I would say that the very experienced players here think that beginners don't make nearly enough use of press. So if one experience (but not very skilled) player in the game will increase the amount of press, that's a good thing, right? Don't get me wrong, I am not pushing to get invited into the game, but if you struggle to find a seventh player and you want me, someone PM me and I'll join.

I regularly play with beginners in Face-to-Face games here in Australia. Although I wouldn't say that I go easy on the beginners, I play pretty differently to how I would play in say a tournament game.

The point of our FTF games is to bring more players in to playing Diplomacy, and ultimately build up a core base of interested players so that we can have regular, high quality games. If a new player ends up on the pavement with no centres and no idea how it happened in the first hour or two, then I don't think they'll be coming back.

Generally, I don't set out to win those games (because who cares if an experienced player can solo on a bunch of people who've never played before? That'd be ... pretty lame) - but I don't go easy, in that I try to practice other relevant skills at the table. Like, if I'm England, can I arrange an A/T on the other side of the board? What happens if I do? Where is the pressure around the board, and why? Obviously, I try not to die in those games, and I will make choices based on what's best for me given two options- but I'm not trying to get to 18. I'm *primarily* trying to get the game to a point where when it wraps, everyone says "that was awesome! When's the next game?" even if they were defeated.

THAT's the ultimate win in Diplomacy - have a game end in a solo (or satisfying draw), where everyone shakes hands at the end and says "see you next week, yeah?

If I am not mistaken, I believe it's set
1. NunaEtsuko
2. baltazor7
3. SaladinSmith
4. LittleItaly
5. Marchand (? please confirm if you want to join the game too)
6. shalomchair
7. Qalu

Confirm?

if anyone has any questions about the rules, the website, or the culture and etiquette, please don't hesitate to send me a PM. Good luck and have fun!

I went ahead and made a game (hope this is alright)- will send out messages to all on the list - gameID=165327

So, are all players being coached/mentored? Tin Can is giving advice to whom? I would be willing to pitch in, and be of help to one player, don't know what the level of this game is? And if you'd want to listen to me :/

Not sure what your'e talking about, at least personally I very specifically mentioned everything BUT gameplay advice...

Okay. I thought I'd be useful if all player have one guy they can ask questions?

Via PM..?

I asked JamesYanik to join the game as well, so if someone doesn't show, I will have him join. Here's the goal of the game:

This is a NEW PLAYER'S PRIMER. If you are playing this game, you should be relatively new to the game or entirely new, not someone that played face-to-face for years and are just new to the site.

As I said, JamesYanik will try to be in the game to help answer questions. If he cannot be in the game, it would be nice to have several seasoned players willing to answer how-to's and general advice.

This isn't about developing skill iinsomuch as it is introducing players to the game itself. If a player in this game knows how to move pieces, that's ok, but we should limit questions to things like "what would the outcome be if I do X moves and another player does Y moves" at their deepest.

I do want this to be a friendly game, so I suggest that NO PLAYER BE ELIMINATED. If someone gets down to their last center, leave them alone and have them issue hold orders as if they were defeated, but don't actually take their last center.

The game should go on until about 1905-1907 at which point a draw should be issued for all 7 players. These are my recommendations.

We do have several willing to answer other questions via PM like:
dyager_nh
A_Tin_Can
JamesYanik (if he's not in the game)

"This isn't about developing skill iinsomuch as it is introducing players to the game itself."

Why not do both? I mean there are not a lot of moves to learn. Namely: move, stand still, fleet vs army, convoy and support hold/move. And a few tricks like bounces. I mean c'mon, these guys arent toddlers learning how to play with a shape sorter. The fun is in learning why one should choose one of these moves.

That's not what I meant by that, I meant more the inter-personal stuff like "should I attack France, Austria or Turkey when playing as Italy? I think those aspects should be left to the player because it allows them to make strange moves and experience things for themselves.

Okay. I thought maybe they could ask questions like "shall I bounce Russia in Sweden" and we'd tell them "You could, but have you talked to the rest of the board about this and try to ask something in return". Not going over their press with someone or something, but just sketching general guidelines. What to watch out for short and long term, without going into too much detail.

Tru said: "I do want this to be a friendly game, so I suggest that NO PLAYER BE ELIMINATED"

I don't know how I feel about this. I'm of the opinion that if we want to introduce players to Diplomacy, then they should play Diplomacy, not some variant with special rules. But, if this is something the players want to do, then I'm interested to see how it goes.

I think it's absolutely possible to eliminate someone while it's still a friendly game :)

@Mrcs: I think that providing totally new players with School-of-War level advice might be overwhelming. I certainly would have found it too much in my first game.

That said, I'm always happy to help new players with questions or advice, via PM or in the forum (although I'm not sure how I got on the list of potential advisors above, I *am* happy to help, if I have time).

So I got a PM from Qalu, when can the mods change country preference? Is it done after the game begins?

The game has to assign countries before we can change them, so it has to be done after the game starts. Once the game begins, email the mods with your country preferences and we can make the necessary switch.

I am not in the game
gameID=165327
but post questions on the thread and i can talk

or PM

@Marchand: If you are not about to join then let us know.

We only have 26 Hours before the game has to be restarted. Can the game's starting time be extended?

The game got cancelled 9_9

:(

These are the interested & confirmed players now:

1. NunaEtsuko
2. baltazor7
3. SaladinSmith
4. LittleItaly
5. shalomchair
6. Qalu
7.

We need one more.

Bumping the thread, as someone could join during the weekend.

I will join just give a link.

These are the interested & confirmed players now:

1. NunaEtsuko
2. baltazor7
3. SaladinSmith
4. LittleItaly
5. shalomchair
6. Qalu
7. Droid

Cool, I am setting up a game with these folks. Assuming 3 Days is decent enough for a good beginners game?

Since we can always ready our moves earlier to get a faster update.

This is the link to the game, and I will PM you guys the password.

http://webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=165514

I think I have sent the PMs to everyone, let me know if you guys didn't get the password.

\o/

If anyone in this game has specific move resolution questions that they'd rather not put on this thread for obvious reasons, of the form:

"Given this set of orders for these involved units on the board, what would happen", feel free to PM them to me.

I won't provide tactical advice to multiple players, that seems like a recipe for terrible information leakage, but "if I order this and they order that what happens" seems reasonably safe.

As usual the "all care, no responsibility" disclaimer applies though. :-)

So the game has started, can one of the mods help us rearrange the countries?