I found a decent condition copy of this book for well under its typical astronomical price on Alibris and bought it! (I know it's verbatim on a diplomacy website but that's kind of annoying to read the thing like that....plus its a collector's item.)

Anyone read it online yet?

It's been around a long time, of course. And I read it several years ago, as I'm sure most long-time Dippers have. Let us know how you like it. It is a good learning resource.

I haven't got too deep into it but I read the bit about France eagerly supporting Germany, even though he was a cutthroat Machiavellian player in any other game, because Germany knew that France was sleeping with Austria's wife, or something like that. Funny.

I read it online years ago. It's very entertaining and a really good intro to the bare basics of the game, although some of his ideas don't really work that well these days. Definitely a good read though, he was a funny guy.

The entire thing can be read here:

http://www.diplomacy-archive.com/god.htm

Yeah I know. But I can't read whole books like that, so it was more logical to get a hard copy even if it was a little pricey.

JimHackerMP wrote:Yeah I know. But I can't read whole books like that, so it was more logical to get a hard copy even if it was a little pricey.

In almost every situation a physical book is better.

Amen.

I've got one on my shelf. Good read.

You can teach this old dog new tricks. I really like my Kindle for nighttime reading in bed. Less cumbersome than a physical book and does not require a book light. I have the Paperwhite - real easy on the eyes. I don't like reading books on any other type of screen, though.

Me too. But lately I've found it easier to read real books.

Anywho...why (sass.) don't some of his ideas work today?

It's been a long time since I read it so that's a difficult question to answer. I just seem to remember that when you get into his country-by-country sections he seems to be very prescriptive about what can and can't be done to an extent that didn't really chime with my own experiences of playing the game. It was written way before email was a thing when there was a tiny number of postal games mostly involving the same small group of players. When you read his section on Turkey you see that he just hates playing that nation, obviously hasn't had a lot of luck playing it and describes it as a virtually impossible position. This doesn't chime with many games that I've been involved in. I suspect that his sample size was pretty small.

Interesting. I guess everyone has their own stories.

I also acquired, some time ago, both editions of the Diplomacy gamer's guide, by Avalon Hill. I have not delved too deeply into any of it, but hopefully it'll come in handy.

Why, what do you think of Turkey?

JimHackerMP wrote:Interesting. I guess everyone has their own stories.

I also acquired, some time ago, both editions of the Diplomacy gamer's guide, by Avalon Hill. I have not delved too deeply into any of it, but hopefully it'll come in handy.

Why, what do you think of Turkey?

Turkey can be a fun position to play, but a real quagmire if you cannot get either Austria or Russia on your side. If they are both against you, it will suck. Turkey can be a good defensive position, but what fun is that? But if you can get England on your side against Russia, flowers will start smelling sweet once again. Italy is normally considered a mortal enemy to Turkey (and vice-versa). But I've played in games where a strong Turkish-Italian alliance held together and made good progress. In fact, one of those games was the one you were in with me, where I was Italy and Geezer Guy was Turkey. That was a weird game.

Anyway, it all depends upon the players in the end. And that's the way it boils down to with any country: who is playing the country and what kind of player are they? A non-communicative player will make virtually any alliance worthless. So, while there are geographic reasons for aligning with one country over the other, in the end, you have to play the players.

Yeah I figured you were in cahoots with him the whole time :P

JimHackerMP wrote:Yeah I figured you were in cahoots with him the whole time :P

Actually, I wasn't allied with him the whole time. It was a lengthy process of persuasion to finally get him to turn on Russia and stop annihilating Austria (you). I first had to persuade him to stop helping Russia take you out. And frankly, I could never be completely sure of Guy's real intentions. But who can in this game?

good point

And also there was my own indecisiveness. I was not sure which of the two of you to throw in with at first...for a while in fact.