i suggest using jdip, though it is not as handy as this site.

Maybe ask a mod if he can switch your countries after the game started...

Can't you just leave the game you started and then choose the country?

If you have 8 people you could do that.

First, make sure the game is passworded.

Second, of the 7 players that are actually going to play, have 6 of them join while the 7th spot it taken by the person who is helping set this up but isn't going to play.

Third, have five of the people go into Civil Disorder right off the bat. The other two should just enter hold moves. The helper person should be one of the ones just holding. Note that if everyone but one person goes into Civil Disorder, that one person wins. So that is why two must not go into Civil Disorder.

Fourth, have the player who hadn't join, take over the country he is supposed to have. Then have that person that had that country and is now out of the game take over the country he is supposed to have. And so on until all five have been replaced.

Fifth, have those five place hold orders while the other two go into Civil Disorder and then get their two countries straightened out.

Sixth, have at it. Also note that the pot will be approximately twice the initial size due to all the CD buy-ins. So keep that in mind when creating the game.

You would star in 1907 xD

Couldn't everyone join, everyone resign, and then rejoin as the country they want?

When you resign, your country instantly becomes available for someone else to join. Just remember if you go this route, your bet will actually double. If the bet is 10, you will join for 10, resign, then join again for slightly less than 10.

@chamois, should only take until 1903. First five countries go CD at the end of 1901 then they get rearranged in spring 1902 while the other two skip both 1902 phases so they can get rearranged in spring 1903 and then play starts.

@DJ, except whoever gets Russia will play a slight premium for the extra supply center.

And if everyone goes into CD then one of the players will default as the winner I believe.

And once all 7 players have joined, thus starting the game, the only way to resign is to go into CD.

@Alderian, that's clever. Hadn't thought of collaboratively exploiting the CD system.

Isn't it also possible to start a game with fewer than 7 players? I believe Germany and Italy start in civil disorder if only 5 players are present for the start, right?

In that case, it seems like you can assign the two appropriate players to Italy and Germany right off the bat. Then let the other five go into civil disorder while Italy and Germany hold in position, in order to let the other five get sorted out. Seems like this would slightly faster to implement. The downside would be that Italy and Germany only bet once while the other players have to bet double.

Is it possible for a game to start with even less than 5 players? How does that work?

Is there really no other way of resigning from a game other than failing to submit moves for a number of rounds? Seems like it just holds up a game. How many rounds does it take to be booted for CD?

Used to be you could start with as few as 5, but the upgrade sometime back made all games require a full roster before they would start. I'd love to have time to code an option to select from N to N-2 players depending on the scenario.

@Draugnar, interesting. I wasn't aware of that. I remember back in the day (early 2007) seeing some games that started with 5 or 6. I've been MIA from this site for 3 years, but recently I thought I'd give it another go here since I'm trying to introduce some of my friends to diplomacy and thought this place had a nice user-friendly interface that would be great for new players.

If a game can't start with less than 7 (or what is required for the variant) players, then what happens when the pre-game period runs out before enough players join? Does it get cancelled? If it just waits, then it doesn't make much sense to have a limit to the pre-game period at all, since the game starts immediately when the 7th player joins anyway, right?

The game will be canceled and points returned if all spots are not filled up. It's been almost a year since starting with 5 or 6 players was removed. I believe the problem is that people didn't want to play a game that had Italy and/or Germany missing so having that potential was annoying.

It will start right away if filled on longer phase games, but "live" games (under 1 hour turns I think) always start at the end of the signup so you can schedule the game for a time when every player will be online and able to play. And the idea of the limit is to allow for a longer period to gather people than one turn. It might take a few days to fuill a 12 hour turn game, for instance.

Germany is fun!!!

Sleepcap: Yes, the mods can just do that for you.

As mentioned mods can do it.
Using CD? You'd not be impressed! The buy-in is proportional to the pot, and so each player would have to pay more than the one before to enter the game

figlesquidge: How does that work, exactly?

Well, say pot starts at 70.
First player buys back in, cost of 10 ish.
Pot is now 80, second player buys in at 11ish
etc

There's no formula?

Yeh there is, but not one I knew off the top of my head - I'll go find it

Wow, is really was that easy (yes took me this long to find it):
Pot size * number of controlled supply centres / number of player-owned supply centres.

ps: PMd you

Ah, I didn't think about that. Well, if they are new players then it doesn't matter too much. Especially if the pot size is small. But if they really want to choose powers, it is possible to do so with some legwork and a bit of unfairness.

Hrmm. If the pot size is 35 and there are only two countries not in CD and they each have 3 centers, each of their values should be 17.5. So the buy-in for another 3 center country should also be 17.5 (presumably rounded to 18.)

Ah, now I understand, "number of controlled supply centers" is the number of supply centers controlled by the country being bought. I was confused on that part.

In any case, so now the pot is 53 with 9 centers in the game. The buy-in is now 17.7. So again it is 18 after rounding. And then 17.8 the next time.

The increase in cost is very minimal because while the pot is bigger, the number of active centers is also bigger. So the value of each center is still the same and is only increasing due to rounding.

Ahh, true.
So then all you have to do is make sure the game doesn't fall into abandonment

I don't think it's just 1 extra point per buy in.