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TL Diplomacy - Page 9

Forum Index > General Games
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Slayer91
Profile Joined February 2006
Ireland23335 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-02-09 23:55:06
February 09 2014 23:54 GMT
#161
On February 08 2014 06:47 Hapahauli wrote:
Good lord TL - 1.

I have never seen an Italian player do this well... ever.


On February 08 2014 06:51 Slayer91 wrote:
JUST WAIT FOR TL 2 SON


I'm now on the same centres as italy was at the same time you posted this in TL 2
unfortunately im in a much worse position in terms of winning chances
Hapahauli
Profile Joined May 2009
United States9305 Posts
February 10 2014 00:49 GMT
#162
On February 10 2014 08:54 Slayer91 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 08 2014 06:47 Hapahauli wrote:
Good lord TL - 1.

I have never seen an Italian player do this well... ever.


Show nested quote +
On February 08 2014 06:51 Slayer91 wrote:
JUST WAIT FOR TL 2 SON


I'm now on the same centres as italy was at the same time you posted this in TL 2
unfortunately im in a much worse position in terms of winning chances


Such is the italian curse.

=(
a talking rock that sprouts among the waves woosh
Slayer91
Profile Joined February 2006
Ireland23335 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-02-10 00:52:03
February 10 2014 00:50 GMT
#163
well not really, the italy in the other game has great winning chances

everyone but france and russia has trouble converting wins because of stalemate lines
germany and austria have decent chances because they can move troops down centre to prevent a line forming

italy, england, and turkey all have trouble due to the fact that St.P and West med are both very easily held.

they are also the safest nations and least likely to get screwed early (Except for france lol, you'd think france would be #1 nation, but landwise has trouble breaking past germany i guess, and has to face against 2 naval nation)
Hapahauli
Profile Joined May 2009
United States9305 Posts
February 10 2014 01:03 GMT
#164
On February 10 2014 09:50 Slayer91 wrote:
well not really, the italy in the other game has great winning chances


Which is why I was so shocked in the first place! It's so rare to see Italy expanding so quickly. Italian players almost always survive the early game, but then get stalled out in the mid-game. That seems to be your position in TL - 2... even though you had a great opening, it's so hard to see how you're reliably going to expand in the future.

everyone but france and russia has trouble converting wins because of stalemate lines
germany and austria have decent chances because they can move troops down centre to prevent a line forming

italy, england, and turkey all have trouble due to the fact that St.P and West med are both very easily held.

they are also the safest nations and least likely to get screwed early (Except for france lol, you'd think france would be #1 nation, but landwise has trouble breaking past germany i guess, and has to face against 2 naval nation)


This is accurate for the most part. However for some reason, I've always had trouble converting wins as France. I've always found it so hard to attack players, and you really need to outplay people diplomatically to make progress on the board.

Whereas I've always enjoyed playing England and have a lot of success with it. You're for the most-part very safe, and it's incredibly difficult for people to contest your fleet-dominance when you're on the attack.
a talking rock that sprouts among the waves woosh
Slayer91
Profile Joined February 2006
Ireland23335 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-02-10 01:08:10
February 10 2014 01:05 GMT
#165
On February 10 2014 10:03 Hapahauli wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 10 2014 09:50 Slayer91 wrote:
well not really, the italy in the other game has great winning chances


Which is why I was so shocked in the first place! It's so rare to see Italy expanding so quickly. Italian players almost always survive the early game, but then get stalled out in the mid-game. That seems to be your position in TL - 2... even though you had a great opening, it's so hard to see how you're reliably going to expand in the future.

Show nested quote +
everyone but france and russia has trouble converting wins because of stalemate lines
germany and austria have decent chances because they can move troops down centre to prevent a line forming

italy, england, and turkey all have trouble due to the fact that St.P and West med are both very easily held.

they are also the safest nations and least likely to get screwed early (Except for france lol, you'd think france would be #1 nation, but landwise has trouble breaking past germany i guess, and has to face against 2 naval nation)


This is accurate for the most part. However for some reason, I've always had trouble converting wins as France. I've always found it so hard to attack players, and you really need to outplay people diplomatically to make progress on the board.

Whereas I've always enjoyed playing England and have a lot of success with it. You're for the most-part very safe, and it's incredibly difficult for people to contest your fleet-dominance when you're on the attack.


It's not that hard to see how i can reliably expand, its just hard to get past 17 centres.
although to be fair russia was pretty silly to leave himself that open against a stab in tl 1.
he literally lost 2 centres in a 3 vs 3 army count when he didnt need those 3 armies for anything except convenience
i had to committ a lot more to my stabs so i couldn't just attack france to break the stalemate line while stabbing

its partialy due to russia being easier to distract with the northern stuff than austria and turkey who live in that area but with russia afking not much i can do to help that
RandomAccount#49059
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
United States2140 Posts
February 10 2014 07:14 GMT
#166
--- Nuked ---
Daumen
Profile Joined July 2011
Germany1073 Posts
February 10 2014 15:29 GMT
#167
On February 10 2014 16:14 stormtemplar wrote:
Hey guys, just joined TL-4. Never played diplomacy before, but I would welcome advice lol.


Check the Slayers91 comment out, I quoted it in the OP in a Spoiler.
President of the ReaL Fan Club.
Daumen
Profile Joined July 2011
Germany1073 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-02-10 21:48:16
February 10 2014 20:27 GMT
#168
actually, it was a spoiler in a spoiler.

here it is, otherwise there are videos linked on the website or you can find some on youtube.

On February 04 2014 02:50 Slayer91 wrote:

The objective of the game is to manage to control 18 supply centres. This is just over half the supply centres in the game.
A supply centre is a country marked with a star. To gain a supply centre you must occupy it with a unit (fleet or army) by the fall turn of the year. There are 2 turns per year, Spring and Fall. You may occupy it during Spring is it may be easier to hold for example if you take it one turn earlier. You keep this centre until some other nation occupies the centre with his own unit after a fall turn.

You are allowed 1 unit per supply centre. At the end of the fall turn there is a build phase ("winter" turn). You may build ONLY IN YOUR HOME CENTRES. These are the 3 centres that you start with. For England they are London/Edi/Lvp. You are allowed to build additional units based on how many more centres than units you have. If you have captured 1 centre and you have 4 centres, and still 3 units, you may build 1 more unit in that turn.
If you have less centres than units you choose which unit to disband.

Fighting: There are 3 basic commands. MOVE. HOLD. SUPPORT.
MOVE: You can move to any adjacent territory. The move command is synomous with "attack".
HOLD. You stay where you are.
If you move to a country that some other unit is also moving to, or some other unit currently occupies, you "bounce". That is both units go back to where they started.
The only way to dislodge or force your way into an area is with SUPPORT. A unit that can move to an area, can also support a unit to that area. For example a unit in Tyrolia could SUPPORT a unit in Burgundy to an occupied Munich. A unit in Gascony CANNOT support that unit in Bungundy to anywhere except Marseilles or Paris.
You can also suppoty defensively. An army in Berlin could support this Munich army and since it would be 2 vs 2 a bounce would occur. SUPPORTing units stay where they are, if the move is successfully supported then that unit gets to dislodge the unit that was there and there is a separate retreat phase for where it moves. (The only way to kill units is to take centres and thereby force their disbanding it or to surround it so it has nowhere to retreat)

You can also "cut" support. An Army in vienna could attack the support army in Tyrolia to defend Munich. However if the Tyrolia is the one attacking and Burgundy supporting, Vienna would move into Tyrolia and Army Tyrolia would move into Munich and Munich would have to retreat (assuming no support).

Fleets are like armies, except they can only move along sea or costal areas. In the case that a county (spain, bulgaria, st. petersburg) have coasts to multiple seas, you can only go to the coast that your sea is connected to. In the case of Spain, a Fleet in the Mid Atlantic Ocean can choose which coast to go to. (SC spain can move to Gulf of Lyons and Western Med, NC can move to Gascony).

A fleet has a special command called CONVOY. (can be cut like support). You can use the CONVOY command to move an army across a sea. The way to order it is say you want an army in Edi to convoy to St. Petersburg
A Edi - ST.P
F NWG C A Edi - STP
F BArents C A Edi- STP
You can suppor ta convoy but not with the convoying units

A convoy requires 1 fleet but the chain can be as long as you wish. The advantage to convoying is that if you convoy into a coastal area you have more attacking chances than a fleet just occupying it.

Thats the basics.
Its pretty intuitive actually.

--1 Unit per Centre
--You can only win by attacking with 1 more unit than defending

Since you need more units, its important to make deals and alliances with other countries. You can backstab them later but for at least a good portion of the game you rely on other nations to help you build up an advantage. Often 2-3-4 way draws occur because alliances hold each other off at equal strength.





and remember, TL - 4 is a FAST game, you will have 24h time to make your move, but only 12h to retreat/build
President of the ReaL Fan Club.
Serdiuk
Profile Joined January 2011
Belgium145 Posts
February 11 2014 10:44 GMT
#169
Need 1 more for TL -4.
Obzy
Profile Joined April 2009
United States525 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-02-11 17:59:59
February 11 2014 17:55 GMT
#170
I've never played before. Would it disastrously ruin things to have a completely new player? (I've become interested in the TL games currently being played, but...)

(Edit - Well, I signed up. We'll see ^^;;; )
I have nothing to put here. Obzy#1821 on Bnet.
Slayer91
Profile Joined February 2006
Ireland23335 Posts
February 11 2014 18:02 GMT
#171
not if you are active and follow the rules enough to understand the basics of how you should be opening
you can look at the move orders of the other running games in the order history and if something doesnt make sense you should ask

try to get a feel for the ongoning politics based on troop movement and support orders
stenole
Profile Blog Joined April 2004
Norway869 Posts
February 11 2014 19:21 GMT
#172
I think the best way to learn is to play.

Be aware that if it is very obvious that you don't grasp the basics, the other players will treat you differently. This is mostly a disadvantage because players won't trust you to make good choices. You can also use it to your advantage because you are underestimated and ignored. Other players are more likely to believe your false explaination for your moves when you do something that would normally be interpreted as aggressive. Alliance partners might be lulled into a false security that they can just feed you orders and you will follow them mindlessly.
Hapahauli
Profile Joined May 2009
United States9305 Posts
February 11 2014 21:38 GMT
#173
@ Obzy

Trial by fire is definitely the best way to learn the game. You can read and watch the game all you want, but there's really no way to develop the communication skills necessary to win unless you're in-game and actively participating.

If you want some resources on general strategic framework, I'd suggest the following:
HistoryGamer Youtube Channel (click!) has some nice short overviews on opening strategy, country by country.
Diplomacy Archive is a really nice resource, though can be very wordy.


As far as player-interactions are concerned, here's some general advice that I'd offer to a newer player:

  • Talk with everyone! Don't just talk to people you have immediate contact with - every nation on the board is important, even if you have no on-the-board interaction. Get in people's ears quickly, and make sure you are pushing your diplomatic agenda. Effective communication can build trust, which is indispensable in a game like Diplomacy.
  • Understand who you can trust. For example, it might be hard to trust neighboring countries, since they are often out to get you and will plan for your demise (the exception being Germany/Austria). Whereas, countries you're not bordered with don't have as much incentive to lie to you. In the mid-game, always be sure to think about the game from other player's perspectives. If someone has a lot of incentives to backstab you, chances are that they will. If someone is busy on other fronts and areas of the board, chances are that they'll make a good ally.
  • Keep your strategy simple. Don't be a bond villain and develop some insane, complex strategy that falls apart when one thing goes wrong. Identifying clear friends and clear enemies early on will make the game much simpler and manageable for you.
  • Never half-ass a backstab. If you ever back-stab someone, make sure it is devastating, and make sure to twist the knife. If you turn on someone, ensure that they'll be dead by the time you're done with them.
a talking rock that sprouts among the waves woosh
Daumen
Profile Joined July 2011
Germany1073 Posts
February 11 2014 21:57 GMT
#174
Oh god, seems like tl - 1 is about to end soon xD damn...
President of the ReaL Fan Club.
stenole
Profile Blog Joined April 2004
Norway869 Posts
February 11 2014 23:46 GMT
#175
What I think is tricky about Diplomacy is the start of the game, and if you read or listen to experienced players, you won't get much smarter. There are openings for each country described, but they all make assumptions about the players' willingness to ally and trust.

How do you tell the friends from the enemies when no one has moved and your mailbox is filled with joint battleplans to take over the world? What is worse is that more often than not, players will usually have preconceptions about who they want to ally with. That makes selling your alliance ideas extra challenging. Very often you feel forced to double up on alliances with moves that make sense for both alliances. This is also a risky strategy because sometimes your fellow players talk with each other. And even if they don't, the spring orders can heavily suggest that you have been cheating on them with another alliance partner. That's no good start to a marriage.
PaqMan
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
United States1475 Posts
February 12 2014 04:44 GMT
#176
stormtemplar please confirm your game for TL - 4
t(ツ)t
Obzy
Profile Joined April 2009
United States525 Posts
February 14 2014 23:28 GMT
#177
It seems like TL - 5 has been hosted, if anybody was looking for a game to play. (Although the deadlines feel a little long..)
I have nothing to put here. Obzy#1821 on Bnet.
Grackaroni
Profile Joined July 2011
United States9856 Posts
February 15 2014 02:06 GMT
#178
Ooh fun. And it's good to see Obzy playing games rather than observing games.
Kronen
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United States732 Posts
February 15 2014 04:49 GMT
#179
Whats the PW for TL5?
Daumen
Profile Joined July 2011
Germany1073 Posts
February 15 2014 05:35 GMT
#180
On February 15 2014 13:49 Kronen wrote:
Whats the PW for TL5?


stork
President of the ReaL Fan Club.
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