Starting positions

[Mencjusz]

However, I do plan to run 2 training sessions + 3 graded games

How on earth do you grade a Diplomacy game?

Professional secrecy

[Mencjusz]

For those interested: The Classic - With a custom start variant from vDiplomacy: https://vdiplomacy.net/variants.php?variantID=4

Interesting. Thank you for the link. I just briefly scanned it, but, it seems that every country had a chance to win, even England. Although the initial conditions might be unbalancing the power between the states, later on, it seems, more important are negotiation skills of players.

[RoganJosh]

It is easier for experienced player to handle a situation which is unbalanced, for experienced players can identify strong and weak positions.

What are the benefits of a custom start, in terms of game dynamics?

In my view, more possible outcomes, less predictable from the very beginning.

If the students have not played Diplomacy before, then I think it's better to simply go with the standard setup. The game will not be predictable for them either way. And if they try to find any help online on strategy etc., it'll all be written for the standard setup. Customizing can be fun - and the fact that the board becomes (more) unbalanced is no disaster - but save it for when you've all grown tired of the standard setup.

[mhsmith0]

full 1900 style might be sort of interesting in that there's an EXTREME high trust opening set available to A/I/R

Italy Ven-Pie, Rom-TYS, Nap-ION (and then pick which one takes Tunis and which one attacks France or Turkey)
Austria Tri-Tyr, Boh-Vie, and I guess Bud-Ser?
Russia War-Sil, STPNC-Nor, Mos-STP (and maybe you use A Sev to move into Arm and cripple Turkey?)

That seems like a potentially mega-effective opening much like the Western Triple, but also without quite as much built in incentive for it to fall apart into a stab (though I guess Austria would tend to be long-term vulnerable as the power between Italy and Russia here)

[jay65536]

I tentatively also think that a 3 army Austria is more or less forced to commit heavily to certain pro- or anti- openings relatively early, whereas plenty of other powers can take a more relaxed approach.

Again I strongly disagree.

Let's look at all possible alliance options for Austria with a 3-army build.

If Austria wants to ally with Russia and take down Turkey, Austria can play something like Bud-Rum, Tri-Ser, Vie-Tri, while Russia plays F Sev-Bla, Mos-Sev, War-Ukr; in the fall this leads to Russia moving into Rumania while Austria sends Rum-Bul with support. This is CRUSHING against Turkey, especially if Italy has built 2 fleets and can use Ion to help in fall. Turkey is lucky to get one build in this scenario and is in very bad shape. Alliance with Italy is compatible with this too.

If Austria wants to ally with Turkey against Russia, Bud S Vie-Gal with Tri-Ser is absolutely crushing against Russia, as is Bud-Rum with the other moves staying the same.

Austria can really go in any direction with a 3-army build, and not only that, but any alliance with Austria is basically supercharged. This would have to affect the R/T diplomacy pre-build, too--they have to decide whether they're allied BEFORE the builds, and if they are, they have to build all armies next to the Black Sea (or decide which one of them puts their fleet there). And Russia of course has the ability to build A Sev and then just move it to Armenia if she changes her mind. Furthermore, Austria has the advantage of being able to tell Italy that if Italy doesn't build F Rom, Austria will have to conclude that Italy is unfriendly (which, if you think about it, is probably true, right?). So Austria is far less vulnerable to an Italian stab than otherwise.

Can Austria be taken down? Of course. But in those games where Austria finds an ally, that alliance is now lights out.

[ziran]

For those interested: The Classic - With a custom start variant from vDiplomacy: https://vdiplomacy.net/variants.php?variantID=4

Interesting. Thank you for the link. I just briefly scanned it, but, it seems that every country had a chance to win, even England. Although the initial conditions might be unbalancing the power between the states, later on, it seems, more important are negotiation skills of players.

judging from the statistics of this variant and those of classic, it seems as though only germany and turkey see improved success rates. it should be noted that this is a small sample size.