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Any Diplomacy players here?
I've recently been getting into Diplomacy (both face to face and online) and it's surprisingly fun, although requires some dedication. I'm wondering if anyone here has experience with the game or some tips for learning more in-depth strategy? It feels like online resources aren't that great or plentiful yet I'm having a hard time surviving against experienced players.
I have never played but have been interested trying it out but never knew where to start.
I'm hesitant to start a face to face game with my friends because from my understanding things can get intense.
Is there any interest in starting a game here?
(Also I would need to brush up on the rules its been a while since I first came across Diplomacy)
In the past I've found the "best" way to play Diplomacy is asynchronously through playdiplomacy.com . Because the core of the game is having conversations and arranging deals with other players, this type of play can give you ample time to "do diplomacy" (such as for example one day per move).
You can also play anonymously, which helps mitigate bias from the results of previous games or from knowledge (or lack thereof) of the player behind each nation.
However, things can still get intense even when playing online. A significant amount of people who try to play Diplomacy have difficulty separating the actions others take while playing the game from their real personas. Winning alone at Diplomacy requires real, premeditated, callously executed, long term betrayal of people you have previously had to work closely with. Because the game will last several days, it can be extremely stressful for many people. It's important to remember that it's just a game, to relax, take it easy and especially not to take it personally if you are double crossed.
I agree. I'd love to play Diplomacy but I've never played it before and I'm hesitant to ask my friends about it for the exact same points you mentioned.
If there was a group of Tildes users playing Diplomacy, I'd be interested in that.
The game is definitely intense online. Backstabbing or being betrayed will always feel bad but I feel like it's not as bad when you're playing with internet strangers online compared to face to face in real life.
Fortunately the rules are pretty simple and I'm not a very advanced player myself either. I'd definitely be interested in starting up a game here. There are a few options for online play. I just recently created an account on backstabbr.com which seems to work pretty well. There are a few other options as well (at least playdiplomacy and webdiplomacy) which apparently are good as well but I don't have experience with them.
I love Diplomacy! Have been playing it for over a decade now and I run a small YouTube channel about it called DiploStrats.
Absolutely fascinating game - I find myself hating it sometimes and I wouldn't recommend it to most of my friends, but it's unlike anything else out there and it's heavily addictive if you like that kind of negotiation.
For strategy, I feel like half of it is reading articles (there are an absolute ton out there) and half just comes from repeated play. Over at webDiplomacy you can play gunboat (no-press) against AI, which is useful for improving tactically although it doesn't really match up to talking to people.
I can compile and link some strategy articles if you'd like them
That's awesome! I've actually watched a lot of your videos. I especially enjoyed the series on the longest game played as well as the blitz diplomacy games. Have you thought about releasing a video on a longer game with press available? I think it'd be interesting to see how better players communicate when they have more than 5 minutes time per turn.
If you have the time, I'd also definitely appreciate a compilation of some strategy articles. There was some content on /r/diplomacy but that isn't available anymore.
Thank you! I've got a couple videos which go through press in longer games - The Austria-Turkey Alliance one and Media Wars 1. Unfortunately by their nature they're insanely long - and at the time I wasn't great at getting to the point, which makes the problem a bit worse. I really need to make another one but they take a lot more work to make than the Blitz ones.
Re: articles it looks like the site I used to use a bunch is no longer functional :( But there are a few I can pick out from elsewhere:
VillageIdiot's Advanced Diplomacy Maneuvers goes through a lot of the tactics top players use that aren't immediately obvious.
Seren Kwok's article on Stalemate Lines is really good for the endgame. These are positions which 'lock' - if you manage to get into one and give the same defensive orderset continuously, you can't lose and can force stronger powers to take a draw instead of a win.
Andrew Goff's Diplomacy Overview is a pretty good resource for overall strategy towards the game - he's the most decorated Diplomacy player in history, so knows what he's talking about, although I should say his recommendations are geared towards nonanonymous play where you have to be more honest with people.
Not an article - this one is a youtube video series - but Legendary Tactics' interviews with various top level Diplomacy players are fantastic. There are some that are a bit too prescriptive imo - ones like the England one are very geared towards a certain strategy that won't work for everyone - but they still all give a great insight into how a top level player thinks about the game.
It seems like I've missed those videos. I'll have to go watch them. Thanks for the great links as well. I've bookmarked your comment so I can go read up on some theory for my games later. I was aware of Legendary Tactic's interviews but not the other resources.
I feel like in general it seems like there isn't that much strategy formally written down but still all the experienced players are aware of the same tricks. I guess you just need to play a lot of games to learn. I wish I had more friends in real life that would be down for a f2f game more often than a few times a year.