I’m a competitive gamer. I’m a semi-semi-pro at Magic (“the Gathering”, a strategic card game) which means that I go to a lot of tournaments and have mediocre results. If you’d like to talk about competitive MtG, send me a private message. I’ve even played Bridge competitively and was in the Dutch youth team. That sounds a lot more impressive than it was. About ten specific people would have to be physically unable to play before I’d have been sent to an international tournament.
I also love board games, especially strategic ones. Three years ago, I stumbled upon Diplomacy and started playing. It ticks so many of the boxes regarding what I look for in a game.
More specifically, I believe this happened: I stumbled upon the Dutch Facebook group for Diplomacy and saw a National Championship was coming up in a month or so. The group was headed by TheMinisterOfWar http://www.webdiplomacy.net/profile.php?userID=48609 (an ex-mod of ours), but don’t send him a message as he went into politics and has no time for Dip anymore
Naturally though, he referred me to webDip. I jumped into three games, did a couple of turns, read a lot of strategy articles and joined the Championship! I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this to anyone, but I had fun. What intrigued me about this game is that my preparation wasn’t nearly enough, where it would’ve been for most other games! For instance, I built a fleet in Berlin, not realising it would anger Russia, and explained to him it was necessary for my attack on England. In Autumn I was congratulated on my ingenuity by the other players when I moved it from Baltic to Skaggerack. Unfortunately, the TD wouldn’t have it.
I played in the next two Championships as well, with a steady increase in finishing centre count (0, 1, 2, 6, 7, in that order). My main problem was the time limit though. 15 minutes per phase sounds like a lot more than the 7 minutes we have online, but it’s actually less when you can only talk to one player at a time. I’ve actively worked on this problem in the last year and here are my tips for you:
Play live games on webDip. It really helps! I recommend 5min/phase for Gunboats or 7min/phase for Full Press. Both will help you speed up your thinking. I can now do my orders (online) well in 1-2minutes.
After the turn processes, refuse to talk to anyone. Instead, first write down all your units and their location. This lowers panic when the round timer is low.
In fact, it would be great if you can write preliminary orders before talking to anyone. That way, you’ll never NMR but you can change them during discussions.
Tied in with #3, preferably even think about your plan before you talk to anyone. This lowers the chance you’ll be duped by fast-thinking veterans as you’ll have a better reply ready.
When the timer runs low (2 minutes), refuse to talk to anyone anymore. Don’t care how important they think they are, or whether you’ve talked to them at all that phase. It’s more important to get proper orders in.
