by Stephen Agar
0. All the usual 1971 rules of Diplomacy apply, except as below.
1. The scenario is England in 1470. King Edward IV is facing a rebellion by Warwick, who acts in the pretence of regaining the throne for Henry VI. There are nine players in this game, all of which start the game with one unit on each of their home s.c.’s, as below.
Yorkist
Edward IV: U(Lon), U(WRi), U(Rea).
Richard of Gloucester: U(Yor), U(Don), U(Che)
Yorkist Duke of Norfolk: U(GtY), U(Col), U(Bed).
Lord Hastings: U(Bos), U(Lei), U(Der).
Lancastrian
Earl of Warwick: U(War), U(Wes), U(Sta).
Duke of Exeter: U(Exe), U(Chi), U(Her).
Duke of Somerset: U(Glo), U(Cdf), U(Wor).
Earl of Northumberland: U(New), U(Dur), U(Cls).
Neutral
Duke of Clarence: U(Can), U(Cae), U(Cdg).
2. There are 27 supply centres, control of 14 of them, including London, are necessary for victory. Failing that, a joint win is possible between a King and one other player. The game could also be ended by unanimous player vote.
3. Factions
Every player must declare his political alignment – that is, say he wishes to be considered a claimant to the throne, say he wishes someone else to be King, or declare his neutrality. No player can offer or receive support from any player in a different faction, although neutral players can receive, but not give, support from anyone. A player can change his alignment at any time, withÂout prior warning, but he must inform the GM. Once a player has declared himself a contender for the throne, he may never ally with another claimant, even if one party renounces his claims.
At the beginning of the game, there are two factions, the Yorkists who support Edward IV and the Lancastrians who support Henry VI. Henry VI is a non-player unit- who is in the control of Warwick. HVI must be assigned, secretly, to one of Warwick’s units, he may be transferred to another unit/player, abandonned, or killed. Note that initially Warwick has declared fo HVI, thus he may ally with Edward at a later date.
If at any time there is only one claimant to the throne for two consecutive seasons, that player becomes King. If the King and one other player of his faction can meet the victory criteria, they may, if they both wish, declare a joint win. No player is allowed to attack a unit belonging to a sole’ claimant to the throne – rather, a player must support someone else to have an excuse.to attack. If a player meets the victory criteria he automatically becomes King and wins the game.
4. All units may act as fleets by moving from a port (coastal s.c.) to a sea province, or vice-versa. Any number of units, of whatever faction/player, may occupy the same sea province. No unit may be dislodged from a sea province. Units may give support from a sea province to any coastal province; each unit of support may be cut by another player ordering one of his units to attack one of his opponent’s seabourne units, specifying by player controlling it and which unit he presumes it will be supporting. This may be done from within that sea space, or from an adjacent sea space or port. In all cases the unit cutting the support moves into that sea space if not already in it.
5. London confers a garrison strength of one, to any unit occupying it. Also note that London is a port, both moves U(Lon)-ENG and U(Lon)-NAZ are possible.