| Manufacturer | Waddington’s House of Games |
| Year of Release | 1972 |
| Map Style | Topographic contours |
| Pieces | Wooden short thick blocks (armies) long narrow blocks (fleets) |
| Piece Colors (AEFGIRT) | Red, Dark Blue, Light Blue, Black, Green, White, Yellow |
| Description: In the early 1970s Waddington’s House of Games acquired the rights to produce Diplomacy in Canada. As do all variations of the Waddington’s House of Games edition of Diplomacy, this edition of has a bilingual English/French rulebook (copyright 1971 by Games Research Inc.) which has rules in the two languages printed back-to-back in a single “reversible” booklet. Like the 1972 variation of the brown box Games Research Inc. edition, this edition also includes the two hand-typed-looking sheets “INDEX AND SUMMARY OF THE RULES OF DIPLOMACY” (undated) and “* PLAY DIPLOMACY BY MAIL *” (dated 1972); both are English-only. The gameboard is the same topographic contour map used by Games Research Inc. in the U.S., with the same GRI copyright date. The one minor difference is a note in the legend that reads “Published by House of Games Corporation, Bramalea, Ontario”.There are several variations of the Waddington’s House of Games edition that differ only in slight respects. Thus, although minor details are generally not of great interest, it is useful to provide certain details about this edition to differentiate it from later ones variations. The sectioned tray that holds the game pieces has a sliding plastic cover like the Games Research Inc. brown box edition; all later variations from Waddington’s House of Games came with game piece trays that were shrinkwrapped and had no cover. The rulebook is gray, the cardboard insert inside the box is white, the back of the gameboard is black, and the bottom of the box is black. | |
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| Manufacturer | Waddington’s House of Games |
| Year of Release | 1974 |
| Map Style | Topographic contours |
| Pieces | Wooden short thick blocks (armies) long narrow blocks (fleets) |
| Piece Colors (AEFGIRT) | Red, Dark Blue, Light Blue, Black, Green, White, Yellow |
| Description: This variation is similar to the original 1972 edition. This variation mirrors the changes that were made in the 1974 variation of the Games Research Inc. The hand-typed-looking sheets have been replaced with a more traditionally looking Diplomacy Basic Rules sheet (copyright 1974) and a Play Diplomacy by Mail sheet (undated). Both of these sheets are English-only, not bilingual.As with the original 1972 edition, the rulebook is gray and the back of the gameboard and the bottom of the box are black. However, the color of the cardboard insert has been changed from white to yellow, and the sectioned game piece tray that came with a cover in the original edition now comes shrinkwrapped without a lid. | |
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| Manufacturer | Waddington’s House of Games |
| Year of Release | Unknown (between 1974 and 1981) |
| Map Style | Topographic contours |
| Pieces | Wooden short thick blocks (armies) long narrow blocks (fleets) |
| Piece Colors (AEFGIRT) | Red, Dark Blue, Light Blue, Black, Green, White, Yellow |
| Description: This variation is very similar to the previous one — same gray rulebook, yellow box insert, black gameboard back and box bottom. One difference is that a French translation was made of the Diplomacy Basic Rules sheet, which is now English/French bilingual (still copyright 1974). The Basic Rules sheet is printed in blue ink, rather than the black ink used in the previous variation. Another difference is that this variation has no Play Diplomacy by Mail sheet. While it is possible that the sheet for this set was lost, I believe that it did not come with one based on the fact that I have verified multiple copies of this variation and multiple copies of the next variation below that also lacked the Play Diplomacy by Mail sheet. I suspect that the sheet may have been omitted due to a lack of a contact person for the PBM hobby at the time. Of course it is also possible that all four of the copies that lacked the Play Diplomacy by mail sheet originally had one which got lost. However, given several different sets all lacking the sheet, it seems like more than a coincidence. | |
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| Manufacturer | Waddington’s House of Games |
| Year of Release | Unknown (between 1974 and 1981) |
| Map Style | Topographic contours |
| Pieces | Wooden short thick blocks (armies) long narrow blocks (fleets) |
| Piece Colors (AEFGIRT) | Red, Dark Blue, Light Blue, Black, Green, White, Yellow |
| Description: This variation has the same contents as the previous one. The only differences were in the color scheme for the game design. As can be seen in the image below, the box insert is now blue (instead of yellow), the cover of the rulebook is now blue (instead of gray), and the Diplomacy Basic Rules sheet is back to being printed in black ink rather than blue. | |
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| Manufacturer | Waddington’s House of Games |
| Year of Release | Unknown (between 1974 and 1981) |
| Map Style | Topographic contours |
| Pieces | Wooden short thick blocks (armies) long narrow blocks (fleets) |
| Piece Colors (AEFGIRT) | Red, Dark Blue, Light Blue, Black, Green, White, Yellow |
| Description: This variation has the same contents as the previous one. The only difference is that the back of the gameboard is now white instead of black. | |
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| Manufacturer | Waddington’s House of Games |
| Year of Release | 1981 |
| Map Style | Topographic contours |
| Pieces | Wooden short thick blocks (armies) long narrow blocks (fleets) |
| Piece Colors (AEFGIRT) | Red, Dark Blue, Light Blue, Black, Green, White, Yellow |
| Description: This variation has a number of changes from the previous one. The cardboard insert in the box has changed from blue to white, and the conference maps and Play Diplomacy by Mail (English/French bilingual as with the previous variation) are printed on cream paper rather than the typical white. More significantly, the box has undergone a slight redesign. The bottom of the box now has a picture of the game instead of being black, and a 1981 copyright date has been added to one of the short flaps of the box lid. A very minor change to the map is that the note in the legend which used to say “Published by House of Games Corporation, Bramalea, Ontario” has been changed and now reads “All Rights Reserved by Waddingtons Games Inc., Bramalea, Ontario” (the new note was used in all subsequent variations by Waddington’s House of Games, as well as the later Waddington-Sanders edition).This variation also includes a Play Diplomacy by Mail sheet, but unlike the first Canadian variations that had the PBM sheet, this one is English/French bilingual rather than English-only. The copy of this set I have seen does not include the Diplomacy Basic Rules sheet. I have not come across a second copy to verify whether it was present in this variation and got lost, or whether is indeed absent from this variation. The variation below also lacks a Basic Rules sheet, but the one after that has it again, so I am not sure if it was temporarily discontinued or if these sets are incomplete. Please let me know if you have one of these editions with a Basic Rules sheet. | |
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| Manufacturer | Waddington’s House of Games |
| Year of Release | Unknown (between 1981 and 1986) |
| Map Style | Topographic contours |
| Pieces | Wooden short thick blocks (armies) long narrow blocks (fleets) |
| Piece Colors (AEFGIRT) | Red, Dark Blue, Light Blue, Black, Green, White, Yellow |
| Description: This variation is similar to the previous one. The differences are that the back of the gameboard is once again black, and the Play Diplomacy by Mail sheet and conference maps have changed from the cream paper used in the previous variation back to the traditional white paper. | |
| Images: None available |
| Manufacturer | Waddington’s House of Games |
| Year of Release | Unknown (between 1981 and 1986) |
| Map Style | Topographic contours |
| Pieces | Wooden short thick blocks (armies) long narrow blocks (fleets) |
| Piece Colors (AEFGIRT) | Red, Dark Blue, Light Blue, Black, Green, White, Yellow |
| Description: In this variation, conference maps and play-by-mail sheet are back to being printed on cream paper. However, the back of the gameboard is now gold instead of white, and the the cover of the rulebook as well as the cardboard insert in the box are blue. | |
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| Manufacturer | Waddington Sanders |
| Year of Release | 1986 |
| Map Style | Topographic contours |
| Pieces | Wooden short thick blocks (armies) long narrow blocks (fleets) |
| Piece Colors (AEFGIRT) | Red, Dark Blue, Light Blue, Black, Green, White, Yellow |
| Description: In the late 70’s (I believe) Waddington’s House of Games became Waddington Sanders, either by way of a merger or an acquisition. In 1986 a new version of Diplomacy was released in Canada by Waddington Sanders. Unlike the Waddington’s House of Games edition, this edition is now a bookcase edition (an idea possibly modeled after the Avalon Hill bookcase edition that was available at the time in the United States). Although the box had a new design, the game itself was essentially the unchanged, still coming with a bilingual rulebook and the same gameboard as earlier Canadian editions. As an interesting note, although this edition came out in 1986, and therefore after Avalon Hill’s 1982 revision of the rulebook, this edition still has a rulebook that is copyright 1971 by Games Research Inc; I’ve verified that the rules themselves are not the 2nd edition rules. The backing of the gameboard on this edition is gold colored. | |
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