[Guide - UMS] Diplo Infinity

Although I enjoy a good game of melee every now and then, the UMS (Use Map Settings) game mode is hands-down my favorite aspect of Starcraft. Many of the games that I used to play in other mediums (RISK, Civilization, etc.) have been imported into Starcraft UMS, and after discovering how much more fun and challenging it was to play those games in real-time, I was hooked. Diplo Infinity is one of the best UMS maps like this, loosely based on the Diplomacy board game. Over the years, despite Starcraft UMS' steady decline, the skill level and popularity of Diplo Infinity has continued to rise. Diplo Infinity is now the 2nd most popular competitive UMS map on USEast, following closely behind Temple Siege. (source)

If you're a hardcore melee player, I understand you might be a little skeptical. "It's just a UMS map, how good can it be?" you might ask. "Why would I want to play this map?" Valid questions -- UMS players have given themselves a bad reputation over the years, and much of the reputation is deserved. People still regularly host astonishingly retarded games like "DONT MOVE" (LOLOL), "I will NOT start", "Blood Pressure Marathon", and myriad other rigged, imbalanced, and pointless games.

Fortunately, Diplo Infinity is nothing of the sort. I have spent the last several years playing this map both for fun and competitively. Relatively balanced, the map lends itself well to competitive play, and the map's complexity serves as a decent noob filter. There are several other things I really like about it:

• The map is more strategical and tactical than mechanical.
  This isn't to say that the game isn't mechanically demanding -- you must micro well and expand quickly to be good at the map -- just that at the current level of play, strategy regularly trumps mechanics and APM.
  
  
• Anyone creative enough to do so can contribute something new.
  The map has not been maximized -- though there are standard routes (similar to build orders), there are many possibilities unexplored.
  
  
• Replayability.
  The numerous game modes, starting countries, possible expansion routes, and possible army compositions help keep the game fresh.

It is thus in the spirit of introducing a fun, challenging, highly replayable map to the general Starcraft gaming public that I am writing this guide. Hopefully you can use this guide to learn the map and will come to enjoy it as much as I do. This guide more than covers everything you need to know to get started.

Lastly, I also have some personal motivation to write this guide. Diplo's competitive scene is somewhat insular -- over the years there have not been very many new players to compete with. Hopefully this guide will introduce more skilled players into the diplo community and I'll have some more competition! To this end, I am putting up cash for anyone who can beat me.

A list of every playable country, assorted by region:

• Western Europe: Portugal, Spain, France, Ireland, Scotland, England, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland
  
• Central Europe: Germany, Poland, The Czech Republic, Austria
  
• Eastern Europe: Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Estonia, Russia
  
• Scandinavia: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland
  
• Balkans: Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece
  
• Africa: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt
  
• Middle East: Turkey, Israel

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You have a minute and a half to select (mind control) or randomize your country at the start of the game, and the faster you select your country, the more time you have during your first turn. Israel, Scotland, and Tunisia are not selectable, and their specials are inactive unless they were randomed.

To control a city you must have the only building in its location. This is the basis of a very useful trick: if there is contested ownership of a city by 2:00, neither player is awarded the income until the city is definitively owned by a single player.

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When you contest a city, you have until the income period ends at 0:00 to clear it. At that point the countdown timer resets to 4:50.

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Income amount is determined by the amount of income-producing locations a player controls. At 2:00 all of these are listed. Capitals are displayed in yellow, half-capitals displayed in red, and oil fields in gray. For a complete overview of all income locations, see below.

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+ Show Spoiler [Income - Locations and Amounts] +

It's important to note that each city will continue to produce the same amount of income until the end of the game. The game will not end due to a base being mined out, players must gain enough of an advantage to end the game through other means.

As you can see, infrastructure is primarily terran, though most countries are bordered by pylons and photon cannons.

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Only terran buildings are buildable, with one exception for Belarus, which may build pylons and gateways.

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All players start with all protoss and zerg upgrade buildings in the upper left of the map.

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IMPORTANT: Build times, hitpoints, armors, and costs are very different than in melee. I have compiled the statistics of all buildings in the following spoiler.

+ Show Spoiler [Building Statistics] +

As has been mentioned before, every country has a special unit, and some have more than one. Plan your expansion routes to pick up the units you need to strengthen your army.

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Many specials act as hard counters to other units, so you will have to mix in several different unit types into your army. As an example, the high templars in the above picture have 12 armor, while those hydras only do 11 damage. It is possible to win without using specials, but it will be more difficult than if you had used specials.

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For your convenience, I have compiled a list of every unit in the map -- including how they're produced, their statistics, their abilities, and other important information.

DIPLO INFINITY DOES NOT USE MELEE UNIT STATISTICS.

As you familiarize yourself with the following statistics, you'll notice that some units have different counters than what you would expect. For example, Russia's dragoons are pure shield and are actually countered by ghosts. Pay attention while you're playing and stuff like this won't be an issue, but it's easy to get confused by what counters what if you're not experienced.

+ Show Spoiler [Unit List - IMPORTANT, CLICK THIS] +

Army production is fairly straightforward -- you select your production buildings and make the unit you want. If you have a special unit of that type, your normal unit will convert to that special. Special units are often stronger than the corresponding normal units, but occasionally you will want to avoid using a special because it would weaken your army. Normal units will not convert to a special unit as long as there is one in a dropship.

Special hierarchies
Often you will gain access to two different specials for a single unit. Rather than receiving two units for the price of one, there is a hierarchy of specials, and the normal unit will convert to the unit higher on the hierarchy. Occasionally this will result in an unwanted unit; the solution to this is to leave the capital empty until the income period, take the cash at 2:00, then abandon the capital again.

+ Show Spoiler [List of Special Hierarchies] +

Expansion and your strategy
How you expand, and where you expand to, are the most important strategic decisions in Diplo Infinity. Every expansion route has a trade-off in one form or another -- income, special strengths and weaknesses, potential risk/reward, and the degree of difficulty are just a few factors impacting a player's expansion. And because cash is limited, and only earned once every five minutes, a player has to constantly evaluate how they are going to spend their money -- not just in the context of the current turn, but also in the context of their overall gameplan. Due to the income limitations, expansion requires a significant amount of timing, finesse, foresight and cash management.

And just like with melee build orders, it is not enough to simply dedicate all of one's resources to maximize income every game. Maximizing expansion is analogous to going 14cc or 3 hatch before pool -- it's risky and can cost you the game. Expansion routes must be balanced with several other factors the player has to consider. A good player understands these trade-offs and makes countless adjustments throughout the game.

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Navigating country defenses
There are a LOT of defensive units and structures on the map, and navigating all of these is often frustrating even (or especially) for experienced players. There are many types of defenses you will need to watch out for:

+ Show Spoiler [Country Defenses] +

There are a few map limits in place, both for balance and to help prevent CCMU (cannot create more units). There is a global map limit of 300 units, enforced by triggers. Units that get removed due to this map limit are not refunded.

There are also map limits on some of the more powerful units in the game. These limits are identified in the unit lists above. When these get removed due to triggers, a full refund is issued.

The supply maximum has been increased to over 600 supply for the terran and protoss races using the map editor. Supply depots must still be constructed in order for that supply maximum to be available, but supply will accommodate reaching 300 units of any unit type.

A lot of the same principles from melee apply: Pick your battles, make sure you have enough defenses at critical locations, use terrain to your advantage, use dropships to aid in your army's mobility, micro your units while you're fighting, macro units to replace the ones you lost, and so on and so forth. It is beyond the scope of this guide to teach you tactics and fighting, that you will have to learn on your own.

In short, try not to lose.

Single-player
Victory conditions are disabled in single-player, so it is only used for practicing an expansion route or testing a new idea. Random-only countries are selectable in single-player, so you can practice any country you wish.

Public games
In public play, players may negotiate to ally anyone else in the game. However, unless teams are agreed upon or pre-arranged, allying is usually frowned upon as it often creates unfair situations for players who do not have an ally. Public players who ally anyone near them are pejoratively called "ally whores", and it's very annoying to face these noob clusters.

Phantom mode
Phantom requires a minimum of five players. Everyone starts out visioned and allied, and one player is selected at random to be "phantom", and it is their job to kill everyone else. The players try to guess who the phantom is and kill them. Every turn the phantom earns 3000 extra minerals and 3 extra gas per turn, is not bound by map limits, and gets to choose one of ten powers, ranging from stealing all the other players' cash to nuking the hell out of one player. Phantom games are usually friendly and noncompetitive, and because everyone starts off visioned, can be an excellent way to watch other players and learn how to play the map. Succeeding at being phantom is often quite difficult, but it's very rewarding when you do win. Also, occasionally, it's just as difficult to succeed at killing the phantom, which can make for some amazing David vs. Goliath type action. Phantom is a major pasttime of most Diplo Infinity players, there are very few people who do not like Phantom just as much as (if not more than) Diplomacy.

Competitive play
Competitive play is most often 1v1 or 2v2, with an occasional competitive 3v3. Extensive use is made of the country randomizer -- the fairest way to balance teams in 2v2 is for one player to random, while their ally picks to complement the randomed country. This style of 2v2ing is referred to as 1random1pick or "1r1p". 1v1s are either pre-arranged countries or random vs random (rvr). A popular way to play 1v1 is to play what is called a "proxy mu", short for "proximity matchup", in which the players pick two countries that share a border. These games usually have a significantly greater emphasis on micro, as players often cannot dedicate many resources to expanding without losing. A few examples of some good proxy matchups are Germany vs Poland, Greece vs Bulgaria, Spain vs Port, and Finland vs Russia, among many others. For competitive play, go to Clan Infi @ USEast on battle.net.