What is 1v1 Diplomacy?
1v1 Diplomacy is a special variant of the Classic Diplomacy map. In this variant, a player receives control over the starting position of one of two countries. All other provinces besides the starting home supply centers of the countries being played, including the home supply centers of countries not being played, are rendered neutral: for example, in a 1v1 game where Russia is not being played, Warsaw acts the exact same as Sweden in a normal Classic Diplomacy game. The victory condition is the same, but the 1v1 format creates a wildly different dynamic and method of play.
What's the appeal of 1v1 Diplomacy?
Since you have one other player who is unequivocally your opponent, the games often play like gunboat; however, unlike classic gunboat, where the overlapping decisions of six other players can create a strategic landscape somewhat outside of the individual player's control, having one dedicated and unequivocal opponent places the entire responsibility for the outcome of a game in one's own hands. The "random" variable of a third power intervening does not exist here: 1v1 Diplomacy is comparable to Chess in this regard.
Are the 1v1 Diplomacy positions balanced?
This is an interesting concern that has been explored by the community in detail as we complete more games. While the format of competitive 1v1 tournaments is intrinsically corrective of balance concerns to some extent (in competitive 1v1 tournaments, typically players play multiple games, where each player plays both countries), it is still desirable to have balanced starting positions (so as to allow players to outplay one another). While the balance is imperfect, tournament results from the two most widely-played variants (see below) indicate that any balance issues are ultimately unsubstantial.
What are the different variants of 1v1 Diplomacy?
As of this writing (2018/1/3), webdiplomacy officially hosts two variants: France vs Austria ("FvA"), and Germany vs Italy ("GvI"). Both formats have been tested extensively by the community for balance (and found satisfactory), provide dynamic gameplay opportunities, and are simply damn fun aside from any other concerns. There are other variants floating around on our sister site, vdiplomacy, such as Britain* vs Turkey, "Frankland vs Juggernaut" (a unique format where one player controls France and Germany, and the other player controls Russia and Turkey), and even the option to create your own pairings, in the event a 1v1 aficionado is looking for greater variety.
Metagame
What is a 1v1 Diplomacy metagame?
For those unfamiliar with the term in this application, a metagame is NOT a site rules violation, but is in fact the term used to refer to trends in common, important decisions made by competitors in the 1v1 Diplomacy scene. This term is mainly applied to discussion of opening tactics and expansion strategies in 1v1 variants which are played frequently and thus generate enough data for actionable discussion. For example, one of the most popular openings for Austrian players in FvA is:
Code: Select all
Army Vienna -> Tyrolia
Army Budapest -> Galicia
Fleet Trieste -> Venice
Why is metagame information useful?
The most important turn of the game in 1v1 Diplomacy, without a doubt, is Spring 1901.
The reason for this is "tempo," a concept borrowed from Chess which is of utmost importance to 1v1. "Tempo," in very broad terms, refers to the time value of your options. A player's tactical options in Diplomacy are constrained by two major factors: the number of pieces at his or her disposal, and the one-move-per-turn restriction on each piece. "Tempo" refers to how effectively a player leverages the number of moves (s)he has in a particular turn toward the end goal of securing 18 centers. Because 1901 is generally (always, unless you royally screwed up) the year in which you have the fewest number of moves you're allowed to make, the relative importance of each move increases. A single bad order in Spring 1901 constitutes 33% of your orders for the turn being bad, which is more punishing than if you made one bad move out of 10 orders given in Spring 1905, for instance (at 10%).
Then, you must also factor in the potential for lost moves, as a result of poor moves early in the game translating into fewer centers, and thus fewer pieces, and thus fewer moves, later in the game.
You may have noticed an important problem: if Spring 1901 is so paramount to determining a player's fate, how is he to know how to make a good set of opening moves? With no information from her opponent, how can a player just starting the game expect to make smart decisions that maximize her chances to win?
This is where the concept of a metagame comes into play.
By understanding tempo, we can start to weed out bad openings, and narrow the field to a few truly viable options, assuming sound play from opponents. (The uninitiated who make unsound openings, regardless of their skill level, will usually disqualify themselves from victory right away in the face of any tournament-viable opening.)
These options tend, in a vacuum, to be more or less "equally viable" -- and often dependent upon correctly guessing what your opponent is going to do, in order to make the best call.
Of course, in the abstract, it's impossible to "correctly guess" with no prior information... but that's where the metagame comes in!
Take our Anti-Alpine Opening earlier. Let us say that this opening is chosen by 70% of Austrian players, due to its robust win rate in tournament play. (This number is made-up, but from my distant playing experience months ago is probably not that far off.) Let us further say that you are France, and you are choosing between two openings: one of which has the highest win rate against Austrian openings which are not the Anti-Alpine Opening, but has a 45% win rate against the AAO; and one of which has a lower win rate than the first option against non-AAOs, but has a 60% win rate against the AAO. Even though the first opening is better against "the field," if you knew 70% of Austrians played the AAO, you could make a sound guess your opponent would play the AAO, choose the second opening, and possibly come out ahead.
What is the current 1v1 Diplomacy metagame for widely-played variants?
This will be a subject of discussion within the thread. In the interest of keeping all information in this post relevant at all times, this post will stay away from making specific factual claims about a metagame that is constantly in flux.
Strategy Resources, Primers, etc.
This section is currently under construction. As the 1v1 community advises, this section will be updated with gameIDs from high-class tournament play, articles and high-quality posts from seasoned 1v1 veterans, and informative strategy discussions as they become available.
Opening Strategy References
- A catalog of popular France vs Austria openings, courtesy of 1v1 veteran and Tournament Director captainmeme.