Danny Loeb

The Diplomacy Programming Project

The
Combinatorics
Of Retreats

In an article last Spring, we examined how the Diplomacy Programming Project's Strategy Finder uses Simulated Annealing to search through the astronomical number of possible moves. Fortunately, during the building and retreat phases, the number of possible moves is never quite so astronomical. It is thus possible to do a complete one-ply analysis of these phases of the game. Optionally, the search of a build or retreat phase could be less complete, but could anticipate the following phase via a recursive call to the strategic module of the program.

We will discuss the build phases in an article to appear in the next issue of The Diplomatic Pouch. In this issue, we will address the following questions:

For reference, we supply the rules that govern retreats, and the syntax used by the Diplomacy Adjudicator program (judge) and the Diplomat Interface (DPP) during retreat phases.
Daniel E. Loeb
loeb@delanet.com

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