The Modern Variant
about the DPjudge | the DPPD | common questions
Contents Basic Rules
· Map Notes
· Design Notes
  1. The normal rules of the game of Diplomacy apply, with the following additions, exceptions, and clarifications.

  2. The map that is used is a representation of Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa as the region was politically divided in the 1990's. The map is similar in geography to the standard map, but includes more of Africa and the middle east.

  3. There are 38 home centers and 26 neutral centers on the board, making 64 total supply centers. To win the game, control of 33 centers is needed.

  4. There are ten Great Powers, which start the game as follows:
    Britain Fleet Edinburgh Fleet Gibraltar Fleet Liverpool Fleet London
    Egypt Fleet Alexandria Army Aswan Fleet Cairo
    France Fleet Bordeaux Army Lyons Army Marseilles Army Paris
    Germany Fleet Berlin Army Frankfurt Fleet Hamburg Army Munich
    Italy Army Milan Fleet Naples Army Rome Fleet Venice
    Poland Fleet Gdansk Army Krakow Army Warsaw
    Russia Army Gorky Army Moscow Army Murmansk Fleet Rostov
    Fleet St Petersburg
    Spain Fleet Barcelona Army Madrid Army Seville
    Turkey Army Adana Fleet Ankara Army Istanbul Fleet Izmir
    Ukraine Army Kharkov Army Kiev Army Odessa Fleet Sevastopol

  5. The first turn of the game is Spring 1995 Movement.
Map Notes
  1. Cairo, Hamburg and Istanbul behave as Kiel and Constantinople did in the original game: they have no coasts but fleets can pass through them to bodies of water of both sides.

  2. There is another canal linking Rostov and Volga, thus permitting access to the Caspian Sea to ships. Rostov is situated along the Don River which empties into the Black Sea, while the Volga empties into the Caspian Sea. In the real world there is a canal at Volgograd linking the two rivers, somewhere in the southern Volga region on the map. This is the only way to get ships into and out of the Caspian Sea.

  3. Iran is the only territory with multiple coasts in the game; the south coast touches the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf, while the north coast touches the Caspian Sea.

  4. The Arabian Sea has been compressed to a small body of water in the bottom right corner of the map, connected with the Red Sea by a dotted blue line. In reality it stretches below the Saudi-Arabian peninsula to link up with the Red Sea. It does not border Aswan, as anything south of Egypt (the Horn of Africa) is considered impassable territory.
Design Notes

The Modern variant was created by Vincent Mous, who described it in a series of articles for The Diplomatic Pouch Zine, beginning with Modern Times.

The DPjudge is copyright © 1995-2024 by Manus Hand. All rights reserved.