Diplomacy Games

vDip & webDip love match? An interview with Kestas

The guys interview Kestas about his suggested options for how vDip and webDip could better work together or possibly merge. Plus how their games are going.

Intro

• The guys introduce the show, venue and drinks (0 mins 10 secs)

Interview with Kestas on vDip and webDip

• Kestas is welcomed back to the show and starts by discussing his thoughts on how vDip and webDip could possibly work better together (4 mins 30 secs)
• He outlines some of the challenges for vDip and how webDip may be able to assist (9 mins)
• Kestas describes how he's testing the water with the community for their thoughts and feedback (15 mins)
• Amby gives a clarification on "vDip is dying", which was mentioned on the site in the context of its forum (17 mins)
• Kaner asks about if vDip and webDip were closer, could rapid variant development start again (24 mins 30 secs)
• Amby asks how would variants be brought across. Kestas discusses the options available (34 mins)
• They discuss if merges happened what needs consideration for vDip players who for one reason or another don't want to be part of webDip and former webDip players who may have been banned and subsequently moved to vDip (49 mins)
• Kaner asks about what the function of vDip is now and what the vDip community wants for the future (55 mins)
• Amby asks what opportunities there may be in the future for webDip which may be an incentive for vDip players when considering the proposal (59 mins)
• Amby asks about timeframes (1 hr 3 mins)
• After Amby had to wrap the interview up, the guys return to discuss their thoughts on the conversation (1 hr 7 mins 40 secs)
• Kaner summarises the four options on the table (1 hr 9 mins 15 secs)
• They discuss the gin menu (1 hr 22 mins)
• Kaner returns to discussing how functionality between vDip and webDip could be shared and their final thoughts on the topic (1 hr 25 mins)
• Kaner touches on what he and Kestas discussed after Amby had to leave and wrap up the interview. Amby asks what webDip people thoughts on the proposal also would be (1 hr 36 mins 40 secs)

Diplomacy chat

• The guys discuss David E. Cohen's Mandate of Heaven play test which Amby will be joining (1 hr 39 mins)
• Amby gives another shout out to the listener community for anyone with WordPress skills who can help either fix the DiplomacyGames.com template or help us migrate from the existing old template to a new one (1 hr 40 mins)
• Amby mentions they spent about 10 minutes talking about Mandate of Heaven back in podcast episode 105 (1 hr 44 mins)
• Amby mentions he's been playing with AI image creation using Diplomacy related themes and posts some quick ones created on the spot with Kaner, one Diplomacy & JFK themed and the other Harry Potter characters playing Diplomacy (based on Kaner's requested prompt). He'll do some better versions posted to our Twitter account (1 hr 44 mins 30 secs)

 

 

• They move onto Amby's drawn Zeus 5 game where he played as Italy. While he initially didn't like the variant map, he really started appreciating it after playing it (1 hr 51 mins)
• Next is Amby's A Modern Europe game where he's playing a position anonymously (1 hr 57 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner touches on his Rinasciemento game (2 hrs 1 min)
• They begin wrapping up the show, flagging what's coming up in the Patreon episode that will be out in a week (2 hrs 3 mins)

Venue: Dutch Courage Officers' Mess, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner: Stone & Wood Pacific Ale

Amby: Zilzie shiraz from the Barossa Valley, South 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.

 

Interview with BlueDog on rediscovering Diplomacy

The guys interview BlueDog, an old school Diplomacy player who got back into the game after many decades. Plus Diplomacy chat, entering the Australian Podcast Awards and more drinking.

Intro

• The guys introduce the show and an ongoing apology for the break in episodes. Before they go onto discuss what Kaner's reading, the venue and their drinks (0 mins 15 secs)

Interview with BlueDog

• The start discussing the interview today with BlueDog, an ally of Amby's in a WWIV sealanes game. Amby talks a little about Rulebook press (9 mins 30 secs)
• BlueDog discusses how he got started playing Diplomacy in the 1970's and only got back into it this year (2022 at time of recording) (14 mins 30 secs)
• They discuss having the parent-child dynamic changed (17 mins 30 secs)
• BlueDog discuss how his father, a World War 2 veteran and uncle got into the game (19 mins 30 secs)
• He goes onto discuss his experience with the online Diplomacy sites and his thoughts pre-internet about the game opportunities he envisaged (22 mins)
• BlueDog discusses how he got back into the game listening to the When Diplomacy Fails interview with Zack Twamley (this is also on Zack's feed.) He goes onto discuss how he'd forgotten some of the basics when coming back into the game (25 mins)
• They discuss playing against the bots at webDip (28 mins)
• BlueDog talks about playing large variant games (Divided States, Europa Renovatio) and liking players even though they eat up your SC's (31 mins)
• BlueDog and Amby discuss their game (BlueDog as Australia, Amby as South Africa). BlueDog gives lots of good advice for players (38 mins)
• They start discussing the end game (49 mins)
• BlueDog travels a lot internationally for his job. Amby asks how that impacts on his ability to play the game (52 mins)
• Amby asks about whether BlueDog would get back into playing face to face Diplomacy (55 mins)
• BlueDog asks about the demographics for who plays the game and the type of people they are (56 mins)
• They guys wrap up the interview and return to discuss their thoughts on the game (1 hr  0 mins 45 secs)

Diplomacy talk

• Amby gives a shout out to the first WDC for the first time since COVID at Carnage in Vermont. Amby gives an update on WDC 2023 in Thailand and that's still looking good (1 hr 4 mins 45 secs)
• Amby presents a Thailand Diplomacy challenge to Kaner (1 hr 11 mins 30 secs)
• Because Amby has been sick for a while he hasn't organised a face to face game in Brisbane. They discuss plugging into university board game clubs to get some Diplomacy games going (1 hr 13 mins)
• Amby is looking at putting in an entry to the 2022 Australian Podcast Awards. Kaner asks what category they should enter (1 hr 15 mins 30 secs)
• The guys grab some more drinks, Amby changes to wine and they order some Peruvian loaded fries (1 hr 22 mins)
• Amby has been playing with AI image generators like Craiyon, and starts talking about some of the AI generated images can be created based on Diplomacy game themes (1 hr 23 mins 45 secs)

Around the grounds

• The guys move onto discuss one of the Europa Renovatio games he's signed up for, and accuses Amby of being a CD stalker. They go onto discuss how different countries tend to go on this map (1 hr 34 mins 30 secs)
• They talk about favourite variants on vDip. Amby mentions Baron von Powell's College of Cardinals variant. They also discuss favourite variant rule changes (1 hr 41 mins)
• The guys wrap up the show (1 hr 51 mins)

Venue: Mongrel, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner: Rad Ale, Seeker Brewery in Wooloongong in New South Wales

Amby:  Hop, Skip & Jump Indian Pale Ale, Aether Brewery in Brisbane and Tscharke Shiraz from the Barossa Valley in South 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!

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 Traci Brown on detecting deception

The guys interview Traci Brown, leading expert in detecting deception using body language. Plus two new variant maps are making the rounds. Kaner keeps on winning. And Amby screws up the tech.

Intro

• The guys introduce the show and an apology for the break in episodes. Before they go onto the venue and their drinks (0 mins 15 secs)

Interview with Traci Brown

• The start discussing the interview today with leading deception detection expert Traci Brown (2 mins 30 secs)
• The interview begins with Amby framing the context of today's discussion on body language and detecting fraud and lying (5 mins 30 secs)
• Amby asks Traci how she got into being a body language expert with Traci discussing her earlier cycling career (7 mins 45 secs)
• He goes onto ask what are the basic things someone should be looking for (12 mins 20 secs)
• Traci dispels some of Amby's thoughts on body language. Traci discusses the importance of establishing a person's baseline (15 mins 45 secs)
• Kaner asks how do you establish the baseline of someone's body language (18 mins 45 secs)
• Traci discusses the importance of maintaining a journal of your competitor's behaviors and the importance of paying attention to what people do (24 mins 15 secs)
• Amby asks about when players respond to you when they think you're up to no good. Traci also discusses mirroring (35 mins 30 secs)
• Amby asks about what behaviors you should follow to build trust (39 mins 15 secs)
• They discuss practicing regularly (42 mins)
• Traci discusses her 21 Day Body Language Makeover series of Youtube videos, fraud spotting and her book How to Detect Lies, Fraud and Identity Theft. Amby also mentions Traci's podcast, Truth, Lies and Coverups  (44 mins 30 secs)
• Amby asks if there's much variation between people's behavior online versus face to face (51 mins)
• They wrap up the interview. You can learn more at Traci's website, BodyLanguageTrainer.com (52 mins)
• The guys return and give their thoughts on the interview (52 mins 45 secs)

Diplomacy chat and news

• The guys discuss trying to get a local game happening (1 hr 4 mins 20 secs)
• Amby will soon be on holidays to Broome in Western Australia and then outback all the way back to Brisbane. This will slow down podcast episodes in October. Kaner suggests some game options while he's away (1 hr 6 mins 45 secs)
• The guys discuss the two new variants that Flame has created: Cold War Redux (a 4 player game) and Speed Europa (7 players on an updated Classic map) (1 hr 14 mins)
• They discuss firstly the Cold War Redux variant (1 hr 16 mins)

• The guys screwed up the pausing and lost a bit of their chat (1 hr 23 mins)
• They find where they were last up to and start that section again, this time going into more detail on their thoughts about Speed Europa (1 hr 24 mins)

• Kaner discusses how some visual improvements could make the map even better (1 hr 38 mins 45 secs)
• Kaner has soloed another game: Germany 1648, a Thirty Years War variant (1 hr 39 mins 45 secs)
• He discusses how having a this variant now as an interactive map makes it so much better. Amby talks about how he hacked the code in 1648 to do the two types of fleets in the Pirates variant (1 hr 43 mins)
• Amby discusses how Zach Twamley is currently doing a Thirty Years War podcast series. They go onto discussing a game against each other. Note: Amby won't create this until he's back from his outback trip (1 hr 45 mins)
• They discuss how Kaner is going in the rankings (1 hr 50 mins)
• Kaner starts discussing a new Europa Renovatio game he's in (1 hr 51 mins)
• Amby screwed up and failed to clear the SD card of the recorder, so they start closing out the show on his iPhone (1 hr 52 mins 40 secs)

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 Joren on Diplomacy maps

The guys interview Joren, one of the Diplicity app's incredible map creators. They talk all things Diplomacy maps. Plus all the cool updates over at webDiplomacy will blow your mind. And Kaner picks on Amby's 1066 variant.

Intro & webDiplomacy awesomeness

• The guys introduce the show, the venue and their drinks. They then go through how the show will run this episode (0 mins 15 secs)
• Kaner introduces a new games engine introduced to webDiplomacy: a great new click interface, against bots and no account needed! You'll find it at play.webdiplomacy.net Thanks Andrew Goff for the hot tip (8 mins)
• Amby talks about his experience giving it a go (10 mins 45 secs)
• They discuss why vDip has interactive interface options but webDip didn't (18 mins 15 secs)
• They talk dumbed down bots before the batteries dies (20 mins secs)

Interview with Joren on Diplomacy maps

• They start introducing their interview with Joren from Diplicity, one of their incredible cartographers (22 mins 20 secs)
• The interview starts with Amby asks Joren how he got interested in maps (24 mins 35 secs)
• Kaner gives his perspective on Joren's maps and give thanks to trampolinebears Classic map. He goes onto explaining how he got involved in helping Martin Bruse with Diplicity (30 mins)

• They discuss the aesthetics of the Cold War map (36 mins)

 

• Joren walks through the creative process in developing a map using examples that support David E. Cohen's Unconstitutional (39 mins)

 

 

 

• They discuss the meditative process of drawing maps and what software is used to develop (47 mins 30 secs)
• Joren discusses steps being taken for Diplicity to be available as an iOS app (50 mins 30 secs)
• If you want to support Diplicity in covering some of their costs for this project, go to Diplicity, click on the top left "hamburger" menu, then at the very bottom right click the "$" symbol (53 mins)
• Amby asks Joren what he looks for when deciding to embark on a new map. He discusses Unconstitional, Three Kingdoms and South America variants (58 mins)
• Amby then brings up when Kaner first shared Diplicity with him and the Vietnam War variant before discussing map cultural context (1 hr 0 mins)

 

• Joren talks about collaborating with variant creators and getting work in progress input on maps (1 hr 3 mins 45 secs)
• He touches on a Diplomacy variant community (1 hr 6 mins 30 secs)
• Joren gives his recommendations on how to make a variant and map in the Diplicity community. They talk about the learning curve (1 hr 8 mins 15 secs)
• Kaner asks about where people can find out more about participating in the Diplicity Discord community (1 hr 12 mins 50 secs)
• Kaner goes onto discuss some .SVG issues he's had in the past with graphical editing (1 hr 14 mins)
• The guys return and have moved to Exhibition, they give a drinks update (1 hr 15 mins 30 secs)
• They give their thoughts on the interview with Joren and what they got out of it (1 hr 19 mins 15 secs)
•  Kaner reflects on maps as a cultural lens (1 hr 27 mins 45 secs)
• Kaner geeks out on ceramic sake bowls (1 hr 32 mins 30 secs)

1066 variant talk

• Kaner has an issue with standing armies in the 1066 variant that Amby co-developed. Amby doesn't understand why there isn't a Classic variant with standing neutrals. They go onto discuss the different versions and tweaking them based on game results (1 hr 33 mins 45 secs)
• The guys begin wrapping up the show, with Amby reminding folks we're still looking for someone to give us a hand with our WordPress instance. Reach out of you can give us a hand (1 hr 48 mins 45 secs)

Venue: The Charles & Exhibition, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner: 3 Bolt Pale Ale from Brisbane and Dreaming of Sunshine Californian IPA by Ranger Brewery

Amby:  Lino Ramble Vinaly Shiraz from the McLaren Vale in South Australia and Dreaming of Sunshine Californian IPA by Ranger Brewery

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 Tejas Patel from DARPA

The guys interview Tejas Patel, who is DARPA's the project lead for SHADE: an AI research initiative using Diplomacy to better understand the nuance of communication intent behind actions. Plus the guys games and how does a famous UK Diplomacy player get himself a novice rank in Australia's Diplomacy association.

Intro

• The guys introduce the show, the venue and their drinks (0 mins 15 secs)
• They discuss getting how to get a French fleet into Tunis. Hint hint, they're wrong! (Spring 1901 MAR-GOL, PAR-MAR, NAP-TYR; Fall 1901 Convoy MAR-TUN (2 hrs 45 mins)

Interview with Tejas Patel from DARPA

• The guys introduce their thoughts on the interview with Tejas Patel from DARPA - Defense Advanced Research Project Agency - and why our podcast wanted to talk to him (5 mins 35 secs)
• The interview begins with Amby asking Tejas why DARPA chose Diplomacy for the SHADE project and what the project is about (9 mins 10 secs)
• Amby asks how Tejas first discovered Diplomacy and when he realised Diplomacy could be used for what DARPA wanted to research (13 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner asks how communication takes place in the game and how AI is used (17 mins 45 secs)
• Amby reflects on the way communication is done and what he initially thought the research project was doing with communication and action taking. He asks why structured data communication rather than natural language communication was chosen for the research (20 mins 15 secs)
• Amby asks about the project management methodology approach being used in the research project (24 mins)
• Amby enquires whether the Diplomacy community may be engaged to help the project (26 mins)
• He goes onto ask about how the project team's experience with Diplomacy (28 mins)
• They discuss whether the Potomac Tea and Knife Society have had any engagement with the project (30 mins)
• They go onto talking about the desired project goals (31 mins)
• Amby asks how the project could inform policy making and its potential future use from a military perspective. Tejas responds about transparency and the opensource nature of the project  (34 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner asks what does SHADE stand for. They go onto discuss other DARPA acronym project names (40 mins 15 secs)
• Tejas asks how the guys found out about SHADE, Amby mentions the Diplomacy/Shade article in Military + Aerospace Electronics magazine (42 mins)
• Amby asks how Tejas got employed by DARPA (44 mins 15 secs)
• Amby asks what are Tejas' favorite countries to play (45 mins 50 secs)
• Kaner enquires about the timelines for the project and the robot AI (46 mins 45 secs)
• Tejas says if you want to know more about DARPA to visit their website before the interview wraps up (49 mins 30 secs)
• The guys return and give their thoughts on the interview with Tejas (50 mins)

Around the grounds

• Kaner asks Amby about his current games, spending his some talking about a standard Classic game he's bought into as Turkey (1 hr 4 mins 30 secs)
• They move onto a Known World 901 game of Kaner's that just finished where he was part of the draw, despite not being a strong power. He explains he got to that point (1 hr 15 mins 30 secs)
• Amby lets Kaner know the DAANZ (Diplomacy Association of Australia and New Zealand) master points have just been updated (1 hr 17 mins 30 secs)
• They discuss how Markus Zijlstra/CaptainMeme/DiploStrats managed to get in the DAANZ rankings as a novice player. Kaner goes onto discuss how Markus is interested in the next Bourse game, explaining how the Bourse game got unexpectedly wrapped up, with Amby being declared the Bourse winner (1 hr 23 mins)
• As a large group moved into where the guys were sitting, with all the extra noise they wrap up the show (1 hr 28 mins 30 secs)

Venue: Leonard's, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner: Ballistic IPA in Brisbane

Amby:  Parker Estate Cabernet Sauvignon from the Coonawarra in Victoria

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.

Happy accidents

The guys get into the new Bourse game, talk Amby's happy little accident, games and much much more.

Intro & Diplomacy talk

• The guys introduce the show, the venue and their drinks (0 mins 15 secs)

Bourse 2022

• Kaner kicks off discussions on the new Bourse game he's adjudicating and Amby is playing. Kaner reminds listeners if they missed previous shows what a Bourse game is (5 mins 45 secs)
• They discuss pumping up the value of currencies (9 mins)
• Amby discusses how he's previously approached the start of earlier Bourse games and how his opening strategy has changed (11 mins)
• Kaner reflects on Amby having a commanding position in the Bourse game (21 mins 30 secs)
• After ordering some more drinks, Kaner shares with Amby about the adjudication and checking who bought what (22 mins 30 secs)

Around the grounds & more Diplomacy talk

• Amby discusses the outcome of his Youngstown World War II game as Japan where he didn't expect at all to win, but somehow did (31 mins 45 secs)
• He goes onto reflect his strategy to try to win, but how he was constantly thwarted by England and Germany (36 mins)
• They discuss that it had an End of Game time limit and what happens when that is reached (38 mins 15 secs)
• The guys move onto Kaner's games focusing initially on his Known World 901 game which is coming to the tail end (44 mins 30 secs)
• They move onto his Europe Renovatio Winterkorn Bloodbath game (49 mins)
• Kaner discusses how borders are occupied or unoccupied in games (53 mins 15 secs)
• Amby advises he hasn't been able to get enough people to fill a board for a face to face game in Brisbane (56 mins)
• They talk about July as an option until they realise they're both away for big chunks of July, and discuss road trips (58 mins)
• Amby suggests Kaner playing a social game when he's in Victoria with his dad. Kaner talks stabbing his brother and his Dad playing Diplomacy in the navy (1 hr 4 mins 15 secs)
• They flag why there was no interview this episode (1 hr 8 mins 30 secs)
• They start wrapping up the show (1 hr 10 mins)

Venue: Dr Gimlette's, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner: Stone & Wood IPA

Amby:  An unknown McLaren Vale shiraz from  South 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!

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.

PoppyCon 2022

The guys discuss Amby's attendance at PoppyCon in Melbourne with round the table interviews, tournament results and a live Wilsonian game of Diplomacy.

Intro & Diplomacy talk

• The guys introduce the show, the venue and their drinks (0 mins 15 secs)
• They give a quick run down of how today's episode is going to work this episode, and Kaner provides a pronunciation correction for the Mayans. Amby shares a partial Arkansas update, with the Twitter pic he shares from @TerribleMaps with Kaner  (4 mins 30 secs)

• They start to introduce Amby's experience at PoppyCon this year (10 mins)

PoppyCon

• The round table begins, with a brief discussion on scoring systems and Jamal Blakkarly's board solo (14 mins)
• They talk about playing on multiple boards at once (18 mins 30 secs)
• Allan discusses what's changed in the way players approach the game compared to 30 years ago and a discussion on draws (22 mins)
• Amby asks about people's thoughts on the new players to the game (27 mins 30 secs)
• The conversation merges into a general conversation around games on Day 1 (30 mins)
• Amby asks about the overall tournament metagame after Jamal's solo and Shane weighs in on his first game (35 mins)
• Amby asks Melissa about PoppyCon and venue hosting for a tournament. The round table discusses the challenges for tournament directors and SC based tournament scoring systems (39 mins)
• They discuss how players approach tournaments now (45 mins)
• The round table discusses the anonymous gunboat game played in the evening (not part of the formal tournament) where the scoring was how many SCs you ended with when the pizzas arrived and correctly identifying which player was which country (48 mins)
• Amby wraps up the round table discussion (52 mins)
• The guys get some more drinks and talk about the round table discussions (52 mins 30 secs)
• They throw to Andrew Goff as tournament director giving the final results for the weekend (59 mins)
• As part of local tradition, after the tournament results, Goffy awards the Best Shane Cubis Award (1 hr 4 mins 30 secs)
• He goes onto discuss the next tournament in Melbourne for November/December (1 hr 6 mins)
• The guys come back and Amby gives a further update on his games in the tournament. Here's the maps from towards the end of his games: (1 hr 7 mins)

Amby as Germany in game 1

 

Amby's second game as France

 

• The guys go onto discuss attending the next Melbourne tournament and trying to get some face to face games happening in Brisbane (1 hr 18 mins)
• Next up they introduce the final part of the PoppyCon recordings, a live Wilsonian/United Nations game where players competed over the table in an open forum for all negotiations on a very tight phase turn (1 hr 19 mins)
• Kaner gives a forewarning that with a heap of people talking all at once it can be a little difficult to follow what's being suggested around the board. Amby says he'll add some Backstabbr maps to show each turn's orders (1 hr 22 mins 45 secs)
• The game begins in Spring 1901 with:
  • Melissa - Italy
  • Casey - Turkey
  • Shane (Peter writing orders) - Germany
  • Goffy - England
  • Jamal - Austria
  • Rob - France
  • Allan - Russia (1 hr 25 mins)

• Negotiations begin for Fall 1901 (1 hr 32 mins 40 secs)

• Winter 1901 builds are added (1 hr 38 mins 30 secs)

• Spring 1902 negotiations begin (1 hr 39 mins 40 secs)

• Fall 1902 kicks off (1 hr  45 mins)

• Winter 1902 builds (1 hr 50 mins 40 secs)

• Spring 1903 opens to negotiations (1 hr  51 mins 45  secs)

• Fall 1903 rolls around (1 hr  57 mins 20 secs)

• And with Shane Cubis/Peter McNamara as Germany are eliminated a draw is proposed, followed by build orders (2 hrs  4 mins)

• With the draw not proceeding Spring 1904 begins (2 hrs  mins  secs)

• Fall 1904 rocks around (2 hrs 9 mins 40 secs)

• Winter 1904's centre adjustments occur (2 hrs 15 mins 30 secs)

• Spring 1905 begins before a 5 way draw is proposed and passed (2 hrs 17 mins)
• They discuss the game from the players' perspective (2 hrs 19 mins)
• The game ends and Kaner & Amby return with some further observations on the bar (2 hrs 22 mins 45 secs)
• They get onto talking about the Wilsonian game and their thoughts about recording people playing Diplomacy (2 hrs 25 mins 40 secs)
• The guys start wrapping up the show (2 hrs 30 mins 40 secs)

Venue: Frog's Hollow Saloon, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner: Gage Road Atomic hazy pale ale and Kosciuszko pale ale

Amby: Coriole Sparta shiraz from the Barossa, South 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!

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 Macca

The guys interview face to face Macca, a local vDiplomacy player over a drink about all things Diplomacy.

Intro & Diplomacy talk

• The guys introduce the show, the venue and their drinks (0 mins 15 secs)
• They discuss being involved in the most recent DBN Deadline News as guests in a panel discussion about Diplomacy variants (3 mins)
• Amby recently got Covid and talks briefly on that (4 mins 40 secs)
• He goes onto discuss his excitement about attending PoppyCon this weekend (10 mins 50 secs)
• The guys clarify that they have a guest joining them at some stage during the show (11 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner asks Amby if there's a country he'd like to play at PoppyCon (12 mins 15 secs)

Interview with Macca

• Kaner & Amby welcome Macca to the show, and bring him into the conversation around alliance combinations (14 mins 50 secs)
• Kaner asks Macca how he got into Diplomacy (18 mins 50 secs)
• Kaner then asks Macca about his favorite variant at vDip (22 mins)
• They discuss stalemate lines (23 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner asks Amby about whether Kestas got back to him about webDip's bots and whether they could be made less challenging (25 mins)
• Kaner asks Macca about their favorite and worst country to play (27 mins 40 secs)
• Kaner taunts Amby around some of his less successful alliances (29 mins)
• Kaner asks Macca which of Amby's variants at vDip he's played before they also discuss one of Kaner's variants: Mars (38 mins)
• Amby asks Macca what needs to change to be able to add new variants to vDip (43 mins 50 secs)
• Amby asks Macca if they've played any games together, only to discover Macca's strategy over Amby in the Winning thread game. They then go onto discuss strategies for winning the Winning thread (48 mins)
• Amby goes onto ask why some Diplomacy players go off and play Winning, Mafia or something else within the sites. They discuss Ankara Crescent (56 mins)
• They go onto discuss having a Bourse game (59 mins 30 secs)
• After some more drinks they discuss what happened to the Venus variant. Kaner goes onto explain the broader Solar System match concept (1 hr 10 mins 30 secs)
• Macca goes onto discuss the Around the World tournament they're organising (1 hr 17 mins 30 secs)
• They start wrapping up the show (1 hr 22 mins 30 secs)

Venue: Beach House Bar & Grill, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner: Fat Yak pale ale

Amby: D'Arenburg Footbolt shiraz from the Barossa, South 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!

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 Kestas: webDip’s Facebook friend

The guys invite Kestas back onto the show to discuss webDip's partnering with Facebook. Plus lots of Diplomacy chat, including variants and Kaner's great game result.

Intro & Diplomacy talk

• The guys introduce the show, the venue and their drinks (0 mins 15 secs)
• They reflect on last episode where they misheard what was happening in Ukraine at the time (4 mins)

Interview with Kestas

• Amby welcomes Kestas back to the show after an absence for 4 years on the podcast. He asks about some of the latest developments at webDip and the artificial intelligence collaboration with academia and Facebook (5 mins)
• Kaner asks about the system and approach to redacting personal identifiable information (12 mins 45 secs)
• Amby asks about the technical aspects of how the data is used and what will a player experience as a result (17 mins 30 secs)
• They touch on the bot games briefly ceasing a year ago before Amby asks about covering costs for the hardware upgrades (21 mins 30 secs)
• Amby reflects on some discussions he and Kaner had on their Patreon feed about Facebook getting involved in Diplomacy. He goes onto ask about webDip's admin conversations with Facebook about the intellectual property of the data they had and the nature of commercial considerations (26 mins 20 secs)
• Amby asks whether Kestas and webDip would've taken a different approach if partnering with a military organisation as opposed to a commercial business (34 mins)
• Amby mentions how he got back into Diplomacy around 2007 thanks to Facebook (43 mins 45 secs)
• Kestas asks the guys whether they'd prefer for a bot player to take over from a civil disorder position (44 mins 45 secs)
• Amby talks about how he and Kaner a year ago were testing alliance combinations against webDip's bots. They discuss how good the bots were. He asks whether there's been any thinking around different levels of bot competency (49 mins)
• Kaner asks about whether this has made things too busy for the Mods. Kestas mentions some of the SVG map changes happening as a result of the Facebook partnership (53 mins 15 secs)
• After putting his foot in his mouth, Amby asks Kestas whether he's played much since their last interview (56 mins)
• Kestas mentions his last face to face game back in 2003, and how it gave him the idea of bringing Diplomacy online, and what his family thinks about what Kestas has done (58 mins)
• Amby tries pitching PoppyCon to Kestas' dad. Kestas reflects on how Dip has helped players get into coding (1 hr 2 mins)
• The guys discuss their thoughts on the interview and artificial intelligence. By the way, the Canadian institute in Montreal developing the AI can visit their site at Mila (1 hr 4 mins)
• They do a "What the Dr Recommended" for the top 25 active players at webDip (1 hr 15 mins 30 secs)

Diplomacy chat & Kaner's great game

• They grab some mid-game drinks (1 hr 19 mins)
• Amby will be attending PoppyCon on 23-24 April, but Kaner can't make it (1 hr 23 mins)
• They talk petrol/gas prices (1 hr 25 mins 30 secs)
• Its only a month or so until the next Australian federal election, which means its almost Democracy Sausage time! (1 hr 29 mins)
• The guys give a shout out about DixieCon coming up before discussing sausages again (1 hr 31 mins 45 secs)
• They turn to some variant talk discussing David E. Cohen's Mandate of Heaven variant that he's currently refining (1 hr 38 mins 45 secs)
• Ryan Treanor emailed us about out Baron von Powell interview and asked if his College of Cardinals variant ever made it to an online platform. Amby gives an update from Baron (1 hr 48 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner asks a question around where can you play Diplomacy currently by email (1 hr 51 mins)
• They discuss one of Kaner's game, 36-4-All, has finished in a three way draw with Kaner as the Livonian Order (mauve on the map). Kaner discusses his thinking when deciding not to stab his ally Sweden. Kaner is now officially higher placed in vDip's Hall of Fame, way above Amby (1 hr 53 mins)

 

• The guys start wrapping up the show and acknowledge the need to get back to a more predictable  release schedule (2 hrs 2 mins)

Venue: Banc, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner: The Heads lager from Noosa, Queensland and Two Birds pale ale from Victoria

Amby: 2017 Oxhardy Upper Tintara shiraz from the McLaren Vale, South Australia and a GSM from Rhone, 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!

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 calm before the storm

With flooding forecasted and too long between episodes, the guys catchup online to talk PoppyCon, Ukraine, What the Dr Recommended and lots of Diplomacy talk.

Intro & Diplomacy talk

• The guys introduce the show, their drinks and their situation for the evening. They talk about concerns about flooding and pooh-pooh it, only for a couple of days later (after recording) for the rain to start bucketing down and flooding locally (0 mins 15 secs)
• They touch on interviews that were planned and haven't yet happened (3 mins 15 secs)
• Amby says he plans to go to the PoppyCon tournament, with Kaner shortly later saying he'd like to go too (4 mins)
• They then go to onto discussing about attending WDC 2023 in Bangkok (8 mins 45 secs)

Around the grounds

• Kaner asks how Amby's games are going. Amby begins talking about a Modern Diplomacy game he bought into and won. But there's disappointment in Amby's voice when he discovers its unrated so doesn't count (10 mins)
• Kaner does share there is a positive aspect of the game, still counting as a win. Amby outlines his win/draw/survive/eliminated percentages (11 mins 45 secs)
• After the shock to the system, Kaner asks on Amby's view of how he approached previous turns to apply to his gameplay (14 mins 30 sec)
• Amby talks about continuing to get hammer in his Imperial game before turning to a Modern Europe game where he stuffed up an attack that allowed his opponent to retreat to a more favorable position (17 mins 30 secs)
• He goes onto discuss his Divided States game, which started with 50 players and is now down to 14 players (22 mins)
• Last up is his Europa Renovatio game where Amby is hanging in as a middle power (24 mins 45 secs)
• Audio warning: Amby's mute function wasn't working properly so apologies for things he thought he was silencing: eating chips, dogs barking, bins being moved etc
• The guys move onto Kaner's games starting with his Europa Renovato game, which both guys feel is starting to head toward the end game (26 mins)
• They then discuss an early game Europa game with an awesome title: Four Heralds Winterkorn Bloodbath (30 mins)
• Kaner discusses the challenges of a forward retreating unit (34 mins 30 secs)
• They move onto a listener's request to do an update for What the Dr Recommended - the top players on a Diplomacy server (39 mins 30 secs)
• After not finding the player's name in the Top 100, they move from vDip to PlayDiplomacy (43 mins 30 secs)
• Amby picks up some news in the background about Russia invading Ukraine. Kaner gives an update that was actually old news, not knowing that the full scale invasion of Ukraine was on (45 mins)
• Amby asks how he views Putin as a Diplomacy player. Amby gives a shout out to The Rest is History podcast for their overview of Russian-Ukrainian history. They then go onto discuss their thoughts (46 mins 45 secs)
• They return to What the Dr Recommended after Amby logs into PlayDip to read (in their Australian accents) the top 25 players. Kaner gives a hint to the 406 in his user name (59 mins 30 secs)
• Amby asks why PlayDip has added a heap of online casino and crypto links to its footer (1 hr 4 mins 30 secs)
• They touch on David E Cohen's latest version of Mandate of Heaven and talk vDip Winning thread (1 hr 6 mins 30 secs)
• The guys start wrapping up the show (1 hr 13 mins)

Venue: At home

Drinks of choice:

Kaner: Kilkenny Irish cream ale

Amby: The Colonel and the Merchant shiraz cabernet from Langhorne Creek, South 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!

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.