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General Category => Off the Record => Gaming HQ => Topic started by: Lettow77 on November 21, 2009, 04:00:55 AM

Title: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: Lettow77 on November 21, 2009, 04:00:55 AM
 Some friends of mine are looking to play a rather large PBEM game. We have a reliable administrator to revise maps and such. Would anyone be interested?

it'd be this delightful variant:
http://www.variantbank.org/results/rules/i/imperial2.gif

13 players, so, plenty of space.
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: Sophie Scholl on November 21, 2009, 04:39:23 AM
Looks like a Timmah-esque map. :mellow:
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: Viking on November 21, 2009, 04:53:35 AM
I like how different maps are in different times. I'm all for the UK convoying French, German and British armies to crush the CSA.
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: Lettow77 on November 21, 2009, 05:00:46 AM
 I mean, I find the dutch being in south africa hilarious and endearing.

Its an interesting map, though. Alot of interesting interactions.  We'll need a good player for Britain.

Already have seven players- if there's no interest, I guess I dont need any languish types. This just seemed a bit y'alls thing, is all.
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: HisMajestyBOB on November 21, 2009, 06:09:29 AM
Given the history of Languish diplomacy games, this is the last place you should be asking.

What the hell, I like checking out weird new variants. I'll join.
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: Solmyr on November 21, 2009, 08:39:27 AM
Can I be: Ottoman Empire? :P
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: Habbaku on November 21, 2009, 12:26:13 PM
The map looks incredibly unbalanced.  Austria and Prussia, for example, is totally fucked.
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: Lettow77 on November 21, 2009, 04:08:22 PM
 Prussia and Austria usually do fine. :unsure:

What makes them so doomed? Who is in a position to crush them?

I wonder if you've played diplomacy before.

Anyhow, thats for joining, bob. Any preferences, nation-wise? Brazil, Prussia, the Confederacy, Japan are the only slots players specifically have asked for. Unless, of course, Solmyr was serious.
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: Habbaku on November 21, 2009, 04:51:13 PM
Quote from: Lettow77 on November 21, 2009, 04:08:22 PM
Prussia and Austria usually do fine. :unsure:

What makes them so doomed? Who is in a position to crush them?

I wonder if you've played diplomacy before.

:lol:
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: garbon on November 21, 2009, 04:53:34 PM
Quote from: Habbaku on November 21, 2009, 04:51:13 PM
:lol:

:hug:
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: Lettow77 on November 21, 2009, 04:53:56 PM
 When the game gets underway, I'll give you updates on how Prussia and Austria are doing.
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: Berkut on November 21, 2009, 07:58:11 PM
I am in, but like Habs, I have never really played Diplo before, so hopefully people will go easy on me.
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: Habbaku on November 21, 2009, 07:58:19 PM
I'd rather play and see firsthand, assuming you still have space.
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: Habbaku on November 21, 2009, 07:58:33 PM
Quote from: Berkut on November 21, 2009, 07:58:11 PM
I am in, but like Habs, I have never really played Diplo before, so hopefully people will go easy on me.

:D
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: ulmont on November 21, 2009, 08:36:43 PM
In, if you have room.
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: HisMajestyBOB on November 21, 2009, 10:46:56 PM
Quote from: Lettow77 on November 21, 2009, 04:08:22 PM
Prussia and Austria usually do fine. :unsure:

What makes them so doomed? Who is in a position to crush them?

I wonder if you've played diplomacy before.

Anyhow, thats for joining, bob. Any preferences, nation-wise? Brazil, Prussia, the Confederacy, Japan are the only slots players specifically have asked for. Unless, of course, Solmyr was serious.

No preference.
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: Lettow77 on November 22, 2009, 12:24:19 AM
 Uh, Alright. I'll let y'all know as soon as it gets underway, which it will do as soon as it hits 13 reliable players. Orders will be on a 24 hour basis- if they dont come in by then, your orders are assumed 'HOLD'


We played South Africa diplomacy tonight, a six-player variant. It ended thusly:
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/6500/52102017.jpg
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: Faeelin on November 22, 2009, 11:52:18 AM
Hrm. Maybe it's just me, but that map looks unbalanced. Brazil has nobody near by and a ton of supply centers available for teh taking...

Also, the fact that it's called Turkey confuses and infuriates me.
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: Cerr on November 22, 2009, 12:23:48 PM
Why is Dublin in the South West of Ireland on that map?
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: grumbler on November 22, 2009, 01:21:10 PM
Ah, good ol' Imperial Diplomacy.  :lol:

A fascinating failure.  Fun, though, for a while.  Germany and Austria look fucked, but that just gives them incentive to maintain the Dreikaiserbund, and that is a hard combo to beat.  I don't think I ever got far enough to see what happens when the 3 members of the Dreikaiserbund fall on one another - everyone else kinda gave up before that happened.

What is called "Holland" is, of course, Indonesia with a province in the Netherlands, soon lost.

The map looks like it has been updated a bit from when I played, but I don't think tweaks can fix the endgame.

Still, it is worth playing, for as long as it stays interesting for the vast majority of the major players.  I hope to follow this here on Languish.
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: Berkut on November 22, 2009, 02:00:22 PM
Quote from: grumbler on November 22, 2009, 01:21:10 PM


Still, it is worth playing, for as long as it stays interesting for the vast majority of the major players.  I hope to follow this here on Languish.

This is why I play games - the desire to win just provides a structure to build the story of the game around.

It is why, despite it being a terrible flawed game, I really like The Napoleonic Wars. It is insanely gamey, has little or no bearing to reality, but damnit, every game something bizarre and fun happens.
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: Faeelin on November 22, 2009, 03:13:22 PM
Quote from: grumbler on November 22, 2009, 01:21:10 PM
The map looks like it has been updated a bit from when I played, but I don't think tweaks can fix the endgame.

Still, it is worth playing, for as long as it stays interesting for the vast majority of the major players.  I hope to follow this here on Languish.

What breaks in the endgame?

I admit, I am getting intrigued.
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: Faeelin on November 22, 2009, 03:19:46 PM
Incidentally, what do the odd squares off some costs mean?
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: grumbler on November 22, 2009, 04:05:25 PM
Quote from: Faeelin on November 22, 2009, 03:13:22 PM
What breaks in the endgame?

I admit, I am getting intrigued.
Players have vastly different chances of winning, based on country.  Holland and France are screwed, IIRC, and Russia needs to ally with at least one of Germany, Austria, or China (but all of those players know they can get more from attacking Russia than allying with her, except if Germany AND Austria coally with her, and then that alliance wins).  The course of the game becomes more obvious early on than in regular Diplomacy, and you don't see the shifting alliances of regular Diplomacy becuase no one really is sure just exactly what is happening.

In short, the game isn't designed form a scale this big.  Still, it works for a while, and that is all most games need.
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: grumbler on November 22, 2009, 04:11:44 PM
Quote from: Faeelin on November 22, 2009, 03:19:46 PM
Incidentally, what od the squares off soem coasts mean?
Looks like fleet block holders for land spaces too small to hold a fleet block and still leave the tag visible.
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: Habbaku on December 15, 2009, 06:19:25 PM
Good to see the Languish Diplomacy tradition alive and well.   :)
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: HisMajestyBOB on December 15, 2009, 06:33:37 PM
 :lol:
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: Lettow77 on December 20, 2009, 09:52:35 PM
 Ah, realised how little the languish community likes me/ how little love is lost there.

Got friends from elsewhere, and good times were had by all. Y'all were mostly fodder in the event that slots needed to be filled, which, merilly, was not the case.
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: Viking on December 20, 2009, 09:58:19 PM
Quote from: Lettow77 on December 20, 2009, 09:52:35 PM
Ah, realised how little the languish community likes me/ how little love is lost there.

Got friends from elsewhere, and good times were had by all. Y'all were mostly fodder in the event that slots needed to be filled, which, merilly, was not the case.

(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.pplaylist.com%2Fuimg%2Fa%2Fj%2FR%2Fi15810660609l.gif&hash=5f76c0edb9b0de165cc19fec08e0dd7d00e64d7a) ?
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: Berkut on December 20, 2009, 10:04:11 PM
Quote from: Lettow77 on December 20, 2009, 09:52:35 PM
Ah, realised how little the languish community likes me/ how little love is lost there.

Got friends from elsewhere, and good times were had by all. Y'all were mostly fodder in the event that slots needed to be filled, which, merilly, was not the case.


:lmfao:

Game never happened.
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: Lettow77 on December 20, 2009, 10:15:04 PM
 It did. Not the unwieldy 20 player version, mind, but it did. We played a South Africa 6 player variant (I was Oranje), which I ended up winning, after betraying my Capetown ally. I felt bad about it because of how likeable he was, despite being a yankee.

I also betrayed Transvaal, but I did not feel bad there.

Owing perhaps to my remorse, I did not betray Turkey (Although he was not the Cape player, that was italy..) in the next game, where I was Austria. This really sucked, because after some wheeling and dealing that saw Russia killed, our alliance was sort of useless. Austria-Turkey is truly the worst alliance in the game, I think. But we co-opted italy into it rather than kill him (Another mistake on our part?) and somewhere in there, Germany died.

We called it when it was Austria-Ottomans-Italy with 6-7-6 centres and Britain with a bunch, and France with..4 or so?  France and Britain were allied, the coalition of the willing would eventually have dragged them down, but the game had been going on for hours.


It was good stuff. I'd upload pictures from the SA game, which I was saving the screens of for my own reference, but I am on break from college and dont have access to my computer.

Of course, it was a mistake not to post here that I had no further interest in pursuing a game on Languish, but I figured nobody's hopes would be particularly dashed. 
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: Habbaku on December 20, 2009, 11:19:56 PM
 :lol:
Title: Re: giant Diplomacy PBEM
Post by: Lettow77 on December 20, 2009, 11:21:31 PM
 :lol: