Rules

[Scott of Hyperborea]

The rules of Micronational Diplomacy are pretty much the same as the rules for normal Diplomacy. If you have played normal Diplomacy, skip the Diplomacy Rules section and scroll down to Special Rules.Diplomacy RulesThe object of Diplomacy is to lead a country to become master of most of the world. You do this by building armies, conquering territory, and working together with other players.The world is divided into provinces, which should be obvious on the board above. Some of them are land provinces, some of them are sea provinces, and some of them are island (shallow sea) provinces. Some of these provinces (as a rule, only lands or islands) contain supply centers, represented as little white circles.For each province containing a supply center that you control, you may build and maintain one military unit. There are two kinds of units: an army and a navy. Armies may travel only from one land or island square to a contiguous land or island square. Navies may travel only from one sea, island, or coastal square to another sea, island, or coastal square. A coastal square is a land square that borders on a sea or island square.You want to use your units to take over as many supply centers as possible; whoever is the first person to take over a certain high number of supply centers wins the game. You also want to make sure to defend your own supply centers. Because each supply center you control allows you to build one more unit, by expanding your empire you increase the potential size of your armies.Only one unit can occupy a province at one time. If a unit tries to move into a province occupied by a friendly unit, it "bounces back" - ie, it returns to the province from which it came. If a unit tries to move into a province occupied by an enemy unit, it attacks. If the defender wins the battle, the attacker is bounced back to the province from which it came. If the attacker wins the battle, the attacker occupies the province it attacked, and the defender "retreats" to an any unoccupied square nearby. If the attacker wins and the defender is unable to retreat, the defender is destroyed. If the battle is a tie, the defender is considered to have won.If two opposing units both try to occupy an empty square on the same turn, both are bounced back. There are a lot of other similar rules that I will mention on a case-by-case basis.Who wins a battle is determined by who has more support. A supporting unit is a unit contiguous to the province being attacked that its commander orders to support their forces. Supporting units do not have to be of the same nationality as the unit they are supporting: you can, and should, support your allies.To give an example: Babkha has one army on Terre d' Riches. Antica attacks with one army from Nafticon. The battle is a tie, so the Babkhan unit remains in TDR and the Antican unit returns to Nafticon. The next turn, the Anticans attack with the army from Nafticon, and support it with a fleet from the Dyre Straits. Now they have effective power two, and win the battle. The army moves from Nafticon to TDR, and the Babkhan unit is dislodged. It could choose to retreat to, for example, the Raynor Territory.A unit can support any square to which it could possibly move the next turn. Thus, armies cannot support sea squares, and navies cannot support inland squares.So much for combat. Although battles are important, the name of the game (literally) is diplomacy. Before each turn, players are encouraged to talk to one another and try and work out cooperative strategies. Again, an example may be helpful.Antica wants to attack Terre d'Riches from Nafticon again, but they realize that this would leave Nafticon open to a Stormarkian invasion. Meanwhile, Stormark wants to attack the Rijksmark in Karnali, but this would leave them open to an Antican invasion from Nafticon. The solution is for Antica and Stormark to work out a peace treaty in which they pledge not to attack each other: now that their mutual frontier is free, they have more troops to commit to battles elsewhere. Of course, there is nothing forcing either side to keep the treaty once they've made it. Antica could make the treaty with Stormark, wait for Stormark to spread its troops thin attacking Karnali, and then launch a surprise attack on them. Their two incentives not to do this are first that it commits them to a war with Stormark and thus ties up some of their troops there, and second that the Stormarkian player, and probably the other players as well, will not trust them for the rest of the game.Another advantage of diplomacy is coordinating attacks. Stormark might make a deal with the Atteran player to both attack Karnali at the same time; this way, Karnali is fighting a war on two fronts and is much more likely to fail. The Stormark-Atteran alliance might even contain provisions for who gets which territory after Karnali is defeated. Again, it's perfectly permissible to betray such an alliance: Karnali might convince Stormark that it's in his best interests to turn on Attera.Diplomatic agreements are secret, but it is permissible to use any form of espionage you can think up to learn them (a big part of the Diplomacy game is cheating, which is both allowed and encouraged).Games go in "years" with three phases. In Spring phase, you move all of your units once. In Fall phase, you move all of your units again. In Winter phase, you build or disband units based on how many supply centers you have. Thus, if you have four armies and four supply centers, and you capture a fifth supply center in Fall, then you can build a new unit in Winter. You can only build new units in one of your home supply centers - ie one of the supply centers with which you started the game. You cannot build a new unit in a supply center if that supply center is already occupied. Keep in mind that this means it doesn't much matter who owns supply centers after Spring, only after Fall. If you want to launch a sneak attack, Fall would be the time to do it.A more technical exposition of all of the rules can be found hereSpecial RulesThe main difference between the normal Diplomacy game and this micronational variant is the existence of island (shallow sea) provinces, a necessary change due to all the islands on the MCS Map. Island provinces count as both sea and land squares. Armies may move from a land square to an island square or vice versa, or from one island square to another. However, navies can also move through them, even if they are not "coastal". For example, a navy can move from Baracao to Nafticon. Land provinces bordering an island count as coastal - thus, a navy could attack Aquilaria. Armies and navies on island province block one another - thus, you cannot move an army into an island province if it is already occupied by a navy.I'm going to try for one year a week or so, with the following schedule:Game starts Sunday.Everyone should have their spring movement orders in by Tuesday night.I announce spring results Wednesday.Everyone should have their fall movement orders in by Friday night.I announce fall results Saturday.Everyone should have their winter build orders in by Sunday afternoon or so.I announce winter build results Sunday night.The game will go about till New Years', at which point we'll see who's winning.All orders will be emailed to me at scott.siskind[at]gmail[dot]com. We don't quite have fancy abbreviations for the territories on here, and I don't really know the notation, so feel free to send stuff in a more natural format. For example:"The fleet in Great Eastern Ocean NW moves to Great Eastern Ocean SW""The army in Istvanistan attacks Micronia.""The army in Aerlig supports the army in Istvanistan's attack on Micronia""I build a fleet in Aerlig".If anyone misses a turn (ie doesn't send in any orders) then all of their units are ordered to support anyone they supported last turn but otherwise don't move. If you miss a winter build phase, you don't build. If you know you're going to be gone, designate a proxy. If *I* miss a turn, then you're just out of luck.If you don't mention a unit in your orders, I assume that unit does nothing. If you give a unit an impossible order, that unit does nothing. If you want to make sure you're doing it right, ask me, or, even better, ask Steven or Foghorn from Antica.You can conduct all of your diplomacy via AIM, email, or whatever else you want to use.I want all players on the player list in this forum to post here that they understand these rules and are willing to give it a shot. You say you're in and then bail out a few turns into the game, I kill you and use your remains to fertilize Malarbor. Edited by: Scott of Hyperborea  at: 10/26/05 21:07

[King of Gotzborg]

I, AC of Gotzborg understand these rules and am willing to give it a shot, lest I fertilize some darned tree with a nasty bark.August Charles

[osmose1000]

I'm willing and understand. They call it a signature, but no one ever signs their posts...

[Emir of Raspur]

I read it and I am prepared for unholy slaughter. “Religion is what the common people see as true, the wise people see as false, and the rulers see as useful.”-Seneca

[Nathan of Natopia]

I dont want to be fertilizer...I agree to the rules. His Sovereign Majesty, NathanSoivereign Natopian EmperorNatopiaForumsJoin the Renaissance! Empire Library

[Bill3000]

I agree, but I want to be turned into Malarbor's fertilizer anyway. Bill Dusch - Archon of SoloralismCitizen of ShirerothBaron of AntyaProud to be Apollonianvar txtList = new Array()txtList[txtList.length]="'Whoa! You're in...college now? You got...older! I guess that's what happens when time passes, but still...' - Scott Siskind";txtList[txtList.length]="'The Hindenburg Uncertainty Principle, by contrast states that before you get on a blimp, you can never be certain whether it's going to catch on fire or not' - Scott Siskind";txtList[txtList.length]="'We.....are.....not....FANTASY!>?!POE' - Scott Siskind, on hearing Bill Dusch say that Shireroth's theme is percieved to be Fiction-Fantasy based";txtList[txtList.length]="'me to. well almost, we have to worship the living god, Bill3000.' - Hubert";txtList[txtList.length]="'Y'know what? I am never going to get out of micronations. I think I need to be assassinated or something.' - Jason Steffke";txtList[txtList.length]="'Bill, you are STILL young and stupid.' - Jason Steffke, Control of Destiny 1";txtList[txtList.length]="'I think we've gotta promote you. You now have slightly more diplomatic skills than a random rock.' - Sirithil nos Feanor, to Bill Dusch";txtList[txtList.length]="'Wow. I'm this close to admitting you're no longer young and stupid.' - Scott Siskind, to Bill";txtList[txtList.length]="'ow! I've been thrwappen! Now I have a sudden urge to enter politics...' - Gryphon the Pure, after being hit by a shard of Pure Mischief";txtList[txtList.length]="'I could probably date Hypatia's Mom. Now THAT'S scary.' - Ryan Caruso"; j=parseInt(Math.random()*txtList.length);j=(isNaN(j))?0:j;document.write(txtList[j]);

[stevenAntica]

I have read these rules and agree to them.What shore will know not our revolutionary blood?

[Kaiser Yarad I]

Yo.Karnali's fine for me, I'm good to go.

[extreme007]

I'll beat you up Kaiser if you lose.... see you have everything going for you... even the first two letter in your "Kaiser[/b]" is similar to Karnali. Discover, Invent, Theories, Experiment,Advance Science,Advance Extremism,(in Karnali, Republic of)

[graius]

I've read and understand the rules.

[Harvey the Blue]

1) Can you support people on defense too? If you think an enemy is going to attack one of your units or an ally, can on of the orders be "I support my ally in [some place] if he gets attacked?" Does this count as the units action, or can they try to move and/or attack on the same turn too?2) Can you move/attack and support an ally in the same turn? Can an order be like "The army in [blahblah] moves to [whatever] and suports my ally in [overthere] when they attack [that place]"?3) If you try to support an ally's attack but that ally does not attack (be in a last minute change of mind or some sort of tretchery) does anything happen? Does your unit automatically attack or does it just sit ther? Harvey SteffkeSai'Kar's Memories LiveJournal - ranting about Shirerothian issues since fall 2004.

[Johanns V]

Read and understood. Waz ist wunders hie geschehenDaz ein Magt ein Kint gebarHêre übr aller Engel ScharWas daz niht ein Wunder gar?-Walther von der Vogelweide

[Scott of Hyperborea]

1) Can you support people on defense too? If you think an enemy is going to attack one of your units or an ally, can on of the orders be "I support my ally in [some place] if he gets attacked?" Does this count as the units action, or can they try to move and/or attack on the same turn too?Yes; supporting on defense is very important to prevent the attacker from always winning if he has enough support, and is one of the most common things you'll want to do with your units. What you do is send in your orders for the unit saying something like "Army in Brookshire supports Shirekeep". This is the army in Brookshire's only move for the turn. If no one attacks Shirekeep, you've wasted your unit's time. You've got to be smart and predict when and where your opponent will attack.2) Can you move/attack and support an ally in the same turn? Can an order be like "The army in [blahblah] moves to [whatever] and suports my ally in [overthere] when they attack [that place]"?No. Just plain no.3) If you try to support an ally's attack but that ally does not attack (be in a last minute change of mind or some sort of tretchery) does anything happen? Does your unit automatically attack or does it just sit ther?Nothing happens; it just sits there.One more thing I forgot to mention. A naval unit can convoy a land unit across the square where it is, which counts as its action for the turn. If Stormark has an army in Jorvik and a navy in the Strait of Pearls, they can have the navy's move be "Convoy army to Kanishka", and the army's move "move to Kanishka". This uses both the navy and the army's move that turn.

[stevenAntica]

one more thing...can an allied army move through a territory without taking it?

[Scott of Hyperborea]

Umm...you're the one who knows the real rules to this game...you tell me.

[osmose1000]

I vote yes. Why shouldn't they? They call it a signature, but no one ever signs their posts...

[stevenAntica]

If they specify that they are not moving the territory in order to capture it...the fine.