Diplomacy Games

Kissinger & Diplomacy + Interview with Sascha Heylmann

The guys interview Sascha Heylmann who they met and played at WDC. Plus we address the myth of Diplomacy being the favorite game of Henry Kissinger... unfortunately surprisingly timely.

Intro

• The guys open the show and discuss the venue and their drinks before they introduce their interview with Sascha Heylmann, one of the behind the scenes organisers at WDC in Bangkok (0 mins 15 secs

Interview with Sascha Heylmann

• The interview with Sascha begins (2 mins 45 secs)
• How Sascha got into Diplomacy: both in Europe and in Bangkok. He discusses recent organising of games in Bangkok (4 mins 30 secs)
• They talk about the challenge of getting local players instead of ex-pats and more women involved into the game (9 mins)
• The guys talk about the challenge of playing a pre-dominantly a game communicating in English vs Thai, culture in the ex-pat and Thai communities and improving diversity in the game (15 mins)
• Sascha talks about upcoming steps in Diplomacy coming up for Bangkok and more broadly for southeast Asia (26 mins 45 secs)
• Ken asks about Sascha's takeaway thoughts on what went well and what could've been done differently for future tournaments (31 mins 30 secs)
• They talk about long term thinking for a tournament circuit concept. Sascha reflects on this in the southeast Asian context with the idea of it being somewhere like Denang in Vietnam in August 2024 (36 mins 30 secs)
• If you want to find out more and join Sascha's Whatsapp group for the New Years or Southeast Asian championship, use our contact us link and we'll hook you up! Or private message Vaultboy on vDiplomacy (45 mins 30 secs)
• The guys wrap up the interview (52 mins)
• The guys return and give their thoughts on the interview (52 mins 50 secs)
• Ken and Gavin move bars to the Press Club (54 mins 50 secs)

Diplomacy news and chat

• Brother Bored’s Diplomacy Dojo podcast is back after a bit of a hiatus (56 mins)
• They discuss PlayDip recently being hacked and give their thoughts about the massive amount of gambling advertising on the site (58 mins)
• Ken announces that we’re going to be part of trying to get a face to face scene happening on the Gold Coast (about an hour south of Brisbane) (1 hr 2 mins)
• Gavin announces a small development in the urban legend about Diplomacy being the favourite game of Henry Kissinger. Note: this was recorded prior to the announcement of Henry Kissinger’s death (1 hr 6 mins 30 secs)
• The guys turn to their new proposed variant across multiple theaters of war at the end of the 19th Century and have an update for listeners (1 hr 20 mins 15 secs)
• Gavin resets expectations on a Christmas extravaganza for the next episode (1 hr 37 mins)
• He goes onto discuss a suggested title for this variant (1 hr 39 mins 15 secs)
• They talk about a name for the variant and coalesce on "Big Stick Diplomacy" (1 hr 47 mins 30 secs)
• The guys begin wrapping up the episode (1 hr 49 mins)

Venue: Press Club, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Ken:  Valley Hops hazy IPA
Gavin: The house cabernet sauvignon.

Just a reminder you can support the show by giving it 5 stars on iTunes or Stitcher. And don't forget if you want to help pay off the audio equipment... or buy the guys a drink, you can also donate at Patreon, plus you get extra podcast episodes!

Lastly, don't forget to subscribe so you get the latest Diplomacy Games episodes straight to your phone.

Thanks as always to Dr Dan aka "The General" for his rockin' intro tune.

Interview with Bradley Grace

The guys interview Bradley Grace about his love of Diplomacy. Plus they discuss a great new variant devised on a mini bus in rural Thailand and their online games.

Intro

• The guys introduce themselves, the bar and their drinks for the evening (0 mins 10 secs)
• They discuss what life's like now back in Australia, instead of their super chill selves in Thailand. Ken talks about some of the places he visited in Thailand after Kanchanaburi (4 mins 30 secs)

Interview with Bradley Grace

• They start introducting the interview for today's episode with Bradley Grace. Gavin flags they had tech issues recording the interview, so apologies there's a small break and then another 30 mins of the interview didn't record for some reason (8 mins 45 secs)
• Ken begins the interview and asks Bradley about how did he come to WDC. Bradley also discusses how he first got into Diplomacy (11 mins 30 secs)
• For some reason Zoom crapped itself so soon in the interview, but then we come back (14 mins 15 secs)
• Bradley talks about his virtual Diplomacy championship top board experience and his stories on gameplay (16 mins 45 secs)
• He talks about his main lesson: be 10% less aggressive (21 mins 30 secs)
• Bradley and Ken talk about their discussions from watching the WDC shadow top board. They discuss Diplomacy as a spectator sport (23 mins 30 secs)
• Bradley talks about the repechage round which determined whether he or Edi Birsan made the top board. He then gives his views on how he would've done on the top board as Germany (26 mins)
• He asks Gavin why he built an army as Turkey in winter 1901 rather than a fleet (29 mins)
• Ken asks if Bradley had a favorite game he played at WDC (30 mins)
• As flagged the 2nd part of the interview wasn't recorded (sorry - you just missed half an hour of gold). Gavin flags our next Patreon episode has a great WDC discussion recorded involving Chris Brand, Jamal and Bradley (37 mins)

A great new variant?

• On the way back from Erawan Falls in Thailand on a mini bus, Gavin and Ken came up with the idea for a fantastic new variant, an alternate history variant set during the Spanish-American War, where a broader war occurs including Britain, France, Holland and Portugal. The variant involves conflict across 4 diffent theaters of war and different power dynamics across the quadrants to create balance across the board (43 mins 15 secs)

Around the grounds

• Ken discusses a couple of the few games he's in at the moment (1 hr 4 mins)
• Gavin talks about two games he drew in - an Ancient Mediterranean game and an Imperial game (1 hr 6 mins)
• He then discusses an American Conflict game he was eliminated in (1 hr 12 mins 30 secs)
• They talk about trying to get a face to face game happening locally. Ken discusses the new 6 player Greek city states map he purchased at WDC (1 hr 13 mins 30 secs)
• They begin wrapping up the show (1 hr 15 mins)

Venue: Antico, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Ken:  Stone & Wood pale ale
Gavin: A glass of Italian montepulciano (missed the name of the vineyard when ordering)

Just a reminder you can support the show by giving it 5 stars on iTunes or Stitcher. And don't forget if you want to help pay off the audio equipment... or buy the guys a drink, you can also donate at Patreon, plus you get extra podcast episodes!

Lastly, don't forget to subscribe so you get the latest Diplomacy Games episodes straight to your phone.

Thanks as always to Dr Dan aka "The General" for his rockin' intro tune.

Interview with Jamal Blakkarly, 2023 World Diplomacy Champion

Face to Face with Reily Chapman

With the guys about to head off to WDC in Bangkok, they play a face to face game & discuss their learnings to apply. Plus updates on their podcast listener game and new variants in development at vDip.

Intro

• The guys introduce their drinks and tonight’s initial venue (0 mins 10 secs)
• They talk a little around their plans for Bangkok's WDC before a bit of an intro on their recent face to face game in Brisbane (3 mins)

Chat with Reily Chapman on their face to face game in Brisbane

• The guys set up the context of their chat with Reily (previously on the show as Macca) about their recent face to face game in Brisbane (5 mins)
• The discussion starts as Kaner and Amby get into the Guiness  (6 mins) 
• Reily talks about his board topping game as Austria, and Amby’s poorly executed game as Italy (8 mins)
• Kaner discusses his game as Russia (12 mins)
• Amby’s psychological warfare against France (15 mins 20 secs)
• They discuss gameplay (19 mins)
• Kaner and Reily with different recollections of the same thing (22 mins 30 secs)
• Amby’s stab (24 mins 30 secs)
• Turkey starts threatening Turkey (27 mins)
• Amby discusses his misorder and how it all unraveled (31 mins)
• They discuss their top learnings from this game and the end game (38 mins)
• They start wrapping things up with some final thoughts to help for WDC (52 mins)
• Kaner & Amby return and give their thoughts on the discussion with Reily before moving onto a strategy talk (54 mins 30 secs)

Diplomacy talk

• They talk about timings for next episodes following the guys going to Thailand (1 hr 2 mins)
• The guys have moved from their starter bar (Prince Consort) to the Gatsby Lounge in Fortitude Valley and their new drinks (1 hr 4 mins)

Around the grounds

• They kick off their current games discussions with their podcast listener game based on Nine Dash Line (1 hr 6 mins 30 mins) 
• They discuss a proposed new variant at vDip set in New Zealand amongst Maori tribes by Porter Zach (1 hr 18 mins) 
• They review some of the other new maps in development (1 hr 23 mins 30 secs)
• They move onto a couple of Amby’s game including an American Conflict game and an Imperial Diplomacy game where he’s Britain (1 hr 30 mins)
• Amby gets block sizes mixed up before they discuss getting some variant maps printed for games without 7 players (1 hr 41 mins)
• The guys wrap up the show (1 hr 45 mins)

Venue: Prince Consort, Finn McCools & the Gatsby Lounge, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner: Balter XPA, Guiness and 150 Lashes pale ale
Amby: Torbruk Woodcutter's shiraz, Guiness and St Hallet’s Faith shiraz

Just a reminder you can support the show by giving it 5 stars on iTunes or Stitcher. And don't forget if you want to help pay off the audio equipment... or get the guys more drunk, you can also donate at Patreon, plus you get extra podcast episodes!

Lastly, don't forget to subscribe so you get the latest Diplomacy Games episodes straight to your phone.

Thanks as always to Dr Dan aka "The General" for his rockin' intro tune.

Interview about WDC Bangkok 2023 with Andrew Goff and Lei Saarlainen

With just a month until the first World Diplomacy Championship in Asia we catchup with organisers Andrew Goff and Lei Saarlainen about WDC Bangkok 2023, plus lots more.

Intro

• The guys introduce their drinks and tonight’s venue (0 mins 10 secs)
• They discuss why Italy doesn’t open more often to the west and some crazy openings (5 mins 35 secs)

Interview about WDC Bangkok with Andrew Goff and Lei Saarlainen

• They introduce the interview today with Lei Saarlainen and Andrew Goff about WDC 2023 in Bangkok (14 mins)
• We discuss what’s planned (16 mins 40 sec)
• They discuss how language is approached at the tournament (20 mins)
• Andrew and Lei discusses what makes this WDC different to previous tournaments (25 mins 10 secs)
• Kaner asks about what Bangkok is like for visitors flying in and what to do. Andrew gives some tricks to remember for visitors (29 mins 45 secs)
• Lei also mentions there is a side tournament being held a week later in Siem Reap in Cambodia including visits to the Angkor Wat temple complex. Andrew also gives context for scheduling during the tournament and a WhatsApp group (33 mins 50 secs)
• They discuss time limit plans for the games (38 mins 20 secs)
• Kaner asks about the tournament scoring system (41 mins 20 secs)
• Amby goes onto discuss which official version of the rules will be used - the new board or rules played for many years (44 mins 10 secs)
• Amby asks about the cultural style of the tournament gameplay (48 mins 20 secs)
• He goes onto ask about the local climate and how should people be packing (52 mins 30 secs)
• They discuss some of the challenges maintaining momentum for the tournament during the pandemic (56 mins)
• They begin wrapping up the interview (1 hr 1 min)
• They goes give their thoughts on the interview (1 hr 2 mins 30 secs)
• Amby incorrectly says the Siem Reap tournament will be in a temple - he misheard Lei - ignore this bit folks! (1 hr 7 mins)

Diplomacy chat

• Kaner asks about getting a face to face game in Brisbane (1 hr 13 mins)
• Amby discusses the Curious Western Triple  (1 hr 14 mins)
• The guys talk houses and the Kaner & Amby Gardening Show (1 hr 28 mins) 

Around the grounds

• The guys discuss their Nine Dash Line game (https://www.vdiplomacy.com/board.php?gameID=55953) which they’re playing with podcast listeners (1 hr 33 mins 40 secs)
• vDip has new variants again thanks to tobi1 and Enriador. Kaner talks about his anonymous East Indies game where he’s getting screwed over (https://www.vdiplomacy.com/board.php?gameID=55953) (1 hr 41 mins 50 secs)
• Amby touches on some of his games. First up is an email only game run by David E Cohen for the Mandate of Heaven variant. He discusses his interesting gameplay strategy - big shout out to his ally Rob (1 hr 46 mins 20 secs)
• Amby talks about his American Conflict game - a Civil War variant with the European powers joining in at the same time (https://www.vdiplomacy.com/board.php?gameID=56035#gamePanel) (1 hr 51 mins 15 secs)
• Next is his Imperial game as Britain (https://www.vdiplomacy.com/board.php?gameID=55996) (1 hr 54 mins 30 secs)
• The guys wrap up the show (2 hrs 2 mins 30 secs)

Venue: Babylon, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner: 150 Lashes pale ale
Amby: Kaesler shiraz from the Barossa Valley

Just a reminder you can support the show by giving it 5 stars on iTunes or Stitcher. And don't forget if you want to help pay off the audio equipment... or get the guys more drunk, you can also donate at Patreon, plus you get extra podcast episodes!

Lastly, don't forget to subscribe so you get the latest Diplomacy Games episodes straight to your phone.

Thanks as always to Dr Dan aka "The General" for his rockin' intro tune.

Even longer between drinks

Kaner & Amby catch up to discuss the upcoming new official board game rules, their game with podcast listeners and much more.

Intro

• The guys introduce their drinks and tonight’s venue (0 mins 5 secs)

New board game rules & face to face

• They talk about the proposed board updates and rule changes from Renegade, the new publisher (7 mins)
• Amby discusses the beer taps before they move onto the last 2 rule changes (25 mins 40 secs)
• They discuss whether any of the upcoming tournaments from August on, including WDC, will be playing against the rules (33 mins)
• The guys talk about their plans for WDC in Bangkok (43 mins 40 secs)
• Amby discusses timing for their next face to face game in Brisbane (45 mins 10 secs)

Around the grounds

• Kaner and Amby in the last episode talked about playing the Nine Dash variant with podcast listeners. This has now happened and can be found at vDip. The guys give a shout out to all listeners/players in the game  (47 mins 20 secs)
• They talk about the interesting aspects of this variant’s board before they talk about how the game is going for them and other players (49 mins 30 secs)
• Amby talks about the Aberration V anonymous game he’s in and then discusses his World War IV game (1 hr 3 mins 30 secs)
• The guys start wrapping up (1 hr 8 mins 40 secs)

Venue: Miss Demeanor, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner: Black Hops pale ale
Amby: Tscharke’s Shiraz, Shiraz, Shiraz from the Barossa Valley

Just a reminder you can support the show by giving it 5 stars on iTunes or Stitcher. And don't forget if you want to help pay off the audio equipment... or get the guys more drunk, you can also donate at Patreon, plus you get extra podcast episodes!

Lastly, don't forget to subscribe so you get the latest Diplomacy Games episodes straight to your phone.

Thanks as always to Dr Dan aka "The General" for his rockin' intro tune.

Long time between drinks

Lots of stuff been happening in the guys' lives, so they catch up to discuss the game.

Intro

• The guys give some context for the delay in podcast episodes (0 mins 10 secs)
• Kaner gives Amby his belated Christmas gift (1 mins 50 secs)
• They discuss their face to face game in January, their first game since Covid. They discuss having another game in mid-April (5 mins 20 secs)
• The guys move onto discussing ChatGPT and using it for a Diplomacy game. Kaner discusses the jail breaked version (10 mins 30 secs)
• They realise they'd forgette to introduce the bar and their drinks (13 mins 45 secs)
• Amby talks some more about ChatGPT and what it knows about our podcast (16 mins)
• Amby asks Kaner about circular movements in Diplomacy. Kaner uses as an example a Classic Britain game. They go onto discuss the dynamics of how England got off Great Britain (25 mins 30 secs)
• They discuss the two new variants at vDip: Cold War Redux (a 4 player version) and Nine-Dash Line. They discuss creating a password protected game for our listeners and give away the password when you listen (35 mins)
• Kaner discusses a northern California variant map, a New York City variant and David E Cohen's South of the Sahara variant (48 mins)
• In discussing the Russian civil war, Amby discusses the Czechoslovak legion creating havoc in central Russia (54 mins)
• The guys move to a new bar Black Hops session ale and Lato Wild West red blend. Kaner talks chilli vodka (56 mins)
• Kaner discusses his Mistletoe Grinding Shoepolish Mudcake game (1 hr 1 min)
• Kaner's games he stole from Amby and bottom feeders (1 hr 6 mins 30 secs)
• Why they can't play Bot games at the moment against each other (1 hr 14 mins)
• Amby talks a little about his games (1 hr 16 mins 40 secs)
• Amby goes back to the January face to face Brisbane game and how he did not lie to players (channeling his inner Cicero) (1 hr 18 mins 50 secs)
• The guys wrap the show up (1 hr 20 mins)

Venue: Criterion Hotel and Before + After, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner: Great Northern lager and Black Hops session ale
Amby: Balter XPA, Pepperjack Shiraz from the Barossa Valley and Lato Wild West red blend

 

Just a reminder you can support the show by giving it 5 stars on iTunes or Stitcher. And don't forget if you want to help pay off the audio equipment... or get the guys more drunk, you can also donate at Patreon, plus you get extra podcast episodes!

Lastly, don't forget to subscribe so you get the latest Diplomacy Games episodes straight to your phone.

Thanks as always to Dr Dan aka "The General" for his rockin' intro tune.

Interview with Noam Brown from Meta

The guys interview Noam Brown from Meta about all the things you don't know about Cicero. Plus a good old Diplomacy chat.

Intro

• The guys introduce the show and venue. Amby explains his screw up pre-recording (0 mins 10 secs)
• Amby asks for listener's feedback on the Christmas show and they discuss their drinks (6 mins)

Interview with Noam Brown from Meta

• The guys start introducing today's interview with Noam Brown from Meta about the work they've done teaching their artificial intelligence (AI) agent Cicero into playing a very strong communicative game of Diplomacy (10 mins 30 secs)
• Amby mentions where you can learn more in other videos about Cicero: DBN, Meta's own videos and CaptainMeme's Diplostrats first and second videos (12 mins 30 secs)
• The guys begin the interview with Noam and discuss his early days experience with the game (14 mins)
• They discuss why Diplomacy was chosen to explore with AI (17 mins)
• Noam talks a little more about his pitch as a Meta employee and what benefits he put forward to the organisation (20 mins 40 secs)
• They discuss awareness of Diplomacy among team members (23 mins 55 secs)
• Noam talks about prior AI research and how it related to the research project (25 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner asks about what type of computing power is needed to run Cicero. Amby asks whether people could play against Cicero (28 mins)
• Kaner asks whether Cicero learns from games it plays and asks about Novel techniques used with Cicero (31 mins 45 secs)
• Amby asks what happens when humans play randomly against the bot and how it interrupts that (46 mins)
• Amby asks about when in the research process did the project team identify not lying works better (47 mins 30 secs)
• Amby goes onto query if someone could take off the "training wheels" to make Cicero lie (55 mins)
• They discuss why Cicero puts an emphasis on some locations on the board that some players ignore. He goes onto asking about Cicero's understanding of stalemate lines and other learnings from Cicero (56 mins)
• They go onto discussing the conversation style of Cicero and how players interact with it (1 hr 1 min)
• Amby asks about how Cicero responds to the reactions of human players. They discuss what Cicero would do if everyone wanted to be its ally (1 hr 3 mins 30 secs)
• They discuss why the named Cicero was chosen (1 hr 6 mins)
• Amby asks about the peer review process of publishing the paper to Science.org and Noam's thoughts on the media's reporting of the story (1 hr 7 mins)
• Amby asks about whether there are any plans to have Cicero publicly play in a leading tournament (1 hr 10 mins 50 secs)
• He asks if there's anything Noam would approach differently if he was starting the project now (1 hr 12 mins 20 secs)
• To find out more Noam encourages people to visit Meta's page on the project and again, CaptainMeme's video (1 hr 15 mins)
• The guys return and give their thoughts on the interview, plus Kaner's awesome question he didn't ask (1 hr 17 mins 30 secs)
• They talk about the idea of how Cicero could play and win the World Diplomacy Championship (1 hr 20 mins)
• Kaner discusses playing the meta game, how Cicero needed to learn to play differently against humans and playing the game with "the truth" (1 hr 24 mins)

Diplomacy Chat

• Amby wants to explore the idea of playing a face to face game by being as open and honest as possible (1 hr 28 mins)
• The guys move to Newstead Social and order some new drinks and how they compare in a mid game. Kaner describes a wine he's recently had (1 hr 32 mins)
• Amby talks again about getting a face to face game on - spoiler alert... it actually happened! (1 hr 41 mins)
• The guys talk more about their plans when attending WDC 2023. Find out more at the WDC Bangkok website (1 hr 45 mins 30 secs)
• The guys start wrapping up the show (1 hr 55 mins)

Venue: Green Beacon Brewery and Newstead Social, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner: Apple cider by Green Beacon Brewery and Your Mum's Fav lager by Young Henry's

Amby: Windjammer IPA by Green Beacon Brewery and West Cape Howe tempranillo from Margaret River in Western Australia

Just a reminder you can support the show by giving it 5 stars on iTunes or Stitcher. And don't forget if you want to help pay off the audio equipment... or get the guys more drunk, you can also donate at Patreon, plus you get extra podcast episodes!

*** Remember if you know something about how WordPress works and can help the guys, get in touch!!! ***

Lastly, don't forget to subscribe so you get the latest Diplomacy Games episodes straight to your phone.

Thanks as always to Dr Dan aka "The General" for his rockin' intro tune.

 

The 2022 Christmas Diplomacy Trivia Show

The guys celebrate the festive season with Round 2 of Diplomacy Trivia, some Christmas gift giving and much, much more.

Intro

• The guys introduce the show, venue and drinks. They throw in a bit of weather talk (0 mins 10 secs)

 

• The guys introduce the 2022 Christmas Diplomacy Trivia game and contestants: reigning champ Markus Zijlstra/CaptainMeme, 3rd place 2022 WDC player Peter McNamara, variant extraordinaire David E. Cohen and podcast Patreon supporter and well known player Hal Schild (7 mins 30 secs)
• The trivia contest kicks off (8 mins 45 secs)
• The first question starts (11 mins)
• The visual for which country was not altered in the very last prototype of Realpolitik before it became Diplomacy is: (20 mins 30 secs)

 

• The next visual question relates to this board (23 mins)

• The contest round up with the winner declared (1 hr 5 mins)
• The guys return and give their thoughts on the contest (1 hr 7 mins)

Christmas gifts and Diplomacy chat

• Being Christmas the guys exchange gifts (kind of) (1 hr 12 mins)

• They talk about their plans for WDC 2023 in Thailand (1 hr 20 mins 30 secs)
• Amby shares his dream about the winner of WDC 2023 (1 hr 24 mins 15 secs)
• Amby asks Kaner if he plans to do a fact finding tour for his Southeast Asian variant of the Khmer kingdoms (1 hr 27 mins)
• The guys get some more drinks and describe them as mid-games (1 hr 29 mins 30 secs)

Around the grounds

• Kaner discusses briefly one of his new Europa Renovatio games (1 hr 32 mins 30 secs)
• Amby talks about the David E. Cohen Mandate of Heaven email game he's in where he's playing as Shu (Orange) (1 hr 33 mins 30 secs)

• Amby has been playing with ChatGPT to see how it can improve his Diplomacy game (1 hr 40 mins)
• The guys start wrapping up the show (1 hr 46 mins 30 secs)

Venue: Brewdog, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner: Hazy Jane Pale Ale and Gateway to Helles Pilsner from Brewdog

Amby: Brewdog IPA from Brewdog and Willie Smith's Organic Apple Cider

 

Just a reminder you can support the show by giving it 5 stars on iTunes or Stitcher. And don't forget if you want to help pay off the audio equipment... or get the guys more drunk, you can also donate at Patreon, plus you get extra podcast episodes!

*** Remember if you know something about how WordPress works and can help the guys, get in touch!!! ***

Lastly, don't forget to subscribe so you get the latest Diplomacy Games episodes straight to your phone.

Thanks as always to Dr Dan aka "The General" for his rockin' intro tune.

 

Interview with Stephen Agar on Dip zines, the Variant Bank and much more

The guys interview Stephen Agar, creator of the Diplomacy Archive for zines and the Variant Bank, on getting back into the hobby. Plus the guys talk cheese and languages. Oh and their games too.

Intro

• The guys introduce the show, venue and drinks. They grab some lunch and then return (0 mins 10 secs)

Interview with Stephen Agar

• The guys start setting the scene for their interview with Stephen Agar, creator of the Variant Bank and collector of Diplomacy zines around returning to the hobby (4 mins 15 secs)
• The interview begins with Stephen talking about running postal Diplomacy back in 1976 and his progression initially with the hobby (4 mins 30 secs)
• He starts talking about creating in 1999 Diplomacy Archive and Variant Bank. He goes onto discussing how he received 1000's of UK Diplomacy zines and how he's looking at providing them to the British Library (11 mins)
• He discusses rediscovering  aspects of the game from rereading and cataloging zines and how only about 10% of all zines are online (15 mins)
• Stephen goes onto discuss how he's inherited about 1,600 variants from the North American Variant Bank which aren't online (17 mins 30 secs)
• They discuss why interest in variants have reduced in the Diplomacy community compared to the 1960's and 70's (22 mins)
• He talks about the ingenuity and fun in variants like Abstraction, Multiplicity and light hearted variants like Vain Rats, Deluge and Geophysical Diplomacy (27 mins 30 secs)
• Amby asks what you'd typically find in a zine edition before progressing to a general discussion around views around how the community has evolved (33 mins 45 secs)
• Stephen talks around the passing of veterans in the community (44 mins 45 secs)
• Amby asks about what things were like in the postal Diplomacy scene (47 mins 30 secs)
• They talk a little around Richard Sharp and his book on the game (50 mins 15 secs)
• The conversation moves onto the physical nature of zines, Diplomacy folklore and the challenge of dealing with old web tech (53 mins)
• They discuss how people can contribute to Stephen's project (59 mins 30 secs)
• Stephen talks about stalemate lines and correspondence with Allan Calhamer and Stephen's 1959 edition of Diplomacy (1 hr 8 mins)
• Stephen asks if anyone is interested in a postal Diplomacy zine to reach out to him by email (1 hr 16 mins)
• The guys return to give their thoughts on the interview (1 hr 18 mins)
• Amby reflects on the difficulty of getting sufficient players for an email game, talking about the David E. Cohen game he's in and gives a thanks to David for creating the connection with Stephen (1 hr 30 mins 45 secs)

Around the grounds

• Kaner announces he's about to win a Germany 1648 game which he thinks will be over by the time this episode goes out (1 hr 37 mins 50 secs)
• They talk cheese and languages (1 hr 44 mins)
• Amby discusses one of the games he's in and the guys can't remember which variant they both previously agreed to play (1 hr 54 mins)
• The guys talk about Daniel Lester winning the 2022 Web Diplomacy Championship and touch on the announced plans for 2023 WDC in Bangkok, Thailand (1 hr 59 mins)
• They start to wrap up the show (2 hrs 3 mins)

Venue: Greenglass, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner: Pipsqueak cider from Little Creatures, Freemantle

Amby: Château La Reyne Malbec from Cahors , France

Just a reminder you can support the show by giving it 5 stars on iTunes or Stitcher. And don't forget if you want to help pay off the audio equipment... or get the guys more drunk, you can also donate at Patreon, plus you get extra podcast episodes!

*** Remember if you know something about how WordPress works and can help the guys, get in touch!!! ***

Lastly, don't forget to subscribe so you get the latest Diplomacy Games episodes straight to your phone.

Thanks as always to Dr Dan aka "The General" for his rockin' intro tune.