Quick Start Guide

Diplomacy is a game which is easy to learn but impossible to master. The rules are all very intuitive, lots of people pick them up just by playing, but this document will familiarize you more quickly.

The objective of Diplomacy is to be the first to get 18 supply centers.

Supply centers are recognized on the map as territories with a dot in them. Supply centers sustain military units. You get a new unit for each supply center you occupy, and lose a unit whenever a supply center you own gets occupied by someone else.

To give orders to your units: click the unit and choose the command type (move, support, convoy, hold). To move, click the destination area. A unit can only move to adjacent territories. He can only move once per turn. All turns for all players are processed at the same time, when the deadline expires.

All units are equally strong. To move into an opponent’s square, you must have support. Use one unit to attack, use the other unit to support the attack.

To give support, the supporting unit must be adjacent to the territory the attacking unit is trying to capture. Click the unit you want to give support with, click the area the attacking unit is coming from, click the area you want the attacking unit to move to. This unit is now supporting the attacking unit into the area.

Note that you have to give each unit seperate orders.

There are three phases in the game: Order, Retreat, and Build.

• Order:
  This is the most important phase. You give orders to your units and try to capture new supply centers.
• Retreats:
  In this phase any units which were attacked and forced to retreat are told where to retreat to.
• Build:
  If any players have more supply centers than units they can place their units in this phase. For every 2 Order phases (Spring and Autumn), you get 1 Build phase (Winter). If any players have more units than supply centers, they have to choose which units to destroy.

Units

• Army:
  This unit can only move on land.
• Fleet:
  This unit can only move in the sea, and in coastal territories (land areas with a coast). It can also convoy armies across sea territories using the convoy move.

The 5 move types

• Hold
  The unit will defend if its territory is attacked, but otherwise do nothing.
• Move
  The unit tries to move into(/attack) an adjacent territory.
• Support hold, support move
  Support is what Diplomacy is all about. As no one unit is stronger than another you need to combine the strength of multiple units to attack other territories.
• Convoy
  You can use fleets to carry army units across sea territories, this is called a convoy. You can also string multiple convoys together to move an army unit large distances overseas in a single turn.