Hmmh, how about: Don't trust people's advice?!

Well, at least not during games... ^_^

yeah that too... you will get lied to a lot

Not by Thucydides and me of course!!
But the others... Whoooa - Don't trust the others.

yeah trust no one

Have fun and stay here!

Yes, Figlesquidge is right.
A warm welcome! It really is great fun. People are great, too (if you can get over the fact that we choose lying as a hobby).
Good Luck!

1. Invest approximately 10% of your total points in each game. So, start at about 10 pts per game. If you're a winner, you start moving up to bigger pots. If you lose, you move down to smaller.

2. Ally with me.

limit yourself to about 3 games. Unless you can handle more. Remember try to talk to everybody in your games every turn.

never listen a word dipperdon tells you :p

dont listen to trim or don.

or sicarius and never ever trust invictus

oh yea, if you want to play with more than one account and get an unfair advantage in a game, bribe figle. Thats how I'm able to keep all 13 of my accounts ;]

Remember, he likes goldfish...

If I remember correctly monkey, you created three accounts as soon as you got here, and you still lost all your games:p

On a serious note, try to keep your inital gamecount down, maybe two or three when starting out. Try to invest as much time as possible in press with EVERY person in your games, even if you don't border them. And be cautious but not timid, and remember that supply centres are not the only thing to think about in the game. :)

Also, trust people named Friendly Sword completely, and keep your centres as open as possible when he's nearby. It may look like he's stabbing, but its really a strange and convoluted way of protecting you and your centres from foreign attackers not as nice as Friendly Sword.

Kinda like how MadMarx convinced you to let him kill you as a testing mechanism?:]

haha, possibly. Madmarx is the inspiration for alot of my fits of deviousness.

And never, ever, ever trust LanGaidin; he fancies himself a warrior-poet. Oh wait, scrap that. Trust him - he's a great guy.

And if you do get 7 accounts running simultaneously, don't put them all in the same game. You won't be able to trust any of your neighbors.

You're gonna lose some games, but please, please, never ever ever go CD. Fight to the last man. If you can't save yourself, try to save your ally. If you can't do that, try to help one of your destroyers enemies. Don't stop entering moves. And talk to everybody.

Write to all your your opponents at least once each season. I admit I don't usually keep to this one myself but if there is anything to be gained, it won't be unless you try.
Also you can trust anyone who you can stab first.

I won't let you stab me first.

yea, write to just about everyone. unless they just are not responding whatsoever. and try to ally with a good amount of people so you always have people to call on for support.

advise:
don't tell anyone you are new
people tend to exploit that

when anyone tells you something that strikes you as odd, as in, "I don't see how this helps me win", go to www.diplomacy-archive.com and instead of reading up on articles about the country you are playing, read up on the countries your enemy is playing.
search for articles that match the moves he has done and the press he has send.
Especially in the early game, it is a good help to anticipate the enemy.

Perhaps the best advice I have is to not take the game personally. People can be really devious, even if you have been allied with them from the beginning. They have no problem making a stab on a game long ally. But if you find a good ally who actually has your back as long as you have his, then you should try your best to be an honorable player. Just realize, not everybody subscribes to taht gaming philosophy.

agreed with actinphishy. it's really easy to get upset, and that's natural on some level, but after allowing that emotion to chill for a bit, laughter is a good antidote. and being jovial even with enemies can not only make the game more fun but increase chances of survival, i think.

Buddy up with the most experienced player in your games. (if you don't know the most experienced, buddy up with Russia)

I think diplomat1824's advise can be more general

buddy up with everyone

until the moment you decide to attack them, make sure they think of you as the one they would like to stab the least

I don't think newness is such a bad thing, even if others know about it. People will try to exploit a newbie, but they have to do it in the endgame since they could do it in the opening anyway by allying against you. By the time you reach the endgame you're an experienced player anyway.

exploitation is not limited to just fooling a guy and grabbing his centers

it can be as simple as making someone do a move that will anger a third player.

the third player is now pre-occupied, leaving you some room.

especially new players often forget that they can difuse such situations by explaining why they did that move

Yeh, I wish I could persuade people I'm new. Somehow they don't believe me :S

Welcome to the game! Enjoy it, and remember - all the above are liars !