Solo Win Tip #6: Embrace the Powers’ Differences32 min read

On the BrotherBored Patreon, fans submit ideas for articles and help me choose which topic I’ll write about next!

The most recent winning topic was:

Finish writing on a Diplomacy topic you’ve had on the back-burner for a while, “Solo Win Tip: Embrace the Powers’ Differences.”

Technically, this was the topic drawing for last month. But as I wrote, I realized I was writing too much content for a single post. So I broke the piece into two parts. Although this article stands on its own, it might be more fun to read the prior entry first:

And with that in mind, let’s begin!

Perhaps you were persuaded by my previous post that you will win Diplomacy more often if you adapt your play style to suit the strengths of the Great Power assigned to you. Or maybe you already considered that true! If so, you might be thinking something like this: “It’s all well and good for BrotherBored to say, in the abstract, that each power is unique. What I really want to know is: what should I do differently when assigned to a given power?”

Worry not; I’ve got some answers to this question. I’ve played Diplomacy quite a lot over the years, and I have developed many opinions about how to play to the strengths (and mitigate the weaknesses) of each power. In this piece I will give you specific advice about how you might want to alter your play style to suit the power you’ve been assigned. If this is what you came here for, I hope you enjoy!

England

English Limitations

England starts the match with a precarious position and logistical difficulties. Gaining even 1 center in 1901 can be a struggle.^[1]Revision: I originally stated that England cannot guarantee a build, but that was not accurate. England can guarantee a capture by opening to Norwegian Sea and North Sea (to ensure that England can make a supported attack on Norway). However, if France is in the English Channel, France can steal … Continue reading And getting to 5 centers is difficult for England without acquiring a good friend or creating a bitter enemy. All three of England’s neighbors stand a reasonable chance of winning if England is destroyed early, and if they work together they can do this quickly.^[2]This situation is shared by Austria. England’s home centers are nowhere near critical stalemate line centers, so it is difficult for England to “sneak into a draw” when losing. You can learn more about “sneaking into the draw” in another of my articles, The Top 5 Strategic Goals in Diplomacy.

Being an island country, England almost always wants English fleets in adjacent sea zones (English Channel, North Sea, Norwegian Sea) to convoy armies onto the continent. As England, it is tempting to capture supply centers by moving fleets from these sea zones into adjacent supply centers (Brest, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway). However, this is often short-sighted: how is England going to convoy a new army build if there’s no fleet in place to convoy?

As long as England is expanding, England should probably have at least one fleet in place to convoy armies. But this does use up one or more valuable pieces just for convoys—and England, not having an easy way to make captures, will feel the cost of this restriction.

To solo win, England almost always needs a big pile of armies in the center of the map that can take and hold landlocked centers (typically Munich, but sometimes Warsaw or Moscow as well). These armies have to be built and convoyed several turns before they can reach these positions, and have little other tactical purpose…which means England’s attack plan is telegraphed to the others well in advance.

English Advantages

England is a “corner power,” an expression that refers to the literal corner on the edge of the Diplomacy board. The advantage of being a corner power is that England has fewer neighbors. The consequence of having few neighbors is that if England can reach a moderate size, England can eventually create an unflankable (and therefore impregnable) perimeter. A moderately-sized England (say, at 7 or more centers) is very tough to take down. England’s corner position can also lead to situations where England’s solo is all-but-inevitable, because England can create a game state where England can easily defend one flank while using the remaining units to envelop the rest of the 18 centers needed to win.

English Style

Due England’s precarious initial position, logistical difficulties, and potential for gaining unstoppable momentum, England benefits from a defensive, methodical play style.

Rivals players who encourage England to be aggressive and hasty are often hoping to benefit far more than England. Hasty English aggression often merely nuisances an enemy without resulting in defensible gains for England. And early aggression requires England to move far away from defensible positions, opening up England to be flanked by that “friendly” rival.

Explosive growth is uncommon for England because of the logistical limitation of needing to convoy armies, which forces England to keep some fleets in reserve whether on offense or defense. Capturing many centers simultaneously can be counter-productive, as a spread-out front may not be immediately defensible while newly-built armies linger in Great Britain for several turns.

England’s solo win chances rise when the English player exercises caution, exudes patience, and carefully plots out tactics many turns ahead.

France

French Advantages

France has all the advantages of a corner power: few neighbors, a defensible tactical position, and the ability to concentrate force in a single direction to build momentum. But France does not have the disadvantage the corner position brings to England and Turkey, namely, the logistical problems. Unlike England (who struggles with the need to convoy) and Turkey (who is incredibly far from critical centers needed to solo), France’s home centers are positioned so that France’s builds can be put to immediate use. In other words, France also has the main advantage of the central powers, namely, a short supply line.

France starts with Marseilles and easily captures Spain and Portugal, giving France half of the critical stalemate-line centers France typically needs to solo (the other three being Tunis, Munich, and Berlin). Not only does France essentially start with three high-value centers, France is as close as it gets to the other centers France needs to win; Munich, Berlin, and Tunis are only two or three moves away from France’s home centers. New French builds are immediately useful for fighting for critical positions.

France, alone of the western powers, can build fleets directly in the Mediterranean. The ability to build fleets on both sides of the traditional north-south stalemate line is an advantage shared only by Russia.

In fact, is uniquely possible for France to win by building almost entirely fleets. Munich is the only supply center France may want to capture that can only be taken with armies. If France takes an Italian home center like Rome or Naples, then France can solo without capturing even 1 landlocked supply center. But France is by no means required to build all fleets, and has the tactical flexibility to succeed while building a significant number of armies and minimal fleets!

Because France starts with (or near) so many critical supply centers, France is often closer to winning in 1901 than any other power. If France reaches 9 or 10 supply centers while maintaining a coherent line of well-placed units, France might actually be close to solo winning.^[3]You’ll have to take Your Bored Brother’s word for it on this point, as this article is not an all-encompassing guide to playing each power. Life is long and Diplomacy is awesome, so I can always write more some day. Send me a request! Assuming France reaches 5 centers by taking Portugal and Spain early, this means France can reach a solo-winning position by capturing just 4 or 5 more supply centers. France starts the race closer to the finish, and has a downhill path to the finish line!

French Limitations

Diplomacy is a self-balancing game. The players can comprehend if one of their rivals is especially strong or threatening, and bring them down to size. Thus, a common problem with playing France is that your rivals—particularly skilled rivals—may understand the danger you pose and try to play around that from the beginning. I’ve written about this some before in the Gunboat context.

I, Your Bored Brother, truly and honestly believe—based on my 10 years of competitive Diplomacy experience—that the most significant French weakness is the lack of French weaknesses.^[4]In other words, that France’s inherent tactical strength sometimes prejudices rivals against allying with France.

French Style

Considering that France has a great defensive position and only needs a small number of captures to achieve game-winning momentum, France can afford to take risks and to help other players first. France benefits from a relaxed, confident play style.

France does not need significant assistance from any ally to make captures; France can often get by on mere friendly neutrality. Simply not getting dogpiled by multiple neighbors may be enough for France to eventually solo.

What happens on the far side of the map often doesn’t make that much of a difference to France’s prospects. Accordingly, France doesn’t need a deep alliance with another distant power, and doesn’t need to get involved as much with what others are doing.

When you’re playing as France, let others solve (and create!) their own problems. Be friendly, but not too involved. Make tactical concessions or confer help on others so that they don’t prioritize attacking you. Find a way to make modest gains, and if everyone hates you the least, let the inherent power of “being France” carry you the rest of way to solo win.

Germany

After thinking about it for a while, I decided that breaking down Germany’s special traits into “advantages” and “disadvantages” would be confusing or misleading; Germany’s characteristics might be better described as a “doubled-edged sword.”

Germany can expand in any and every direction, but at the same time Germany can also be attacked from all of those directions. Germany starts off with a valuable tactical position in the center of the board, but almost every other power is counting on capturing 1 or more German home centers in order to solo win.

Germany is the only power with 5 neighbors. It is not possible for Germany to survive—let alone win—without good relations with several other powers at almost every moment. This fact makes playing Germany almost synonymous with diplomacy itself.

Germany is tactically flexible, and can shift focus or direction with relative ease. It is common enough for Germany to launch attacks in one direction, only to change strategy and reallocate forces somewhere else. Although Germany is primarily a land power with many expansion routes over land, Germany is not necessarily locked into playing this way and can do well with a significant navy. However, building a large number of fleets does narrow down Germany’s tactical (and ultimately strategic) options.

German Style

A great way to play Germany is to be all things to all people. As Germany, it is critical that you secure most of your flanks with your diplomacy; otherwise, you could be destroyed even while your offensive moves are successful. But soloing as Germany requires more than just not being opportunistically attacked. You want to create a narrative in the minds of other players that what you are doing is beneficial to them, or at least consistent with their goals. With 5 neighbors, it is incredibly easy to make the mistake of neglecting, scaring, or antagonizing a neighbor who then kicks you in the shins and ruins your solo chances. Don’t make such mistakes when you play as Germany!

Succeeding as Germany often requires a certain degree of salesmanship or smooth-talking (as they say). It’s kind of tough for most players to fully understand their German rival’s intentions just by “reading the board;” many German tactical positions are ambiguous or could be shifted around quickly. This means you can “sell” your moves or positions as meaning different things to different neighbors. This technique is incredibly valuable to a German player, as your neighbors will almost certainly have contradictory expectations of you and you need to somehow please most (or all!) of them.

Another reason to develop strong relationships with all your neighbors is that you may need to shift alliances several times during the match to succeed. Because your starting central position is tactically indefensible, any significant offensive activity requires you to leave open a vulnerable “back door;” thus, you should be diplomatically prepared to change sides (in the metaphorical and literal sense) on any turn. And when the match is going well for you, you still need to be minding your relationships, perhaps pinwheeling between allies as you expand.

My favorite way to play Germany—one that I’ve been very successful with historically—is to do everything I can to convince each of my neighbors that they are my “main” ally, and that my alliances with my other neighbors are just temporary. There’s nothing that any of them would hear from each other that is inconsistent with the narrative I’ve given each player: “Yes, I am allied to that other power, and I’ve said to them that the alliance could be long term, but that’s not my true intention.” In reality, none of my allies is my “main” ally. My strategic plan is to see how the match plays out and attack the rival that seems the most advantageous to attack down the road. But regardless of who I ultimately attack, that attack was “expected”—and almost always, welcomed!—by my other allies.

For a thorough demonstration of how I approach Germany, watch my Media Wars journal. I came reasonably close to a solo win against very skilled opponents trying hard to succeed.

Russia

Russian Advantages

Russia is the only Great Power with home centers on both sides of the traditional north/south stalemate line. This means Russia is the only Great Power that is inherently both a Northern and Southern power.

This advantage is incredible, and succeeding as Russia typically involves squeezing this advantage for all it is worth. Russia’s status as both a Northern and Southern power means that Russia has immense flexibility in choosing a path to a solo win; no one specific neighbor must be conquered. This also means Russia is difficult to box in and stalemate when Russia is sprinting for that 18th center. Even in a high-level Diplomacy match, it is possible to solo win as Russia just because your rival players don’t apprehend the precise tactics required to stop you!^[5]The ways that England, France and Germany are stalemated are very similar, and the ways that Austria, Turkey and Italy are stalemated are very similar. But the lessons players learn stalemating those powers may not help them in stalemating Russia. Take a look at these Gunboat Stalemate Lines to … Continue reading

Sometimes I think of Russia as a “Southern power” (like Austria, Italy, and Turkey), but with the ability to build fleets in the north. This theoretical understanding of Russia is critical to winning, as Russia almost always requires significant conquests in both the north and south in order to solo.

Although technically Russia is also a “corner power,” in Your Bored Brother’s experience Russia plays a lot more like central powers (Germany, Austria, Italy) than a corner power (England, France, Turkey). I think this is because Russia’s corner doesn’t grant Russia a strong defense, and because Russia has more than three neighbors.

However, Russia shares in the advantages of central powers, namely, proximity to critical supply centers and the ability to build new units in a place where they are immediately useful.

Russian Disadvantages

Of all seven Great Powers, Russia starts off the match with the least tactical strength. If you are relatively new to Diplomacy, that assertion might surprise you. “Doesn’t Russia start the match with one more supply center (and unit!) than the other powers?” True! But don’t assume Russia has more tactical strength just because Russia has more units.

Two of Russias starting units are fleets, and these fleets are quite limited in where they can go and what they can do. The fleets have limited offensive capabilities, and are downright terrible at defense (since Russia is mostly vulnerable over land, and the fleets cannot support Warsaw, Moscow, or Ukraine).^[6]These starting fleets are so terrible that Russian players almost always choose to disband a fleet if compelled to disband early—and sometimes even conspire with an ally to disband a fleet on purpose so that it can be rebuilt as an army!

Even when Russia makes gains, Russia’s early captures are tactically difficult to defend against a concerted attack. Russia’s natural expansion paths don’t run through easily-defended choke points like Mid-Atlantic Ocean, Piedmont, or Ionian Sea.

Russia’s other major challenge is a strategic one: all the other powers are eyeing one or more Russian home centers in their path to a solo win. Even Russia’s natural allies France and Italy are likely to take Russian centers like St. Petersburg or Sevastopol en route to victory.^[7]This contrasts sharply with other natural alliances like England/Turkey, that virtually never conquer each others’ home centers.

Russian Style

You might say that Russia starts each match involved in everyone’s business. The trick is to get your rivals to want you to stay involved in their business. If the other players decide to shut you out of either side of the board, they will easily accomplish this—and your ability to solo may be crushed. So you must give them reasons not to do this.

Make offers, accept offers. Assert your interests, but don’t be greedy. Offer “quid pro quo” deals^[8]”Something for something”—as in, a limited exchange of things, in contrast to an offer of alliance. and recruit every ally you can (that is to say, consider both short-term and long-term arrangements). A great play style for Russia is to be businesslike, attentive, and above all: talkative.

In Press Diplomacy, Russia is considered at least as strong as all the other powers. In the past decades of Diplomacy lore, there are even references to players considering Russia the strongest of all seven powers. This stands in sharp contrast to modern Gunboat Diplomacy scuttlebutt, where Russia is definitely among the weaker powers—arguably the worst.

I think the inference is clear: Russia, more than any other power, depends on the power of press (that is, verbal communication) to succeed.

Among the reasons Russia depends on press to succeed is that Russia has a hard time reaching critical, game-winning momentum with just 10 or 12 supply centers. This is because Russia struggles to roll up an entire side of the board, and so typically must allocate many units to multiple fronts. When Russia reaches 13 or 14 supply centers, Russia may not actually be that close to getting a win…but most players will react as if that is the case. Thus, it is highly advantageous for the Russian player to play a communicative, psychological game.

Italy

Italian Disadvantages

Italy is a slow-growing power, beset by logistical problems similar to England. Although Italy does not strictly need to make convoys to succeed, Italy has a very narrow route for otherwise getting armies into useful positions.

Italy’s neighbors can easily defend against Italy’s attacks (that is, if they expect or anticipate Italy’s attacks). Further, being a central power, Italy must leave one flank essentially undefended if Italy is to make an all-out attack against a neighbor. And even when Italy makes offensive inroads against a neighbor, it can be difficult for Italy to fortify those gains into a permanent advantage.

Because of Italy’s challenges in going on the offense, Italy faces a large risk of stagnating.

Italy’s Advantages

Because two of Italy’s neighbors (Germany and Turkey) do not have a clear tactical route to invading Italy early, they rarely invade Italy immediately. Italy’s neighbor France is a bit more likely to attack early, but that is still uncommon because France usually has better things to do. And although Austria is as proximate to Italy as it gets, Austria usually also cannot afford an immediate attack on Italy (for different reasons). And even if one of those four neighbors attempts to attack Italy early, Italy can usually put up a strong defense against just one foe. Do not underestimate the advantage of being left alone early in the match; this affords Italy valuable time to watch the board develop before committing to anything.

Time to think works well with Italy’s other big advantage: flexibility. Italy can succeed as either a sea or land power, and has immense flexibility on the path to reach 18. Take a look at one of my Gunboat Solo Win maps:

In Press Diplomacy (where the realm of “possible” is much larger), Italy has even greater flexibility.

Consider this: Italy does not need to conquer any one particular power to solo (not even Austria!), and Italy could realistically win by taking a combination home centers from any other the other six powers. Appreciating—and utilizing—this incredible flexibility is a core part of playing Italy well.

Italian Style

Italy’s many paths to 18 centers, coupled with Italy’s low danger in the early game, means Italy does well with a patient, opportunistic play style. Of course, opportunism doesn’t mean just waiting around for something to happen; a wise Italian player makes opportunities by finding ways to matter. You may need to elbow your way into situations you weren’t invited to or expected in!

Last year I wrote an article for a strategy I think is unique to Italy; I won’t repeat that here. Go read it if you haven’t already!

Austria

Austrian Disadvantages

Let’s start with Austria’s unique trait: Austria is the only power with one port. Also, that port is a contender for the “Worst Port on the Map” title. Obviously, this means it is difficult (and usually not advisable) to play Austria as a naval power. But less obvious is that playing Austria as a land power means Austria has an extremely specific route to 18 supply centers. Consider this map I drew for winning as Austria in Gunboat Diplomacy, a variant in which Austria essentially never succeeds as a naval power:

In Press Diplomacy, Austrian has a little more potential to make headway in the west (like breaking into Marseilles, or deeper into Germany), but Austria can only get so far over land. Compared to Austria’s Northern counterpart Germany, Austria has a very limited ability to penetrate the other side of the board.

Austria is boxed in tactically, and this boxes Austria in strategically; everyone pretty much knows that Austria must expand into each neighbor—north, south, east, and west—in order to solo. It is challenging to “sell” the positions of Austria’s pieces as have an alternative implication to how they appear.

Austrian Advantages

Similar to Germany, Austria’s most notable trait is a double-edged sword (and thus cannot exactly be labelled an “advantage”): Austria is smack-dab in the center of the board.

Austria’s central position confers upon Austria the advantage of short supply lines (that is to say, new Austrian builds are immediately useful) and easy access to all the centers Austria needs to conquer to solo. This means that Austria can grow explosively. With the right tactics, or a well-timed backstab, Austria can wage war in every direction and send in reinforcements rapidly.

But Austria’s central position also means that rival powers’ solo win plans often involve demolishing Austria immediately, and Austria cannot put up much of a defense. Austria’s starting position—and even Austria’s natural expansion area in the Balkans—is not particularly defensible. Austria can reach 7 centers, only to be destroyed within a few years. Austria is easy to cut out of a draw.

An Austria at 7 centers could be crushed, but an Austria at merely 3 more centers (10) could suddenly make 3 captures, 3 builds, and launch an omnidirectional solo-winning attack.

I think of Austria as “the do-or-die power.”

Austrian Style

Austria benefits from a swashbuckling, aggressive, risk-taking play style. There are some Diplomacy players who hold with the “soloist” philosophy, that is to say, they don’t play to “not lose” (i.e. draw)—they play to win. When playing as Austria, if you are not a “soloist,” try channeling the personality of such a player.

As Austria, it is easy to feel paranoid of your neighbors…but if they really just want to destroy you, they probably will; your defensive prospects are just that poor. So try to cooperate with at least one of your neighbors, trust them, and be aggressive about capturing centers. Once you have some of your neighbors contained, backstab your allies at the same time that you finish off your other rivals.

If this doesn’t work, you probably weren’t going to solo anyways.

Turkey

Turkey’s Advantages

Turkey is the corneriest of the corner powers. This gives Turkey major defensive and offensive advantages.

First, Turkey is challenging to flank because—unlike England and France—Turkey’s “backdoor” is made of land territories instead of sea zones. Turkey is best attacked from the rear by an army, but it is difficult to get an army through or around sea zones into that position. Eliminating Turkey often requires all of Turkey’s neighbors to cooperate with each other.

Second, Turkey’s corner allows Turkey to build up momentum towards a solo win, as Turkey only needs to send units towards the northwest; there’s no possibility of Turkish units advancing south or east! This means Turkey can reach a game-winning position with a relatively small number of supply centers.

Combining these two traits together, Turkey is probably the best power at recovering from a poor early game and later attaining a win. There are stories of Turkish players recovering from long sieges where they stayed at 3 centers, or were reduced down to 2 or even 1 center, who later soloed the match.

Turkey’s Disadvantages

Turkey’s strong tactical defense can be diplomatically counterproductive; many players understand that if they don’t debilitate Turkey early, Turkey will be difficult to contain later. Also, they may prioritize capturing those defensible Turkish centers.

Beyond that, Turkey does have one huge tactical limitation: Turkey has, by far, the biggest distance to travel to “cross the stalemate line” and capture a defensible center. If Turkey reaches a strong endgame, new builds are so far away from the battlefield as to be useless. And any of Turkey’s rivals have plenty of time to foresee (and block) the Turkish solo win attempt.

Turkey’s Style

As long as Turkey is not destroyed and no other power is poised to win, Turkey stands a reasonable change of recovering and then building momentum towards a solo. Turkey benefits from a conservative, defensive style that is always looking further ahead and further away.

Any power seeking victory benefits from keeping the rest of the board divided. But Turkey—the power furthest away from key centers needed to solo—cannot really hope to win without finding a way to sow some chaos on the far side of the map.

Turkey needs a long, draw-out match more than any other power, and so keeping the board divided matters the most when you play as Turkey. Ignoring your non-neighboring powers is a bad habit for any player, but downright negligent when you play as Turkey.

There’s Always More to Consider

My personal life is varied and interesting, and I educate people on all manner of topics, not just Diplomacy. More and more often, I find myself reminding my audience “I am hoping to teach you how to think, not what to think.”

Embracing the powers’ difference is not the way to solo win more often in Diplomacy; it is just a way to do better. Adjusting your play style to maximize your power’s advantages and minimize its disadvantages will increase the frequency of your wins, but will not automatically lead you to victory. There’s always something more to learn!

And that’s what I love about Diplomacy. The game is so rich with possibility, and no two matches are ever the same. It is not possible to be a perfect player, but it is always possible to be a better one.

I’d love to get your feedback! Contact me any way you see fit: the comments section below, the Contact page, Patreon, Twitter, Discord^[9]If you are my Patron, you should have been automatically granted access to my Discord server., email^[10]brotherbored@gmail.com—whatever works for you! I am eager to hear from my fans.

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