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A new series of posts on The Embassy blog: The Ethics of Diplomacy.

Fun piece of writing.

The The False Missed Turn part was quite interesting. The development of reliability ratings that are impacted by NMRs have turned what used to be a popular tactic into a strange and unusual event, or indeed an impossible one when there are protections in place.

But back in the day in was not at all unusual for a two centre Turkey on its last legs to play dead in the hope that the coalition of nations attacking it would suddenly see their allies as a far bigger threat than a stationary army in Ankara. On a number of occasions it was quite successful too.

I always liked the false missed turn. You're essentially saying that you are nihilistic towards the game (implying that all alliances and grudges belong to the past), and if someone wants you to keep playing then they need to give you something to play for.

That said, is there really such a big difference between ordering all units hold and taking an NMR?

RoganJosh wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 30, 2020 12:05 pm

is there really such a big difference between ordering all units hold and taking an NMR?

In FtF, there is. That's because in FtF, when you fail to submit orders, everyone sees that you have not submitted orders. It's the "everyone sees" that's important.

Here's an example. Let's say it's a retreat phase, and there are two retreats. I have one--and so does a neighbor of mine who could choose to make a hostile retreat into my territory, and vice versa. If I order my unit to disband, my opponent has to guess whether I am actually taking a hostile retreat. But refusing to submit the order broadcasts my intention to blow up my unit, so that my neighbor already knows what I'm doing when writing their own order. The wisdom of this is debatable, but the fact that it is a form of communication is not.

Another example could be a build phase where I have to remove a unit and I already know that I want to remove the unit that would be removed if I NMRed. Refusing to submit the order in the hopes of influencing someone else's builds is a (legal) form of communication as well.

Similarly, if someone were to NMR a movement phase, the other powers could freely order their units knowing about the NMR, not just hoping that the units will all hold.