I’ve played 0xFF games (hexadecimal for 255) and have come full circle back to the basic 100 . I’ve peaked at around 1500, but my approach of bet big, go apeshit, and fight like an animal until the bitter end has gotten me right back to square 1.

I now realize that, like watching Michael Jackson perform the moonwalk dance for the first time, it is one thing to see something done, and another to try to do it yourself based on what you think you saw. If you intend to perform the moonwalk, you have to slow down the playback and very carefully analyze exactly what is being done to create the illusion of slow, fluid backward motion.

I’ve been playing Diplomacy like someone who watched the moonwalk at full speed and tried to do it. I actually don’t know what any other player is actually *doing* when playing Diplomacy. In some sense I have not been playing this game at all.

So, what are you all doing when you play this game? What are the steps?