On the first move of the World DipCon 2007 top board in Vancouver ,
Russia tried to move his fleet in St. Petersburg (south coast) to the
Baltic. A few weeks later, in the European Championship, a
player’s last move (arguably the most critical because of the center
count-based scoring system they use there) was: Fleet Constantinople to
Bulgaria (No coast indicated). Both orders were written by world-class
players, and both were totally unintentional. In the second case, the
player was left without any defense of the supply center, and a single
enemy unit walked in unopposed, costing him quite a few points in the
tournament scoring system. In the first case, the player went on to have
a fairly successful game (though he did not win).
It is an unpleasant reality of tournament Diplomacy: we all make
mistakes under the pressures of the clock. We strive to put a long
distance between them, but it is not unheard of for even elite players
to make one or two mistakes per game. Here are a few things to
keep in mind when these inevitable mistakes occur.
When Somebody Else Mis-orders:
Obviously, any mistake that hurts the player making the mistake is
a usually a real error on his or her part, as opposed to a deliberate
mis-order done for diplomatic deception. If a player writes a nonsense
order and, as a result, loses centers or fails to gain them, it probably
was not intentional. These are not the ones to be on the lookout for.
In our estimation, mistakes which end up hurting a player’s “ally”
(i.e. “Oh no! I supported you to ALBANIA ? I meant to support you to
TRIESTE !”), or failing to hurt a player’s “enemy” (“Oops! If I’d only
supported that attack I would have dislodged the evil German, but I
screwed up and now he doesn’t have to remove a unit!”), are intentional
probably 80% of the time, especially when done by veteran
players. Obviously, new players are less likely to be so cagey, and are
more likely to actually make an error that ends up hurting their ally,
or blunts their own attack. So the important questions to ask when you
are on the short end of a mis-order are: 1. Who benefited from the
mis-order? And 2. Is the player who made the mistake clever enough to
have done this on purpose?
Our feeling is that most players, even elite ones, are terrible
actors. Watch for the exaggerated shock, the grandiose gestures of
self-flagellation (“God, I’m sooooo stupid! How could I have written BUL
when I meant RUM?”) On the other hand, if you happened to notice that a
player was unusually rushed before the deadline, he might not have had a
chance to proofread his orders, and might have made an honest mistake.
Often, a player that hears his orders read aloud and gasps and/or turns
red has just realized that he has made a true error, while one who seems
to have had a speech ready has mis-ordered on purpose. As you play with
the same opponents again and again, you may even learn to spot their
reactions.
When You Mis-order:
The elite player’s response:
A real mistake can be a depressing moment, but that moment should last
about a nano-second before you begin to scheme again. You must quickly
change your focus to the new opportunities your mis-order may present.
Someone may have gained from your mis-order in an unexpected way!
For example, in the case of Fleet St Pete failing to move in the Spring
of ‘01, suddenly the German can afford to make a move to the North Sea,
or make a shift to Sweden and gain three centers, while France gains
three centers rather than fighting over Belgium (which is more of a
threat to England than it is to Russia). Because of this threat, England
may feel he has to react by canceling his idea of putting an army in
Norway , instead opting and go to stand the Germans off in Denmark so
that Army Kiel is backed up and Germany does not have a fleet
build. Like magic, by sowing the seeds of doubt amongst your western
neighbors, you have gotten them all more worried about each other than
you. Now, suddenly, and English player who was originally planning on a
Scandinavian push is suddenly running to you looking for a mutual
defense pact against the threat of a giant France/Germany alliance.
Always remember that if you are an elite player, your neighbors
may automatically feel threatened by your reputation, and for that
reason you should be willing to take more modest early gains in exchange
for a solid alliance, particularly if you have a less-than-ideal opening
year. We would not go so far as to suggest that you should mis-order on
purpose just to make yourself look weaker, but we will say that many top
players have contemplated the Yorkshire Pudding opening, or something
equally ridiculous, simply to take the pressure off themselves early in
the game.
The average player’s response:
Average players are often the most shaken by their own mis-orders (and
tactical errors), as they realize that if they were elite players, they
would not have made that mistake. We often see average players
become self-absorbed and sullen, spending valuable negotiation/planning
time trying to make excuses or simply apologizing too much for the
mistake. They cannot let go of the error and look at the board anew, and
simply go into “turtle mode”, writing defensive orders and making no
effort to talk their way out of their predicament. Never forget your
best line: “Don’t worry about me. I’m already screwed on this board! I
mis-ordered, for Pete’s sake! It’s that guy over there that’s the real
threat now! Work with me and we’ll cut him down to size. And hey, after
we’re done with him, you can kill me.”
Of course, you don’t really plan on being killed next. You are
hoping to hang on long enough that something happens that changes the
dynamic of the board. We cannot count the amount of times that we have
been dead to rights after a few seasons of play, but have hung on at 2,
3, or 4 dots simply by sowing chaos in our area of the board long enough
that something good happened, and we wound up having highly successful
games.
The new player’s response:
In many ways, it is even worse to mis-order when you are new to the
game, because since none of the other players know you, they may assume
that you’re hopelessly incompetent and consequently wouldn’t make a
reliable ally. In short, all too frequently at a tournament, if you
mis-order, you’re meat.
On the other hand, you may have the perfect excuse: “Dah...I’m
new.” We have observed that most new players will not dwell as
long, or torture themselves as much, as veterans do. You can
actually use this to your advantage if you are new to Diplomacy. Elite
players may be willing to forgive a “newbie error” in exchange for a
pledge of goodwill, and instead work with the new player to get him or
her re-focused on the current situation. In fact, we have often
seen new players ask their allies to recheck their orders to avoid
future mistakes. We suggest that you not offer this, because it
obviously makes it trivial for your experienced ally to stab you.
In fact, if you are the experienced player, we suggest that you not
accept such an offer either, and instead encourage your newbie ally to
keep at it. The trust and goodwill that you will gain by being
supportive of a new player is far more valuable than a peek at his
orders, and will probably lead to even more success for you.
The Most Common Errors of Veteran Players:
We conducted a highly scientific poll of top tournament
diplomacy players (i.e. we sent them email and a few of them wrote us
back), to determine what the most common mis-orders are. Take a moment
to look at these, and pay special attention to what you wrote when your
pieces are in these spots.
In Spring 1901:
The two most common errors people mentioned in the opening moves
are: Fleet Trieste to Greece , and assorted creative errors involving
Fleets St. Pete and Sevastapol either going backwards to the Black and
the Gulf of Bothnia, or St. Pete trying to jump all the way to the
Baltic, or even Gulf of Lyon (GOB, GOL, there is a difference!).
In Fall 1901:
For some reason, there are more English mis-orders getting to
Norway than any other combination by a long shot. We have seen
things such as Fleet North Sea Convoy Army Liverpool to Norway, as well
as both Fleets North Sea and Norwegian supporting Army Edi to Norway, as
well as the fascinating Army York to London while the North Sea is
convoying it to Norway. Also, continue to watch out for the dreaded TRI
– GRE even if you did successfully make it to Albania in the Spring.
In the game in general:
The two problems that plague experienced players the most are
failing to write an order for a unit, and writing two orders for the
same unit. Most experienced players check their orders by
quantity: “I have 8 units and 8 orders so I am OK.” What happens
is that they listed one twice and forgot one. Then there is the
forgotten coast, which plagues Fleets in Portugal and the Mid Atlantic
Ocean as well as Constantinople . And finally, there is the morass of
supply centers in the Balkans, and around Italy and Austria , which seem
to torture even the most seasoned players. We cannot count the number of
times where VIE tried to support VIE – TRI, or RUM went to GRE with
BUL’s support, etc.
The Most Common Errors of New Players:
In Spring 01:
Don’t forget that fleets have to stop in their adjacent sea space
before getting to their intended destination: Fleet Brest to
Portugal is never going to work. Also, don’t forget to look at the small
spaces: Paris can’t get to Belgium , and Kiel can’t get to the North Sea
.
In Fall 01:
The worst, of course, is forgetting that a piece must stay in a
province in the Fall to get ownership. So often the French will
move Army Spain to Portugal and not put something else in Spain ,
thinking he has conquered both with one unit. Or the Germans will go
from Denmark to Skaggerak, forgetting that he never claimed Denmark in
the first place.
In General:
Remember, you cannot support a piece in place if that piece has
been ordered to move! And just as important, remember that to support a
unit’s move, you must write both a move order and a support order
containing the move you are supporting (i.e. PAR – BUR, MAR S PAR is no
good. You must write MAR S PAR – BUR). And remember: if a piece can’t
move to a space, it can’t support somebody there either! A VEN cannot
ever support F TRI – ADR, because A VEN can’t move to the ADR.
Also, the following three are LEGAL moves that new players often
fail to see:
Army Kiel to Livonia convoyed by Fleet Baltic
Army Spain to Tuscany convoyed by Fleet Gulf of Lyon
Army St. Pete to Norway
And don’t forget to build only in your own OPEN home centers,
rather than anywhere in your country or in any non-home center.
Regardless of the extent or type of error that is made, the most
important lesson for a tournament player is to shake it off, look
forward, and try your best to recover from your mistake. Remember that
almost no game of Diplomacy is won without some adversity, and the best
players always know how to conduct themselves when they experience a
setback.
Edi is basically a legend now in the Diplomacy hobby, and is still
willing to grace us with his presence here in Diplomacy World.
We should all be grateful.
As for Eric, he’s the other guy who wrote this article: the one
who isn’t Edi. That’s how
I’ve always known him, anyway.