"Luck plays no part in Diplomacy. Cunning and cleverness, honesty and perfectly-timed betrayal are the tools needed to outwit your fellow players. The most skillful negotiator will climb to victory over the backs of both enemies and friends.

Who do you trust?"
(Avalon Hill)

Diplomacy is a game which is easy to learn but impossible to master. The rules are all very intuitive, lots of people pick them up just by playing, but this document will familiarize you more quickly.

Objective - Units - Moves - Rules - Play

Objective

The objective of Diplomacy is to be the first to get 18 supply centers. For each supply center you occupy you get a new unit, and you lose a unit whenever a supply center you own gets occupied by someone else.

You can recognize the supply centers with the markers which are placed on them.

Units

• Army
• This unit can only move on land.
• Fleet
• This unit can only move in the sea, and in coastal territories. It can also convoy armies across sea territories using the convoy move.

Moves

• Hold
• The unit will defend if its territory is attacked, but otherwise do nothing.

  

• Move
• The unit tries to move into(/attack) an adjacent territory.

  

• Support hold, support move
• Support is what Diplomacy is all about. As no one unit is stronger than another you need to combine the strength of multiple units to attack other territories.
  (Try hovering your mouse over the more complex battles to get more explanation.)

  

• Convoy
• You can use fleets to carry army units across sea territories, this is called a convoy. You can also string multiple convoys together to move an army unit large distances overseas in a single turn.

  

Rules

• In diplomacy no army or fleet is stronger than another, and a holding unit will always beat a moving unit of equal support.

  

• The only way to win a battle is by supporting a moving unit with another unit, using a yellow support move order.

  

• And support can be given to holding units, with a green support hold order.

  

• If the number of support moves are greater than the number of support holds the move will succeed, otherwise it will fail.

  

• Also; if a unit is being attacked it has to defend itself by holding, and can't support another unit.

  

• With these rules you know everything you need to start playing Diplomacy online! After you register a user account you can create a game and join existing games.