Tabletop game

Diplomacy

Diplomacy (1959) - Tabletop game
Tabletop game1 January 1959

Diplomacy is a strategic board game created by Allan B. Calhamer in 1954 and released commercially in the United States in 1959. Its main distinctions from most board wargames are its negotiation phases (players spend much of their time forming and betraying alliances with other players and forming beneficial

strategies) and the absence of dice and other game elements that produce random effects. Set in Europe in the years leading to the First World War, Diplomacy is designed to be played by seven players, but can be played with as few as two, each controlling the armed forces of a major European power (or, with fewer

players, multiple powers). Each player aims to move their few starting units and defeat those of others to win possession of a majority of strategic cities and provinces marked as "supply centers" on the map; these supply centers allow players who control them to produce more units. Following each round of player

negotiations, each player can issue attack and support orders, which are then executed during the movement phase. A player takes control of a province when the number of provinces that are given orders to support the attacking province exceeds the number of provinces given orders to support the defending province.

Diplomacy was the first commercially published game to be played by mail (PBM); only chess, which is in the public domain, saw significant postal play earlier.

Game details

Board game

Players
2–7 players
First published
1959

Mechanics

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Credits

Image: Porge and Edinborgarstefan · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Description from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Credits and connections

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