Diplomacy - Weltmeisterschaft

Jack hat vom 07. - 09. Juli an der Diplomacy - Weltmeisterschaft 2017 in Oxford teilgenommen. Hier sein Abschlussbericht:

I agree with the others that the event was perfectly organized by Dan Lester and his Crew. The setting at the St John's College was stunning, as is Oxford a great city, too, full of marvelous architecture, young people, music, lively nightlife. Especially the Americans were impressed by the amount of historic buildings.

Inside the college the atmosphere was very relaxed. I met many interesting diplomacy players, all of which very kind. And it was cool to get to know the faces behind the usernames as well as those behind the authors names of many strategy articles I had read during the years. In fact I have never seen so many diplomacy players at one place together. They came from the UK, Germany, France, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Russia, USA, Canada, Taiwan, Israel, Iran (I think), Down Under, and I'm sure there were more countries even. From the moment of arrival till my depart from Oxford I had a really great time. This included not only the games, but also the side program.

As for the games it is clear, like everywhere, that practice and experience are the most important factors for success, and with practice I mean FtF games. Playing twice a year FtF is simply not enough to keep pace with the top players. No matter your online experience, because there is a big difference between online vs FtF, I am going to explain below.

Accordingly, my performance was not good enough. My first game as Russia was terminated very early as I tried something risky, believing England against Germany and Turkey against Austria, but was stabbed consequently. In the second game, as England, I did better, found a good ally in Germany (Laurent Joly), was for a long time on top of the board with 8 centers, after stabbing France and taking StP, but finally Turkey (Alex Lebedev) stabbed on Austria (Tom Haver?) and Russia (Don del Grande) which brought him 4 centers in addition to his 5 and he ended top with 9, while Germany and I had each 7 as a shared second place. My third game as Italy ended with 2 centers (Tunis and Naples), after a turbulent game, with many changing alliances, thanks of Turkey (played by Moritz Am Ende, a German guy from the Ludomaniac scene) who had not the courage to stab Russia while it was time, then stabbed me, then re-allied with me against France (Rob Kinsey), who himself stabbed everyone including me 😀 (after I saved him against Tanja Gill as England) and finished with 5 centers despite upsetting everyone on the board. At the end it was again a stab in 1908 by Russia (Nicholas Sahuguet) against Turkey which brought the decision. Anyway, a great game. Sunday, the team game, I hoped to correct my poor first game (as the better three of the four games were counted), but of no avail, as Austria I was just meat for the three surrounding countries and I was not able to find an ally and was dead in 1903. So nothing won and nothing lost with that game. At the end I had to be content with my rank in the lower third of the tableau. Could have been worse 😀

Well, what are the differences to the games at Playdip?

The pace. 15 minutes per turn (including retreats and builds) is very fast, you have no time to reflect or correct your faults. Once you have to leave your initial strategy, you might hang a bit in the empty space and maybe rely on luck. Here is where experience come into play, in the sense that you might feel the right way, instead of trying it with rationality.

The rules. The games last till fall 1910, and the result is always a center count. This leads to a different game. Almost inevitably, there is a major stab in 1908/early 1909, and your game consists of just preparing this stab, or trying to prevent it, but often you cannot do anything because the stab happens on the other side of the board where your influence is limited. The player who successfully stabbed himself to the board's top normally proposes a "draw" directly following his coup. But in fact it is not a draw, as the center count still effects. In reality the poll is only about to stop the game before 1910, if all agree by a secret ballot.

So these are huge differences to the real standard Diplomacy. A solo is extremely rare, draws are not possible, and centers are counted (which is not part of the original diplomacy game at all, except for the magic 18 of course). Long time alliances are rare, kingmaking is not existent, stalemate lines are not important. I would go so far to say that this is not the classic Diplomacy, but just a variant, like many other variants. Therefore it's wrong to name it "Diplomacy World Championship", it's only a championship of this variant.

But it was great fun anyway. 😀

A word about metagaming. Metagaming is not an issue there, it simply plays no role. They don't care about metagaming, I have even repeatedly heard things in the sense like: "I have got a good board, my friend XY plays, too, he will be my ally..". This wasn't looked to be cheated. One could say that here they are closer to Calhamer's Diplomacy than we are at Playdiplomacy, as the game has been designed as a family board game, and naturally you know the family members respectively your friends very well, and you have your sympathies. We should not forget that anonymous games and no-grudge-policy are relatively young elements in the history of Diplomacy, and have in no way been part of the original game.

Anyway. My conclusion after Oxford is that I want to play more FtF again, after years of neglecting this way of playing the game. Be it in tournaments or just playing for fun doesn't matter. Even one could consider to organize "real" Diplomacy World Championships, not only of a variant. Possibly this would need an event longer than 3 days, though 3 games could maybe do the job, if well organized and with an appropriate ranking system. I think one full game per day is possible. Or why not extend the championships to one week? I would be willing to engage in organizing such if others feel similar about this subject.

Finally, I want to say thank you to all who have helped this event to become unforgettable, and this includes probably everyone there, be it players, organizers, playdippers, Spark junkies, allies and stabbers, and also the lady from the breakfast table at the Mansfield College who will probably never read this posting.