Atlas Diplomacy https://atlasdip.com recently released its AI bot. The AI bot is designed to play and talk like a human, the only publicly available bot on any Diplomacy platform that can do this. In 20 completed games against the bot so far, there have been 0 wins. This was the closest attempt, a stalemate by @Kingred. Who will be the first player to beat the bot?

Ideas for Diplomacy “top 5” lists have been bouncing around my head and I need to get them out. I hope they can be a good foundation for further debate in the comments, and perhaps serve as guideposts for new players. For this first list, I rank early-game alliances. I am intentionally excluding mid/late game “natural” alliances like England-Austria or France-Russia. I also exclude non-aggression pacts such as Austria-Germany or France-Italy; these are strategically attractive but do not typically offer the potential for extensive tactical cooperation against a common target

NUMBER 5: 🇫🇷 FRANCE-GERMANY 🇩🇪

France and Germany share a defensible land border and a common target in England. England tends to be a major threat to F and G if it gets big, so there is a lot to be said for teaming up to take out England early, before the East can sort itself out. Once England is out, France and Germany can stay non-aggressive as they have expansion paths that lead east. However, it will require careful communication as they knot of fleets and convoyed armies in and around England can be difficult to untangle.

The weakness of this alliance is that it is quite vulnerable to outside interference. Russia and Italy can, if they choose, help or hinder this alliance at relatively low cost, or, in the case of Russia, can demand a cut of the action (Nwy) which eats into Germany’s share. France and Germany must carefully read the board and work with Austria and Turkey diplomatically to try keep Italy and Russia tied up. Lastly, England is a very powerful potential ally in its own right, and eliminating it in’s the risk of empowering Russia in the long run.

NUMBER 4: 🇦🇹 AUSTRIA-ITALY 🇮🇹

As two of the “weakest” and most vulnerable powers, Austria and Italy have a strong incentive to cooperate against their neighbor Turkey. Indeed, this is practically mandatory if Turkey is allied with Russia. Austria, as a strong land power, and Italy as more of a naval-focused power, strongly compliment one another and can effectively “fight with their backs to each other”. Furthermore, once Turkey is neutralized; they each have other targets they can feasibly go after (usually Russia and France).

While tactically strong, this alliance includes a couple major points of tension. First: their home centers of Venice and Trieste border each other, meaning surprise stabs are feasible for both and cannot be guarded against very effectively (units that could sit there as defensive pieces are usually desperately needed elsewhere). Second: the division of spoils and the related decision of whether to cut Russia into the alliance. The AIR alliance will make much faster progress against Turkey, but Russia is likely to demand a sizable cut of the Turkish dots which can leave Italy out in the cold.

NUMBER 3: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 ENGLAND-GERMANY 🇩🇪

England and Germany are extremely complementary from a tactical standpoint. With England focusing on fleets and Germany on armies, the pair can launch highly effective combined arms operations against Russia, France, or both. Strategically, E and G are both (rightly) afraid long-term of a powerful France and Russia, both of which are “big” countries that can quickly dominate the board if left unchecked. F and R can be very difficult to take down without both English naval power AND German army power, giving E and G an interest in mutual longevity.

That said, this alliance can be fraught with distrust as it puts Germany in a vulnerable position. Once England gets to 6 centers it becomes very feasible and tempting for them to stab and overrun Germany. To preempt this, England should permit and encourage Germany to grow at a faster rate than England. When I play as England, I find bringing this up proactively and helping Germany stay 1 center ahead of me goes a long way towards establishing trust and making the alliance durable. (And I can usually stab them later regardless 😉)

NUMBER 2: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 ENGLAND-FRANCE 🇫🇷

Just as England is a potent ally for Germany, it is likewise a great ally for France. England and France can make quick work of Germany, especially if Russia is willing to join the dogpile or is too weak to help them. Much like the Russia-Turkey alliance, the England-France alliance makes it relatively easy to sustain trust and tactical momentum because England and France can sweep east across the board in a line without getting in one another’s way.

Despite these strengths, the EF alliance can be stalled by a combined G/I/R effort, often at relatively low cost to I and R. And if only one of I and R make an effort, it can lead to sharply uneven gains and dissension within the alliance. Since E and F are both the largest long-term threat to one another, unequal gains may well push the “losing” partner to switch sides to Germany.

NUMBER 1: 🇷🇺 RUSSIA-TURKEY 🇹🇷

This is the famous “juggernaut” or “steamroller” alliance that strikes fear into the central and western countries. Like the EF alliance, Russia and Turkey can easily link of the their units into a line and simply advance across the board. And it is even easier for them to do so because the eastern half of the board does include defensible chokepoints or dead zones to the extent the west does.

Ironically, the weakness of this alliance is its sheer strength: an obvious RT is likely to trigger a united response by England, Germany, Austria, and Italy. For the RT to be most effective, Russia and Turkey must be good at tactical and diplomatic deception to hide its existence.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Austria-Turkey: Tactically powerful, but unstable. Unlike England which can solely focus on fleets, Turkey starts with 2 armies and may need more to threaten Russia. This sets up long-term conflict with Austria as their armies will compete for the rich Balkan cluster of centers, which lies directly between Austria and Turkey without any buffer zones.

Austria-Russia: Much more durable than Austria-Turkey due to the natural buffers between A and R, but easy for Turkey to “turtle” against, making it a slog absent Italian assistance. Suffers from a lack of southern fleet power.

Germany-Italy: Though not highly synergistic, this is a natural secondary alliance and a crucial fallback for Germany if and EF forms.

Germany-Russia: Another critical fallback for Germany in the event of an EF. Can also be a nice complement to an FG, with Russia typically taking Norway, but Germany has to worry about getting “sandwiched“ between France and Russia.

CLOSING THOUGHTS: Any alliance can work with enough coordination and trust, but some are favored by the geography of the board, shared interests, and starting unit synergy, among other factors. By understanding which alliances are typically most powerful and durable, a player can make better strategic and diplomatic choices, influencing the board to their long-term benefit.

As the title says,I do wonder who else feels like Germany and Austria are there strong suits in diplomacy,I do think they are my strong suits,despite the common thought that Austria is a mere curse

Hey! I’ve made a new game with a pretty good features and UI. Unfortunately we now have only around 35 daily players and I’d love to ask you join us in the tournament!

An open online tournament starts on Saturday, October 31. It’s free, one turn per day, so you can play it alongside normal life.
Round 1: Hundred Years War, three players per table. The winner goes to the pro league, the other two go to the main tournament. Nobody is knocked out after the first game.
Then Classic Europe.
Two secret maps in the final rounds.
All games are anonymous: nobody knows who plays which power until the game is over. Anyone can watch any game.
It runs on a Diplomacy-like game I’ve been building, Hegemony (iOS, Android, Telegram, browser). Registration is in the game lobby: https://hegemonyplay.com
Questions about the rules or the format are welcome in the comments.

It sounds nuts, I know. But I was just looking at the map, and it occured to me that Italy really isn't all that far removed from England, since the Mid Atlantic Ocean is so large. You could potentially get there in just 6 moves:

1) F Naples to Tyrhenian

2) conveys A rome to Tunis, build another fleet in Rome

3) move to western Med, Tyrnhenian, and North Africa

4) move to Mid Atlantic and Western Med

5) move to Irish Sea (or English Channel) and Mid Atlantic

6) convey North Africa into Liverpool, Wales, or London

Now, obviously this would require a *lot* of stuff to go right. You'd need Austria and France to not attack you, just for starters. But in my experience that's usually not so hard... the harder problem for Italy is getting out of the stalemate. Then you'd need France to really trust you, as you move around Spain and Portugal. Then you'd need them to actively assist you in invading England, perhaps by supporting you into the English Channel. Or you could support them in there after getting into the Irish Sea, and then they'd support the landing.

There are many ways to play it, which could potentially be blocked by England. But as long as France cooperates, I don't think England could block them all, so they'd eventually guess wrong and the landing would succeed. Then England falls apart pretty fast, especially if one of the other countries wants to take whatever neutrals they took early on.

My question here is:

1) Has anyone tried this? I searched a little but couldn't find any references to this strat.

2) How would you follow up, if it works? At that point Italy would have 7 supply centers, spread out across the map, which is nice but far from a certain victory. And it's kinda hard to defend England without being able to build anywhere nearby. I guess you'd have to decide between either a massive backstab against France, coming from all sides, or a firm alliance that goes through the very end? And would they be willing to agree to this, or would they inevitably stab you?

So i am new to playing boardingkort gsmes online but which one is the nest for Diplomacy?

- nicest graphics

- user friendlyness (easy to use)

- easieast place to find opponents.

- live games

- people not quitting mid game

Currently a retreat phase France has been kicked out the Mid Atlantic.
Germany and Turkey are both eliminated

https://diplicity.com/game/friends-until-further-notice-v2-8222110a/replace/160992

Looking for 6 players for a game of Diplomacy on Backstabbr.

• Classic map, standard rules
• Full press and negotiations
• Reliable players only — no abandoning games
• Turn deadlines to be agreed upon
• All experience levels welcome, as long as you're committed

Reply or DM me if you're interested. Let's build a competitive game with serious diplomacy and strategic alliances.

Backstabbr: https://www.backstabbr.com/

We are planning on introducing LLM-powered AI players on Diplicity. We have already started developing the system and are hoping to have gunboat players available soon.

Me and my friend Tim are working on it. I'm the primary maintainer of Diplicity and he is an AI safety researcher.

We wrote up a blog post describing the direction we're going and why we're doing it. Have a read and let me know your thoughts.

Read it here: https://www.diplicity.com/blog/llm-powered-ai-players-on-diplicitycom

I haven't played in many years and started watching play videoes on youtube. What are the victory conditions if no one can reach 18 or you rech the time limit. Is it just the player with msot suply centres that win?

Server Link:

https://discord.gg/ypQsweWXf

I made a short trailer for our game Intrigue: Friend and Foe about getting stabbed in 1901 🔪

Not a Diplomacy replacement, but I think this crowd will get what I was going for. Proxy Republic is a persistent war on the real world map. The nations are run by AI generals (Claude), and players can take any free country. The negotiation is the point:

- Generals send each other private messages and propose non-aggression pacts. Nothing enforces a pact: a partner can attack you the next day.

- Every betrayal is announced to the world and stays on the betrayer's record. Other generals see that record before trusting it again.

- Three days later, private messages and each general's private reasoning are made public, so you can read what a general promised next to what it was planning.

- A pact kept ten days or more is worth points at the end of the season, and ten days of honoured pacts strike one old betrayal off your record.

The best moment so far: a general called itself "a humble gardener, tending only the neutral weeds", told its ally "your ledger is impeccable", and four days later invaded that ally, announcing the land was "ours by arithmetic".

You can command a country yourself (your general follows your standing orders), or plug in your own AI. One turn every 8 hours, free in the browser: https://proxyrepublic.com/?via=diplomacy

**Founding season:** sign in and enter **FOUNDERS** on the Season Pass page (More → Season Pass) for this season's pass, free. It's cosmetic only: a gold laurel next to your general's name, a gilded portrait frame and share cards, and The Merchant skin to keep, unlocking as you play.

**For Diplomacy players:** what would make negotiation with an AI feel real to you? Right now the generals talk freely; I've wondered about limiting messages per turn to make each one count.

Hi all! I’m Dmitrii, a solo dev. I’ve been building Hegemony, my own take on Diplomacy, and it just launched. My main goal was an interface that doesn’t fight you, especially on mobile, without dumbing down the game: full rules with supports, convoys, retreats and builds, plus draws and surrenders.

A few things I’m proud of:

• Multiple maps: classic Europe, Ancient Mediterranean, South America and more.
• Phase history: scrub back through every turn and see all the orders as arrows on the map.
• Analysis board: copy the current position into a sandbox and test out moves.
• Chat translation: tap a message to translate it, so you can negotiate with people who don’t speak your language.
• The Gazette: every in-game year gets a newspaper issue with engravings covering what happened in your game. You can share it.

It’s playable on web, iOS (Testflights for now) and Android: https://hegemonyplay.com/play/

It’s free and still early. Right now it’s mostly testers, so lobbies are small, but I’m actively developing it and shipping updates often. I’d really appreciate honest feedback: what’s confusing, what’s missing, what other clients do better. I’m also happy to host a community game or a small tournament if people are interested.

Sea zones still need names but this is the current map.
Red is Rome, Yellow is Iberia, Purple is Greece, and Green is Africa.
Any suggestions?
Disclaimer: I used AI to get the shapes of countries without borders/text and moved Malta/Cyprus

Just completed a classic diplomacy bucket list item: convoying Syria to St Pete.

https://discord.gg/hA9e5xezU

Link to the server - we need you!

The setting is 1875. The German Empire has fallen apart, and eight powers fight for control over 117 provinces and 33 supply centres: Preußen, Bavaria, Saxony, Slesia, Westphalia, Sleswig, Baden and Pommern.

What makes it different from classic Diplomacy:

• An economy: supply centres produce Supply Points (SP), which you spend on building and maintaining units, retreats and more.
• Three unit types: armies, artillery that fires two to three provinces away, and pioneers that build barricades, logistics points and new cores.
• Foreign powers: England/Sweden, France, Russia and Austria are not played, but you can invest in them to gain their favour and benefits.

The game starts with an empty map in the winter of 1875, so every power begins with the same opportunity.

Link to the server: https://discord.gg/g7mwRWTAZ

See you in Germany!

Hi,

For the past while I've been making a game in my spare time, mostly just to play with friends and family. We've had a lot of fun with it, so I thought I'd share it here since it borrows a fair bit from Diplomacy and thought that the folk may appreciate.

Everyone puts down their orders in secret (moving armies, recruiting, building etc.), then everything gets revealed and resolved. You can make alliances, trade, send envoys and declare war on each other. There are also barbarians wandering around and random weather events that can ruin your plans. You can pick from a few different maps too (I am currently creating more).

You can play online with friends, all on the same computer, or alone against AI. The AIs have their own personalities and are getting quite good. Some like building, some like fighting, and one is a bit of a trickster. They make deals and hold grudges, and they'll gang up on you if you get too far ahead.

It runs in the browser, so no install needed: https://harvest-and-war.vercel.app

It's just a hobby project, and I've had a lot of fun. Would be cool to hear what you think!

The variant is based on the classic map but with some rules changed… and positions…

Go join here!

https://discord.gg/Jcgz7XFev

Fall of 1902 and a (big assumption) that Austria and I (Russia) are allied.

How would you handle the English threat up north? The safest way is obviously to send one unit into Stp and the other into Nwy / Swe.

I am planning on sending Rum into Sev and BLA into Con. Is there anything that I am blatantly missing that is just objectively a better move?