THIS IS THE BOARD FOR EXPERIENCED DIPLOMACY PLAYERS. BOARD 2, THE NEW PLAYER BOARD, WILL BE A SEPARATE THREAD.
Diplomacy usually focuses on the European side of early modern world politics, and that's fair enough; you could write massive libraries of books about European history, and many have done so. Just as interesting and complex, though, if not moreso, were the overseas empires of the time! From the unbelievably vast web of British colonies and trade outposts to the resource-rich Dutch East Indies and French Indo-china, European powers were encroaching in Eastern affairs more than ever before in the late 19th century. The great British and Russian empires played their "great game" in the Central Asian steppes, taking advantage of a declining Ottoman Empire and rapidly advancing technology. Every Great Power of Europe competed to see who could get the most lopsided trade treaties with China, and on some quiet islands across the water, a newly opened Japan gathered strength to stake its claim on the world stage. These were times of great risk and reward; empires were won and lost in a matter of years, and a single treaty could affect the lives of hundreds of millions of people. Who will emerge from these struggles on top, and reap the great riches of Asia? Who can conquer Colonial Diplomacy, one of the oldest and most storied variants in the game's long history?
For a rundown on the basic rules of Diplomacy, check out the official rulebook!
For Colonial-specific strategy articles from the hobby luminaries of yesteryear, look no further than the UK Diplomacy Archive!
If you want to spectate the game with full info, chat with other Diplomacy players, and be notified about future games, come join our Discord server! https://discord.gg/vydanhnUxr
Important Notes:
- Please follow all Smogon and Circus Maximus forum rules, both here and in the Discord.
- The game will use the Colonial Diplomacy variant map made for seven players.
- Powers will be assigned to players by the GM after the sign-up period.
- Private communication is key to success in Diplomacy, but I want to keep it centralized in one place for a better postgame and spectator experience. Therefore, joining the game Discord is mandatory for players: https://discord.gg/mRMXhShstB. There will still be a game thread where players will also be free to post.
- Orders should be given to me privately on Smogon, Discord, or vDiplomacy before each specified deadline. If you fail to do this, it will be treated as an NMR (No Moves Received) and all of your units will hold in place.
- Spring and Fall order phases will last for 48 hours each after the previous results have been posted in the game thread. Retreat and build phases will last for 24 hours each. Deadlines will not be extended to accommodate late order submissions, but the game may be paused for a certain period if at least 2/3 of Powers vote for it.
- I will be using vDiplomacy to process orders and adjudicate the game, with screenshots of the board being posted in the game thread each turn.
- If you miss multiple phases of orders in a row, I will sub you out or find you a partner to help you finish the game.
- You are not allowed to screenshot OR copy-paste chat logs for use in the game. If I catch someone doing this, they will be warned and then subbed out if it happens again.
- THIS WASN'T IN THE SIGNUP THREAD SO PLEASE READ: The game will have a set end date of 1915 to avoid the game dragging on for too long. Draws can still occur any time before this date.
Colonial Diplomacy has a few bespoke mechanics that are important for players to know before signing up:
- The Trans-Siberian Railroad is a mechanism which runs continuously from Moscow to Vladivostok, allowing Russia to send an army from any point to any other point on the railroad within a turn. It's really complicated and I can't explain all of its nuances that well, so I've copied its description and rules from the vDip page:
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[*]The Trans-Siberian Railroad (TSR) runs from Moscow to Vladivostok and may be used by the Russian player to quickly move units across his empire. But of course there are some rules that specify how this movement is happening:
- Only the Russian player may use the TSR.
- Only one unit may use the TSR per turn.
- A unit using the TSR can move from one territory with access to the TSR to any other territory along the TSR. However, foreign powers can block parts of the route by occupying the territories along them.
- A move with TSR may never be used to attack a unit. It is therefore impossible to cut supports with the TSR move or dislodge a unit. Though one can still try to enter a territory with unit speculating that it will leave the territory in the same turn. Or one can try to bounce units out.
- If a territory on the route is blocked, the TSR move will not have any effects on territories beyond the blockade. Instead the TSR unit will travel as soon as it gets and stops before the blockade (possibly queueing behind other Russian units). The same happens, if just the destination is blocked by an occupier or a standoff.
- Russian units along the route do not block the TSR.
- Though a foreign unit will block the route if
- it actively holds (i.e. hold or support order) on a territory on the route (even if dislodged in the turn),
- it moves along the route (from a territory on route to a territory on route),
- it moves into a territory and is not held out by a standoff with a third unit, a holding unit or is blocked half way by a head-to-head move,
- it tries to enter the territory and is only hold back by a returning unit (i.e. it is possible to block the TSR move with move chains).
- If a foreign units try to enter a territory on the route and the TSR is not blocked before, it will be bounced back by the TSR move and the TSR unit stops before the standoff territory.
- It is possible to support a TSR move. Although the support only counts for the final destination and it will not be used to dislodge a unit. However, it can be used to hold back an opposing party. This is even possible, if the destination is occupied as the support will be used to prevent third units from entering but not to attack the occupier.
- The TSR can be used for neighboring territories on the route, as well. As Russian units do not block the route it is possible to swap to Russian units with the help of the TSR.
- Special care should be taken, if the other unit in such a Head-To-Head-Move is non-Russian. In this case a swapping is not possible. Instead the route is blocked even half way between the territories. That also means that no supports for the TSR move will have any effect.
TSR moves are displayed as orange arrows on the top of the map. They will always display the initial target and the actual destination of a (blocked) TSR move.
[*] - The Suez Canal, represented by the tiny pair of lines in Egypt, acts as a direct link from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. The Med. and Red Seas are adjacent to each other, but fleets can only pass through the canal directly if the player controlling Egypt gives them permission; this permission is submitted along with the rest of that player's orders for that turn, and it must be specified every turn. If a fleet is not given permission to pass through the Suez Canal, they will have to go through Egypt to access the Mediterranean Sea instead, and vice versa.
- Hong Kong (shown as HK on the map) starts the game as a British home supply center. It can be captured as normal by any other country except for China; if China captures Hong Kong, the center will become neutral and it will not count towards China's SC total or grant them a build.
- In terms of adjacencies for fleets, Cebu works the same way as Kiel and Constantinople do on the classic map: fleets may pass through from any direction.
1. Lechen as Holland
2. Dead by Daylight as Turkey
3. sunny004 as France
4. bluedoom as Russia
5. Alice Kazumi as Britain
6. Danny as Japan
7. Yoru97 as China
Subs:
1. JALMONT
It is now Spring 1870. Powers should submit orders to me by Monday, July 28th, at 9PM PST (UTC-8).
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