The Zeus Variant
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Contents Basic Rules
· Basic Rules
· Map Notes
· Design Notes
  1. The normal rules of the game of Diplomacy apply, with the following additions, exceptions, and clarifications.

  2. There are 43 Supply Centers. The Victory Criterion is 22 Centers.

  3. The Home Centers for the Great Powers are (capitals listed first):
    Britain London Edinburgh Canada Egypt Middle East
    China Chungking Canton Peking
    France Paris Marseilles Algiers
    Germany Berlin Hamburg Munich
    Japan Tokyo Sapporo Sendai
    USA Washington Hawaii New York California
    (see below)
    USSR Moscow Leningrad Stalingrad Okhotsk

  4. The first move of the game is Winter 1939. On this turn, the players specify their builds, which may be negotiated. If a Fleet is built in Canada, Leningrad, or Middle East, the coast must be specified. USA can only build three units in the first year, but it may choose to build its third unit either in New York or California and does not have to disclose where it has built it until the Spring 1940 moves are disclosed.

  5. U.S.A. may always build units in California instead of in a Home SC if it wishes, provided it owns California.

  6. If Germany owns Rome, she may build units there.
Map Notes

  1. Canal Provinces. Egypt, Hamburg and Panama are considered to have only one coast. Fleets passing from one sea space to another via a canal must first move to a canal province (e.g. F EMS-Egypt; then F Egypt-Indian Ocean).

  2. Land Crossings (Direct Passage). Both Armies and Fleets may move directly between Denmark and Sweden, Korea and Kyushu, Tokyo and Kyushu, and Gibraltar and North Africa. Fleets may move between North Sea and Baltic Sea or between Sea of Japan and Yellow Sea or Okinawa only by first moving to one of the intervening land spaces. Denmark, Sweden, Korea, Kyushu and Tokyo are considered one-coast provinces. Units may not move directly between Greece and Turkey.

  3. Straits. Fleets may move directly between West Med. Sea and either MAO or SAO; and between East Med. Sea and Black Sea.

  4. Pacific Island Areas. Armies may enter the Hawaiian, Midway, Okinawa and Solomon Is., spaces without convoy, as if they were land provinces. Fleets may move and convoy through these spaces as if they were ordinary sea spaces.

  5. Western Britain. Western Britain is a coastal province consisting of Wales, SW England, Irish Sea and Ireland. All units treat this area as a single space.

  6. India. India contains a Standing Army, which must be dislodged before it can be occupied and claimed as a Supply Center.

  7. Polish Corridor. This map is inaccurate in showing Prussia as attached to the rest of Germany in 1939. From 1919 to September 1939, East Prussia was cut off from the area shown here as "Berlin" by the "Polish Corridor," which has been omitted from the ZEUS map. However, for game purposes this is not too serious, especially since the map has been badly distorted in so many areas to fit everything in.
Design Notes

The Zeus variant was created by Chris Northcott and Fred Davis.

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