If your moves are always in your best interest (visually at least) then you have two problems. One, you become predictable. That will get you eliminated quicker than a hamburger in front of Wimpy. Two, it will put off your allies because they won't trust you to share in the spoils.

No, it's a fine line must be balanced between best for you and best for the allies of the moment.

You of course need to take your allies into consideration. I'm saying that you can't formulate a strategy purely based on moves that compromise your opponent. If that was the case, it would be chaotic.

But you're mostly right.

See? I'm the Chuck Norris of WebDip. :-)

I haven't had a Wimpy burger for well over a decade. Do they still exist?

How is knowing what your opponents are thinking and planning a reactionary strategy? You can be very pro-active in what you do with such information.

Also, I didn't say press is _only_ about gathering information. It's also about building trust and alliances and trying to influence the decisions of others of course. Just not, as some seem to think, to the extent where you can easily get others to act against their own self-interest. It's way more subtle than that.

In any case, Draugnar is right about the fine line. The trick is to keep the balance in your own favor but not so much as to raise suspicion or alarm with your allies and see them start working against you.

Because you don't know what your opponents are thinking. You only know what they tell you.

@oscarjd74, well I'm not sure what else to say considering you completely ignored my whole description that each top press player has their own approach. I guess when you get your win/draw percentage over 72% and break the sites top 5 in Ghost Rating I'll be willing to consider you know better then rokakomo, myself, and the other top players posting here. Until that point best of luck to you with your rather flawed strategy.

I haven't mentioned any strategy so it's surprising that you would conclude that it is flawed. Nor do I see how top players each having their own approach, which I agree they do, has any bearing on my point that in full press against capable opponents you can't just go and trick people into making unsound moves as some proponents of gunboat in this thread seem to think.

Congrats on your stats though. Obviously I haven't got any yet as I'm new on the site. I guess that's reason enough for you to dismiss whatever I say. I've finished top 3 in 64% and top 4 in 75% of my face to face games listed on http://world-diplomacy-database.com though, if that counts at all for you. Given that draws are often 3 or 4 players I'd say that comes pretty close to the 72% that is apparently your threshold for taking someone seriously. I'm not claiming to be a top player or anything but I think I can certainly say that I am at least a pretty decent one.

Oscar, I have a spot in a full press 10 player modern game if you are interested. We talk trash (so don't be easily offended) in the global press, but take the game seriously in the private press.

Oscar, you're more than welcome to put your money where Draugnar currently has his balls and join us in the modern variant.

Thanks for the offer. I prefer to play the standard variant though. I'd be happy to join one of those.

Also, no I don't get easily offended. lol.

Oops, I'm late to this thread, and don't want to go through 3 pages.

Someone may have answered the question already, but I'm pretty sure it's been well established that people play gunboat because they have small penises.

You're welcome.

Thanks Charlie. I play both full press and gunboat and I can confirm. The latter causes extreme shrinkage, like swimming in freezing cold water, whilst the former is more like being in a hot tub with six hot girls that all want a piece of you.

I want to play this Oscar guy, welcome him to the site, and see if he's as good as he says he is. Anybody else interested?

http://www.diplom.org/Zine/F2006M/Burton/DP_F2006M_best_powers.htm

Based on these statistics it seems the power you are randomly assigned is more important in gunboat games than press games.

In press games you can turn your initial disadvantages and advantages into selling points during negotiation, while in gunboat games your starting conditions reduce your flexibility.

I'm sure some of you can read further into these numbers and draw deeper conclusions.

In a gunboat, everyone acts in the way they think is in their own best interests. The reason why every game is not the same is because everyone thinks the way to achieve that is slightly different. Some people believe the best way to act in your best interests is to assist others to a minor degree to cover your own selfishness. That is completely logical. It is also logical to assume that every one of your neighbours who performs selflessly has major ulterior motives, but sometimes it is best to go along with them because despite that, it's your best chance of winning. And thus, alliances are formed.

That's true of full press as well, dDST.

@peterwiggin

Although I prefer anonymous games, if you create a game and invite me I'll make an exception. And I didn't say I'm that good. I'm well above average in face-to-face dip, but that's quite a different game from on line dip. Also, it's been a couple of years since I last played so I might be rusty.