Fall 03: Orders and Results

Excitement! Here's Europe



It's now Spring 04, and please could I have your orders by 7pm, on Sunday 4th April. Me and Germany will be on a stage in Bristol at about roughly then but I can check my inbox and will get the results up as soon as I can afterwards.

Fall 03 Orders

And this was the fruit bowl of orders I recieved from you:

Austria

A alb S F Gre
A Bud - Rum ... fail
F Gre S A Ser - Bul ... unit dislodged
A Ser - Bul ... bounce
A Sev - Mos ... bounce
A Vie Holds
A War - Mos ... bounce ... unit dislodged

England

F Eng - Nth
F Hel - Kie ... bounce
A Lon Holds
A Nwy Holds

France

F Bre - Eng
A Bur S A Mar
A Mar Holds
A Pic - Bel
A Spa Holds ... dislodged

Germany

A Bel - Hol
A Boh - Mun
F Den Holds
F Nth - Edi
A Ruh - Kie ... bounce
A Sil S A Lvn - War
F Swe Holds

Italy

F Lyo S A Tun - Spa
A Pie - Mar ... bounce
A Tun - Spa (convoy path Tun to Wes to Spa)
F Wes C A Tun - Spa

Russia

A Lvn - War
A Rum - Sev ... fail
F Stp(sc) - Lvn

Turkey

F Aeg S A Bul - Gre
A Bul - Gre
A Con - Bul ... bounce
F Ion S A Bul - Gre

Fall 03 Retreats

Austria A War - Gal
Austria F Gre No valid retreats available, unit disbanded

French A Spa - Gas

Fall 03 Builds and Disbands

Austria: 6 Supply Centres (-1)

England: 3 Supply Centres (-1)
A Nwy disbanded (randomly generated)

France: 5 Supply Centres

Germany: 7 Supply Centres

Italy: 5 Supply Centres (+1)
Builds F Nap

Russia: 3 Supply Centres

Turkey: 5 Supply Centres (+1)
Builds F Ank

Spring 03: Orders and Results

Ahh spring. There's a lovely fresh breeze in the air and a new sense of optimism has swept over Europe. Although I do often get "a new sense of optimism" and "tanks" confused. I'll leave you to decide which it is...



It's now Fall 03, and please could I have your orders by 7pm, on Sunday 28th March. Don't forget to submit builds and retreats where appropriate, and if you think you're going to have a net loss of supply centres then you can also specify what unit(s) you'd prefer to be dismantled.

Spring 03 Orders

And this was the light scattering of orders I recieved from you:

Austria

A Alb - Ser ... fail (because A Ser - Bul failed)
A Bud S A Sev - Rum
F Gre S A Ser - Bul
A Mos - Sev
A Ser - Bul ... bounce! (2 against 3)
A Tri - Vie
A War Holds

England

F Eng S A Bur - Bel ... fail (A Bur did not move to Bel)
A Lon - Hol ... fail (convoy failed)
F Nth C A Lon - Hol ... dislodged attacked from Hol(2 against 1).
A Nwy Holds

France

F Bre - Eng ... bounce!
A Bur S A Mar
A Mar Holds
A Par - Pic
A Por - Spa

Germany

A Bel - Ruh
A Ber - Sil
F Den S F Hol - Nth
F Hol - Nth
A Pic - Bel
A Sil - Boh
F Swe Holds

Italy

F Lyo S A Pie - Mar
A Pie - Mar ... bounce! (2 against 2)
A Tun Holds
F Tys - Wes

Russia

A Pru - Lvn
A Sev - Rum
F Stp(sc) Holds

Turkey

F Aeg S A bul
A Bul S A Sev - Rum ... fail (Support cut by move from Serbia)
A Con S A Bul
F Eas - Ion

Spring 03 Retreats

One retreat to work out, which is the English fleet in the North Sea. No retreat was specified and so the retreat was generated randomly.

F Nth - Hel

So what happened in Turkey then?

There were an interesting set of orders in Turkey in Fall 02, so I've put together a quick explanation of what went wrong.

F Aeg S A Bul
A Bul - Ser ... bounce!
A Con S A Bul
F Eas S F Aeg

On the surface, it looks like the support for a unit should have succeeded, as although the move failed, the unit stayed in the same position so why did the supports for it to hold in that position fail?

The main principle here is that all moves are carried out simultaneously, so an order can only be to do one thing and can't be conditional on the sucess or failure results of any other orders.

This means that a unit ordered to move can only be supported by a support order that matches the move the unit is trying to make (p7 of the rules). A unit which is ordered to hold, support something, or convoy an army can be supported in position by another unit.

In this instance, as the unit was ordered to move to Serbia and the supports were to hold, from units that did not border on Serbia, they failed.

So in what circumstances can a sucessful support order be given, I hear you cry?

Example 1: 2 v 2 in Africa: stalemate

So, we've got a 2 v 2 situation in North Africa with the two Turkish armies supporting each other and the English fleets supporting a joint attack in Tunisia.



The attack fails as both support orders are sucessful.



The rules allowing units to support a stationary unit means that mutual support can be given and adds a balance to 2 v 2 situations - as the defenders can both support each other to prevent a break through, rather than a successful defence being based on successfully guessing which way the attack might go.

Example 2: 3 v 2 in Africa: supports can be broken

Thow another unit into the fray and the balance works in favour of the largest army. Here an Austrian fleet joints in, helping the English fleets.



The Austrian attack breaks the support and the English attack is left as 2 v 1, which succeeds.



Example 3: North Sea Convoy

As well as supporting units that are supporting someone else, you can support units that are staying put to do a convoy. Take this example in the North Sea, with an Italian convoy over to London, and a fleet in Heligoland Bight supporting the unit providing the convoy



Well, the convoy is sucessful, as the support is also sucessful.



So, um to recap, if you're supporting a unit that's moving the support has to be for the move. Supports can be sucessfully given to a unit that's staying put and doing anything else. If a unit issuing a support is attacked the support is broken.

Have a play about on jDip if you're not sure.

Fall 02: Orders and Results

Fall 1902 season is now over, and look at what you've done.



EDIT 15th March - My apologies to Germany, although the builds in the texts were listed correctly, the map wrongly showed the new German build in Munich rather than Berlin. I had a geography fail.

The map above has been corrected with the German army in Berlin

It's now Spring 03, and please could I have your orders by 7pm, on Sunday 21th March.

Fall 02 Orders

And this was the salad bar of orders I recieved from you:

Austria

A Alb S F Gre Holds
A Bud - Tri
A Gal - War
F Gre Holds
A Mos S A Gal - War
A Ser S F Gre Holds ... support cut from Bulgaria

England

F Eng S A Lon - Bel
A Lon - Bel ... fail
F Nth C A Lon - Bel
A Nwy - Swe ... bounce

France

A Mar - Bur
F Mao - Bre
A Par S F Mao - Bre
A Spa - Por

Germany

F Bal - Swe
A Bel Holds
F Den S F Bal - Swe
F Hel - Hol
A Mun - Sil
A Pic S A Bel

Italy

F Lyo S A Ven - Pie
F Ion - Tys
A Tun Holds
A Ven - Pie

Russia

F Bot - Stp(sc)
F Rum S F Gre - Bul(ec) ... F Gre did not move to Bul
A Ukr - Sev
A War Holds dislodged

Turkey

F Aeg S A Bul
A Bul - Ser ... bounce!
A Con S A Bul
F Eas S F Aeg

Fall 02 Retreats

A Mos - Pru (randomly generated)

I'm using http://www.random.org/ for random assignments.

Fall 02 Builds and Disbands

Austria: 7 Supply Centres (+1) (total)
Builds A Bud

England: 4 Supply Centres

France: 5 Supply Centres (+1)
Builds A Mar

Germany: 7 Supply Centres (+1)
Builds A Ber

Italy: 4 Supply Centres

Russia: 3 Supply Centres (-1)
F Rum disbanded (randomly generated)

Turkey: 4 Supply Centres

Spring 02: Orders and Results

Spring 1902 season is now over, and here's thee state of play.


(clunk click, make it big)

Please can I have your Fall 02 orders by 7pm, on Sunday 14th March. We're back to the usual 1 week turn length and hopefully this'll be the standard for a while now (though as always let me know if you're going to be away for a week or something and we can try and work round it somehow.

I had a few questions about the order of the turn phases this time round. Basically after diplomacy and sumbitting your orders, they are resolved....

The resolved orders are then followed by a retreats and disbanding phase. This is where the retreats you submitted along with your orders are carried out and as with orders this happens simultaneously. A unit must retreat to a space it could normally move to, and that space cannot be a space which is occupied, the space that the attacker came from, or a space in which a bounce occured during the orders phase. Two units cannot retreat to the same space. If a unit cannot retreat anywhere then it is disbanded.

There's one important point to note here, I'm playing things slightly differently to THE MAN (Allan B. Calhamer) who would have units disband if you don't issue a retreat, where as I'm retreating units randomly if they don't have a valid retreat order. It's the way I have always played it and it's always made for a better game, as it puts a bit more emphasis on strategic positioning of builds and orders.

Philisophically this introduces an element of randomness into Diplomacy, however I'm fine with that as it's nothing that wouldn't occur if everyone submitted a highly comprehensive set of retreats.

I do of course recommend that you all submit a highly comprehensive set of retreats.

You can specify to voluntarily disband a unit that is forced to retreat if you want too.

In Fall turns there's then a re-adjustment phase after retreats, where you get to build new units if you control more supply centres than units - or lose units if you own less.

You have to specify what new builds you want (unit type) and where (one of your home supply centres). Only one build can happen at a supply centre so if you capture 5 new supply centres in a turn then you'll have to wait until the year after to get your excess builds, assuming you're holding the same territory. You don't have to build if you don't want to (say for diplomatic reasons). No building fleets inland duh.

If you think you're going to lose territory and have more units than supply centres then specify which unit you'd prefer to lose, or one (or however many) will be disbanded at random in this phase.

I'm going to set out results in phases below from now on to hopefully make this easier to follow.

Spring 02 Orders

And this was the Smörgåsbord of orders I recieved from you:

Austria

A War holds dislodged
A Vie - Gal
A Bud S A Vie - Gal
A Tri - Alb
A Ser - Bul ... bounce!
F Gre - Aeg ... bounce!


England

A Lon - Bre ... bounce!
F Eng Convoy A Lon - Bre
F Nth - Nwy ... fail
A Nwy - Swe ... bounce!

France

A Spa - Bre ... bounce!
F Mid c A Spa - Bre
A Bur - Par
A Mar Holds

Germany

A Mun Hold
A Bel - Pic
A Hol - Bel
F Den - Swe ... bounce!
F Kie - Hel
F Ber - Bal

Italy

F Nap - Ion
F Tyn - Lyo
A Pie - Ven
A Tun Holds

Russia

A Liv - War
A Ukr s A Liv - War
F GoB - Swe ... bounce!
F Rum Hold

Turkey

F Smy - Eas
A Con s A Bul
A Bul s F Aeg - Gre ... support cut
F Aeg - Gre ... bounce!

Spring 02 Retreats

One unit was dislodged this turn:

Austria: Army War retreats to Mos