Being a Diplomacy Man of Leisure & variant fun

Coming to the end of summer, Kaner & Amby grab some beers and dream about what it'd be like to be a Diplomacy Man of Leisure. They talk the upcoming face-to-face tournament they're attending, Amby's experience with Versailles at Play Dip, their other games, vDip's 5 new variants and using Diplomacy in the classroom. Phew! A lot packed into this episode!

Intro

• Kaner and Amby welcome listeners to the show and discuss their drinks (0 mins 10 secs)

Face to Face talk and being a Diplomacy Man of Leisure

• The guys discuss their upcoming attendance at the Melbourne Open Diplomacy tournament (0 mins 50 secs)
• Amby discusses the challenge of playing face to face for the first time in 25 years (3 mins)
• Kaner brings along some 3D printed armies and navies he’s made (4 mins 30 secs)

• Amby asks about what the scoring system is for the Melbourne Open (12 mins 15 secs)
• They discuss other upcoming tournaments around the globe (15 mins)
• They talk about the concept of being “Diplomacy Men of Leisure”, facial hair and what would a Steampunk Diplomacy variant be like (15 mins 50 secs)

Amby's experience with Versailles

• Kaner asks Amby about his Versailles games over at Play Dip. One game is anon, the other is non-anon so Amby can talk about that game in more detail: Versailles Virgins. Amby discusses how contacting players varied between his major and minor power. Kaner asks how do things work at the end of the with points for major and minor powers (18 mins 45 secs)
• Amby then goes onto talking about his anon Versailles game with fog of war, gunboat and age of empires (where you start with one unit). Kaner asks about the dinosaurs and sharks (26 mins)
• Amby discusses the “lessons for newbies” element of Versailles about what happens when one of your powers captures the other power’s SC (eg minor capturing your major SC, or vice versa) (27 mins 45 secs)
• Kaner asks Amby about the order interface at PlayDip and how he’s finding it. Amby touches on some of the difficulties using your phone with PlayDip and moving around the screen. He discusses how things in PlayDip are different to the php sites like webDip and vDip (29 mins 45 secs)
• The guys switch up their drinks (34 mins 45 secs)
• They clash on the ability to place illegal orders (36 mins 30 secs)

Around the Grounds, can Divided States be soloed and Kaner's geography lesson

• Kaner talks about joining the second Newspaper game and talks about how it works (39 mins 45 secs)
• Amby discusses a false start excited text he sent Kaner about his anon Divided States game (42 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner asks how he’s going in the game. They go onto show neither of them can count. (43 mins 20 secs)
• Amby discusses whether the Divided States board can ever possibly be soloed. (47 mins 30 secs)
• Amby sees the light on using the interactive map in vDip and discusses his own vDip newbie moment using the interactive map (49 mins)
• They talk about what the end game is for this Divided States game and how long it could go for (51 mins)
• Kaner discusses his geography lesson from Mrs Kaner (52 mins)

5 new vDip variants!

• They talk about the new five variants on vDip: Brazilian, Croatia Egypt, Florence and Britain (53 mins 20 secs)
• First up they discuss the map, unit placement, rule and SC changes in the Brazilian edition of Diplomacy. They discuss who are the winners and the losers on this map (54 mins 30 secs)
• Next up is Croatia and the changes to that Classic map (1 hr 3 mins)
• Then they discuss the Florence variant. Amby discusses Apulia vs Apulgia (1 hr 4 mins 30 secs)
• And finally the other simple map and rule changes is the Egypt variant. They discuss how the corner power mentality is changed with access in the Atlantic bringing England and France potentially into early conflict with Turkey (1 hr 8 mins)
• The last variant has practically no map changes but a massive game play change. The variant Britain gives the UK 6 SC’s but it starts with only armies (1 hr 11 mins)

Joke time and Diplomacy in the classroom

• The guys get another drink and Kaner decides now is a good time to tell a joke (1 hr 16 mins)
• Amby discovers the recording device is flashing “battery low”, Kaner talks about using Diplomacy in the classroom based on an article from Boardgame Geek by Calavera Despierta (1 hr 19 mins 45 secs)
• The guys wrap up the show, giving a reminder about supporting the show on Patreon and also now able to be heard on Spotify (1 hr 26 mins)

Venue: The Charming Squire, Brisbane.

Drinks of choice:

Kaner - 150 Lashes Australian pale ale and the Runaway cream ale by James Squire Brewery

Amby - 150 Lashes Australian pale ale and a Malt Shovel Extra pale ale (XPA) by James Squire Brewery

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