"I have noticed that my skill at this game increases measurably every few thousand words I read by [BrotherBored]. The amount of effort [BrotherBored] put into this is absolutely intense." – Restitution

"[T]his is an exceptional resource. Reading it, I feel my game has already improved." – teccles

"Keeping this journal was a wonderful idea, and a great contribution to Diplomacy literature. It gives a look into the mind of an advanced player, analysis of press, and the thought behind his own press, all important things that helped me with my own. It was rather honest, and funny at times, and overall a fun read!" – Aurelin

"[BrotherBored] has put huge amounts of effort into creating a really great diplomacy resource, it is well structured, easy to read yet has great depth." – Brumark

"This is an astonishing piece of writing. [. . .] It's compelling reading and there's a tremendous number of things to learn here from [BrotherBored]. The format is logical and clever, illuminating the thoughts behind your messages and strategy." – PenelopePitstop

"I had a really great time reading this, and it's actually gotten me back into the game." – Baileancuisine

"I was Austria and found this both interesting and humbling a read." – Creigh, Austrian player

"Excellent journal and analysis, and more importantly, good game!" – Temasek22, Italian player

"I disagree with [BrotherBored] on... pretty much everything, truth be told. But there is no doubt from his results that his particular style is a viable route to success." – Octavious

Introduction

My 2017 journal for "The Biggest Game of All Time" is probably my most-acclaimed writing. That journal is about Gunboat Diplomacy, a variant where the players do not send messages and instead communicate only through their orders.

To build on that success, I have been waiting for the right opportunity to produce something similar for a match of Press Diplomacy. Press Diplomacy (also sometimes just called "Diplomacy," since press is part of the original rules) permits the players to message each other. The ability to send written messages adds immeasurable layers of complexity compared to the Gunboat variant.

The 2019 Online Diplomacy Championship seems like the perfect occasion to keep another journal. Although I consider myself one of the world's best Gunboat Diplomacy players, I honestly do not know if I am all that good at Press Diplomacy. But even if I am not so good, I imagine that beginners and mediocre players could learn from how I play the game. I am certainly experienced, so I can at least offer the perspective of an experienced player.

Whether I do well, poorly, or somewhere in between, I am going to record my efforts in the tournament for posterity. Board games are my favorite hobby, and Diplomacy is my favorite board game. I have benefited immensely from the writings of the players who have come before me, and I hope to "pay it forward" to the next generation of Diplomacy players. I hope you enjoy this read!

My Preparation for the Tournament

In the weeks before the tournament, I've actually spent many hours thinking over what I might do depending on which powers I am assigned and what kind of initial messages I might receive. I've been playing scenarios through my mind like "What if I am assigned Russia and Turkey agrees not to bounce in Black Sea in Spring 1901? Would I accept this offer in good faith?" I believe these mental exercises help me sharpen my thoughts and feel prepared.

I've also spent the last few months reading (or listening to) some high-quality books on people, power, and persuasion, including:

How to Win Friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie, 1936)
The Courage to Be Disliked (Fumitake Koga and Ichiro Kishimi, 2013)
The 48 Laws of Power (Robert Greene, 1998)
Understanding Human Nature (Alfred Adler, 1927)

In passing, let me say that I recommend these books to anybody willing to give them a try. Diplomacy players should find them especially useful.

Inspired by these books, I have thought up new tactics (well, new to me) for how to be a stronger Press Diplomacy player.

Among my new ideas, I have come up with a plan to employ "mirroring" in order to get the other players to like me. That is to say, I intend to mimic the press style of the players who are messaging me so that they feel (most likely, unconsciously) that I am friendly, intelligent, and reasonable. So for example, if there is a player who refers to the German player as "the Kaiser" and writes 2-3 sentence paragraphs with complex vocabulary, I will do similar things in my replies to that player (Russia becomes "the Tsar" and so forth). If the player sends quick messages about what deals we should make, I will reply quickly with short messages about the deals. This is something I have not done before, ever, with my press. I am trying out this technique as I believe it will be an improvement to my press style.

I have other new ideas and I will explain them as they arise.

My Play-Style Should Account for the Tournament Setting

In addition to my effort to improve at Press Diplomacy in general, I thought of some things I need to keep in mind for the tournament specifically:

The tournament will use sum-of-squares scoring, in contrast to the draw-size scoring used for nearly all matches I play.

That means if the game ends in a draw, the number of supply centers I control matters far more than the draw size. It's worth taking more centers so long as someone else doesn't solo win. That means all the players (including me) will need to focus on deals that increase their supply-center count, rather than ones that eliminate their rivals.

The tournament is completely anonymous and includes players from other websites and people who don't usually play online.

I usually play press games where the players aren't anonymous, or even if they are, everyone knows which 7 players joined the match.

Advantage: this means I can falsify information about myself. E.g., I can "sandbag" and come across as inexperienced if I want to.
Disadvantage: I can't rely on my reputation as a strong player to deter people from coming after me in the beginning of the game.

I usually play matches where everyone sort of knows each other. During such matches, you can usually "cut right to the chase" and just talk about tactical stuff without making the conversation personal. But I think average Diplomacy players (especially in an anonymous, stressful tournament setting) respond strongly to their rivals' charisma, sportsmanship, and friendliness (or lack thereof). Therefore, for this tournament, I will turn the charm dial up to 11. I absolutely think that getting the other players to have a positive opinion of me as a friendly player will have a good effect on my results.

The tournament is seeded

I believe I have been highly seeded at the tournament. This means there will be more weaker and inexperienced players in my initial games than I usually play with. I need to take advantage of their poor play and inexperience. Accordingly, I need to keep tabs on which players I believe to be experienced or inexperienced.

Inexperienced players are easier to fool; they are unlikely to see the long-term implications of certain moves on the board. E.g., they might agree to a deal where we each take a supply center, but the supply center I take is far more strategically valuable in the long run. (To learn more about this, take a look at my post on "The Numbers Game.")

Journal Formatting

I know it will not be easy to explain every aspect of a press game. In addition to explaining my strategic ideas, I have to explain all the messaging. However, I have an idea for how to convey a lot of detail in an organized manner, and I hope it works:

In my journal, I will record all the press I send back and forth with each player (my messages and their messages) on the left-hand column. In the right-hand column, I will record my secret thoughts that will help you (the reader) understand my true reaction and the strategy underlying my own messages. For example, if I am telling a player an outright lie, the message itself will be recorded on the left. But I will record the fact that I am lying and what I hope to accomplish by lying in the right hand column.

Note: on mobile view, the text boxes will be arranged on top of each other -- first the messages, then my "secret thoughts." [Edit: after finishing the journal, I realized that sometimes my commentary was too short compared to the length of the messages. So for instances where the commentary doesn't line up well with the messages column, I located my commentary on beneath the messages text box.]

It is a big time commitment just to read and write the messages of a press game. But on top of that, I intend to write out my commentary on those messages in real time. Because of this time constraint, I know I will be limited in my ability to explain all my assumptions and predictions. A certain amount of my thinking (like certain assumptions I make, predictions, and other tactical minutiae) will simply have to go unrecorded -- but I'll do my best to explain everything I can.

One issue I've considered is that the way I am formatting the messages won't reflect the real-time order of the messaging. Let me explain. During the game, I will be sending press to all 6 other players simultaneously and crafting my messages in response to what I know is going on with each of the other players. However, my formatting decision will not necessarily display the messages in chronological order. Nevertheless, I think this loss of chronological detail is worthwhile because it is much easier to read messages organized by player. I think arranging all the messages by chronological timestamp would make the journal too difficult to read through.

I will organize my press exchanges with each country in the order that I think is easiest to understand. Diplomacy is an incredibly complex game, but I am going to do my best to make my match comprehensible to you, dear reader.

Also, FYI: there will be typographical and other errors in the players' messages. That is because I am directly copy-pasting the messages from webDiplomacy. Not only is there a certain amount of informality and human error that generates mistakes in the messages, but many players (myself included) exchanges messages on their smartphones (which generates all sorts of weird spelling errors, and also makes the messages difficult to proofread).

Final Note: The anonymity rules of the tournament require me to wait until the match is over before I publish anything, but I am absolutely writing this journal in real-time as the match progresses.

Online Diplomacy Championship Journal10 min read

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