Diplomacy: URLDT

[Sir. Velmu]

Feck.

 

[Adaham]

Is there any communication supposed to be visible here, or are all diplomatic discussions solved by PM?

 

[An4Sh]

From what I read you can announce diplomatic negotiations publicly or do it secretly.

 

[Sir. Velmu]

If you want to make something public, go ahead. In most cases that is just not recommended
Traffic is nice.
And if some "civilians" feel disare to post something, that's fine to me to.

 

[calandale]

And if some "civilians" feel disare to post something, that's fine to me to.

I wanna see the RAT.

 

[Sir. Velmu]

I'venever heard of RAT


And the timelimit has come and is now gone. Damn!
Well, I sort of said that they are flexible I'm still hoping to get the rest of the moves even today, though. As this is the first turn, we will wait until everyone has got their moves posted.

 

[leprechaun]

Moves sent. I think they're right - as long as you know what I mean, they'll be fine, right?

 

[Cirdan]

Aye, but if he misunderstands, you may do the opposite of what you wanted...

 

[leprechaun]

They are pretty explicit, I'm just not sure they're in the right 'language'.

It's basically in the form of

Army X Hold

Army Y move here

Fleet Z go there.

(Not necessarily my orders, however, just an example)

- where the letter is the place the army is, for example ATM the armies and fleets would be Army Rome, Army Venice and Fleet Naples on the map I'm looking at.

 

[Sir. Velmu]

Moves are clear, thanks.

 

[Cirdan]

Lep: That's the way--it's not hard. Ambiguous orders normally occur when someone attempts to be a smartass, that's why orders are what the referee interprets them as being.

 

[leprechaun]

Well that's alright then. I'm a totally new player to this, so 

 

[Drachenfaust]

Here are a couple of invaluable resources for anybody who might still need them.

The Rules in pdf format.

Printable Planning Map

I have to say, I'm pretty excited to see how this game shapes up.  It's been a long time since I last played, and I had forgotten how much fun it is staring at maps and running scenarios.

 

[Merentha]

Printable Planning Map

This one is invaluable, so we can actually use the names of the provinces rather than "that space south of Munich" or what-have-you.

edit:  When is the spring 1901 turn officially over?  We do need a defined time limit.
edit2:  Also, during discussion phases, remember that other message clients (AIM, MSN) can be used rather than the slow PM system.

 

[Sir. Velmu]

the deadline is as flexible as possible.

Which means that I'm waiting for everyone to send their moves for Spring 1900, until I announce them all. After that it will be set as the way it works for me ( ) and if it's doesn't work for someone, we'll chance it. Simple as that. But for now on, if you disappear without saying anything and miss the deadline badly, we are just going to play the turn without your moves. If you miss deadline 2 times in a row, you'll be replaced (assuming we can find someone to play instead, of course). Anyone have any problem with that?

I'm making these rules up as the game goes further


The MSN/AIM suggestion is also good, makes things roll faster. Please, if possible, use it!

EDIT: I'm still hoping to recieve the moves tonight. That would mean that the next deadline would be set to sometime Sunday. But we'll see.

 

[calandale]

I'venever heard of RAT

Russia, Austria, Turkey.
Pretty good alliance.
Much better than TAI.

 

[Merentha]

Russia, Austria, Turkey.

An interesting, though very unlikely, alliance formation. 

 

[calandale]

Russia, Austria, Turkey.

An interesting, though very unlikely, alliance formation. 

It's actually my preferred alliance. Only Austria MIGHT have
better options.

 

[Merentha]

It's actually my preferred alliance. Only Austria MIGHT have
better options.

I'll say no more, but Turkey absolutely has better options.  It needs to break out, and fast.  With a RAT alliance, the only option is Italy (which happens to be a main target of Austria in this situation, Germany being a difficult nut to crack).  The alliance runs into the problem of conflicting zones of expansion, especially when Turkey is sitting for an effective backstab of Russia and Austria.  Further, Russian expansion needs to be rapid or it can be beaten to Scandinavia by a German-British alliance (which will happen in the formation of a RAT), leaving it only with a nigh-impossible rush through Poland.  While feasible, orchestrating a trustworthy RAT seems...unlikely.  Instead I see Austria and Turkey working together against Russia, which is usually considered to be the most powerful nation if it can get any momentum working.  A Russian backstab against Austria also seems likely in the event of Austria moving north against Germany as it surely must if a RAT is to succeed. 

Yes, as Austria organizing such an alliance is excellent.  However, for Turkey, a TAI seems better to me, for the main reason of preventing a seaborne invasion of mainland Turkey by Italy.  Sevastopol and Warsaw will fall to a TA alliance, while RAT is, as the name implies, very prone to a backstab by any of the countries involved.

Edit:  Especially since a RAT will rapidly lead to a BG-France-Germany alliance in counter, meaning Italy gets fought over and the game rapidly turns into a 3v3 slugfest.  The GB-Ger-Fr alliance is stronger than RAT for a few reasons:  Germany can invade south more easily than the opposite, France can easily get a fleet in the Med, allowing for an invasion (supported by Germany) of Italy, while GB invaded Russia after Ger and GB split up Norway.  Militarily, the invasion of Italy from the west is far easier than it is from the east, which means that Italy will likely hold off AT until Fr shows up on the other side.  Essentially, RAT dooms all three nations to eventual defeat by BFG, unless serious deviations occur.  However, fortunately for the three countries involved in the RAT, a BFG seems almost as unlikely as a RAT is and really only forms (from what I've read, since I've never seen either) in counter to a RAT.

*grin*  I had fun reading some of the articles at http://www.diplomacy-archive.com/home.htm today.

edit2:  According to this article, and some others, it suggests that a RAT is even more unstable than a BFG, and even less likely to form.

I just can't see a RAT forming and lasting anything beyond a few turns. 

 

[Sir. Velmu]

OK guys, we have a new problem: Sir Prince won't be cabable to play this game and our roster needs one more name on it. Need to start the recruiting, again.


cal, would you like to try the RAT?