Rule Variant: Surrender

The Surrender rule variant for Diplomacy seeks to prevent player elimination and help end the game faster. When playing casually it is quite disappointing when a friend gets eliminated early on in the game and can no longer directly participate. Moreover, another common complaint is that Diplomacy takes too long to finish. Surrender addresses both these issues.

In Surrender, a nation may choose to surrender its territories to another nation if it is down to 2 SCs or less. If Nation A accepts surrender offered by Nation B, Nation A would become the Protectorate of Nation B and Nation B would become a Client State of Nation A.

The Client State can still control its own units and diplomacy, however it cannot directly dislodge or cut the support of any unit belonging to its Protectorate. That is, while a Client State can directly attack or provide support against its Protectorate's unit, it cannot dislodge it or cut its support (same as how a player cannot dislodge his/her own unit or cut the support of his/her unit by attacking it with another one of his/her own unit). However, the Protectorate may freely attack its Client State at any time as it would attack any other player. The Protectorate will technically ‘own’ every SC belonging to the Client State and therefore can use those SCs towards achieving victory. The Client State can participate normally in draws (and is entitled to any other applicable winnings), however, by design it cannot win the game until it achieves independence.

Q1. How does the process of surrendering work?

• An independent nation may offer surrender to another nation if certain conditions are met (see Conditions for Surrender in Q4. below).
• If the surrender is accepted by the other nation, that nation will become a Protectorate of the nation that just surrendered.
• The nation that has just surrendered, will become a Client State (or Subject) of the Protectorate nation.

Q2. What are the benefits of becoming a Protectorate?

• The Protectorate will ‘own’ every SC that the Client State controls.
  • For example: if the Protectorate nation currently controls 6 SCs and the Client State controls 2 SCs, the Protectorate therefore owns 8 SCs that count towards victory.
• The Client State cannot directly dislodge or cut the support of any unit belonging to its Protectorate.
• However, the Protectorate may dislodge (attack or provide support against) the Client State at any time.
• In the case the Protectorate achieves a solo victory, it will keep all the winnings of the game. However, it may choose to donate only up to 20% (or less) of the winnings to the Client State if the Protectorate wishes.
• If Conditions of Exchange are met, the Protectorate may achieve tactical advantage by exchanging one of its own units, inside the Client’s Home SC, with any Client State unit (of the Protectorate’s choosing).

Q3. What happens to the Client State after offering Surrender?

• A Client State can participate normally in draws and can be eliminated. However it cannot win the game without achieving independence.
  • In the case where its Protectorate achieves a solo victory, the Client State may receive benefits (such as up to 20% of winnings).
• The Client State is NOT bound to follow any orders given the Protectorate and may choose to do so at its own discretion.
• The Client State will retain all rights to control its own units and diplomacy.
• The Client State cannot directly dislodge or cut the support of its Protectorate’s units.
  • While a Client State can directly attack or provide support against its Protectorate's unit, it cannot dislodge it or cut its support.
  • This is works in the same way as how a player cannot directly dislodge or cut the support of his/her own units by attacking it with his/her own units or dislodging it by supporting a foreign unit to dislodge their own unit.
  • All other valid actions or interactions are permitted between the Client State and the Protectorate.
  • Any two Client States under the same Protectorate can freely move against or provide support against each other without any restriction.
• However, Client State unit may freely move into any unoccupied space, as per standard Diplomacy rules, regardless of whether its Protectorate is tries to move to the same space.
  • A Client State unit will normally bounce a Protectorate unit if they both move to an unoccupied space simultaneously (given that they are of equal attacking force following standard Diplomacy rules).
  • A Client State unit may receive support from any nation, including itself, to hold or move into an unoccupied space that its protectorate is also attempting to move into, even if it causes the protectorate’s unit to bounce.
  • As a result, the Protectorate cannot move into a territory, that is held by its Client State’s unit, without dislodging it as per standard Diplomacy rules.
  • This is valid because the Client State unit is simply moving into an empty space, and technically it is not dislodging its Protectorate’s unit.
• The Client State can freely move into an unoccupied territory or SC belonging to the Protectorate and take over control it as its own.
  • That is, it is possible for the Client State to take over the Protectorate’s SCs, as long as it the Protectorate does not have a unit currently occupying that SC.
  • If the Client States takes over its Protectorate’s SC, the Client State may add/build another unit and the Protectorate would have to disband one of its units (if there is an imbalance between SCs and number of units) as per standard rules.
  • Even in the case where the Client State takes over an SC belonging to the Protectorate, as long as the Client State does not become independent, the total number of SCs owned by the Protectorate will remain the same.
• The Client State is allowed to freely move or provide support against its own troops, only if it is attacking itself or if its Protectorate’s unit is attacking.
  • For instance, imagine that Turkey is down to 2 armies and is surrounded and landlocked by Russia. In this case if Turkey surrenders to Russia, their relationship would be useless unless Turkey is able to build fleets and sail westward. Therefore Turkey can simply ask Russia to dislodge one of its armies (while Turkey provides support) or ask Russia for support to help dislodge Turkey’s own army. This would allow Turkey to disband its unwanted unit and rebuild with a more suitable unit type.

Q4. What are The Conditions of Surrender?

• Only independent nations may offer surrender.
  • A country may surrender itself to as many nations as it wants, as many times as it wants, as long as it is an independent nation that meets the conditions for surrender.
• At the time of the surrender, the Protectorate must own at least one Home SC belonging the Client State.
  • After the surrender is accepted, the Protectorate and Client State will retain their relationship even if the Protectorate loses control over the Client State’s home SC.
  • In the case where multiple nations owns the Client State’s home SC, the Client State may choose to offer surrender to any of the qualifying nations.
• A nation can only surrender if it is down to 2 SCs or less.
• A nation can only surrender to another nation if the other nation is larger than itself, i.e. the Protectorate must have has at least 1 more SC than the Client State.
• The protectorate may accept or decline the surrender at any time, during any turn.
  • If the surrender is accepted, the special rules for Protectorate and its Client State will become effective immediately.
• The surrender may be offered and accepted verbally, but it must be publicly announced in order to be considered valid.

Q5. Can a Client State nation gain independence? - Yes

• The moment the Protectorate becomes the same size as the Client State (or smaller than its Client State), the Client State automatically gains independence and hence becomes an Independent nation.
  • That is, if the protectorate has equal number of SCs as its Client State or fewer number of SCs than its Client State, then the Client State would become independent.
• The Client State automatically gains independence if it is eliminated from the game.
• If the protectorate is eliminated, then the Client State automatically becomes an Independent nation as well (if it hadn’t become so already at this point).

Q6. Can a single nation have multiple Client States or Protectorates? – Yes (multiple client states) and No (single protectorate)

• Any nation or state (whether it itself is a Client State or not) may have as many Client States as desired, given the Conditions of Surrender are met.
• Any Client States under the same Protectorate do not share any binding relationships among themselves, and therefore may freely attack each other if they choose to do so.
• An independent nation can offer surrender to only one other nation at a time. That is, a nation can have only one Protectorate at a time.

Q7. Can a Client State nation become a Protectorate of another nation? - Yes

• A Client State nation may become the Protectorate of another nation as long as the conditions of surrender are met.
  • While the Client State nation can become the Protectorate of another nation, its relationship with its own Client State will be independent of its relationship with its own Protectorate.
  • That is, if Nation B is a Client State, its own Client State (Nation C) will have no formal relation with Nation B’s Protectorate (Nation A).
  • For example: If Germany is the Protectorate of France and France is the Protectorate of Italy, then Germany and Italy will have no formal relationship between themselves. Therefore Italy may attack Germany if it wishes to, because the two nations do not have a binding relationship (unlike France and Germany).
• The total number of SCs owned by a Client State (which includes the SC count it gains from its own Clients if any) will also count towards the total SC count for its Protectorate.
  • For example, if Nation A (8 SCs) is the Protectorate for Nation B (4 SCs), and Nation B is the protectorate for Nation C (2 SCs). Then the total SC count for Nation B will be 6 SCs and the total SC count for Nation A will be 14 SCs.

Q8. Can an eliminated nation still offer Surrender and rejoin the game? – Yes

• A nation that has been eliminated can still offer surrender as long as all Conditions of Surrender are met.
• If the Protectorate wishes, it may grant the Client State’s Home SC back to them and replace any one of Protectorate’s units (the Exchange Unit) with any unit belonging to the Client State, under the Conditions of Exchange:
  • Exchange is only possible if the Protectorate owns and currently occupies (with its own unit) any one of the Client State’s home SC at the time of exchange.
  • The Protectorate’s Exchange Unit must be directly replaced by the Client State’s new unit, on the same territory (which must be the Client State’s Home SC) where the Exchange Unit was located at the time of exchange.
  • The Protectorate unit, that is being exchanged by the Client State unit, must be ordered to “hold exchange – [type of new unit]” on the turn of exchange. For example, if Germany (Protectorate) had a Fleet in London and decided to grant London, along with an Army, back to England (Client), it would order “Fleet – London – Hold Exchange = England - Army”.
  • “Hold exchange” order can only be nullified if the Protectorate’s Exchange unit is successfully dislodged.
  • If the exchange is successful, the Client State will immediately own the exchanged SC (regardless of the Season) and can place any unit (of the Protectorate’s choosing) on that territory and start moving that unit immediately on that turn.
  • The Protectorate will choose which type of Client State unit will replace the Protectorate’s Exchange Unit. For example, the Germany (protectorate) may choose to replace its Army (or Fleet) in London with either an Army or Fleet belonging to England (Client).
  • The Client State’s unit cannot be exchanged on any territories other than on its own original Home SCs. For example, if Austria surrenders to Russia and is allowed to perform an exchange, this exchange can only be performed in Vienna, Budapest, or Trieste (Austria’s home SCs) only.
• The Protectorate may exchange as many of the Client’s Home SCs (that the Protectorate owns) with the Client State as it wishes, as long as the Conditions of Exchange are met.
  • If by replacing too many of its SCs, the Protectorate becomes equal or smaller in size compared to the Client State, then the Client State will automatically gain independence.
• The exchange can be made at any time of the Protectorate’s choosing during any turn.
  • It is not necessary for the Client State to have been eliminated in order to perform an exchange.
  • The Client State reserves the right to decline the Protectorate’s offer to exchange troops at any point.

Q9. What are the benefits of becoming a client state?

• The Client State can participate normally in draws (and is entitled to any other applicable winnings), however, by design it cannot win the game until it achieves independence.
• The Client State player can still be involved in the game (and keep having fun) instead of being eliminated.
• The Client State has the opportunity to achieve independence under the appropriate conditions.

Conclusion:

I created Surrender simply as a fun alternative to the standard game, that people can enjoy with friends without running the risk of ruining someone’s night.

In a serious setting, getting eliminated is the worst possible result but when having fun with friends, the feeling of getting excluded from the game, while everyone else is still playing and having fun, is even worse. So I think most people would opt to Surrender and keep playing despite the exponentially more difficult odds of winning the game once they do. However, thanks to the rule changes I think this problem has been minimized.