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A Weekly Threat Assessment of the Diplomacy Community

PoppyCon Down Under
This past weekend was a tough one for tournaments. Even with the coronavirus on everyone's minds, 10 diplomats assembled for PoppyCon. Congratulations to Pete McNamara on his win and special thanks to Andrew Goff for organizing the event.  View the rest of the standings here and be sure to check out the Australian Diplomacy Facebook page
MaccCon Results
Garry Sturley organized a great tournament this last weekend that featured 8 players (also down because of the coronavirus). Congratulations to dib on his win. The complete standings can be found here and be sure to check out Macclesfield Diplomacy at their website or Facebook page for house games and tournaments. Lastly, Andy Harris played in the tournament remotely and wrote an article about his experience.
The Champions Corner is where recent tournament winners share a specific move or strategy that they believe helped them to emerge victorious.
 
For this issue, we welcome Play Diplomacy user dib the winner of the recent MaccCon 3 F2F tournament
“A poisonous snake chased by hunters asked a farmer to save it’s life. To hide it from it’s pursuers, the farmer squatted and let the snake crawl into his stomach...” Look up the rest of this African proverbial story - it’s great. To some it is analogous with the reputation diplomacy has - The game is about betrayal! - spoiler: it doesn’t end well for the farmer!  
My history with dip runs back to a curious 13 year old first reading a racy short story about a FTF diplomacy game and drinks party. In the story a ‘Russian Czarina’ was flirting both with a transfixed German and drunken Austrian -  it ended in a bloody nose. Intrigued, I bought a copy!

A flyer in the box had details of various UK zines. I sent off my stamps and started to read and read and fell in love. This was a weird, weird, wonderful world full of snail mail and even irate telephone calls.

My 1st full game was at the London diplomacy championships in the 1990s. I’m now a 12 year veteran of online play and have re-discovered the joys of tournaments. The UK FTF diplomacy was in its death throes, until MaccCon. Going forward is the Tour of Britain which next is in the historic dot of London and York(shire) before back to Macc! 
With the pandemic, only 8 came out with one video calling in from Jersey! We played in a league format with cumulative scoring. I ended up topping both boards of fixed term play (1910 &1907). The games were marked by forms of Western and Eastern Triples with me drawing corner powers England then Turkey, which over a short game if not pegged back can be an advantage - though not for the Day 1 Turk who got eliminated - something I noted!
Game 1 saw me finish on 10 dots and with C-DIP scoring I managed 49 points thus firmly in pole position. In game 2, my RAI allies king-made me to equal the WT who had got to 6 dots. What did I think this was this down to? Well, from my SuperPastis tourney defeats I have realized that the game is also about timing and reputation.

As England I sat on 5 dots from 1901-1905 and even held my 5th fleet in Edinburgh for 3 years while I crucially put a Fleet in St P - something others in the east failed to account for but I ‘did’ point out to Russia! Then unexpectedly Germany stabbed France, a blunt knife but it forced him to retreat and as I had hoped IR stabbed the bloated front line Austrian. I capitalized more by then ‘justifiably’ seizing Holland, Berlin, Kiel, & Sweden with French and even Austrian help.  

In game 2, as Turkey I purposely held on to 4 dots up until the last move of Fall 1907. The Eastern Triple (no Quadruple) stuttered and spluttered and after some stout gallic defense from a remarkable German recovery trying to conquer Moscow, we entered into 1907. 
The final year prayed heavily on all, Austria destroyed his fleet Fall 1906 for the rebuild and after an ‘unexpected wobble’ by Austria in Spring of 07 the shattered angry EQ was facing ‘defeat’ to a jubilant 18 dot WT.  Verbal retribution aside there was nothing that EQ could do to stop the German army (which was down to 2 dots at one point) getting Warsaw for the 6th, they had agreed to an evil 6,6,6 win! 
With French champagne on ice there was a final act… In the last move of the game I invoked a 1901 clause of an AT agreement that if needed we would exchange dots to ensure the ‘win.’ Thus in the last move, RAI selflessly helped me to jump to 6 dots and I became the 4th unexpected & unwelcome guest at the Western party!!

So shock horror the game ‘known’ for betrayal and stabs can in reality be just as much about loyalty and retaliation. How do you like them apples?

PS If anyone knows of this racy short story please let me know!
 
If you would like to get to know dib better, he's also a moderator at Play Diplomacy and runs the delightful Super Pastis Tournament.

April

  • 4th-5th - Whipping (California) - Facebook / Meetup *Will Be Rescheduled*

May

June

March

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