Computer Diplomacy, or just Diplomacy, is a game released by Avalon Hill in 1984. It is a year-by-year strategy game, and includes a very realistic combat system for the time of history (the player must have one more army or navy than the opponent in order to gain the territory) and also a unique diplomatic system, which will be explained now.
The player starts off with all of the other countries' leaders in front of them. Several may disappear off into a meeting room almost immediately, and you may start a room by simply clicking on the room number. Then, you invite another country's leader into your room from the lobby, which they then either accept or decline. The diplomatic requests are shown in another window, known as the 'Diplomatic Log' (or something like that, just doesn’t press Leave Room until you're done, that's the main thing.) There you can either accept or decline their requests, and they can accept or decline yours. To ask a country to do something, click on their portrait in the left-hand side, and then click on the thing you want them to do, for example attack. Then, you click on the territory or country to attack and the request comes up in the log. An example:
"England asks Russia to attack Germany. Accepted."
The main map is where you'll be attacking other territories. A good start for the England player to put their navy is in the North Sea, and 'convoy' an army over to Norway. France should concentrate on defending their little land, and so should Italy and most certainly Austria-Hungary. A thing to know about Austria-Hungary. Unless you either are very experienced with this game, or know what you're doing, don't play as them. They have the hardest starting places in the game. With Russia and Germany, it is recommended to go on the offensive. The Germans have the most starting 'supply centers' (colored circles which allow 1 unit per centre to be on the board) /and so should attack France with their ample armies. Russia should go for Austria-Hungary, as they are, quite frankly, easy pickings unless controlled by a very experienced play or hard AI.
The AI in this game is actually fairly smart. It knows when to accept and when not to accept proposals from the player. It also puts forward sensible proposals (most of the time) to the player, and is fairly good at attacking and defending its territory.
There are several player modes in this game. There is a single player (obviously), a hot seat mode, and a network mode, which allows you to connect over LAN or modem to another computer or computers. There is also an editor, which allows you to change territory ownership and also unit layout.
Overall then, Diplomacy is a fairly good game. It has a good AI, good Diplomatic system and a good combat system. It's worth the download, in my opinion.
Written by:
~BrotherhoodUK
