What to do about Gibralter in Modern Diplomacy?

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Doom427
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What to do about Gibralter in Modern Diplomacy?

#1 Post by Doom427 » Thu Aug 19, 2021 1:43 pm

So, I'm trying to figure out this map, and what exactly is normally suppose to happen with Gibralter for England? Is England suppose to just give it up to Spain, in return for help against France? Does France offer to let England stay there if they go against Spain? Does England just give it up, and have that lone fleet travel around sniping neutrals? England clearly wants to keep it so it can build armies on the mainland and fleets closer to the South, but not really sure how they can pull that off and still be friendly with Spain, or at least not totally antagonistic.

Aristocrat
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Re: What to do about Gibralter in Modern Diplomacy?

#2 Post by Aristocrat » Thu Aug 19, 2021 5:23 pm

England has 4 immediate areas to expand to in Modern Dip at the start: (1) France, (2) Sweden/Russia, (3) Low Countries / Germany, (4) Spain. These are in reverse order of how smart an idea they are (with a big gap between 1/2 being awful ideas and 3/4 being the only good ones).

(1) Allying with Spain against France is very bad: only Bordeaux is a coastal province, and that really belongs to Spain if you two are allied. So this basically offers you zero chances to expand. Easily the worst choice.

(2) Sweden/Russia is also a bad choice. People often go this route because it makes sense in classic, but it is a very, very inefficient strategy in Modern. Norway is an automatic pickup, but after that it is usually a tough road to pick up maybe 1-3 extra centers. The number of units required to take these centers outweighs the benefits of getting them, plus a determined Russia/Poland/Ukraine can often keep, or make it very, very difficult for you to get, Murmansk and STP. If Russia if super antagonistic you may have to go this route, but that is rare as Russia usually gets devoured early by Poland/Ukraine due in no small part to the fact that the Modern map was mistranslated from the original variant and there is fleet in Murmansk instead of an army (this turned Sweden from a fair fight neutral into a German one, and deprives Russia of the ability to use the Murmansk unit in any effective way - hence Russia being probably the worst country in Modern and Germany/Poland/Ukraine being top tier one).

(3) Low Countries / Germany is one of the two worthwhile options. Your fleets can get at a lot of coastal provinces and Germany will have a difficult time defending them all if any of its neighbors join in the attack.

(4) Going after Spain with France is probably the best option since it is very easy to pull off, plus it leaves you in a very solid defensive position to either stab France or blow into Germany. Spain is dead if England/France want to team up against it, and it is the generally optimal strategy for both of those countries to attack Spain and get rid of it as soon as possible.

Back to the original question on Gibraltar: it depends on if you are going routes 1-3 or 4. If you are doing 1-3, then just go to Morocco. Gibraltar is dead if Spain really wants it, which most do, and there is no sense in making Spain upset for no reason. Tell Spain you will keep it parked there. If you end up losing a build elsewhere on the map, you can delete the Morocco fleet so you don't have to delete a unit elsewhere. If Spain takes Morocco anyway, it's not really a big loss since it was one center tying down one unit, and you're not going after Spain anyway, so who cares.

If you are working with France against Spain (meaning France will at least move Bordeaux to Navarra), sail the Gibraltar fleet to South Atlantic Ocean anyway. It depends on what Spain's moves are, and it's a bit of a guessing game, but you can usually deny Spain Portugal (leaving them at +1 build and pretty hopeless, plus you or France have a chance to pick it up). If you don't want to do that, you can try to sneak into Seville or bounce Gibraltar. Denying Spain the Portugal build is in most cases more valuable than picking up Morocco yourself or hoping you can keep Gibraltar on the chance Spain gets greedy by trying for Tunis in the opening turn.
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