If you are good enough to get to 18, you can't lose. A total moron...possible.

I think people can be stale mated over 18 sometimes...
It could work if there was a vote to "give up" that you could make once an opponent got over 18 SCs. This could prevent boredom

Not everyone agrees with abgemacht. We had a post on the topic a short while ago, but I'm not going to look for it.

Really? I thought the stalemate lines were the "last line of defense." Once you broke through, there was no stopping you. I will have to check this out.

Well, jimgov, you can sometimes get forced back to the stalemate line again.

There are alot of minority stalemate lines in diplomacy in the NW and SE corners, so it would make the game very hard to win indeed.

Huh. I did not know that. I stand corrected.

The problem is someone with 15SCs will stab and grab as many SCs at the last min even though by doing that they've expanded to quickly and often left opened areas to attack. If there is this option and means a united defense could be possible and it gives the players the choice to call a cease fire (draw) to end the game not the computer.

We had this recently.
England can survive with just home SCs and portugal :P
So, from me its a DEFINITE NO!
Having said that, there is a case to be made for an option to play up to 21 SCs.

I just like the idea of the game ending with diplomacy (draw) or total annihilation.

In fact, England can survive with just Portugal and 2 home SCs.

Huh? Is this with every fleet off the board in the north? I can't even visualize this.

Or do you mean that England can keep the bottleneck in the Mao with F Por, F Mao, and F Eng or Iri or Nao? If so, then I see what you are talking about.

There are plenty of stalemate lines that require far less than 18 centers.

My favorite is in the SE corner. Sev/Rum S Ukr, Bud/Tri S Vie, Adr/Apu S Ven, Nap S Rom, Aeg S Ion. Takes 13 units and contains 14 centers so you even have an extra unit to sit around. It doesn't matter that the other side has 20 centers, if those moves are entered every time there is now possibility of the other side getting their 21st center much less all the centers.

And there are plenty of other ones.

i actually finished a game on friday where i won, yet i would have been on about 14 the following year if i hadn't gotten up to 18 that year. Not always true that you automatically are in a great position.

Jim - yes.
And its surprisingly easy to do. Moreover as he has a free unit he can use it to bribe France etc.
Suppose you were on a take all SCs game and the enemy was out of IAT. All you need to do is hold that bottleneck and you can't loose.
There's another similar one which can deal with Russia as well by holding Scand&StP as well. He can't build a northern fleet, can't take StP back to make one and can't get round because of the bottleneck.

jimgov: gameID=13948 is a good example of how you can get 18 SC's but be in a position to lose a lot.