STANDARD NOTATION

Diplomacy game reports are printed in a kind of simple shorthand. It may vary in small details from zine to zine, but the following is broadly common to all British gamesmasters; if you master this system and write your orders the same way it will avoid possible accidents.

A army
F fleet
S supports/supported

C convoys/convoyed

MS mutually support

— moves to

An asterisk after a unit shows that it is dislodged and its retreat, if any, will be listed below. Underlined moves fail; underscored moves are illegal and have no effect on the destination province; struck out units do not exist.

Some G Ms, myself included, save space by using the ‘support chain’ notation where several units support each other, e.g. A(Sev) S A(Ukr) MS A(War) means that the first unit is supporting the second which is supporting the third which is supporting the second. An order such as A(Boh) S A(Vie)— Tyr is normally accepted as a valid order to both units.

Province abbreviations

The standard procedure is to use the first three letters of the province name, capitals for sea-spaces, upper and lower case for land. A few exceptions are listed here. Where two variations are given you are recommended to use the first; the second is for information only.

Adriatic Sea – ADS/ADR
Aegean Sea – AES/AEG
Baltic Sea – BAL/BAS
Barents Sea – BAR/BAS
Black Sea – BLA/ BLS
Eastern Mediterranean – EMS/EAS
English Channel – ENG/ENC
Gulf of Bothnia – GOB/GBo/Bot
Gulf of Lyons – GOL/GLy/Lyo
Ionian Sea – IOS/ION
Irish Sea – IRS/IRI
Liverpool – Lpl/Liv
Livonia – Liv/Lvn
Mid Atlantic Ocean – MAO/MID
Norway – Nor/Nwy
North Sea – NTH
Norwegian Sea – NWG/NOR
North Atlantic Ocean – NAO
North Africa – Naf/NAf
St Petersburg – StP
Tyrolia – Tyr/Tyo
Tyrrhenian Sea – TYS/TYR
Western Mediterranean – WMS/WES

There is no accounting for individual GM idiosyncrasy — I myself use EAS and ION quite illogically, without knowing why.

Variants

Most variant rules include lists of province abbreviations and other notation. A few common abbreviations from variants, which may enable you to make some sense of variant reports in zines you see, are:

2A, etc. – Double army, etc.
DA (or D) – Defensive army
A/F – Army-fleet
FF – Fast ferry
BB – Boat-bunch
=A – Ring-bearer (Tolkien games)
G – Garrison