Posted 12:40 PM by Floyd

Colby Cosh is spending his Sunday playing Diplomacy. That makes me wonder what the weather is like in Edmonton today:

High 51, Low 36, Showers.

Yikes, I'd be inside playing board games too. Didn't summer end just a week ago?

I played some face-to-face Diplomacy in college. After I graduated I played in two email games. Playing by email had the advantage that you didn't need to find six other local players and you didn't need to schedule a large block of time.

The first game I played in was classic Diplomacy. The players were identified and you would send them email to discuss moves and alliances. You sent moves to a moderator who would resolve moves and send a summary after each turn. This was in 1991 and the Internet was still the province of industry and academia. So many of the players were students with class accounts. This led to problems because when the semester was over, you could no longer contact Germany at arx@cs185.cmu.edu, and the moderator would have to find a fill-in.

I played Turkey and won by concession. I don't remember much about the game. I do remember the second game, which was a special variant only possible through email: A game where you didn't know the whereabouts of the other players, and had to send messages through the moderator. The moderator would publish all messages in one big email sent to other players along with the summary of how the moves turned out. These messages were called "press".

The game I played in had White Press, Gray Press, and Black Press. White Press is a message from you to another player: "France->Germany: I plan to move into the English Channel. Please support my move from North Sea.". Gray Press is an anonymous message: "France is getting too powerful. After England is defeated, Germany is sure to be the next target. Beware!" Then there is Black Press, which is a spoof on another player's messages. For instance, England could tell the moderator to place this message in France's section: "France->Germany: Will move into Irish or North Atlantic for outflanking move. Please hold in North."

It was an interesting variant. Life was easier for the downtrodden, because you could see what your opponents were plotting against you and you could defend yourself. Also when you were backstabbed, it was public. One strategy you could try which would kill you in regular Diplomacy was to randomly slurp up neighboring centers from your "allies". I was Austria and expanded in this manner like a malicious amoeba.

Unfortunately there was a lot of turnover and the game broke up. There was one substitute for Germany who made me laugh: His press reported that a "black-turtlenecked figure" had seized power in Germany, demanding that other world leaders "touch his monkey".

There is also a variant which I have never played called No Press. There is no communication with other players at all! I guess you move pieces in the vicinity of those whom you would like to attack, and deduce what your allies (if any) would like you to do. It's a mystery to me why anyone would enjoy this game, but it takes all kinds.