The Diplomacy Academy

Dan Shoham

Introduction

Just before Diplomacy World went wherever it went, I agreed to start a series of contributions to that publication. The writings were to come from my collection of End of Game Statements of Judge games. EoGs are my primary form of writings about strategy and tactics. I called that project The Diplomacy Academy. With the establishment of The Diplomatic Pouch, I am transferring the infant project here.

The last publication of DW contained the first part of the first set of EoGs in the series. For the sake of completeness, the entire EoG set is provided here, including the part which appeared in the last DW. My apologies for the repetition for those who've read the DW article, but you can quickly skip the repeated text.

The first article, comprising the games "Cut-Throat" and "Care-Bear," follows.

EoGs for Cut-Throat and Care-Bear

In the summer of 1993 there was a debate in the Internet Diplomacy community about House Rules. At the time, I was moderating that debate. A question that came up during the debate was about the validity of various objectives in the play of Diplomacy. Specifically, are objectives other than maximizing one's position legitimate? The debate was lively at times, and in the process the name "Cut-Throat" and "Care-Bear" came to be used to represent the playing styles which emphasize, respectively, selfish and selfless play.

Some months later, Rick Desper created two games wherein players were requested to play by the two styles. The games would nonetheless be moderated as standard games. As is now popular in Internet play, the two games were designated as anonymous. In other words, players do not know against whom they are playing, and are forbidden from revealing their identity. Game "Cut-Throat," to emphasize nastiness, allowed grey and fake press. Game "Care-Bear," to emphasize friendship, allowed proxy orders.

Playing as Russia, I won both games. The EoG statements are presented here. You can begin reading at any point, and follow the link at the bottom of each statement to get to the next EoG.

EOG's for the game "Cut-Throat"

EOG's for the game "Care-Bear"

 Dan Shoham
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(shoham@ll.mit.edu)

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