Types of Provinces: There are three types of provinces, Inland, Water and Coastal. Only Armies move on inland provinces and only Fleets move on water provinces. A coastal province is land that is adjacent to one or more water provinces. For example, Denmark, Brest, and Spain are coastal provinces. An Army or a Fleet can occupy a coastal province.
Supply Centers: 34 inland and coastal provinces on the map are designated as supply centers. Each supply center is marked with a red dot. A Great Power has as many Armies or Fleets as the number of supply centers it controlled at the end of the last fall turn. A country gains or loses units in accordance with the number of supply centers it controls.
Each Army unit is represented by a cannon or A. Each Fleet unit is represented by a ship or a F. All units have the same strength. No one Army is more powerful than another. No single Fleet is stronger than another. During the game, various units will support each other to increase their strength and attack weaker adversaries. There can only be one unit in a province at a time. No exceptions.
At the beginning of each turn, players meet together one-to-one or in small groups to discuss their plans and suggest strategies. Alliances between players are openly or secretly made, and orders are (hopefully) coordinated. Immediately following this period of “diplomacy,” each player secretly submits an order for each of his/her units. When all players have written their order, the orders are simultaneously revealed, and then the orders are all resolved. Some units are moved, some have to retreat, and some are removed. Resolving orders is the most challenging part of the rules, requiring complete knowledge of the rules.
Each turn represents six months of time. The first turn is called a Spring Turn, and the next a Fall Turn. After each Fall Turn, each Great power must reconcile the number of units it controls with the number of supply centers it controls. At this time some units are removed and new ones are built.
Each turn has a series of phases. Here are the phases in a complete two-turn year:
Spring four-phase turn:
Diplomatic Phase
Order Writing Phase
Order Resolution Phase
Retreat and Disbanding Phase
Fall five-phase turn:
Diplomatic Phase
Order Writing Phase
Order Resolution Phase
Retreat and Disbanding Phase
Gaining and Losing Units Phase
Diplomatic Phase:
During this phase, players meet to discuss their plans for upcoming turns. Alliances are made and strategies are set. These “diplomatic negotiations” take place before each turn. Negotiations last four days (96 hours) before the first turn, and two days before each turn thereafter. Negotiations may end sooner if all players agree.
The times may be adjusted if all players agree.
Order Writing Phase:
Each player sends a PM to the GM (me, probably) containing “orders” for each of his/her units. A legal order must be followed. An order written by mistake, if legal, must be judged to be unsuccessful is not followed. A unit that is given an illegal order (or given no order) must stand in place. (The unit holds.) A poorly written order that has only one meaning must be followed. This phase lasts for 24 hours, or until all orders are in. No diplomacy may be conducted during this phase.
Orders alternate between Spring and Fall beginning with the year 1901. For example, the first set of turn orders are considered to be “Spring 1901.” The second set are considered to be “Fall 1901.” The third set are considered to be “Spring 1902” and so on.
Order Format:
Players should make a list of their untis and the provinces they occupy for easy reference during diplomatic conferences. In each set of orders, the type of unit is written first (“A” or “F”) followed by the province that each unit occupies. For example, “A Paris” or “A Par” is short for an Army in Paris. This is followed by the order that the unit is given. For example, “A Par Holds” means that the Army in Paris should hold, or stay in place. The designation of “A” or “F” in orders is to remind players of their pieces. If you leave out the unit designation in an order, the order does not fail, since there can be only one possible unit in a province.
Abbreviations:
There are a number of acceptable abbreviations in the back of the PDF. Use them, or write it out.
Types of Orders:
Hold: You can attempt to keep a unit in place by ordering it to “hold.” Not giving a unit an order is interpreted as ordering it to hold. Not submitted an order is interpreted as ordering all units to hold. Example: F London Holds (or) F Lon-Holds.
Move: An Army can be ordered to move into an adjacent inland or coastal province. Armies can’t be ordered to move into a water province, ya dingus, but they can move across a water province with the help of one or more fleets. See Convoy for more.
A Fleet can be ordered to move to an adjacent water province or coastal province. Fleets cannot be ordered to move to an inland province.
Switzerland is impassable, and cannot be occupied. With the exception of England, islands cannot be occupied.
If two units of equal strength try to occupy the same province cause all those units to remain in their original provinces. (This is true of equally supported units.) If two units attack into the same province, a unit already in that province is not dislodged. If a unit is occupying a province and does not move, a different unit cannot enter that space. Units cannot trade places without the use of a Convoy. More on that later. Three or more units can rotate provinces during a turn provided none directly trade places.
A move order is written with a dash to separate the unit type and location from the order. Example: A Paris-Burgundy (or) A Par-Bur.
Support: Supporting is a very complicated mechanic. Consult the rules for more information. Since all units have equal strength, one unit cannot attack and advance against another without help. That help is called support. If an attack is successful, the attacking unit moves into the province to which it was ordered. If the unit that was attacked had no orders of its own to move elsewhere, it is defeated and dislodged from the province. The dislodged unit must retreat or be disbanded. Retreats are explained later. An Army or Fleet can provide support to another Army or Fleet, either supporting an attacking move order, or supporting a hold, support or convoy order. A supported unit has increased strength, equal to its strength plus the number of units supporting it. A unit not ordered to move can be supported by a support order that only mentions its province. A unit ordered to move can only be supported by a support order that matches the move the unit is trying to make.
A support order is written in the following form: Army Type (A or F), the province the army is located in, Support (S), then the type, current location and destination of the unit receiving support. For example: “A Par S A Mar-Bur” orders an Army in Paris to support an Army in Marseilles moving into Burgundy.
Convoy: A Fleet in a water province (not a coastal province) can convoy an Army from any coastal province adjacent to that water province. To do this, the Army must be ordered to move to the intended province and the fleet must be ordered to convoy it. A Fleet cannot convoy a Fleet. For example, A Ank-Sev, F Bla C A Ank-Sev.
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Topic: Diplomacy: Austrian Victory in Fall 1908! (Read 15650 times)