Diplomacy Briefing - The Powa of Diplomacy

A Weekly Threat Assessment of the Diplomacy Community

Virtual Diplomacy League 2022

Here we go again! The new season of the VDL starts this weekend on 12th March, with rounds at 3am, 10am and 5pm (EST) to suit players from all timezones. The games last 5-7 hours with 15 minute turns and negotiations conducted over Discord voice chat.

With live streamed DBN coverage & commentary on every game, and an invitation to "Diplomacy's Big Dance" - the DBNI - for the very best players, this is a great way for new and veteran players alike to prove their virtual Face-to-Face mettle. Head over to the vWDC Discord channel to sign up.

Diplomacy Games #104

The long-awaited next episode is here! Catch up with the guys as they discuss what they've been up to since we last heard from them. They talk flooding, PoppyCon, Ukraine, a return to the What the Doctor Recommended feature, and plenty more Diplomacy chat. Get comfy and listen to Episode #104 "the Calm Before the Storm".

Rising Phoenix Game Con 2022 will be held from 21st-24th April at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, Milford, MA, USA. Contact the organisers for more information.

We are sad to pass on the news of the death of Powa, the two time Nexus Champion, on 28th February 2022. Pablo, who was known online as Powa, was a huge personality and a pillar of the Nexus community. For anyone who would like to pay their respects, please see the Tribute page on Nexus.

In honour of the great player, we are reprinting his Nexus Season 3 Champion's Corner.

I was assigned Turkey, and my biggest stab of the game came in Spring 1909 just two years before the cut-off. What made this stab possible all began in Fall 1907 and ultimately came about because of Russia’s failure to stab properly.

Russia had been my ally since 1901 and had several opportunities to stab and cripple me. This was one of them. Instead of crippling me or even just continuing the alliance, she stole one single center and didn’t even shore up her positional advantage. Rule #1: Never stab to scratch. Only stab if you're going to do some serious and sustainable damage. She apologized right away but now my guard was up.

This “stab” caused me to pull my armies back. I couldn’t just ignore what she had done when she stole my center. People will often lie after they have stabbed hoping to make their attacks more effective so I had every reason to pull some of my armies back. I had not previously intended to do any of that as I was committed to moving westward until Budapest happened. After that, our trust was broken. A great opportunity though showed up for me right then. I was now setup for my own stab.

Now I had some real tactical goals for this stab. My main objective was burning the Naples fleet (which I miserably failed to). France surprised me with his Tun-Ion move. I'm guessing he did predict my stab because I don't see any other reason for him to order that move. The bounce in the Black Sea was arranged so I knew that the Rumania attack would succeed. In the process of setting up my war position, I also conquered Trieste.

But what made this stab really worth it is that I was able to bring four of my armies into Austria/Balkans against Russia's two. Twice the power and even better positioning. I had secured Rumania and Trieste and had good chances of getting two more centers out of Vienna, Budapest, and/or Sevastopol if I made the right guess.

This was a really devastating attack both SC-count-wise and positional-wise given that I had four armies against her two and that I was also going to be able to burn Naples.

And to make it even better, my two enemies (France and Russia) were inevitably having trouble on their other flank because England was not going to be using his warships to go fishing cod. England had already betrayed them all more than once earlier in this game so they couldn’t turn their back to him.

My victory was assured, and I encourage you my friend to always remember Rule #1: Never stab to scratch. Only stab if you're going to do some serious and sustainable damage.