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Hi folks, been playing off and on for several years now and I'd like to push things to the next level by actually reading up on Diplomacy theory and strategy. Are there any recommended texts that experienced players refer to often?

Mostly articles, not books.

Diplomatic Pouch has some good stuff.
diplomacy-archive.com is good too. It also contains the only full-length strategy book I know of: The Game of Diplomacy, by Richard Sharp.

But unlike a game such as chess, most expert players will not follow the texts to the letter (they often contradict each other anyway), but will temper the advice with their own ideas or experience. Reading material in Diplomacy is a jumping-off point, not something you can just copy in your own games.

Thanks! That all makes sense; I thought perhaps there might be some repository of theorycrafting like there is with Chess or Go. I'll start working my way through the websites you suggested!

You may also want to read some of the military classics. I have previously recommended the following elsewhere on this site:

A Book of Five Rings, by Miyamoto Musashi,

Book of Family Traditions on the Art of War, by Munenori Yagyu,

On War, by Clausewitz,

Strategy, by Liddell-Hart,

The Prince, by Machiavelli,

The Art of War, by Sun Tzu,

The Secret of High Strategy, by Yamamoto Haruyuki, and

The Strategikon, by Maurice.

jay65536 wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 12, 2020 4:12 pm

Diplomatic Pouch has some good stuff.
diplomacy-archive.com is good too. It also contains the only full-length strategy book I know of: The Game of Diplomacy, by Richard Sharp.

In terms of books, there's also Conor Kostick's "The Art of Correspondence in the Game of Diplomacy". This is geared towards email play (I understand Conor is a very high level player) and has some useful comments (it's a while since I read it and my memory of it is a bit hazy).

And there is Alan Calhamer's "Calhamer on Diplomacy: The Boardgame "Diplomacy" and Diplomatic History". Most diplomacy players will not actually learn anything about how to play the game here.