How to Play Diplomacy

From the March 1, 2013, Chicago Tribune obituary "Inventor of the board game Diplomacy" by Joan Giangrasse Kates.  The two previous entries on Allan B. Calhamer's death also came from this article.

"Described as a 'thinking man's version of the popular game Risk, Diplomacy is a seven-player game based on the balance of power in pre-World War I Europe.  Players are free to bluff and back-stab one another to attain dominance.

Each of seven major powers--  Austria, England, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and Turkey-- begins the game with three or four pieces in its home country.  To win, one player must occupy 18 of 34 supply centers.  Pieces represent entities such as naval fleets and armies.

'One of the knocks on Diplomacy is that it is a game that ruins friendships' said Jim O'Kelly.'" 

And, I never did anything else with those guys, but I'm a bad loser.

Et Tu, Brutus?  --DaCoot

Deaths: Diplomacy: The Background of a Game-- Part 2

He was rejected by several game companies, and in 1959, he self-published 500 copies of his game, called Diplomacy.  It soon has a small, but dedicated following.  Within six months, these sold out and the board game company Avalon Hill bought the rights, and the rest is history.

Mr. Calhamer died February 25th.

Now, hundreds of thousands of copies have been sold,.  Games are even played on the internet (not by me, even if I knew how).  The game involves not just rolls of dice, but interaction between players who have to stab-the-back to world domination.

John F. Kennedy and Henry Kissinger were reportedly fans of it.  Games Magazine has named it to its Hall of Fame. 

You are the master of your own fate.  But, unlike chess where the best tactician wins, it is about negotiation, persuasion and the ability to read other players.

A Hate It.  --Cooter