Today Europe, Tomorrow the WORLD!

Ok, so this probably looks a bit inpenerable on first glance, but believe it or not this is a map of europe set in 1903. Or at least, it is the map of europe from the game of Diplomacy that I am playing via email. For those who don't know (read, virtually everyone) Diplomacy is a boardgame that was first released in the 50s where seven players get together to scheme and backstab each other with the eventual goal of domination over europe. The game starts in Spring 1901, and then Autumn 1901, Spring 1902 etc.

Each player takes control of a country, including Italy (green), Turkey (yellow), Russia (purple), Germany (black), Austria (brown), England (pink) and France (blue). I am playing Turkey in this game, and have managed to expand into the Balkans and Russia (who I just stabbed in the back after working with him in the past few times in an alliance against Austria). The circles are Armies, and the squares are Fleets.

It is an interesting game, not least because it has been round for almost 50 years and is still going strong, but also in terms of the fact that the interaction between players plays a far more important role than the actual game mechanics. There is also no dice rolls and no random element beyond assignment of countries, so it is quite different to most "traditional" boardgames such as Monopoly and Risk.

It has taken me a while to warm to the game, but I must admit I'm now enjoying myself (and I'm sure that has nothing to do with the fact that I am doing pretty well for my first game, nah!).

DIPLOMACY UPDATE:

Interestingly, the ruler of England in this game, Clay, has chosen to announce his hostile intentions towards Turkey via the comments on this blog. I hadn't intended the post to be relevant to the game in the slightest, but he has kindly made it so.

The reason this is interesting is that up until now England and I have had very good relations, and he has kept me up to date on his attempts to backstab Russia and Germany, not to mention attempting to manipulate Austria into attacking his enemies while at the same time encouraging Italy to invade Austria. So for England to now turn around and say that he is coming for me doesn't leave him with a whole lot of friends left on the board (ummmm... not that I have many left either of course).