Diplomacy orders and adjudication

Diplomacy

Seven powers begin in Europe in Spring 1901. There are no dice: the uncertainty comes from the promises everyone makes and the orders they write in secret. Control eighteen supply centres at the end of a Fall turn to win alone.

The rhythm of a year

Spring and Fall each have a movement phase. If a unit is dislodged, a retreat phase follows. After Fall retreats, a winter adjustment adds or removes units to match each power's supply-centre count. Everyone's orders for a phase resolve together from the same starting position. You can talk freely before the deadline, but a promise never replaces a submitted order.

Units and provinces

An army moves between neighbouring land provinces. A fleet moves between neighbouring sea spaces and coastal provinces. Each province holds at most one unit. A fleet on a province with two coasts uses its stated coast; it cannot jump between coasts. A unit can hold or try to move to an adjacent space. A move into an occupied space may succeed if the occupant leaves, or if the attacker has enough valid support to dislodge it.

Support, convoys and standoffs

A unit may support another unit's hold or move when it could itself move to the destination. Each valid support adds one to that action's strength. Support is normally cut when the supporter is attacked from another province, even if the attack fails; an attack from the province being attacked by the supported move does not cut that support. Your own units cannot dislodge one another. Equal-strength attacks that cannot both succeed produce a standoff.

An army can cross water by convoy when a continuous chain of fleets in sea spaces carries it from its starting coast to its destination coast. The fleets order the convoy and the army orders the move. If the chain breaks, the crossing fails. An army cannot convoy itself, and fleets do not convoy other fleets.

Retreats and winter adjustments

A dislodged unit may retreat to an adjacent empty province that was not the attacker's origin and was not a standoff location that turn. Conflicting retreats fail; a unit with no legal retreat is disbanded. Supply-centre ownership changes only after Fall movement. If you control more centres than units, you may build in vacant eligible home centres, or waive a build. If you have fewer centres, you must remove units. The table shows the orders and new map after each resolution.

Most tables use seven players. If a table starts with fewer, check its seat and power arrangement before joining.