed by evil forces. The new edge of the map would be GRAE <-> SJOK <-> MTNS <-> EDGE <-> ZIGG <-> MGUN <-> KARE <-> BBLO <-> BLAG <-> STHS <-> NGWO <-> SSCH <-> GRAE, removing the centers at KARE and ZIGG to avoid the O&G getting too strong too quickly). This would give a campaign that might be small enough to be fightable in a weekend.

    Duchies/Principalities

    Multiple players may share a power (splitting up the units) submitting orders individually. Each could declare a decisive battle. Although using non-standard starting positions might be a better course of action.

    Open Oceans

    • Western Sea of Chaos (WSCH)
    • Sea of Chaos (SCHA)
    • Southern Sea of Chaos (SSCH)
    • Northern Great Western Ocean (NGWO)
    • Mid Great Western Ocean (MGWO)
    • Southern Great Western Ocean (SGWO)
    • Western Ind Ocean (WIND)
    • Eastern Ind Ocean (EIND)
    • Northern Tempest Ocean (NTEM)
    • Mid Tempest Ocean (MTEM)
    • Southern Tempest Ocean (STEM)

    Some of the ocean spaces are large (to the say the least), these spaces may contain multiple fleets. Decisive battles may be declared in an ocean space in order to gain control of that space (either from a fleet which is holding in that space or moving into that space). Multiple fleets of the same nation stack their strength when holding. This would allow all races slightly easier access to each other. The Oceans which would be “open” would be:

    Strong Capitals

    Any unit holding on a capital, holds with an additional strength. This makes capitals a little tougher to take. It also means that the Wood Elves always have a strength 2 army on their capital.

    Cataclysmic Battles

    Sometimes a battle turns into a cataclysmic affair. Each side unwilling to give quarter and the loser finally breaking. The loser is forever destroyed. Diplomacy assumes that armies withdraw when they lose. We need not do that. If an opponent(s) have declared a decisive battle which you’re involved in and you break and at the time of your breaking your opponent(s) have destroyed more points of your forces than you’ve destroyed of theirs, your diplomacy unit has been destroyed. Remove it from the map. In addtion, at the start of your turn, prior to being broken (or losing your general), you may choose to withdraw. You immediately lose the battle, but your unit may not be destroyed (you live to fight another day).

    Additional Maps

    There’s no reason that the above rules must be used with the Warhammer map. Fight a battle over 100 year wars Great Britian (call it Albion if you like), or the standard Diplomacy Map (i.e. Europe) … or the Youngstown map (i.e. Earth). There’s even one based on GW’s game Blood Royale (although it might be kinda freaky marrying a daughter of the Brettonnian King off to the heir of the Skaven kingdom :-).

    The Greater Empire

    If there is no Vampire Count player, give the Empire a 4th center at Sylvania. Sylvania is a province of the Empire and it allows the Empire to aide the Dwarves (who need it badly) against their myriad of enemies.

    Designer Notes

    The goal was to create a quick campaign system that was simple but had significant depth and would require significant strategic interaction in order to do well. Diplomacy’s strengths are that it’s simple and requires significant strategic interaction to do well. I thought it would make a good basis for a campaign system.

    I did this by adding the concept of Decisive Battles to the diplomacy movement system. A decisive battle can be thought of as the arena which your nation is focusing it’s forces (i.e. best generals and heroes), for that 6 month stretch of time. One of the principles I tried to capture was that declaring a decisive should never help an opponent, it should only give you a chance to modify unfavorable movement results.

    Sepoys and Mercenaries were added so that no player would be removed from the game. It also alleviates the problem of when one player is on the verge of winning, they get stuck fighting a massive number of decisive battles. In this way, players who had been conquered “help out” by acting as Sepoys and fighting some of the battles for them. In case, for whatever reason, two players can’t get along (and one doesn’t want to fight for the other), I added the concept of Mercenary (assuming there will be at least one other player in the game the conquered player wouldn’t mind helping).

    I added the ability to build in any capital of a larger starting nation than you, in order to give the small powers more of a chance. In particular, the one center powers would find it difficult to grow rapidly if this was not added. It also gives some of the landlocked one center powers the chance to become unlandlocked.

    The campaign should work best if played until one player has the majority of centers. Then the final positions should be calculated. The number of centers you control then defines positions, followed by any player Sepoying, followed by any player playing a Mercenary position.

    Final Words

    A few final words about Diplomacy. Diplomacy may be played as a very very cut-throat game (in fact, it’s said that’s the best way to play). You need a thick skin. Sooner or later, somebody you trust completely will stab you in the back. You will probably see very little point in why they did it. You MUST assume that they did (and that you failed in DIPLOMACY by not pointing out how much better the two of you work as a team … and how much both of you will gain if he just moves all his armies to the other side of the board … leaving your armies next to his unprotected home centers). Internalize these simple facts before beginning to play, and don’t let them bother you too much when they happen to you.