Diplomacy: SDMB's entry in the WorldMasters 2002 Tourney

[Abe_Babe]

Any word on when this baby’s starting up?

[Jonathan_Chance]

Team assignments are supposed to go out late this week or early next week.

How’s that for service?

[Abe_Babe]

10 minutes exactly.

The man is good.

[Jonathan_Chance]

I lvoe dip and I love YOU, Abe.

[White_Lightning]

Well, I got two identical-looking emails from them this morning with the first-round boards. looks like 73 boards. In case anyone doesn’t want to go through them all to find themselves:

R101 RT, England
R103 Omni, France
R107 Abe, Germany
R112 Dave, Italy
R120 McG, Russia
R134 Bluesman, Turkey
and yours truly, on the last listed board; R173 WL, Austria.

Dave is also GMing board 19. JC seems to be GMing boards 30 and 54, and playing France on board 53.
And, FTR, none of us are sharing a board with any Mammoths.

So, since assignments and emails are included, does that mean the initial Diplomacy period is opened? I feel like I should get in touch with some of the players on my board. I didn’t see any dates for a gamestart. JC, any inside info? Or maybe I should be asking Dave, since you’re a GM too and you’re on our side.

[Jonathan_Chance]

Wow. That’s more than I’ve got.

[Jonathan_Chance]

Ooo…

I’ve got Freeman Butland playing against me.

“We know each other of old…you and I.”

[White_Lightning]

France and Russia. I hope you guys are old enemies and not old friends, for the sake of the rest of the players on your board. A strong friendship there could really dominate.

In other news, I just got an email from one of the tourney organizers with the assignments for my board alone. Maybe they felt sorry for me for having to search through all 73 boards to find my name.

[Jonathan_Chance]

Yeah, I just got the email from Rudi as well.

Your GMs should be contacting you shortly with their specific house rules. There are a couple of options in the standard WM rules.

Freeman and I are pals. Mostly through my games he’s been in. He’s a lawyer from the west coast. A tricky, wily and worthy opponent.

[RTFirefly]

The WM02 page spoke to both the emails and the initial deadlines:

Technical Problems
Due to some technical problems with the email-interface on the Tournament website, we have been unable to send out an automatic email concerning the draw. During our attempts, some emails have been send out. As such some of you got 2 emails while others got none. We apolagize for the inconvenience. All players and GM’s will receive an email with their board. It is also possible to check the round 1 Draw on the website.

Round 1 Draw announced

Due to a few technical problems, the Round 1 Draw was announced about a week late.
Our apolagies for this inconvenience.
The GM’s will contact the players in each game and set a deadline for the first season.
Hopefully most games will have the first deadline before Christmas, but that won’t always be possible.

[White_Lightning]

Well, that’s confirmed then, I guess. Rudi wrote me back saying the same thing about the GM setting the first deadline – and that initial Dip is now open.

I’ll be getting started on that, then.

Oh and thanks RT.

[Jonathan_Chance]

Fear me, boys…

Fear me.

[Weirddave]

Just in case anyone is wondering, this is the e-mail I sent to all the folks in my game:

Greetings, fellow dippers, and welcome to the World
Masters game that I am GMing. To start off with, a
couple of things:

1: Please use this email address for all game
corrospondance. I can be reached at the other one, but
this one will not be used for much except the game,
making it much easier for me to keep track of things.

2: I generally adjudicate on the game webpage. I have
set one up here:
http://fff.fathom.org/pages/Walcher/World%20Dip%20WM02R119.html
When you get my email notifying you that the game has
been adjudicated, go there to see the results.

3:I like to run a set schedule for orders: Spring
orders due on Friday, Fall on Tuesday and
builds/disbands due on Wednesday. Orders are due by
9AM EST. That’s 9AM in Baltimore, Maryland.

4: I try not to be too strict on orders. If you order
“F Mos to War” and the unit is an army, I’ll accept
the order. If you order “A Mus” and it’s obvious you
meant “Mos”, I’ll fix it. The one exception is if you
make a mistake and the mistake is a valid Province, I
shall submit the order as written, and you have to
deal with the consiquences. Example: If you mean to
type “F MAO” and make a typo “F NAO”, the order will
stand as written, “NAO” is a valid space name in
Standard Diplomacy.

5: I am lenient with reguards to delays. As tragic as
it may be, sometimes real life issues must take
precidence over Diplomacy. I am always willing to
grant any reasonable delay as long as you request it
beforehand and not after the fact.

6: I will allow NMRs, although I’ll do anything I can
to avoid them. I’ll email you if I have not received
your orders. If you miss 2 turns, I will assume that
you have dropped out and notify your team to send in a
replacement.

7: I tend to allow everyone to vote on some issues.
For example, if a country NMRs, but the next day I get
an email explaining:

“I ran out of gas! I had a flat tire! I didn’t have
enough money for cab fare! My tux didn’t come back
from the cleaners! An old friend came in from out of
town! Someone stole my car! There was an earthquake! A
terrible flood! Locusts! IT WASN’T MY FAULT, I SWEAR
TO GOD!”

I will allow all players still alive to vote on
weather to accept the excuse.

8: As part of your orders I EXPECT YOUR COUNTRY NAME
TO BE INCLUDED. I hate having to reference orders with
email addys to see who is who. Prefered form for
orders:

A Mos to War
A War H
A Mos S A War
A Mos S A War to Ukr

F Aeg C A Smy to Gre

And so on.

I think that’s about it. Everyone please send me an
email back so that I know you’re aware the game has
started. I’ll expect Spring '01 orders by Friday
unless I hear differently from y’all. Good Luck and
Good Stabbing!

Weirddave, GM

Hmmm. Actually, I’ll have to check and see if my NMR policy jibes with the WM rules. Does anyone know off hand?

[Jonathan_Chance]

No NMRs for Spring 1901 and the movement phase of Fall 1901.

None at all. Automatic replacement.

[Jonathan_Chance]

And here’s what I sent to my two games…

Hello everyone and welcome to WorldMasters Game 154. Round one begins!

My name is Nate Wooley and I’ll be your pilot for this crazy advanture we call warfare.

Everyone please check in by responding to this email. As per the rules there will be NO NMRs allowed for Spring 1901 and the movement phase of Fall 1901. Anyone not responding to this email within a few days will find themselves replaced.

I’ve put up a website for the game at: http://www.wooleysark.com/dip. You can find the schedule and all the player information there.

I’ve tentatively set Spring 1901 due next Friday, December 13, 2002 at 7AM Eastern US time. That’s GMT-5 (I believe…feel free to correct me). Thereafter the game will be played on this schedule:

Spring: Friday
Fall: Following Thursday
Winter: Friday

NOTE: I expect us to take the week of Christmas off. There will be no deadline that week. The week of New Years will be in play.

I expect retreats within 8 hours of adjudication. Any retreats not being received by then will go off the board to prevent a delay of the game.

Official WorldMasters 2002 rules can be found here: http://www.cat23.com/wm02/?rule=GAMEPLAY

I will be using these alternate rules:

Section III Part 3: The last set of orders submitted before the adjudication takes place will be used. In the event a partial set of revised orders are submitted, the GM will adjudicate using the most recently submitted order set, but will examine previously submitted order sets in order to adjudicate with a full set of orders consisting of the most recently submitted order for each unit.

Section X Part 1: Alternative Rule C: press correctly identifying the author (white press) will be accepted. Press to be published anonymously (gray press), press attributed to any person unofficially (dark gray press), or officially (black press) will not be accepted.

[RTFirefly]

The S01 deadline in my game is Friday at 5pm EST. I’m busily composing emails to my neighbors, needless to say. Our GM has declared that press will be white and gray. That’s about my speed - I like gray, and can put it to good use. But dark gray and black get more complicated than I’m ready to deal with.

We’ve got at least two players in my game from outside North America: the Austrian player hails from the Patagonian region of Argentina, and the Italian player lives in Munich. Don’t know about the others, yet.

[Weirddave]

I am busy dipping with the other players in my game, how 'bout the rest of y’all?

[Weirddave]

Nobody?

[White_Lightning]

No word yet from my GM. I’ve exchanged some very preliminary emails with a couple neighbors but we are unsure of proper protocol without an initial deadline.

[Jonathan_Chance]

I’ve been busy with my rivals. But my GM hasn’t surfaced.