I thought I had heard the name before from some of the old archive sites. I, for one, would delight in taking on such a famous name!

Yeah, I definitely remember some of the articles he wrote, that were posted on diplomacy-archive.com

I'd love to hear his thoughts.

Well I am who I am... have been playing the game since 1965 and have written a fair share of articles on play and the hobby.

As for the site, I find real time Diplomacy games by email a little awkward. I worked with the Paradox people on their realtime game and they did not listen to what any of the beta testers said.
Too many times people will drop because they get hammered early and will not play out a 2 or 3 center position. Also the time factor is rather rough on your kidneys at times.

I prefer a game in person with short deadlines, but an email game causes a lot of time constraint issues. Therefore the fastest I do an email game is generally a two day deadline or something like M-W-F.
This also allows for people from all different time zones to work together.

Funny thing about the real time games I played at Paradox's Web site was that I often got so frustrated with the interface issues of typing messages that I would simply pick the phone and call someone.

However there is a significant cultural gap between social players who play by email only and those that are use to face to face.

As for the site, I find the forum a little awkward as there is not a 'tree' or summary of messages available that I know of, but it could be my own incompetence.

It seems also that the games portray the orders without a written report or a history.

I have been playing on the www.Stabbeurfou.org website and that has been quite fun.

EdiBirsan at Astound dot Net

I know I'm new here, but I played my first dip game in 1976, so even if I haven't done much game play since my first burst of enthusiasm (I was 12) I know what I like and don't like.

The thing I don't like the most on this site is that the maps aren't clean. You don't see a clean map (ie, not cluttered up with vari-colored arrows) to start a turn. Worse, in the one game I'm in currently, I had an army (I'm France) squirted by a retreat into Central Europe. Once there I had no way to determine who was who, except unroll the game; which is a poor way to do it. A simple single letter, ie, "E", "F", "G", "A", "I", "T" or "R" in the center of a unit would save a lot of people a lot of problems when they have a unit unexpectedly where they never expected. Another thing I that I can't find an order history for not only myself, but the other players. When we played F-t-F the game master kept the executed orders available to that they could be perused. In my game the last term I was certain I'd made a particular order and I didn't see it in the results. I have no way to go back and look at what I actually entered.

Minor nits, but all, I think, effect game play.

Gina Marie

email games SUCK, full stop!

face to face or games sites such as this are always best...

Email is a waste of time- yawn

> It seems also that the games portray the orders without a written
> report or a history.
The order history can be viewed on the large map. If you're an old time player who's used to entering orders via text then phpDip won't be for you, because one of the goals of phpDip was to remove the need to know correct order syntax.

> Once there I had no way to determine who was who, except
> unroll the game; which is a poor way to do it.
All units have the color of their country next to them in a "flag" or painting the territory they're in. Again whether you can adapt to this change depends on what you're used to, but I've never heard of anyone else having a problem with this.

> Another thing I that I can't find an order history for not only myself,
> but the other players
The large maps contain your order history, and you can view the large maps for any turn in any game. If you find textual orders clearer than arrows on the map then that's one thing, but you can't say that it's not available at all.

I think the cross in the middle of the arrow is totally unnecessary for a failed move. Or what;s the point for it?

Actually, the cross in the middle of the arrow of a failed move is in line with the conventions used in the Avalon Hill rulebook, if I'm not mistaken. I think it would be particularly useful for beginners who don't fully understand the adjudication rules yet.

The problem is that cutted supports do not show on the map.

Use the big map. Always.

I would like to see a written history of orders. There have been 3-4 times that I did not see any kind of expected results from an order, and I wonder if I screwed up the order or the game screwed up order. Seeing it listed out the way it was received by the game would help reconcile what went wrong.

You mean there's actually more info in the extended map than in the small one?

yes. a lot, actually.

much more, including messed-up supports and convoys (ones that wouldn't have worked anyway regardless of interference), and cut supports, ...

Interesting site www.Stabbeurfou.org

Designed primarily to facilitate team based tournaments e.g. seven teams of seven, with team-mates allowed to give advise/tactics and potentially agree cross-game alliances. And importantly ability for team members to cover for each other in event of someone missing their orders/away for an event.

Yeah...once played in it, but I thought the interface was clumsy.

I hate syntax! (and phpDip is much more user friendly...)

wasn't suggesting the site was worth using.... just that the team concept is interesting.

well, yes, the interface was clumsy, but still, it was a good site. i like the tools. (like mapping)