The last time I play Diplomacy I was in college (early 90s). I remember it well. I was the Ottoman Empire (didn't do well). France won due to some well-timed backstabbing. Russia was close but lost. A table got flipped and "unkind" words were said between several players after the game. I am not sure what was more fun, the game or the "war" afterward. Everyone was friends again in a couple days.

I'd love to hear more about how you implement the game in your classroom. I'm a few months away from potentially starting a game in my school as part of an elective course. It's a bit different from your class as the students I'm working with will be English course students in a Japanese high school and the focus of the elective is communication, not a civics class. The current term's focus is on debate, which many of the students are already proficient at since most of the debate club members are in this group. However, in the fall term I proposed we move on towards persuasive speech. And I suggested we create teams and use Diplomacy as the practical implementation to exercise the various skills involved in being persuasive. There's a bit more to it but this is also going to be the first attempt at this project so I'd be very happy to hear your experiences and how you used it successfully in your classes. Thanks for the great review as always!

Dippy story #1. Played in summertime, early 70s. Got 7 people together at my house to play, my longtime buddy bringing a copy of the game. Set up in the dining room table. None of us really did much on the first turn except write orders after talking at the table. Turn two saw a few off-table conferences. The set we played with had some maps printed on index cardstock so players could take one to a 'conference'. Turn three was chaotic, including a lot of separate conferences and no one knew who was going to write what orders. Turn 4 was majestic, as ad hoc conferences were going on for what seemed like forever. At some point I went into the downstairs bathroom, and two of the players were in there whispering over a diplomacy map. Which was nothing compared to two of the guys in the kitchen making plans, with two more outside at the kitchen window. They were 'discovered' spying by someone else and hilarity ensued. So the day went along until it was time for food. Some of the people had had enough, so we declared peace and went to eat. While we all had a good time, a few people were mad at others, and it seemed to fester. The bad blood was resumed the next time we played a game, which happened to be Risk, and it turned into a revenge game. Things got back to normal then. But a couple of us decided to never play this game again, out of concern for friendships. Dippy story #2. circa 1980. I did not attend this one (or any more Dippy games for that matter), but the results were tragic. End results were 2 broken marriages, some broken friendships, and two dis-armed camps of people taking sides and never got together with the others again. Don't have details other than a couple breaking up because of an in-game betrayal, which was the lit fuse on a powder keg that started it all. Dippy story #3. Turns out that by the late nineties, someone had gotten a copy of the Game of Thrones. Which was recommended to everyone, and more copies were purchased while the original book got passed around. The resulting word of mouth was amazing, and anyone who couldn't wait for a copy went out and got one. Fast forward to when Fantasy Flight Games picked up the rights to make a game based on the books. The game system they used was based on Diplomacy rules, but used influence tokens which were placed for offices and things, and then resolved. Then there was an action phase where people put action tokens face-down and were NOT simultaneously revealed, but one token at a time, each player revealed one in turn order (which had been determined, among other things, by the influence phase), and executed. which meant that some actions might not get resolved due to changing circumstances. And there are character cards that could effect combat situations and/or the results of some combats. And much more. Anyway, I mention this game as a much more friendly substitute than playing Diplomacy, even though there are great similarities due to the actions being committed, but being sequenced in a set order. Want to go first? Simultaneous commit hidden influence during the influence phase when that topic comes up. Goes without saying that all committed influence tokens are gone. Next topic to bid on? Et cetera. Fascinating variation on the game system. Highly recommended.

In my opinion the greatest "experience" board game you can have. With the right people you will never, ever, play a better game. It has everything. Simple to explain with bottomless depth. Historical weight. Intigue. Tension. Hope. Despair. Tactical skill. Strategic concerns. Negotiation. Secret intentions. It is wonderful. It genuinely is an education about politics, war, aggression, alliance and history. It's more than a game . . . It is also utterly cruel. Very unbalanced (good luck Austria and Italy, because you'll need it). It *only* really plays with 7. It can also go on forever. If everyone goes in accepting those flaws . . . Nothing else like it. Once you know, you know.

My 3 all time favourites are: Chess, Risk, Diplomacy. Thank you for the review of this classic boardgame. By the way: A Ber - War is a misorder. Only A Ber - Sil or A Ber - Pru etc. is possible.

Some of my most memorable gaming experiences have been from Diplomacy games. I haven't played it in ages, but I can remember tons of great moments. The closest we ever had to a "friend-killer" moment was when most of us in mainland Europe wouldn't let England get into continental Europe. After a couple turns of thwarting his landing attempts, he (my friend playing England) sort of freaked out, cursed us all out, gave us the finger and stormed out of the house. lol It was all good the next day, but in that moment, he was steamed! lol Needless to day, he never wanted to join our Diplomacy games again after that. ;-)

Glad to see you covering this game. It's about stabbin' time! I'm always torn about using this game with students. Such a great game - but only with the right people. Often, you don't find out who the right people are until the game is over. But it won't stop me from trying.

I played this a lot in High School - the late '60s.

My favorite Diplomacy story was from about 40 years ago when a bunch of us played every Saturday night in the University of Washington Union building. Always looking for new players, one night we added one and explained the rules. Things seem to be going well until the reading of the first (Spring 1901) moves. The new guy seemed to be getting visibly upset as the moves were read off the slips of paper. And even before the moves were all adjudicated he stood up and shouted, "I hate it when people lie to me!!!" Then he picked up his chair and sent it spinning across the floor and stomped out. We decided that Diplomacy might not be the best board game for him…

This is one of my favorite games as well… but so difficult to bring to the table.

I would love to play this someday, but will never have the player count

Any thoughts on Colonial Diplomacy? Back in the day it supplanted its predecessor as the "go to" diplomacy game in our gaming (that is until we discovered Empires in Arms).

Thanks

Oh boy, here we go... Quite possibly the greatest (and simultaneously worst) board game of all time! (My favorite way to play the game is with the metal pieces from the 1999 version and the map from the newest version.)

I have never understood what the deal is about this game.

Cody - Any advice on how to find game partners? I move a lot and have never found a good way to find people to game with in each new location.

This brought back some awful teenage memories for me. I was the youngest in my friendship group and was always ganged up on. So I hate this game with a passion - it can really bring the worst out of some people.

I discovered Diplomacy in 7th grade in our Strategy Games club.

Played it in the 70s and 80s😊

Any significant difference between this edition and the previous one?

The stories I hear from this game are always so fascinating. My group would absolutely hate it! :P

Cody, I liked your scally cap look much better.