Has anyone here ever played the game Diplomacy? Which was the absolute most fun game that I have ever played. Alas though that I have not been able to play it in... 2 years.
You guys ever played it?
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
Never played it, but I can't imagine anything is better than RISK.
That's just lunacy.
Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :
Dip is a great game, and it has a really huge online community; indeed, I'm in a PBEM game right now with a variant map. You should have absolutely no difficulty finding a game and jumping right in, if you're willing to spend a few minutes each day responding to game-related email.
Now, it's true that the online experience is a little different from face-to-face, but I actually prefer it. There's no long, boring waits for Germany to finish negotiating with France; likewise, you don't have to queue up to talk to Russia.
Posted by Shawshank (Member # 8453) on :
I find Diplomacy to be far superior because of the lack of dice-throwing and therefore the lack of luck. Which for me makes it much more enjoyable and challenging.
Posted by Xavier (Member # 405) on :
quote:Never played it, but I can't imagine anything is better than RISK.
Diplomacy is a far better game, honestly. So much more strategic, so much less luck (in fact, there's no luck at all).
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Ever played the A Game of Thrones boardgame? It's got elements in common with Diplomacy, and is incredibly well done.
Posted by Coatesie (Member # 9202) on :
Anybody here ever played Summit? It's basically a far more sophisticated Cold War version of Risk--well worth the effort to track down a set.
Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
I'm fond of Risk 2210 AD. Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
I've been wanting to try Risk 2210 AD.
Coatesie, I haven't heard of Summit. Tell me a bit about it, if you would.
Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
Risk 2210AD is good, but Dip is better.
-Bok
Posted by Shawshank (Member # 8453) on :
For t hose Dip lovers out there- did you know there's a program called "RealPolitik" that you can download on which you can enter in all the orders using a nice little GUI (that is to say... the map) and will tell you how the events of the turn went.
It makes it much easier to have an e-mail based game.
Posted by Blaine (Member # 9412) on :
...does not exist.
Posted by The Pixiest (Member # 1863) on :
I useda play Diplomacy back in college. It was a hoot!
Just don't get stuck playing Austria-Hungary.
Pix
Posted by Xavier (Member # 405) on :
quote:Ever played the A Game of Thrones boardgame? It's got elements in common with Diplomacy, and is incredibly well done.
I actually think A Game of Thrones is superior to Diplomacy in a lot of ways. You can tell that the game was very much influenced by it, though.
I've only ever played in games with 3 players (its designed around 5 players), and I would imagine that its a lot like playing diplomacy with less than the ideal number (7).
One thing I love about A Game of Thrones is how claustrophobic you feel. You have enemies on all sides, and its not like Risk where you can concentrate on choke points. You are screwed if your opponent wins the naval war, but you can't spend all of your units on ships, or else a land army will come and wipe you out. In the three player games I've played, powerful stand-offs happen in the waters, making land attacks mostly the side-show. In a five player game, with more folks contesting the seas, these stand-offs likely won't be able to develop, causing havok and chaos both on land and on the sea.
There is a little bit of luck in AGOT, like whether this turn will be a mustering or supply turn, or whether this is the turn where wildlings attack. There is no luck involved in battle, however, so no throwing of dice across the room.
It gets really intense too, even in the bidding phase, oddly enough. It can be agonizing decision making. I'll give an example. Say you really want the Valyrian Sword (break's ties in battles in a devestating way), but you want to maintain enough power to get a decent position on the Diplomacy track so that you can perform better actions, and then still leave you enough power to beat back the wildlings if they attack this turn, since they are up to 8 power and you have a feeling the card will come up. You don't have enough to win both the Iron Throne and the Valyrian Sword, so you are hoping that the house who you are currently in heated war with doesn't get the Throne, because then they will break any ties for the Fiefdoms or Kings Court and make you have to blow all your power to get the sword and still be able to use a decent number of special actions. If you do spend all your power bidding, you will be screwed if the Wildlings attack, and you won't even have enough power to use on the game board to maintain territories when moving armies out of them.
So say the bidding starts, and after first bid is done, and your arch-enemy wins the throne. Its time to bid for the fiefdoms, and you bid a considerable portion of your power, thinking that's what it will take to win the sword. The other player's reveal their bids, and they all bid barely anything, knowing you wanted the sword pretty badly. You just wasted all of your power. Your opponents still have plenty to bid on the King's Court track, and you know you'll be last, unable to perform any special actions, pretty much dooming you.
There are a lot of rules, but they are actually very intuitive, and people seem to pick it up very quickly.
Posted by Xavier (Member # 405) on :
quote:I useda play Diplomacy back in college. It was a hoot!
Just don't get stuck playing Austria-Hungary.
My favorite was Turkey. One of the worst countries to win the game with (so hard to get troups anywhere!) but I enjoyed playing in the most defensive corner. Turkey seems to need Russia to cooperate with them to get anything, which can be frustrating. In the most successful game I played with Turkey, I convinced Russia to tag-team Austria with me, and then carve up Germany. I secretly advised Austria and Germany how to counter some of Russia's advances, allowing me to get the best territory. To be fair though, the Russian player was very easy to manipulate. A better player probably would have turned on me and eaten me alive.
I think one of the biggest weaknesses in the game Diplomacy is how it sort of gives Italy the shaft. In order to compete at all, they need to follow a very careful script to attack Turkey. That still won't let them win, but it at least makes their game a little bit fun.
When playing AGOT, I actually noticed that the Starks play a lot like Russia does, and that the Lannisters play a bit like Austria.
Which reminds me: Noeman, I don't have the expansion set to AGOT (nor have I played it). If its my version, it will be the vanilla AGOT version. Just so you know.
Posted by Shawshank (Member # 8453) on :
I played with Germany- that's pretty fun. I convinced the Austrians to head east and take on Turkey with Russia while we the Germans took on England and France. We convinced the Russians to help keep the English off Scandinavia and the Italians to help us against the French by going around Gibraltar. We ended up onto the isle of Britain while France was decimated. (Course the Russians won- but only because I couldn't convince my teammate to turn on the Russians when they had 10 or so supply centers "Russians are our friends she said" I played this as part of a class- hence the pairs.)
Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
Ah, but in how many of these other games can you rain nuclear death upon your enemies? Posted by DavidR (Member # 7473) on :
I was first introduced to both Diplomacy and Civilization around 1986 or 1987 by a classmate who I also played AD&D and other role playing games with. I haven't played Diplomacy since about 1991, but I still have the Civilization and Advanced Civilization boardgames in my closet.
Edit: Aparently the first url doesn't work on this board. place parens around board_game in the url to get the correct page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization_board_game Posted by Hamson (Member # 7808) on :
Does anyone have any idea where I can buy the newest version of Diplomacy? Apparantly, for some terrible reason, it has been out of print recently, and now I'm craving for it! ANYWHERE online that you see it in stock would be helpful. Thanks a lot.
Also, has anyone played the game "The Settlers of Catan"?
Posted by Launchywiggin (Member # 9116) on :
The best site with the best interface for diplomacy can be found at www.floc.net/dpjudge
Writing press, putting in orders, and checking the map is all done at one site. Much easier than playing by e-mail (though I did that plenty, too)
I've been playing there for 6 years--I've always got a couple games going, and I love the variants.
I always imagine how the battle school kids would play diplomacy--they would be great opponents.
Going back and playing dice games like Risk just aren't the same--to win at diplomacy, it takes so much more skill--with words and tactics.
And--btw, I've won with every power. As long as you know how to use "Diplomacy", you can win.
Posted by FlyingCow (Member # 2150) on :
If you want a really interesting strategy game of commerce, definitely try out Puerto Rico or its sequel San Juan.
Posted by Alcon (Member # 6645) on :
If we're talking about awesome risk like board games then we can't leave out Settlers of Catan. Which kicks the rears of all of the above games.
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