UKDP: Aberration Overview

The Aberration Variant

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Contents Basic Rules

The standard rules of regular Diplomacy apply, except where modified below.
The map is a vision of Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East, with nine powers that may have become (or who may yet become?) Great Powers had history gone a bit differently than it did.
1. Six spaces (Cairo, Constantinople, Denmark, Holstein, Sinai, and Taurida) are canals, behaving as Denmark, Kiel, and Constantinople do on the standard Diplomacy map.
2. The Caspian Sea, Crete, Iceland, and Corsica are impassable.

There are nine powers, initially owning the following supply centers and units:

B - Burgundy	`Army Dijon`	`Army Brussels`	`Fleet Hague`
C - Sicily	`Army Rome`	`Fleet Naples`	`Fleet Palermo`
E - Eire	`Army Alcluyd`	`Fleet Dublin`	`Fleet Edinburgh`
H - Hungary	`Army Budapest`	`Army Szeged`	`Fleet Zara`
I - Israel	`Army Damascus`	`Army Jerusalem`	`Fleet Cairo`
P - Poland	`Army Warsaw`	`Army Riga`	`Fleet Gdansk`
S - Spain	`Army Toledo`	`Fleet Santander`	`Fleet Valencia`
U - Ukraine	`Army Kiev`	`Army Odessa`	`Fleet Yalta`
Z - Byzantium	`Army Athens`	`Fleet Constantinople`	`Fleet Smyrna`

A player may build on any owned supply center, as long as the player owns at least one original home supply center.
The victory condition is 27 supply centers.

Design Notes

This variant was created by Rod Walker and Nick Fitzpatrick, who are both genuine Diplomacy legends.

Here are some suggestions as to what may have happened to the powers in Aberration to cause them to achieve Great Power status:

Burgundy: The final confrontation between the civilization of the Seine and the Saone was no sure thing for the Parisian monarch. In this instance the victor was the Burgundian dynastic state, stretching from the Rhone to the North Sea.
Byzantium: This empire might have survived had the Turks failed to make a landing in Europe. The population of western Asia Minor was still basically Greek in the 1400s. Some strong emperors could have given the Greek state a new lease on life.
Hungary: Hungary was a budding great power until the Turkish invasions. A strong Byzantium would have prevented that, and Hungary, not Austria, could have become the great Danubian power.
Eire: If Irish missionary activity had been followed by political action on behalf of their fellow Celts, the Anglo-Norman imperium at London might have been still-born. All the Irish needed was some real unity, which they almost achieved on occasion.
Israel: This could be a continuation of the ancient dynastic state under descendants of the Maccabees or the Herods. Just as likely, however, it would be representative of the final victory of the Crusaders in the Middle East. It might therefore be called the "Kingdom of Jerusalem."
Poland: The Poles had many opportunities to overwhelm both the Russian and the eastern Germans. We must here assume that one such opportunity finally afforded success.
Sicily: This island once had an excellent chance of gaining control of most of Italy under a powerful and aggressive Norman dynasty. These rulers died out, and Sicily became the pawn of others. Here we assume that the Norman dynasty did not die out.
Spain: This could be a Christian Spain which somehow remained powerful despite a long succession of cretinous monarchs. Perhaps they were spared the third-rate Hapsburgs and Bourbons who were thrust upon them. Another possibility is that this is a Muslim Spain, which case we should perhaps refer to it as the "Caliphate of Toledo" (a change of capital from Cordova).
Ukraine: The original Russian state was centred at Kiev, and we suppose here that this southern center remained dominant rather than losing out to the northern centres at Vladivostok and Moscow. These people would, however, continue to call their land "Russia" or something like it, so Ukraine is perhaps a misnomer for this power.