Hi guys,

welcome to the very first 1936 playtest! I hope we shall all have a whopping time and that this new variant shall meet your expectations. This variant has been long in the making. And it wouldn't ever have seen the light of the day had it not been for Baron Powell's and Jeff Kase's pioneering of the Diplomacy Points system (in their excellent Ambition & Empire variant). I hope those of you who haven't yet had any previous experience with this mechanism will find it as intriguing as I do.

While of course any type of meta-gaming is very much frowned upon and trust nobody shall engage in, I believe that in the interest of full disclosure of all present player pairings outside of this game ought to be made public. Checking the DC site, I came up with the following list:

TGP003 (1900 variant): Jimmy, Kyle. (Incidentally also the one game I myself happen to be playing in.)
DC279 (1648 variant): Dirk, Nigel (I'm the GM.)

Am I missing any such present pairings in other games?

Now, though you've all received my house rules (and I hope you've all read them carefully), I'd like to stress the following points:

- Preliminary Spring and Fall orders need to be submitted 48 hours in advance of the actual deadline. I believe this considerably diminishes the likelihood of NMRs and mistaken orders. So I've made this a requirement. These deadlines for preliminary orders shall be listed in brackets in an adjucations Deadline Schedule section.

- Note that deadlines shall generally be at 6 PM CET (GMT+1) rather than your local time.

- All negotiation mails need to be CCed to me. This is very helpful from a playtesting perspective, allows me to spot mistaken assumptions regarding the rules or map and allows me to keep stats on the game's mail volume. And hey, I just like being in the loop.

- Make sure you use the order header format. It helps me sort through mail, so please stick to it (e.g. DC319 Sp36 P1). I also encourage the analogous use of the negotiation header format on the lines of "DC319 Su36 PGS", but it's by no means a requirement. Just a standard some might find as useful as I do.

- I've attached a zip-file containing the 1936 module for the Realpolitik adjucation software. Simply unzip it into the software's "variant files" sub-folder. Then, when opening the RP programme, you can select the 1936 variant from the drop-down variant menu. Using Realpolitik is child's play and may prove invaluable in experimenting with possible moves. You might also want to simply enter your orders (all done by simple clicking) in Realpolitik, open the orders window under RP's "Windows" menu and then simply copy-paste those orders listed there into your mail to me. That'd help you avoid orders mistakes.

- I shall be also including a dpy-file for Realpolitik in every adjucation. Should you open it with Realpolitik (and have previously installed the variant module), you'll see the present state of the game. You'll then be able to click through the game's history, toggle on space names, experiment with moves and see how they might be adjucated. Realpolitik rocks and I do highly recommend the software's use! You can download the programme at: http://realpolitik.sourceforge.net/

- Since our game's DC319, our message board's email is dc319-at-diplomaticcorp.com ([email]dc319-at-diplomaticcorp.com[/email]). Please include that adress whenever sending out a public email. You may wish to subscribe to the DC319 forum on the DC message board.

- I welcome any press from players and observers. Submit it to me and I shall include it in the adjucation (anonymously or not, as specified). Press may be made conditional on any part of the adjucation, if so desired.

GREAT POWER ALLOCATION

Okay, now on to the bit you've all been waiting for, I guess. Taking into account all submitted power preferences, I worked out the following:
Michael Thompson Chester le Street, UK Britain Joao Queiros Nairobi, Kenya France Jimmy Ghostine Paris, France Germany Dirk Knemeyer Somerville, MA, US Italy Kyle Overby-Lee Inverness, IL, US Poland Nigel Phillips Leeds, UK Soviet Union Repu Maoni Leipzig, Germany Turkey

Two players chose not to rank any clear preference. The others all got their first choice, save for one player who had to make do with his second choice as Italy topped the preference list of two players (a die roll then determining who got Italy).

Adding up all the ranks accorded to the various powers (disregarding the lack of any preference by two players), you get the following:

France 13 Soviet Union 14 Britain 17 Italy 21 Germany 25 Turkey 25 Poland 31

Now, I don't take that as a vote on how strong the various powers are, but merely which you guys happened to fancy. Just for the sake of a comparison, let me list the power preferences in the past 1926 playtest (1936's sister variant, which is rather similar):

Poland 19 Soviet Union 20 Italy 23 Britain 26 France 26 Germany 28 Turkey 33

Actually, I would have thought Italy and the Soviet Uinon would prove wildly popular among players for the 1936 game (considering you get that Spanish civil war faction as well to play with). But clearly Britain and France are also in-fashion this spring season! Interesting how Poland topped the preferences for the 1926 playtest, but apparently didn't excite you guys too much. That just as an aside...

Anyway, I hope everyone is happy with his allocated power (since things worked out pretty well this time, I trust you are). Further below you'll find all players' email adresses. Incidentally, we also seem to have a nice trans-Atlantic mix here.

The Spring 1936 moves are due to me NLT 6PM CET on Monday, 19 April. So get me those prelims by Saturday, 17 April 6PM CET (GMT+1), at the latest. Please remember to CC me on all your diplomatic correspondence. Thanks!

Should you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Viel Erfolg auf dem diplomatischen Parkett!

Charles

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PLAYERS:
BRITAIN: Michael Thompson <psychosis-at-sky.com ([email]psychosis-at-sky.com[/email])>
FRANCE: Joao Queiros <jlqueiros3-at-hotmail.com ([email]jlqueiros3-at-hotmail.com[/email])>
GERMANY: Ghostine, Jimmy <Jimmy.Ghostine-at-vtmednet.org ([email]Jimmy.Ghostine-at-vtmednet.org[/email])>
ITALY & NAT. SPAIN: Dirk Knemeyer dirk-at-knemeyer.com ([email]dirk-at-knemeyer.com[/email])
POLAND: Kyle Overby-Lee <tomjnkns.IL-at-gmail.com ([email]tomjnkns.IL-at-gmail.com[/email])>
SOVIET UNION & REP. SPAIN: Nigel Phillips <nephilli99-at-hotmail.com ([email]nephilli99-at-hotmail.com[/email])>
TURKEY: Repu Maoni <wesaq-at-list.ru ([email]wesaq-at-list.ru[/email])>

HEADLINES:
o TENSIONS RISE ANEW AS THE SPANISH CRISIS BECOMES ALL THE TALK ACROSS EUROPE

PRESS:

GM to the Rulers of Europe: Good luck to one and all.

SUPPLY CENTER OWNERSHIP:
Britain(4): Edinburgh, Liverpool, London, Suez.
France(5): Algiers, Beirut, Brest, Marseille, Paris.
Germany(3): Berlin, Hamburg, Munich.
Italy(4): Milan, Naples, Rome, Tripoli.
Poland(3): Cracow, Gdynia, Warsaw.
Turkey(3): Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir.
USSR(3): Leningrad, Moscow, Stalingrad.
Nationalist Spain(1): Burgos
Republican Spain(1): Valencia
Minor Powers(23): Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia (Yug.), Czechia, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iraq, Latvia, Lithuania, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Persia, Portugal, Rumania, Serbia
(Yug.), Sweden, Switzerland.

DEADLINE SCHEDULE: (all orders are due NLT 6PM CET (GMT+1)...not local time)
o Spring 1936 Moves: (17) 19 April
o Summer 1936 Retreats: 21 April
o Fall 1936 Moves: (24) 26 April
o Winter 1936 Retreats/Adjustments: 28 April
o Spring 1937 Moves: (1) 3 May

MAP: