The Art of Diplomacy

Am enthralled at the moment with a game of Play By e-mail Diplomacy at the moment. Head over to the Lime Kettle forums for details, but the game involves you taking the role of one of the 7 “Great Powers” of Europe in 1901. Each player is randomly given their role (I scored England) and each Power has a number of armies or fleets to manoeuvre around the board – which is a map of Europe. The goal is to achieve control of 18 of the 34 cities on the board but the twist is if you go it alone, you will be stuffed. You need the assistance of others to achieve objectives and that assistance is garnered by negotiation and diplomacy.

Obviously, as England, I have France and Germany on my doorstep and expansion of the English will be via one of those two areas but also, the Russians lurk on the other side of Scandinavia and the Austrians, Italians and Turks also have their desires.

So it all comes down to a massive wooing exercise with plans put on the table to opposing players and you need to get their support or consideration. Each round of negotiations goes for a week, so it can get detailed and prolonged.

We’re in Week 1, so this is where the land grab for unoccupied areas (Spain, Holland, Norway etc) is on in earnest but eventually the Great Powers will start bumping into each other on the board… it’s a great game that I have wanted to play for years, so it will be interesting to see how it turns out.