Diplomacy Games

Trainspotting

Under the never-ending clickity-clack of the train line, the guys catch up in a brewery for a little Diplomacy chat... and the odd drink or two!

Intro

• The guys introduce the show, the venue and their drinks (0 mins 10 secs)
• They talk about surfing, waterskiing and serenity (2 mins 45 secs)

Around the grounds

• They flag there may be a bit of train noise in the background as they're near a rail line. Kaner asks Amby how his games are going. Amby talks about the Big Hitters game (5 mins 20 secs)
• Amby discusses his offer to GM a Winning game for players in the Winning thread (7 mins 15 secs)
• Amby goes onto discuss how badly he's doing in the Cloak and Dagger series, being played on a Modern Europe map (10 mins)
• He then discusses his (surprise surprise) elimination from the Media Wars game and how the other players are going (12 mins)

Kaner in Quarantine

• Amby thinks he stuffed up the recording (he didn't) before giving a drinks update (16 mins)
• Kaner discusses the impact of his workplace being shutdown due to Covid-19 (18 mins 15 secs)
• Amby explains why the podcast was delayed a week due to the changes Kaner needed to accommodate into at work (25 mins)
• They talk about the Patreon episode they recorded while he was in quarantine. They discuss their alliance game against the bots at webDip (25 mins 45 secs)

Around the grounds (part 2) and Diplomacy chat

• Kaner gives an update on his "Where's Kaner" Europa Renovation games and the troubles of internet loading issues when orders are due (30 mins 15 secs)
• Amby touches on his Atlantic Colonies game (32 mins 45 secs)
• He goes onto mention one of the games he's trying to get started: Italian Stallions using the Machiavelli map, the first Diplomacy map Amby ever played on (35 mins 15 secs)
• They talk about old military/political strategy books and whether that'd help gameplay eg Machiavelli's "The Prince", von Clausewitz's "On War", Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" and the Roman general Frontinus' "Strategemata" (37 mins 30 secs)
• Amby discusses Aristotle's "Modes of Persuasion" in the devices of rhetoric: ethos, pathos and logos (40 mins 15 secs)
• Kaner raises a Reddit post about strategy for multiple people playing together as a single country and how to approach things (44 mins 30 secs)
• Amby thinks a bonus WDC day of tournament players doing this group game would be awesome (55 mins)
• Kaner gives credit to the teacher/professor for creating such a game scenario. Amby touches on the playDip forum thread for teachers (56 mins 30 secs)
• They touch on their upcoming interview. The guys give an apology/clarification about their comments about the Conspiracy app and its recognition of variant creators (58 mins 45 secs)
• Amby brings up Kaner's United States of Panhandle t-shirt which was originally posted on Reddit. They go onto discuss the r/MapPorn thread including where in the United States you can own a kangaroo. They go onto more American/Australian crossovers with emus (1 hr 2 mins)
• They mention their next interviewee is David E. Cohen (1 hr 8 mins)
• The guys give another shout-out for their Patreon bonus episodes. Amby reflects on Kaner's value add to the podcast before they wrap up (1 hr 9 mins)

Venue: Stone & Wood Brewery, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner:  Stone Rock porter and West Coast Extra IPA from Stone & Wood

Amby:  Cloud Catcher Pale Ale, West Coast Extra IPA and Stone Rock porter from Stone & Wood

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 improve 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 Harry Turtledove

The guys interview renown alternate history author Harry Turtledove about his love of the game Diplomacy, Amby laments his Liberty Cup gameplay, more Media Wars chat and a Declaration of War experiment.

Interview with Harry Turtledove

• The guys introduce the show to new listeners as they may be Harry Turtledove fans. Harry is a renown alternate history author (0 mins 10 secs)
• Amby and Kaner give a super quick crash course on what the game Diplomacy is all about (1 min 45 secs)
• The interview starts with the guys welcoming Harry to the show and ask how he got into writing alternate history (3 mins)
• Kaner asks about one of the characters in Harry's Supervolcano trilogy playing Diplomacy with his friends, and what his experience is with the game Diplomacy (8 mins)
• Amby asks about Harry's thoughts on taking the role of different players. Harry discusses the perspectives you take in the game and how that compares in novel writing looking through the lens of other players (12 mins)
• Harry discusses how he still plays the game when he can. They discuss the different between D&D (Dungeons & Dragons) and Diplomacy (15 mins)
• Kaner asks if Harry has a favorite country to play on the Diplomacy board (17 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner enquires about whether Harry's played any Diplomacy tournaments (20 mins 45 secs)
• They touch on online and app play due to limitations caused by Covid-19 (23 mins)
• Amby asks what would happen if Harry took a manuscript to a publisher in 2014 where the storyline reflects the current 2020 situation, what would be his publisher's take (24 mins)
• Amby asks what happens next in such a story (25 mins)
• They ask about Harry's perspective on Diplomacy variants (26 mins 30 secs)
• Harry introduces a new book he's co-authored coming out in September 2020, "And the Last Trump Shall Sound" with James Morrow and Cat Rambo (28 mins 40 secs)
• He discusses a baseball card simulation game he also likes playing (31 mins 50 secs)
• Amby asks about the process Harry follows in producing novels and where he gets his story inspirations from (34 mins 20 secs)
• Harry provides his pitch to his readers about the game Diplomacy (40 mins)
• They guys wrap up the interview (42 mins)
• Other books by Harry that the guys recommend: WorldWar series (Kaner) and The Guns of the South (Amby)

For Harry fans (post interview)

• Amby asks Kaner whether he thought he'd ever interview Harry. Kaner talks about his first book of Harry's that he read  (42 mins 30 secs)
• They let readers of Harry know where you can play the game Diplomacy if they're intrigued (43 mins 20 secs):
  • PlayDiplomacy
  • webDiplomacy
  • vDiplomacy (for variants)
  • Backstabbr
  • Plus there are many face-to-face clubs which are now doing many games online

Diplomacy chat

• The guys get onto the "normal" part of the show with where they are and their drinks (46 mins)
• They let Harry Turtledove fans know how the show format works. They celebrate the podcast now entering its 4th year and 75th episode (48 mins 30 secs)

Once Bitten, Twice Die - Amby's Liberty Cup experience

• Kaner asks Amby about his game involvement in Philadelphia's Liberty Cup. Amby was just in Round 2 and gives a hat tip to Advait based just up the road in Singapore who was going hard core for the tournament (49 mins 30 secs)
• Amby explains he drew Germany and how two other players in his Boston Massacre game - MaxVax and Jason Mastbaum - were also in this game  (53 mins 20 secs)
• Amby discusses his opening and why things didn't work out as he'd planned (55 mins 20 secs)

• Amby explains why a happy balance is needed between being too Carebear and going full on (1 hr 1 mins)

Robotorama

• Kaner has a bit of a robot moment, Amby has a helpful suggestion on whether any Diplomacy players are connected in the university space to make this happen (1 hr 2 mins 15 secs)
• Kaner says he'll look into it, but makes no promises [sounds like a Diplomacy player right folks?] (1 hr 5 mins 40 secs)

Corona chat

• Amby reflects on Covid's impact to the waistline (1 hr 7 mins)
• He then talks about the uncomfortableness of shoes (1 hr 8 mins 20 secs)
• They gave a local Queensland update on the pandemic (1 hr 9 mins 20 secs)

Media Wars game

• Kaner asks about Amby's Media Wars game against 6 other players involved in Diplomacy media channels (1 hr 12 mins 50 secs)
• Kaner discusses Legendary Tactics' video on the game and the nature of players (1 hr 15 mins 15 secs)

• Amby starts reflecting on his position in the game as Turkey (1 hr 17 mins)
• They discuss Umble's Diplomacy Briefing recruiting "journalists" for his newsletter (1 hr 20 mins 40 secs)

Shout out

• Amby gives a shout out to Hal Schild who he's played against and has a cousin/family connection in Australia who runs a vineyard with Schild Estate. Amby gives it a big thumbs up (1 hr 21 mins 30 secs)

Kaner's Renovatio games/Where's Kaner?

• Amby gives the feedback from listeners about which player Kaner is in Game 2 he discussed last episode (1 hr 23 mins 20 secs)
• Kaner gives some further updates on his games (1 hr 26 mins 30 secs)
• Amby reflects on the amazing shapes on this map (1 hr 27 mins 45 secs)

• He then talks about his other games and how he's going (1 hr 30 mins 15 secs)
• He's now been killed off as Lithuania in is Game 1 (1 hr 31 mins 15 secs)

More Diplomacy chat

• Kaner tries to make Amby talk about his ranking plunge (1 hr 32 mins 20 secs)
• Kaner mentions Known World 901 is now available on the Conspiracy app, but then puts a bit of a rocket up them for a lack of attribution for variant developers like David E. Cohen who created the game (1 hr 34 mins 45 secs)
• Amby reflects on his penchant of listening to particular music when he plays his games - see the Very Superstitious episode of playing the 1812 Overture in his Divided States win (1 hr 42 mins 45 secs)
• He discusses how he's really got into on Spotify a Diplomacy playlist put together by barnaby_rowe which has the traditional music of the 7 players in a Classic Diplomacy game (1 hr 43 mins)
• Amby gives a shout out to Laurie Edwards for joining us on Patreon with over 6 hours of extra bonus content (1 hr 49 mins)
• They start wrapping up the show... kind of (1 hr 52 mins 30 secs)

Declaration of War game

• After recording the normal show and then the Patreon show, there were two things Amby had forgotten to speak about (1 hr 52 mins 40 secs)
• Amby suggests having on vDip a "Declaration of War" game where you can only attack another player if you declare war on them a turn in advance. The idea is to more accurately represent the way WW1 really worked. Due to the complexities of some players not honoring the system the game would need a GM. Kaner points out some of the messiness potentially involved (1 hr 53 mins 15 secs)
• [The first game is now up and running with an expanded - and much clearer - rule set. You can also read if you're interested the run up conversations in the forum thread]
• Amby reflects on RUFFHAUS' Game of Thrones analogy about him being all excited at the start but can't be bothered ruling/following through (1 hr 57 mins)

Latest Cloak and Dagger game

• Amby's in a new Modern Europe anonymous game in GMan's Cloak and Dagger series. Amby discusses the nature of some player's communication style pissing him off (1 hr 58 mins 45 secs)
• He reflects a little where some players follow through, others that haven't and then those who stab and then you make up (2 hrs 2 mins 45 secs)
• Kaner gives his views on the Modern Europe variant map (2 hr 3 mins 30 secs)
• The guys alcohol consumption is starting to show as Kaner discusses a thought experiment (2 hr 7 mins)
• They wrap up the show and give the game Diplomacy a shout out for any Harry Turtledove fans who made it all the way to the end of the podcast (2 hrs 11 mins 30 secs)

Venue: Alfred & Constance, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner:  Alfie house lager and Hornets IPA from Black Hops Brewery

Amby: Tatachilla shiraz from McLaren Vale, 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 improve 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.

 

Diplomacy grab bag

The guys grab some beers and discuss a bunch of Diplomacy stuff including the Diplomacy Broadcast Network, Amby's Media Wars game and losing streak. We play "Where's Kaner?" and get back to some good old Diplomacy chat.

Diplomacy news

• The guys discuss their beers, the venue and playing some face-to-face Diplomacy there in the future. Amby suggests a game on 9 August [Note: due to a flare up in Corona again, we've put that plan on ice] (0 mins 10 secs)
• Kaner discusses being in stitches after watching the Diplomacy Broadcast Network's first Deadline monthly news. They talk about getting some of the people from DBN on the podcast (7 mins 40 secs)

 

• They have a Covid update at their end before going back to discuss Deadline news again, with Kaner's idea of it having reporters (11 mins 15 secs)

Media Wars

• After some new beers Amby starts discussing his Media Wars game (18 mins 45 secs)
• The players are all involved in producing online media content, and the players are (21 mins):
  • Amby from the Diplomacy Games podcast
  • Brother Bored from the Brother Board blog
  • Zach Moore from the Diplomacy Broadcast Network
  • CaptainMeme from DiploStrats
  • Jeff Hayman, a regular contributor from the Diplomacy Briefing
  • Gohornsgo from The Diplomats
  • Legendary Tactics from Legendary Tactics
• Amby accidentally outs himself as playing Turkey before pointing players to the game on Backstabbr (23 mins)

Amby's losing streak

• Kaner gives his advice to Amby on what he should be doing (26 mins 45 secs)
• Amby reflects on the "Kick Me" sign on his back, discussing his Another Herd Needs Culling game (28 mins 20 secs)
• Kaner gives Amby some helpful rankings advice before paradoxically having a rant about rankings, before going back to more advice for Amby (34 mins)

Where's Kaner?

• Kaner can't understand why he's still alive in some games. He calls for a Where's Kaner? challenge for listeners to guess which country he is (43 mins 15 secs)
• In game one he's a land based power. He's gone from being small, to large and is back to small again. Who is he? (44 mins 30 secs)

• In game two he's being attacked by all sides, but somehow is still alive. Who is he? (46 mins 15 secs)

• Finally in game three after constant unending assault by players, Kaner has fought back and is doing well. He's relatively central but exposed. Who is he? (47 mins 30 secs)

More Diplomacy chat

• Kaner tells a story before going on another robot tangent and how they help the future of Diplomacy gameplay. Amby brings him back to reality. But if you want to sponsor the show to buy robots let us know! (49 mins 30 secs)
• Amby tries to get Kaner to sign up for the Liberty Cup (56 mins 20 secs)
• They get more beers. Kaner starts discussing the podcast channel on Nexus (57 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner discusses how he got his arse kicked in the Vietnam War variant he played on Diplicity. Amby asks how Kaner's Twenty Twenty game on the app is going (1 hour 1 mins 45 secs)
• The guys start wrapping up and encourage listeners to let another player know about the show (1 hr 9 mins)
• They let listeners know instead of waiting two weeks for the show, you can here us weekly by signing up to their Patreon feed for just $2 a month (1 hr 10 mins)

Venue: Netherworld, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner:  Fantastic IPA,  Karma Oatmeal stout and Liquid Amber Red Ale from Newstead 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 improve 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.

 

Amby: Hop Sauce Pale ale and Fantastic IPA

 

Play by play interview with Zach Moore

The guys interview Zach Moore for a play-by-play breakdown of his Boston Massacre game with Amby. They discuss some games they're in, Kaner's Squirrel Diplomacy variant idea and an unusual England-France alliance.

Intro

• The guys discuss their beers, including an earlier cheeky pint by Kaner. Plus more boom box guy discussion and Australian money (0 mins 10 secs)

Interview with Zach Moore

• Amby gives some context about the interview, which is a play by play discussion with Zach Moore about a Boston Massacre game they were both in (6 mins 30 secs)
• Amby welcomes Zach to the show. Amby played as France and Zach as Austria. They discuss the lack of collaboration between them (8 mins 20 secs)
• Amby talks about the Western Triple he got in (11 mins 20 secs)
• He asks Zach about his thoughts on Russia and Turkey's opening, Amby reflects on how this caused Italy and Austria to stick together and how the Western Triple solidified (13 mins)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Zach reflects on the mistake he made with Russia in discussions with John Jameson (17 mins)
• Amby asks Zach whether the eastern side of the board had worked out the Western Triple. Zach discusses the moves in Fall 1902 (19 mins)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• They discuss how in Spring 1903 a counter alliance in the east at last starts kicking goals. Amby talks about his conversations with Turkey (Jason Mastbaum) and the difficulty of getting a hold of him (21 mins 15 secs)
• Amby talks about his first bit of paranoia in Spring 1903 about England with his commitment in the Med, they move onto Fall 1903 and possible confusion around the moves of England and Germany. They talk about the first counter attack from the east  (24 mins)
• Amby asks Zach about the Turkish move to Rumania (27 mins)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Amby talks about his efforts to divide up Italy with Turkey. He asks Zach about his experience playing with Jason (29 mins 20 secs)
• Zach discusses an attempted stab with Turkey against Russia. They also discuss the Turkey-Austria plan against Italy (31 mins)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• They discuss Amby preventing Zach making ground against Germany by moving into Burgundy so he could support hold Munich while also planning for any English stab (34 mins 20 secs)
• Zach asks about why didn't Amby start coordinating with Italy against Turkey's Ionian fleet (36 mins 20 secs)
• Amby reflects on his paranoia when England built a fleet in London (38 mins 45 secs)
• They discuss Zach's efforts to sweet talk Amby in Fall 1905. Amby discusses where he saw the game going and why he considered stabbing England (40 mins 30 secs)
• They go onto talk about England's stab on Germany and his counter to Amby, while Zach hands Venice to Turkey. Amby asks whether anyone in the east knew in advance of the stab by England (42 mins 20 secs)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Things move along further into 1906 with some builds from England that Amby thought were threatening although nothing came of it (44 mins 30 secs)
• And by Fall 1907 Italy was eliminated, England was kicked out of Moscow and Germany and France were behind Austria's lines (48 mins)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Come spring 1907 everyone started reaching the point where the game could go in a very different way, or alternatively draw. Zach talks about whether there was time to continue playing with the hard ending time approaching. The game ended a draw at this stage (50 mins 30 secs)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Amby explains one problem he was having was all his verbal Discord communication was being done on his iPhone and it was almost out of batteries, using this as a further lever to draw the game (52 mins 20 secs)
• Zach reflects on the game and playing on Discord (as opposed to GMing) (54 mins 30 secs)
• Amby asks about the frequency of similar format games from the Minnesota Diplomacy Club, the players and any technical challenges (57 mins 20 secs)
• Amby reflects on the Diplomacy Broadcast Network and livestreaming of games and asks Zach about it (1 hr 1 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner flags the times in the stream where the game was discussed (1 hr 4 mins)
• Amby asks Kaner when he'll start playing these types of online games through Backstabbr and Discord. Zach mentions the PTKS game (which has passed between the interview and the release of the show) and the Philadelphia Liberty Cup that players can sign up for on 1 August 2020 (1 hr 4 mins 45 secs)
• Amby starts wrapping up the interview (1 hr 6 mins 40 secs)
• Kaner reflects on the game and the tournament. Amby discusses it being fun having a turn by turn analysis of the game (1 hr 7 mins 20 secs)
• Kaner says he would've read the board differently.  (1 hr 8 mins 45 secs)

Africa variant

• Amby is in a 8 player Africa game (variant created by Tristan) and discusses the variant. He likes the mix of neutrals that have standing armies and others without armies (1 hr 11 mins 15 secs)
• The game is named Here Kitty Kitty. He reflects on how a number of players are responding in the game, especially when Amby is throwing him love. Kaner can't understand why some players just pick fights for no good reason in gunboat games (1 hr 13 mins)
• Kaner discusses the geography of the map (1 hr 16 mins 45 secs)

Variant development - Squirrel Wars

• They spot the Chris Martin look alike again. Kaner goes onto discuss a Squirrel variant idea where acorns are SCs. He talks about fat squirrels and fast squirrels and different branch types (1 hr 19 mins 45 secs)
• Kaner sees the map as visually being based around fractal views of a tree - canopy, branches, trunk and base. Amby suggests using something similar where you have different layered maps (1 hr 23 mins)
• Amby and Kaner discuss Australia's drop bear problem (1 hr 25 mins)

New pub and Boston Massacre game update

• The guys move to a new pub: The Elephant and discuss their new drinks (1 hr 26 mins 20 secs)
• Amby remembers he got a message from MaxVax who played as Italy in the game. He gives Max's perspective. Max also discusses the game in The Diplomats Youtube channel (1 hr 28 mins)

Western Quintuple game

• Kaner complains about Apple products. The guys discuss this five player anonymous game by shielding who is who, and doing a but of an Around the Grounds for how each player is going. Note: since recording this, the game has since ended in a three way draw between England, Castille and Burgundy. Kaner was England and Amby was France (1 hr 31 mins)
• They talk about the variant and map itself (1 hr 38 mins)

Scottish Clan Wars game

• After a little light hearted banter, they return to their What's under your kilt game. At the point of recording two players were eliminated (1 hr 40 mins 30 secs)
• They do an around the grounds for this game too. This game has also since finished subsequent to recording in a 4 way draw, with Kaner (Dundee) and Amby (Edinburgh) both being part of the draw (1 hr 44 mins)

England-France naval alliance?

• They go off on a tangent of England threatening Italy in classic in a very unusual England-France alliance. Kaner asks if its a doable scenario (1 hr 51 mins 50 secs)
• He then proposes an England-France-Russia alliance (1 hr 59 mins)
• The guys wrap up the show (2 hrs 0 mins)

 

Venue: The Sound Garden and also The Elephant, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner: Four Pines Pale ale and Newtowner Pale ale, both from Sydney, Australia

Amby: Four Pines Pale ale from Sydney, Australia, and Wirra Wirra Woodhenge shiraz from the McLaren Vale, 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 improve 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 Martin Bruse, Diplicity app creator

Kaner & Amby interview Martin Bruse, creator of the Android Duplicity app. A bit of Diplomacy chat and an update on Amby's variant development plans. And who is that boom box guy?

Intro

• The guys discuss their beers, the ban on dancing and everything else being totally open now there's practically no Coronavirus in Queensland (0 mins 10 secs)
• Kaner & Amby are recording two episodes back to back in different locations 3 15

Interview with Martin Bruse, creator of the Diplicity app

• They begin to introduce their interview guest, Martin Bruse, the Android app developer of Diplicity (3 mins 45 secs)
• The interview starts with Martin telling the backstory of creating Droidippy and how his plan evolved into Diplicity (5 mins)
• Kaner discusses how easy it was to download and use for his Android app. He asks Martin how  Diplicity can also be used for iOS, computers etc. However your push notifications are done as email if not using the Android app (9 mins 30 secs)
• Amby asks about the migration of players from Droidippy to Diplicity (12 mins 30 secs)
• They discuss why Martin developed the app and what he likes about Diplomacy. Martin, Amby and Kaner go onto discuss AI (16 mins)
• Kaner asks about the beautiful nature of the maps on Diplicity, he goes onto discuss where some of the variant maps came from eg Twenty Twenty and Vietnam War (22 mins 40 secs)
• Kaner asks about the games engine and its hard limit on two types of units (armies and fleets), he asks whether a 3rd type of unit could be created in Diplicity's code (27 mins 45 secs)
• Amby asks about Martin's plans to get the word out about the app. Martin gives a hat tip to Joren Bredman who helped Martin with the UX (32 mins 45 secs)
• Martin discusses investigation work into an iOS version of the app and the "funding model" for Diplicity (34 mins)
• Amby asks Martin about why he moved from Sweden to Switzerland, they talk about the Swedish Diplomacy community (37 mins 20 secs)
• Kaner asks about whether Diplicity has a similar sandbox function as Backstabbr (41 mins)
• Amby asks about Martin's views on how Diplicity is different to Conspiracy as an Android app. Martin also discusses the Tribute rating system used in Diplicity and scaring players off from the game if its not really for them (44 mins 30 secs)
• Amby asks where people need to go for Diplicity. Martin points to the Diplicity website or go to your favorite Android app store and search for Diplicity (51 mins 25 secs)
• The guys wrap up the interview (52 mins 20 secs)
• Amby asks Kaner about his experience so far with Diplicity. Kaner gives his one criticism of the game: a lack of shading in non-SC "owned" territories (52 mins 45 secs)
• Kaner is playing an anonymous gunboat Vietnam War game and is about to join a Chaos and a Twenty Twenty games that are forming (56 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner goes onto discuss the Diplicity Discord forum (1 hr 0 mins)

Diplomacy chat

• The guys talk about all the extra creative Diplomacy channels and offerings (1 hr 3 mins)
• Amby discusses getting face to face games going again in Brisbane now Coronavirus restrictions are pretty much gone. Kaner talks about getting shit faced playing Diplomacy in a pub in Thailand (1 hr 5 mins)
• They talk about whether WDC 2020 is still going to happen. Kaner discusses Americans who can't understand him and flat whites (1 hr 8 mins 45 secs)
• Kaner taunts Amby about his competitive nature in the Winning thread at vDip (1 hr 12 mins 45 secs)

Amby's variant development

• Amby mentions tobi has shown some interest (when time permits) to help with some of the coding aspects of his planned variants (1 hr 15 mins)
• Amby discusses what elements Kaner recommended for the Black Death may in fact be possible according to tobi (1 hr 16 mins 30 secs)
• The guys return to chat about Martin's inteview and the ability to have 3 or more unit types (more than armies and fleets) (1 hr 18 mins 30 secs)
• This prompts Amby to discuss his Nuclear Diplomacy variant concept (see episode 41 for Amby's earlier thoughts on his Nuclear Diplomacy variant) (1 hr 19 mins)
• Kaner gives his ideas on how to manage the transition of nuclear weapons from launch to detonation. They discuss whether current non nuclear powers could develop nuclear weapons (1 hr 24 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner asks about what happens if two nukes "bounce" (1 hr 29 mins 15 secs)
• Amby discusses the nature of the Standing Neutral variant on a classic board. The guys talk about how not to disadvantage players (1 hr 30 mins)

Around the grounds

• Kaner asks Amby about his Scottish Clans game, ''What's under your kilt?", before Kaner gets distracted and talks about his Europa Renovatio game, Lockdown Renovatio (1 hr 35 mins)
• Kaner gives some side advice on leveraging the Europa map for variant development. This is a visual discussion which may not make a lot of sense in a podcast. Feel free to skip this bit if you have zero interest in the way variant maps are created. They talk about the North Atlantic, Red Sea and the Sahara (1 hr 39 mins 30 secs)
• The guys elude to the guy walking around with a boom box who looks like Chris Martin (Note: this is discussed in greater detail in the Patreon episode recorded after - which was actually released last week) (1 hr 46 mins 30 secs)
• Amby has a theory on why Denmark does so well in the Europa Renovation map (1 hr 48 mins 30 secs)
• The guys start wrapping up the show (1 hr 52 mins)

Venue: Royal George, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner & Amby: James Squire 150 Lashes pale ale

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 improve 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 Oliver Lugg, Diplomacy Youtuber extraordinaire

The guys interview Oliver Lugg, a Diplomacy loving guy who has created an awesome Youtube video about the game. They also discuss stupid greedy vs smart gains, the Western Europe 1300 variant and Amby's Diplomacy variant development plans.

Intro & news

• The guys are recording at Malt, a serious proper bar. Kaner quickly picks on Amby's handwriting. Then they get onto drinks. Amby laments a little Covid weight gain (0 mins 10 secs)

Interview with Oliver Lugg: Diplomacy Youtuber extraordinaire

• The guys give a full disclosure that the interview with Oliver Lugg is being recorded after they actually catch up (4 mins)
• Kaner & Amby welcome Oliver to the show about the quality of his Youtube video on Diplomacy - for podcast listeners, press pause now and watch the video for context: (7 mins)

• Amby asks Oliver how he got into the game (7 mins 45 secs)
• Kaner asks about within the video whether Oliver was in a scene in the video playing the game (12 mins 15 secs)
• Amby brings up whether there was a mathematical thread running through the video (13 mins 35 secs)
• Amby asks about the nature of the game not being like chess (15 mins 40 secs)
• Being an Australian who has lived in the UK, Amby asks a little about the Britishness of the video (17 mins 50 secs)
• Amby asks about how much time was needed to pull the video together (20 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner asks about how Oliver came across the 2012 online championship - for podcast listeners, you can listen to our interview with some of the final players in episode 5 (22 mins 45 secs)
• Kaner asks about Oliver's 5 rules and what is his favorite rules when it comes to cognitive biases (25 mins 15 secs)
• Kaner asks about AI and manipulative behavior (28 mins 20 secs)
• Amby asks Oliver about famous individuals who played the game, and where he got his research from (31 mins 45 secs)
• Amby asks about Oliver's perspectives on real world events and the nature of Diplomacy skills being played out (36 mins)
• They talk about the nature of loss aversion (37 mins)
• Amby asks Oliver about his interests in psychology (38 mins 20 secs)
• Amby asks about Oliver's plans for playing the game in the future. Amby discusses the London Diplomacy Club and also previous interviewee Garry Sturley and his plans for a Diplomacy Tour of Britain (40 mins 45 secs)
• Kaner reflects on the use of Risk pieces in the video. Amby asks about Oliver's future creative endeavors. Oliver discusses his music and singing, listen on his Youtube channel (44 mins)
• The guys wrap up the interview with Oliver (47 mins 15 secs)
• The guys return and discuss what they enjoyed about Oliver's Diplomacy video (47 mins 45 secs)
• They talk about Risk (53 mins 30 secs)

Presidential campaign update

• Amby asks Kaner how his election campaign is going. The guys also give a shout out to Hal Schild, Brother Bored and Bryan Pravel, all new Patreon supporters of the show (55 mins)

Stupid greedy vs smart gains

• Amby admits he's in a Diplomacy slump with his gameplay (58 mins)
• He was riding high early in the year, but hasn't been following his own advice (1 hr)
• He got back in with his Fake NewsLeak Interference Democalypse game where he failed to appreciate what was going on in the board, and put too much trust in allies (1 hr 1 mins)
• Kaner then rubs Amby's nose in another game, A Humble Low Stakes Match where Amby had players piled onto him after being the first stabbing (1 hr 4 mins 45 secs)
• Amby acknowledges maybe he's not such a great player and just had a big win (1 hr 7 mins 30 secs)
• The guys then go onto to discuss that they've worked out they're in two of the same anonymous games, but don't know who is who (1 hr 8 mins 20 secs)

Around the grounds

• In doing so Kaner & Amby transition to an Around the grounds segment, starting with the Western Europe 1300 game they're in Western Quintuple (1 hr 9 mins)
• They discuss the variant map itself first for Western Europe 1300, a 5 player game with England, France, Burgundy (same as the variant Hundred) but adding in Aragon and Castile. The map was developed by Matthew Medeiros and brought to online game play by Fake Al and Oliver Auth (1 hr 10 mins)
• The guys then start discussing how they're going, being mindful it is anonymous and they're both in it. To do so they examine each of the five players' positions (1 hr 13 mins 45 secs)
• They then move onto their Scottish Clan Wars game, What's Under your Kilt. They discuss how the gameplay in this variant map tends to be more fighting north-south, as opposed to east-west (1 hr 23 mins)
• They agree to talk about this game a little further on, as its still pretty early days in this game (1 hr 25 mins 45 secs)

New Diplomacy app: Diplicity

• Kaner has discovered a new Android app for lovers of the game called Diplicity - search for it wherever you download your apps from (1 hr 26 mins 50 secs)
• Amby discusses the wonderful aesthetics of the app and particularly the maps (1 hr 28 mins 20 secs)
• They go onto discuss a bucketload of variants available, including two they've never seen: Twenty Twenty and a 5 player Vietnam War variant set in 1955 (1 hr 30 mins 45 secs)
• Kaner loves the autogenerator for the titles of games (1 hr 35 mins 30 secs)
• They discuss how it may be different to the Conspiracy app where many players would go into CD, impacting the gameplay for hardcore players (1 hr 37 mins)

Amby's Diplomacy holiday plans

• Amby is heading off for a week's holiday. He discusses his plan to do some Diplomacy variant development (1 hr 38 mins)
• The first one he'll focus on is a Classic Standing Armies variant. But Amby will implement Kaner's suggestion for an initial build phase so Italy can build two fleets to take Tunis (1 hr 40 mins)
• His second variant idea is really dependent on the coding skills of a Diplomacy loving developer. Based on some ideas from Kaner, Amby is planning a Black Death variant. Basically a Europa Renovatio map modified back in time approximately 100 years to the starting period of the Black Death  (1 hr 43 mins 30 secs)
• Amby goes onto discuss how he plans to keep the board generally balanced, similar to Europa Renovatio (1 hr 48 mins)
• He goes onto discuss how the randomness of the hurricane in the Pirates variant (a non playing player who moves and spawns randomly) could be bumped up to multiple units as the Black Death (1 hr 50 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner gives his suggestion about plague spawning (1 hr 52 mins 35 secs)
• Kaner recommends Amby plug into tobi1's coding skills instead of pushing for Oli's time (2 hr 0 mins 50 secs)
• They discuss what the image should be for the Black Death. Kaner suggests you do a Google images search for Hieronymus Bosch to give an idea of what he has in mind (2 hr 2 mins 50 secs)
• The guys start wrapping up the show (2 hrs 5 mins 45 secs)

Venue: Malt, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner: House malt lager

Amby - Hither and Yon shiraz from the McLaren Vale, and later the House malt lager

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 improve 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 Brother Bored

The guys interview prolific Diplomacy writer Brother Bored and discuss other Diplomacy stuff including the Scottish Clan Wars variant before Amby stuffs up.

Intro & news

• The guys are still at Red Hook (a back to back recording) (0 mins 10 secs)

Interview with Brother Bored

• The guys introduce the interview with Brother Bored, who plays as swordsman3003 at webDip (2 mins 40 secs)
• Brother Bored discusses how he got into Diplomacy  (3 mins 30 secs)
• He talks about how the flexibility of online Diplomacy really worked for him, how he got competitive about the game and how he started teaching his friends about how to play (6 mins)
• He discusses how this got him into blogging about Diplomacy so he could share his learnings, initially around gunboat. You can read his Diplomacy teaching blogs at brotherbored.com/diplomacy (8 mins 30 secs)
• Amby asks about how Brother Bored addresses different learning styles in how he writes his Diplomacy content. He touches on his Gunboat solo win guides , stalemate lines and how strategy differs in gunboat compared to normal press or face to face (13 mins)
• In comparison he's also written a 80,000 word journal about the gunboat game, The Biggest Game of All Time (18 mins)
• Amby asks why Brother Bored's handle is different to webDip and how he choose them both (23 mins 30 secs)
• He discusses where he gets his ideas from for posts (26 mins 30 secs)
• Amby asks how much time Brother Bored spends on his blog (30 mins)
• Amby asks whether Brother Bored gets any weird web traffic coming through (34 mins)
• Kaner asks Brother Bored about whether he has any interest in Diplomacy variants (36 mins 20 secs)
• Brother Bored talks about his timing bad luck on being able to play face to face (42 mins 45 secs)
• Amby asks with all the online play due to Coronavirus, whether Brother Bored has got a bump in traffic due to more online Dip interest (44 mins 45 secs)
• After discussing his dream of writing more teaching blogs for other games, Brother Bored mentions he's now become a paid Diplomacy tutor (46 mins 30 secs)
• The guys wrap up the interview before returning to their drinks and discuss the interview. Kaner talks about the exercise of keeping a record of each moves across all players (48 mins)

The boom in online Diplomacy

• Amby discusses how when the podcast started vDiplomacy had only 500 active players, but its now up to 1,300 active players. He wonders whether this has been driven by Coronavirus limiting face to face and turning people to online platforms (53 mins 45 secs)
• Kaner supports the etiquette and ethics of these players who keep the games to their friends in password protected games. He then mentions webDip is now at over 3,000 active players (56 mins)

More online Diplomacy chat

• Amby's joined back into the Winning thread at vDip (58 mins)
• Amby thinks he's being goaded into playing a game called "The Ambassador should join, because they need to b" (1 hr 2 mins)

Scottish Clan Wars variant

• They discuss Scottish Clan Wars a new variant over at vDip which Kaner is currently playing (1 hr 6 mins)

 

• Amby discusses the times he's been to Scotland (1 hr 10 mins)
• Kaner talks about how he's finding the game (1 hr 12 mins)
• And then... Amby fucked up cutting the show early, with the teaser of next episode to discuss "Stupid Greedy vs Smart Gains" (1 hr 14 mins)

Venue: Red Hook, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner & Amby - Newtowner Australian Pale Ale by Young Henry's from Sydney, 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 improve 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 Chris Martin on the Diplomacy Academy

The guys are back to drinking face to face as Australia starts coming out of Coronavirus lockdown. They interview Chris Martin about his Diplomacy Academy videos on Youtube. Plus they discuss Kaner's big points draw in EU IV and more.

Intro & news

• Isolation is starting to lift in Australia as the guys introduce their venue and drinks for the episode (0 mins 10 secs)
• They discuss the pronounciation of the vDip player ingebot, who stabbed & killed Kaner in his public press State Your Business Divided States game. Amby discusses ghee.  Kaner asks about Amby's quarantine beard (2 mins 45 secs)

Interview with Chris Martin about the Diplomacy Academy

• The guys introduce the interview with Chris Martin (5 mins 30 secs)
• Chris discusses his year long break from Dip, before coming back strong this year with a strong focus on his Diplomacy Academy at Youtube (6 mins)
• Amby asks about Chris' views on the creative impact of Coronavirus on the hobby (8 mins)
• Chris talks about the use of Backstabbr, Discord and other tools in games run by the Chicago and Minneapolis Club and now DixieCon (10 mins)
• Amby asks about what its like commentating on Diplomacy games. Chris mentions the DixieCon live streams will be available afterwards for round one and two (13 mins 15 secs)
• Chris talks about the hardest things about commentating live games (16 mins 20 secs)
• Amby asks about Chris' plans for his Diplomacy Academy videos and discusses some of the most recent videos (18 mins 30 secs)
• Chris talks about how he records the videos (21 mins 30 secs)
• Amby asks what aspects of gameplay with Coronavirus does Chris see continuing once we enter the "normal world" again (24 mins)
• They talk about online players coming to these hybrid tournaments (27 mins 30 secs)
• Amby asks about the various awards in the background of Chris' videos (29 mins)
• Amby asks if Chris plays much now. He goes onto to discuss stabs and what experienced players pick up, and how Chris then applies this to content for the Diplomacy Academy (32 mins)
• Kaner discusses the geography of the board and how it impacts movements. Chris gives his thoughts about this and variants  (39 mins)
• Chris encourages listeners to become Patreons of the podcast (41 mins)
• Amby asks about other Diplomacy content creators and where Chris sees a gap in the market if you wanted to give back to the community. Chris gives his thoughts (42 mins 30 secs)
• The guys start to wrap up the show (46 mins 30 secs)
• After the interview the guys give their thoughts about what they learnt from Chris (47 mins 20 secs)
• The guys mention they recorded a bonus interview with Chris now available for Patreon listeners, including what Chris has learnt in recent years from other players (49 mins)
• They fill in Covid-Safe paperwork and talk about the government app (50 mins)

Diplomacy chit chat

• Kaner welcomes two new Patreons to the show, although they didn't nominate which Cabinet position they wanted when we're elected President and VP (51 mins 30 secs)
• They're back to mispronouncing ingebot's name and Kaner's game with him. They touch on Amby's soloed Divided States game and why he has that handle (53 mins)
• Amby recently went away camping and asked Kaner to sit his games. They discuss Amby's difficulty working out how to give Kaner access with the Country Switch tool (55 mins 45 secs)
• They walk through how to do this on vDip. The same functionality may also be on webDip - they're not sure (57 mins 45 secs)
• Amby asks listeners on webDip, playDip or Backstabbr to let us know how to country switch on your platform using the comments section (1 hr 3 mins)

Kaner's EUIV game

• The guys turn to Kaner's now finished EUIV game where he played as Hungary and got a great draw score (1 hr 3 mins 45 secs)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Kaner outlines his early gameplay goals, focusing on eliminating Venice, he discusses how surprising countries grow in this variant (1 hr 4 mins 20 secs)
• He discusses how his position evolved (1 hr 6 mins)
• Kaner discusses his "where to next" moment - remember in vDip you can see previous maps by going to the Archived Maps section, or follow this link to make it easy! (1 hr 10 mins)
• The guys discuss a brief phallic moment on the map. Can you spot it? (1 hr 13 mins)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• They discuss the rogue unit behind Kaner's line and the amount of effort to squash it (1 hr 15 mins)
• Kaner discusses the new Savoy player who took over a CD position who stabbed deeply into Denmark (1 hr 19 mins)
• Amby flags how Kaner has now drawn two big maps and got a big points boost. He gives a shout out to the main players in the game: Orange, Xenon Radon, Cosmopterix, Steampunk Shogun (1 hr 20 mins)
• Kaner now is coming 48th in the vDip Hall of Fame - although he has dropped a little since recording (1 hr 26 mins)

Wrapping up and other stuff

• Amby flags how Erik van Mechlen (see our earlier interview) now has a Diplomacy audio book that is now available. The audio book is called Diplomacy Conversations: How to Win at Diplomacy or Strategy for Face to Face, Online and Tournaments (1 hr 26 mins 45 secs)
• The guys wrap it up (1 hr 29 mins)

Venue: Red Hook, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner & Amby - Newtowner Australian Pale Ale by Young Henry's from Sydney, 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 improve 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.

 

Never bored with boards

The guys take a deep dive into different Classic Diplomacy boards. Amby now owns three and so does Kaner, so we compare and contrast them all!

Intro & news

• The guys are getting closer to isolation being lifted with talk that the pubs will be open soon. They then discuss their drinks and Amby's Larry can (0 mins 10 secs)
• Kaner asks about Amby's quarantine beard (3 mins)
• Tournaments seem to be all online with Amby considering participating in DixieCon, but unfortunately the timing is really bad in Australia (4 mins)

Diplomacy board talk

• Rob Schone who's attended some of the Brisbane games, is moving back to New Zealand for a bit and gave the show two of his board (5 mins 50 secs)
• One is the 4th edition from 2000 (with metal playing pieces), which was the same version bought from Matt in an earlier show (7 mins)
• Kaner has three boards - two official and the magnet set he created. His main one is a larger scale canvas printed board that they use when playing in Brisbane. Kaner shows his other board (50th anniversary edition - this is the 5th edition published in 2008) where some territories are too tightly clustered together (8 mins)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Amby agrees and highlights the size of the board and territory size is pretty small in his 4th edition boards, he gets out the units to give an idea of size and how they don't very well (12 mins)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Kaner discusses how his magnet board is actually a small board that you can walk around with and plan moves on (14 mins 30 secs)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• They discuss dynamism (17 mins 10 secs)
• Amby returns to the canvas map they usually play on - designed by u/trampolinebears. Kaner points out that some territories have their full name as well as abbreviations so players don't get confused when writing orders (18 mins)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Amby talks about a competent player misordering at PoppyCon (19 mins 30 secs)
• They grabs some more beers before Amby introduces the other board he received from Rob - a 1971 edition of Diplomacy (20 mins 40 secs)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• They discuss the cartoon stylized characters on the board and the color of the players on the board (22 mins 10 secs)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Kaner asks if it is a European or American board (24 mins 25 secs)
• Kaner starts discussing the board he learnt on (26 mins 30 secs)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• He then talks about his dream Diplomacy board (27 mins 30 secs)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• They return to the 1971 edition and Amby discusses the playing pieces (28 mins 40 secs)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• They discuss a special project for Kaner (33 mins)

A brief Around the Grounds

• Kaner's signed up to a 1 day phase public press Divided States game and is doing his head in (35 mins)
• The guys wrap up the show as Kaner needed to get stuff happening (41 mins)

 

Venue: Still at home

Drinks of choice:

Kaner - XXXX Bitter from Brisbane, Australia

Amby - Larry Pale Ale from the Sunshine Coast, 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 improve 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.

 

Still in Lockdown

The guys are still stuck at home. Amby discusses playing in the Minnesota Diplomacy Club's online game and an around the grounds with Kaner getting a really good draw while Amby is eliminated from the Order of the Dragon.

Intro

• Its been so long since the guys were in the pub they can't remember how to start the show. Kaner is missing pubs and massages. They discuss their drinks and Kaner prepares his tunes (0 mins 10 secs)

Amby plays with the Minnesota Diplomacy Club online

• Amby logged on at 7 am that day to play in one of the Minnesota Diplomacy Club's Discord/Backstabbr games. He played in game two as Russia and channeled his inner Melissa Call.  (7 mins)
• Amby said it went well until the mid-game. He was part of a 5 way draw which was based on a sum of scores system (9 mins 30 secs)
• A number of players like Amby weren't local members of the club (12 mins 45 secs)
• Kaner asks about the technology and how the logistics all worked (13 mins 30 secs)
• Amby discusses the strategy he used as Russia and what the other players were doing in the early game (21 mins)
• Kaner asks about Fall 1902 when Amby's fleet in Norway was dislodged and retreated to the Norwegian Sea. He asks why Amby didn't move to Clyde to then take Liverpool (24 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner then asks about Spring 1904 when Turkey (Craig) massively stabbed Amby. He discusses Siobhan's Periscope advice about reading the player vs reading the board (27 mins)
• They discuss how the nature of the game is changing with a mix between online and face to face (30 mins)
• Kaner jumps back on his little robots plan (34 mins)

Shout out to our Patreon supporters: all the alcohol this episode is being paid by them!

• Because of additional Patreon supporters and not drinking in a pub (alcohol costs are lower) the show has for the first time covered its costs! Thanks to Zach Moore, Garry Sturley, umbletheheep and Walshie (37 mins 20 secs)
• They tease the upcoming Patreon episode that will be recorded after this normal episode (41 mins 30 secs)

Around the Grounds

• Kaner's Silent Europe game has ended in a 7 way draw with him being part of it as the Teutonic Knights (42 mins 15 secs)
• He discusses the rise and fall of powers on the board (44 mins 20 secs)
• Amby points out to Kaner that he got a points boost from doing so well in the game. He's just one half decent draw to maybe make it into vDip's Top 100 players 51 40
• The Europa Renovatio variant has just been soloed again (by slypups) but... as Denmark again in the game Holy Empire (52 mins 45 secs)
• Kaner talks about the long grind demonstrated in the graph (54 mins 30 secs)
• Amby is surprised that Kaner's playlist brought up an artist they both like: The Dead South (57 mins 20 secs)

• Kaner asks about Amby's Order of the Dragon game. Amby announces he's now been eliminated after being stabbed by Walshie (Lithuania) and Colonel Apricot (Ottomans). Amby's effort to marry off his heir to the Kalmar Union (Nanook) didn't work as he misread the rules. Heirs can marry but it occurs after the SC count. But as Amby's initial heir and new heir were both killed off when their SCs fell (including his capital) it eliminated him from the game even though he still had some SCs (58 mins 30 secs)
• They discuss trust and distrust in the game and different game cultures (1 hr 4 mins)
• Kaner talks about wanting to play the boardgame Pandemic once people can socially hang out again. He discusses creating a Diplomacy game that encouraged cooperative play (1 hr 5 mins 50 secs)
• They discuss the Winning forum thread at vDip (1 hr 8 mins 30 secs)
• The guys wrap up the show (1 hr 12 mins 45 secs)

Venue: Still at home

Drinks of choice:

Kaner - XXXX Bitter from Brisbane

Amby - San Valentin grenache from Spain

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 improve 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.