wow, can u give us the link when a newbie did the example in 2

http://phpdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=9326
England is attacking Holland and can turn around and attack Germany is scanvania.
Germany is attacking Bur and Vie.

That is a little harsh. I believe it the responsibility of seasoned players to coach noobs... mostly by example. I totally agree with your complaints though. I often feel the same way. Keep working to develop our hobby and favorite Dip site.

6. Noobs are totally intimidated by anyone with 100+ points and immediately attempt to gang-up on that player. I have never found the gang-bang to work though.

I like playing with newbies
as long as your arguementation is coherent, they are going to buy the greatest crap you can make up

airborne, that's much too harsh. It's up to you to be their guiding hand, even if it happens to benefit you greatly. ; )

I'm usually happy to answer any newbie's questions, though it's been a while since I've played a game with anyone considered a newbie. Generally I find that despite the lack of rhyme or reason, newbies are generally fairly predictable. =)

Yummmm newbies.

And the Germany in the given situation did call himself Hitler the Second, so maybe he is attacking everyone because Hitler did.
On a side note, that's a pretty fucked up name for an account.

Sure is. It ought to be Hilter der Zweite.

Well I guess you guys are right better stop my complaining and answer the "what is a convoy question"...

Now I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that convoys are one of the things that you can find in the Intro page.

And that's why that newbie annoys me

So refer him to the Intro page, and then he isnt your newbie anymore:]

we were all newbies once (except Edi)

It is a bit harsh, but I do find myself frustrated when newer players, who tend to be hell-bent on making short-sighted aggressive moves in the hope of winning a game, ignore reasonable diplomacy (occasionally one-word replies every other turn) and end up getting me and themselves eventually eliminated.

Yeah don't you hate it when incompetent newbies throw stalemate lines to the leading player after being warned and cost you a draw? (cough airborne cough)

:P you didn't help you just said you would need the North Sea to take Norway. I came on the wrong end of a calculated gamble. Hell thats the story of my diplomacy career so far.

I sent you four presses! I blame you for not answering. :P Doesn't really matter for me. I still came out preety good in that game.

What is press?

I blame myself for being ever so convincing!

@ maintgallant:

Press is the messages that you send to other players (including the Public press). The names comes from play-by-mail games, where players would write in to the GM, who would publish their press is the next edition of the game newsletter as if it were diplomatic press releases or propaganda from the countries involved.

Main, that's full of typos. Anyway, what the GM published was public press, but you could also write to the other players directly, so people started calling that private press. So now it's just all press.

A suggestion: A sort of ProAm tournament. Games comprised of Noobs partnered up with seasoned players. As allies Veterans guide noobs through the process. I had a diplomacy club and we, from would have a number of new players. They would each ally with a seasoned player and the learning curve was fairly quick and painless. We referred to them as our padawan apprentices. As they became competent in tactics and diplomacy and began to think strategically they would, in turn, become teachers. This game has many facets and it takes a while to master.

Who would set up the tourney?

A better question yet, how did you find this topic?

In reply to Maniac:
"we were all newbies once (except Edi)"

I was worse than a newbie, I very quickly had tactical skill thanks to the numerous Escalation games I played and the New York City social games, but I was wild. I was the youngest in the postal hobby and was considered a juvenile delinquent for all the various antics I pulled off. Remember that I was 16 when I started.

I like playing with new players and I am excessively mentoring which can on rare times shift into overbearing and patronizing and I have to pull back and start again with the players if they are offended.

But for the most part, new players and especially kids are very funny and entertaining in the ways they approach the game situations. Also kids/new players have the greatest capacity to change (as I did) while the older new players are less likely to shift their negotiation or style.

I like to think I'm not predictable, but often times there are just moves that everyone does, for instance openings.

What would you call unpredictable, and how would you incorporate that into your game?

The matter of 'unpredictableness' is in a close relation to the diplomacy part of diplomacy. Don't fool everybody though, you want to look reliable to at least one ally. No alliance is really solid, at least before people thought up they would be more trustworthy allies when ending 17-17. Personally, I'm not impressed. A good player knows the stab will always come, but when will it be? Will it be all too clear or all of a sudden?

Predictability is one of the worst traits to have, and the only thing I like about Newbies.
A friend of mine filled in on one of our ftf games as russia, and made mocves best described as a "headless chicken" tactic. As Germany, in this game, I wound up losing two of my SC's to him.