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This sounds pretty cool. I can't say I'm on board yet, but I'd be happy to learn more about the game play, the mechanics, or maybe see some examples. Whatcha got?
Well, to start with, the game takes place in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century (i.e. in the years leading into WWI). The board looks like this. We start with seven countries, each with their own supply centers (3 each, except for Russia with 4). Each country starts with two Armies and a Fleet (except for England, which instead has two Fleets and an Army, and Russia, which starts with two of each). The object of the game is to control 18 (out of the 34 total) supply centers. This isn't like Risk, where you line up piles of armies and roll dice. In fact, there are no dice of any sort in this game - all the interactions are entirely deterministic, and units are rarely destroyed as in Risk - generally, they're just forced to retreat, and only disbanded when there are no retreat options (or the player chooses not to retreat). Further, there aren't individual player turns - each turn, everyone submits written orders, to be revealed simultaneously and resolved. The main orders you can make are unit movement or holding position, or supporting movement/holds by other units. (Fleets can also "convoy" Armies across sea territories.) Supports are the most complex moves, and in many ways the most important - in order to force a unit's retreat, an attacking unit's advance must be supported by more units than those supporting the opposing unit's hold. Likewise goes for when two units try to move into the same space simultaneously - the one with the better support successfully moves, otherwise they "bounce" and neither one successfully moves. Also, support from units can be "cut" when those units are themselves under attack. Anyway, there's more to it than that, but that should at least give you a feel for it. There's a quick summary of the rules here, and full PDF versions here.
BTW, if you're interested in playing, let me know what your preferred email address is. If you don't want to post it here, then you can email me at my username at gmail.
:) You know I'm happy to be on-board, though I am completely lacking in knowledge of how to play as of yet.
I'm in.
Have you ever played Machiavelli? It's just like Diplomacy, only more encouraging of malice between players. :-) I managed maps for an e-mail game many years ago, and still have the image files and everything, but I forget the rules.
Heck, I also forget the rules of Diplomacy.
The reply I made above has some helpful information, namely links to a quick rules summary, full rules, and the board we'll be using. I suspect it'll come back to you quickly, at least the basic points. I haven't played Machiavelli, myself, but I'm aware of it. Stefan and some friends in college were running a game at one point - it's the sort of game that he's very good at.
For some reason, the link for the board keeps timing out. Luckily the full rules link works, and I will be up to speed... soon.
Excellent. Which email address should I use? The one with "alben" at gmail?
Yes. Hopefully that's the only e-mail of mine out there right now.
Probably - it's the only one I could come up with in particular, but I remembered thinking it was new at some point. I think you had an avalonhigh.com or joshphillips.ca address at some point?
josh@avalonhigh.com is dead now (well, at least the account it redirected to is). I'll post "josh@avalonhigh.com" freely so spammers just get bounces. :-)
Oh, and your LJ icon should be changed to reflect current exchange rates instead of current bookstore pricing.
I've never played before, but I'd like to give it a try if there's a slot available.
There is indeed! I've been forgetting to ask people this, but what's your preferred email for this? If you don't want to post it here, you can email me at my username at gmail.
And as you can see, most people haven't played before...
My gmail account (firxen@) should be good. | |
