Basic Questions.

Renji: Everyone has 3 Supply stations?
AQ: Yep. Except for russia, who has 4.

Renji: The goal is to capture supply stations?
AQ: Indeed. You can ONLY capture supply stations though in the WINTER turn, which means you have to sit on them at the end of the fall turn... meaning, if you're italy, you'll LIKELY have your fleet move from Napoli -> TYR -> Tunis... 2 turns, Spring move, and then Fall move.

Renji: So, you want to protect your borders kinda like in risk?
AQ: More so, you want to protect the pressure points and your supply centers. You want to protect your countries supply centers (as they're the ONLY place you can create armies from.) And there are pressure points, Like, if i'm using italy as an example... the game with france is relatively weak in the beginning... you're blocked in on land units with Switzerland between Marsailles and Piedmont...

AQ: Which brings me to my next point: moves. So, suppose you have an army in piedmont (italy), and a fleet in marsailles (french). The french want to move into Piedmont... what they have to do is: have greater numbers than defending. In a 1v1 situation, nothing happens. If France moves F Mar -> Pie and Italy goes either A Pie Hold or A Pie -> Mar... nothing happens. It's a standoff... This is why the western border of Italy is easy to defend and hard to attack from: basically, you need a fleet in the Gulf of Lyon (LYO), in order to move from there... For italy, it requires quite a bit of muscle to move west, and a bit of luck. If Germany is pushing hard against France, it might not have the support in Burgundy to constantly support Marsailles. (i'll attach mini-maps to try to demonstrate what i'm saying eventually), of which then Italy could bring a fleet to Lyon, with the help of German Distractors, push the french out of marsailles with an order of F Lyo S A Pie to Mar, and A Pie to Mar. That'd dislodge the fleet in Mar and force them to retreat.

Renji: So, France COULD attack Pie?
AQ: Yeah, but normally they'd want to go for spain and belgium. As spain is relatively easy to acquire, and belgium is easily supported. This gives france a nice advantage in the beginning because spain is SO uncontested and most of the time, you'll have the opportunity to rush Belgium before either England or Germany can. The winning scenario of the game is to get 18 supply centers to win, and how do you get 18 supply centers? overpower your opponants with bigger supports. More units, more supports.


Use this link for descriptions until i get them imaged out... most likely tomorrow.
http://www.wizards.com/avalonhill/rules/diplomacy.pdf

Renji: Support?
AQ: Ah, support, the basic part of the game. Support works in a few ways. Lets look at these scenarios.

1 v 1, i.e. no support. Everyone bounces.
e.g.
Germany
-
A Mun -> Boh (Army in Munich moves to Bohemia)

AH
-
A Vie -> Boh (Army in Vienna moves to Bohemia)

since there's no support, neither win. Both go back to their region that the started.

lets take a look at 2v1.

Germany
-
A Mun -> Tyr (Army in Munich moves to Tyrol)
A Boh S A Mun -> Tyr (Army in Bohemia Supports Army in Munich's move to Tyrol)

Italy
-
A Ven -> Tyr (Army in Venice mvoes to Tyrol)

The Italian order fails because there's no support. If Bohemia didn't support the move to Tyrol, they both would stand off. But since there was support, Germany takes the territory.

Alternatively, you could do something like this...

Germany
-
A Mun -> Tyr (Army in Munich moves to Tyrol)

Italy
-
A Ven -> Tyr (Army in Venice moves to Tyrol)

Austria Hungary
-
A Vie S Mun -> Tyr (Army in Vienna Supports THE GERMAN Army in Munich's move to Tyrol)

This would produce the same result... German army moves from Munich to Tyrol. But how? Because of support from austria hungary... How does Germany gain the support of Austria Hungary? Asking them. Bartering, Bullying, Conceding. Of course, verbal and written agreements are... just agreements. You can break them at any time... So suppose Germany has Austria's 'Support'... and then Austria writes a move like this

A Vie S Ven -> Tyr (Army in Vienna Supports The Italian Army in Venice's move to Tyrol)...

Oh ho ho... now, you're looking at this... how can i really trust anyone if they're all going to backstab me... Paranoia sets in... yep.

Contrarily they could just do the following two moves...

AH
_
A Vie Holds
or
A Vie -> Tyr

Both would cause a standoff... and no one would be in Tyrol...

(i hope this is getting clearer)

So, lets take a look at 2v2 Situations...

You have 3 players in this skiff... England France and Germany...

Germany has F Hol, A Ruh. France is A Pic, A Bur. And England is F Eng, F Nth. (In order, they're Holland, Ruhr, Picardy, Burgundy, English Channel and North Sea...)

Lets say, we're in spring 1902... and the move orders are:

Germany
-
A Ruh -> Bel
F Hol S A Ruh -> Bel

England
-
F Eng S F NTH Hold
F NTH Hold

France
-
A Pic -> Bel
A Bur S A Pic -> Bel

What we have here is England Supporting a 'hold'. Supporting a hold means that army can't be moved out of it's space unless it has at least 1 more army available to attack it.

Germany sends 1 Fleet in, with 1 support to Belgium.
France sends 1 Army in, with 1 support to Belgium

2 v 2 = BOUNCE.

Nothing happens, everyone goes back to their locations. Blah blah blah.

So, what do you do in a situation like this?

YOU CUT SUPPORT.

The old adage, it's easier to fight one one front over two especially is true in 1900 europe. You can't do it. So, you can't support someone, if that territory is getting attacked...

So suppose...

Germany
-
A Ruh -> Bel
F Hol S A Ruh -> Bel

England
-
F Nth -> Hol


France
-
A Pic -> Bel
A Bur S A Pic -> Bel

Uh oh. England has it out for Germany... because they are attacking Holland, Germany doesn't have the support from Ruhr to Belgium, so France takes it because it becomes a 2 v 1.

Now, the above move was poor on Germany's part...Why? Because it wasn't protecting itself, if it instead wrote

F Hol -> Bel
A Ruh S F Hol -> Bel

What would have happened is the following:

England's gambit to help France fails because the support wouldn't be cut. The Attack doesn't Equal the support... So, Everyone bounces. Holland and Picardy both have 2 support, England's Fleet in the North Sea (NTH) can't enter Holland because the German Fleet is already there and there's no support to get in.

Think about who you're attacking with, and where you're attacking from. ONLY the moving piece moves. Supporting pieces don't move.

So, lets try it this way, a 3 way...

So suppose...

Germany
-
A Ruh -> Bel
F Hol S A Ruh -> Bel

England
-
F Nth -> Bel
F Eng S F Nth -> Bel

France
-
A Pic -> Bel
A Bur S A Pic -> Bel

All 3 are trying to take belgium... who gets it? You can probably guess, 2 v 2 v 2, still means no one wins.

Now, lets move onto retreating...

Suppose pieces are in the exact same spot, except for the two English pieces... they happen to be in HEL and NTH (Helgoland)... Germany and France are doing the same thing... but...

Germany
-
A Ruh S F Hol -> Bel
A Hol -> Bel

England
-
F Nth -> Hol
F Hel S F Nth -> Hol

France
-
A Pic -> Bel
A Bur S A Pic -> Bel

Uh oh. Looks like England wants to fuck with Germany in Holland..Since no support is cut (because Germany is playing it smart... ish?), everyone bounces out of Belgium. But, since Holland has no support while it's being invaded (2 v 1 against england)... It has to retreat to the only possible spot... Which is Kie (Kiel) (fleets can't move inland). If you're unable to retreat to: an unoccupied spot or a spot you can legally be on (fleets can't be on inland squares, armies can't be on water), the piece is removed from the game until you're able to make a new one. That'd happen if there was an ARMY already in Kiel as they'd be unable to move out into a spot that's unoccupied. ON the other hand, if your army in Kiel was moving to Denmark... There'd be no destroyed pieces...

Last Examples:

Suppose Germany has an army in Munich as well...

Germany
-
A Ruh -> Bel
F Hol S A Ruh -> Bel
A Mun -> Bur

England
-
F Nth -> Hol
F Hel S F Nth -> Hol

France
-
A Pic -> Bel
A Bur S A Pic -> Bel

I think you can see what's coming...

The support for Picardy to Belgium was cut by Munich attacking Burgundy. The German F Hol -> Bel works... Because there's no longer any support for Picardy, On the other hand, England takes Holland...

Boom.