England picks France, Germany picks Russsia, Austria picks Turkey.

Italy, realizing that E/F is by far the most dangerous, attacks them. Germany, Russia, and italy manage to beat them down, but not before A/T has become unstoppable.

The rules might need adjusting...
Anyways, this is but a fledgling thought. Much contemplation will occur before I make a game using this at all, if ever. :p

How about we all choose what the alliances are before the game starts?
(And an A/T never becomes an unstoppable force).

Sounds interesting.
And it would be relaxing to not worry about being betrayed by your teammate.
How about selecting alliances randomly?

@ Onar

http://www.webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=7048

I would love to disagree.

Random alliances would work.
My only problem is the whole 7-countries.
How about...
We roll a 7 sided-die (As per a random number generator, easily found via the interwebs), for the first country, which must ally with the result of a second roll. This is repeated a total of three times, rerolling for multiple appearances. The one number not rolled may ally with anybody, and is the only one who needs to diplome.

Wouldn't the lone country have a disadvantage?
It would be very difficult to compete with alliance twice your size.

Yes, I suppose it would. However, likewise, a three person alliance, no matter how you split it, would hardly be fair either.

I was thinking something along the lines of Italy/Germany/Austria, France/Russia and England/Turkey. There would still be diploming between the players in and out of their respective alliances, and in essence, it is a no-stab game (for your "allies").

Interesting idea. Got me thinking (not that I want to hijack this thread, but it's in the same vein) about something along the lines of having an adjudicator who allocates random enemies and allies before the game starts.

Only the adjudicator and the player would know who their random enemy and ally are. you can't attack (or support any attack) against your secret ally's units or centres and you can't support (hold or move) your secret enemy's units.

Crazy huh? Crazy enough to work!

Anyway, just a crazy idea to think about.

Interesting.
But would you be your ally's ally?
In other words, would it be just two-player alliances, or might your random ally also be inclined to attack you?

I think maybe you wouldn't have to be your ally's ally. Not sure exactly how it would work. May need some brainstorming.

Right. If we have enough people, I'll be starting a game called Alliance Variant, with password Ally. 10 bet.

@texas: That sounds like the craziest game ever. It would be very interesting in trying to find out who your ally is and how to utilize them. It would create an interesting dilemna in that once you found the country that must be your ally, do you attack them, or work with them? Because if you attacked them, they could not attack back, but they could be useful to work with. I think that once I have some games finished, I might have to give this variant a shot.

Ok, I've had some more thoughts so I'll start a new thread so I don't hijack Le Roi's thread.

Ok, this is an idea for a variant inspired by Le Roi's thread (http://webdiplomacy.net/forum.php?viewthread=464865)

Basically, it needs some brainstorming, but the idea is that the game is adjudicated by a non player who assigns (randomly or with purpose) a secret ally and secret enemy for each power.

You cannot attack any centres or units (or support such attacks) against your secret ally and you cannot support moves or support holds for your secret enemy.

It would be in the players interest to keep their ally and enemy a secret as the information could obviously be used against them.

Not sure if secrets enemies and allies can be matched (such and England and France both being each others secret enemy)...

You would have to try and deduce who is friends and enemies by the moves.

Ideas?

Worth a try?

Any interest?

Sorry, that was meant to be a new thread (http://webdiplomacy.net/forum.php?viewthread=465303)