Next in my occasional series of incomprehensible accounts of triumph in playing the game of Diplomacy online against AI opponents, this is one where I’m particularly proud that a normally losing strategy, sending a single unit behind enemy lines to pick up the odd supply centre, actually worked in the end. Otherwise I was both lucky and unlucky, with the 18th centre effectively being my recapture of one of my own home bases.

Spring 1901

There really isn’t much flexibility about Germany’s opening moves. You have to move your fleet to Denmark, to keep Russia out of Sweden; you have to move your Berlin army to Kiel, to hopefully take Holland unless England decides to do something weird; and you have to try to move to Burgundy, to prevent a French army coming up against your borders. This does leave your southern flank uncovered, but it’s rare for Italy or Russia to try anything funny, and very improbable that Austria will move to Tyrol or Bohemia.

Other countries surprised me a bit. England’s move north is normal enough; there really are only two possibilities even if the northern variation is less common. France’s move north was more unexpected, welcome in that it would give England something other than me to think about, but unwelcome in that it might work too well. Italy’s move to Piedmont was very unusual.

I know, I know, reading about other people’s diplomacy games is about as interesting as listening to other people’s dreams. But after many brief unsuccessful attempts to defeat the AIs on WebDiplomacy.net, and two successes, one as Turkey and one as Italy, I finally scored another victory, this time as France, and I feel like recording it here.

Spring 1901

I started with a simple strategy: smash England and then smash Germany. (This is not what actually happened.) I took the risk of leaving Burgundy open and moved my northern army to Picardy, tried for the English Channel (bouncing for the first but not the last time) and sent my southern army to Spain, so that I would get at least one build. I was lucky with Burgundy, and though Italy could have tried a stab with the army in Venice, the Austria situation was of course a higher priority there.

I’ve spent some time recently revisiting a teenage enthusiasm for the game of Diplomacy, in which (ideally) seven players with differently matched forces try to dominate the map of Europe circa the start of the twentieth century. The webDiplomacy site allows you to test your mettle not only against human players, but also against AIs. This can go quite fast, at a move every minute or so.

I am horrified and fascinated that the AIs continually defeat me, a mere human player. The couple of times I’ve tried “Gunboat Diplomacy” (where there is also no communication) with real humans, I found the going much easier, as opponents with brains made out of meat are more likely to make mistakes. Out of a couple of dozen battles with AIs, I have won only two; one where as Turkey I managed to break out of my corner before the rest of the countries had properly got started (which I think is the least difficult way to win against the software), and another as Italy where I combined good luck with a couple of good tactical shouts and a coherent overall strategy.