Dip 1003 Escalation

Dip 1003 Escalation

Click on the hyperlinked names for the EOG

Players

	Name	Nation	Duration
GM:	Stephen Worthy		Winter 1900-end
Players:	Jamie Shutzer	Pink	Winter 1900-end
	Baltasar Cruz	Yellow	Winter 1900-end
	Dan Mekheri	Blue	Winter 1900-end
	Wilbert Agnew	Green	Winter 1900-end
	Gary Emery	Grey	Winter 1900-Fall 1905
	Will Nicholas Erik Skoglund	Purple	Winter 1900-Spring 1904 Fall 1905-Fall 1905

Supply Centres

Year	00	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08
Pink	4	6	8	9	13	15	16	17	20
Green	4	4	4	2	2	2	2	2	2
Yellow	3	6	7	8	9	10	12	11	11
Blue	2	5	7	7	7	7	4	4	1
Grey	2	3	2	2	1	0	0	0	0
Purple	3	5	5	6	2	0	0	0	0

History

Escalation Phase
1901
1902
1903
1904
1905
1906
1907
1908

My EOG

My oft-stated rationale for running games is because I love getting the chance to observe clever and interesting variants (hopefully played by clever and interesting people!). Escalation appealed to me for its flexibility both in player numbers and strategy required. It didn’t disappoint me, and I get the feeling that this game would be even better played face to face.

What is clear that clever initial placement is a huge factor in winning the game. Placing more than one unit outside a supply centre seems to be a major disadvantage (not least for logistical reasons – a player with 4 centres from the escalation phase can have 8 units in Winter 1901; a player with 2 centres from the escalation phase can have only 6). Similarly Green’s experiment with splitting his forces suggests that such a strategy is hard to maintain. Selection of home centres is important, with even Pink suffering from inability to build to his potential for some of the game. Finally it’s important to carve out your own space. Grey suffered because he failed to stake a viable territory, while Blue, Pink and Purple all had centre-rich areas to help them get started.

Congratulations to Jamie on his victory – first the long-running battle against Purple then a swift steamroller over a demoralised opposition. The solo reflected his clear understanding of the variant and the strategies that would succeed in it. Thanks to everyone else for taking part: there was some good skill shown by all. Thoughts on the game and variant are welcome, as are suggestions for the next couple of variants I choose to run.

Dan’s EOG

This variant is highly flexible and very good. I would play again (but not right now). The escalation phase in gunboat adds a nice flavour where otherwise your first moves are essentially blind. Of course, gunboat slows the escalation down. (My excuse for playing gunboat is time limitation.)

Memory fades somewhat as to the early game. As I remember, in the placement I was going for Germany/Russia, I wanted to straddle that stalemate line. I did place Munich, but Green beat me to Moscow. So I settled for basically Germany. After placement, I got into conflict with Yellow from the start, and it never stopped. After beating up on Green I made some moves southwards, but I just got stabbed. (On one turn, I really wasn't paying attention).

Well played Jamie!

Baltasar’s EOG

I enjoyed the game and how it moved along. This was a fun game of strategy. It may be better wih less players, as the outcome was significantly affected by some players' placement strategy -- but that's the purpose, of course, and may also be attributed to inexperience with this variant. Was anybody a first time Diplomacy player altogether? Congratulations to Pink for playing well and taking advantage of a powerful starting position, nevertheless, and to the GM for running the game smoothly from beginning to end. I was also pleased to see that everybody seemed very responsible about getting their orders in on time throughout the game.

Jamie’s EOG

Thanks to everyone for playing another worthy special. I thought this game was best in the escalation round and early years. It disintegrated a bit in the end with yellow and blue unable to work together to prevent me from victory. Another somewhat related advantage I held by the endgame was the mass of yellow fleets bottled up in the North Sea; despite my frequent inability to build in open centers, the opposition was also handicapped by the limited number of units that could actually contest my advance.

In the escalation phase i was surprised by all of the builds in non-centers. Only North Sea seems like a viable non-center build. Norway proved to be a great home center for yellow with flexibility to put armies into russia or fleets into the north sea. Venice didn't really offer the same flexibility for me but I had hoped to control both italy and austria by making it my first center. With only 6 players I felt blue and grey would look to germany and russia, leaving me with a large but vulnerable central power. I was disappointed and confused then by the fleet ionian build which seemed to make the med a little too crowded. in the end though, it led to green taking a risk on his split strategy. Grey also split up by making a bid for the western med where green had left himself weak. This allowed me to keep italy in my back pocket while I focused on Austria and the Balkans.

In the game itself I enjoyed the tactical battle with purple who probably provided the greatest challenge to my solo. Purple's only mistake may have been placing the unit in the Aegean. Good game all around. I'm looking forward to the next one.

Rules

ESCALATION DIPLOMACY

by Edi Birsan

Diplomacy is a time proven classic 7 player game with a fine play balance between all the countries. However, at times players can not assemble 7 players or there are 8 or more players. Escalation is the system that provides a solution and a unique game experience each time played.

The basics:

Start with a map and no pieces on it.
Decide who goes in what order during the 'Escalation Placement' phase of the game.
Decide on the number of pieces players will place during the Escalation.
One by one, each player places one piece on the map, this is the Escalation as players react to each other's prior single piece placement.
The piece may be an Army or a Fleet and it may be on a Supply Center, a non Supply Center province or a Sea Zone with the classical rules of only one piece per space.
Each player starts owning any Supply Center they start a piece in.
Continue until the agreed number of pieces are placed.
Play the Spring 1901 and the Fall 1901 seasons like a normal game.
At the Winter 1901 resolution each player writes down his three 'home' supply centers and may build there if appropriate starting in Winter 1901 and for the rest of the game.
Players are not limited to declaring traditional home centers, nor do they have to be adjacent. For example a player may declare that Brest, London and Naples are his three home centers if he owns those centers in the Winter of 1901.

Suggested starting number of pieces:

2 players: 12
3 players: 8
4 players: 6
5 players: 5
6 players: 4
7 or more players: 3

Discussions can be limited to table side only (all discussions open to all), none (Gunboat, see variant) or traditional secret/private talks. Generally it is recommended that for 4 players or less that there be no discussions other than at the table.

As a teaching device for two players, increase the number of starting pieces to 17 to give players a more intense Escalation Phase of the variant and to teach planning ahead.