A Weekly Threat Assessment of the Diplomacy Community
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Happy Birthday!
December 7th is the birthday of the late Allan Calhamer who invented the board game we all love. It's been six years since he passed but his legacy lives on in the many who experience the camaraderie of Diplomacy. Take some time to get to know this amazing man through articles in The Postal Record and Chicago Magazine.
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French Champion
The 35th Championnat de France was held this last weekend in Paris. There were 19 players, and Alexandre Godfroy is this year's French champion. Special thanks goes to Patrick Garnier for being the tournament director. To check out the complete standings, be sure to go to the World Diplomacy Database. To learn more and connect with the French diplomacy hobby go and visit their Facebook page.
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Infinity Stones of Manipulation
In comic book lore, the infinity stones represent ultimate power. If one person possesses them, then his every desire will be realized with a snap of his fingers. Does such a power exist in diplomacy? Learning how to weaponize other people’s emotions is a powerful tool that might even seem godlike to some. This is a series for people that want to win and be in control of the levers of power. Just as there are six infinity stone, there are six emotions we will look at in this series.
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An overarching theme of Sun Tzu’s Art of War is that anger and greed are the fundamental causes of defeat. When it comes to high level play, greed is one of the most powerful emotions in your arsenal of manipulation. Your best players are constantly looking for avenues of expansion.
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If you can show them a better path, they usually will agree even if it means betraying their ally. In fact, most alliance shifts can be boiled down to someone wanting to grow in a faster way than their current alliance. Be aware when a greedy players growth is slowing down. This is the likely time when a stab will come. To maintain an alliance you need to continue to offer better paths of expansion.
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Pay close attention when a greedy player asks for one of your centers. They often will ask in the spirit of wanting to keep the alliance balanced but know this…it is not a request. In a recent tournament game, I (France) was allied with Germany. He began requesting Belguim, but I explained there were better opportunities.
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He agreed, but then I heard he was planning to take Belguim with England’s help. With only a short time before the deadline, I told him he could have Belguim if he promised to attack Russia and support me to the North Sea. This was the defining move of the game, and I eventually soloed and secured my place on the final board.
This illustrated another great strategy: hold off offering a center until shortly before the deadline. If you have determined that this person is motivated by greed, he’ll often jump at the opportunity and not realize that his backstab is really only a short term gain.
Understanding greed should help you anticipate moves. Greedy players will always make the move that locks in quick gains. Learning how to manipulate the greed of other players will lift your game to another level. Master its use.
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Here's what's happening locally in:
January
February
March
- 🆕 21st-22nd - Melbourne Open (Australia) - Email
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Here's what's happening online in:
December
February
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Reach out it you have an idea or announcement you'd like featured
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