I played a good deal of this game between the ages of 17 (when I discovered it) and 24 (when I ceased to have enough friends who could clear out 10-15 consecutive hours to get together for a game). But make no mistake: this is the greatest board game of all time, and probably the greatest game of all time, period.
The key to its greatness is twofold. First, the strategy and tactics of the game have very little to do with what’s going on on the board. Sure, you have to understand how to move the armies and navies around to effectively conduct attacks and defenses, but that’s not too hard to pick up on. The real strategy and tactics come in negotiating with the other six players.
Second, the game has an uncanny way of reproducing a real diplomatic/war situation. You cannot win without alliances; you have to write military orders that will utterly fail if other nations betray you. You cannot win without breaking alliances; you have to plot to break others orders. You pretty much must engage in diplomacy with everyone; it’s almost impossible to fully trust anyone.
And so, very quickly, it really begins to feel like geo-political diplomacy. You start having utterly false conversations with people. You start telling people things in the hopes they will tell others. You look for intermediaries to carry conversations. You quit conversing with people to punish them. You think very carefully about every single word you say to people. You make up rumors. You pretend to have met or not met with people.
I bring this up because friends of mine just reignited our old Diplomacy crew for a new game. Only this time, we’re doing it online. And that is truly Diplomacy’s calling. Instead of each move being punctuated by a half-hour diplomatic period in someone’s basement, the moves are now set for two days. All diplomatic communication is done within a messaging system on the website. So instead of face-to-face meetings that third parties can observe having happened, it’s all diplomatic cables now. Which is masterful: at first, I was skeptical about putting stuff down in print. But it turns out it’s just as good, since any cable can be faked. You still don’t know who to trust, but you can (a) talk in pure secrecy, and (b) have extended diplomatic relations over a period of days between each move.
I cannot recommend this enough. The perfect game has been improved, dramatically.
