Locarno: Europe 1926

Introduction

Locarno is a seven-player Diplomacy variant designed by Charles Féaux de la Croix, which set in Europe after the the international conference held at Locarno in October 1925. The Treaty of Locarno was arguably the watershed mark in the international relations of the 1920s - reestablishing in some measure the frac-tured European concert of powers and a testimony of the Gustav Stresemann's diplomatic mastery.

Locarno uses the armed neutrals & diplomatic points rules pioneered in Jeff Kase’s and Baron Powell’s Ambition & Empire.

Maps

Locarno v1.0 with space abbreviations

Locarno v1.0 with initial units, upper case letters denoting fleets and lower case ones armies

Rules

All the rules of standard Diplomacy apply save those noted below:

Minor Powers

In addition to the seven Great Powers, there is also a host of "minor powers," which are non-player neutral SCs representing the smaller states of Europe.

Each minor power, although a "non-player," starts with a unit (unit color is black). All minor powers start with an army except for the following minors that start with a fleet: Denmark, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Sweden.

Minor power units prevent a Great Power from simply moving into an empty space and gain-ing control of the SC. To occupy a minor power SC, a Great Power will need to move in with support. A minor power unit that is forced to retreat is disbanded. If a Great Power does not occupy the minor power SC at the end of a Fall turn, the minor power’s unit is automatically rebuilt in the Winter.

As in standard Diplomacy, a Great Power controls a minor power SC when one of its units occupies the space after a Fall turn has been played and completed. Once a Great Power gains control of a minor power SC, it can leave the SC vacant and still keep control of it as long as that SC is not occupied by another Great Power at the close of a Fall turn.

Minor power units do nothing but hold in place, unless the unit has been ordered by a Great Power using its Diplomacy Points.

Diplomatic Points

At the start of the Spring and Fall turns, each Great Power receives one Diplomacy Point (DP) for each SC it controls, up to a maximum of three DPs per turn. During each Spring and Fall turn, each Great Power may allocate none, some, or all of its DPs to minor powers that still have units on the map. For each DP allocated, the allocating Great Power submits an order for that particular minor power’s unit. A Great Power may also consolidate all of its DPs (if it has more than one) into a single order. A Great Power may only order a minor power to hold or support. A minor power can not be ordered to move/attack.

Unused DPs may not be carried over into the next turn. They are simply lost.

Players are not required to tell each other how they allocated their DPs. Just as with negotia-tions, players may honour their agreements with other players or not, as they see fit. Only the GM will know how Great Powers have allocated their DPs. DP allocation is not published in the adjudication; only the end results are published.

The GM determines how DPs have been allocated. In the event of a conflict, an order for a particular minor power’s unit is followed if it is supported by more DPs than any conflicting order. See the following examples:

Example 1. In Spring ‘26, Germany allocates one DP to Austria to get it to support a German attack on Czechia. No other major Power allocates a DP to Austria so the Austrian unit supports the German attack on Czechia.

Example 2. In Spring ‘26, Germany allocates one DP to Austria to get it to support a German attack on Czechia. Italy also allocates one DP to Austria to get it to support an Italian attack on Switzerland. Since Germany and Italy each allocated one DP to Austria, neither controls Austria and the Austrian army simply holds in place.

Example 3. In Spring ‘26, Germany allocates two DPs to Austria to get it to support a German attack on Czechia. Italy allocates only one DP to Austria to get it to support an Italian attack on Switzerland. Since Germany allocated one more DP to Austria than Italy did, the Austrian support the German attack on Czechia.

Example 4. In Spring ‘26, Germany allocates one DP to Austria to get it to support a German attack on Czechia. Italy allocates one DP to Austria to get it to support an Italian attack on Switzerland. In support of Germany, Turkey allocates one DP to Austria to get it to support the German attack on Czechia. Although Germany, Italy and Turkey each allocated one DP to Austria, the Germans get the Austrian support because the Turks supported the German diplomatic efforts with the Austrians.

If, during a Spring or Fall turn, a Great Power allocates more DPs to minor powers than it is entitled to, all of that Great Power’s DPs are forfeited for that particular turn.

Civil Disorder

If a player is lost during the game, the GM is strongly encouraged to find a replacement player for the affected Great Power rather than have it lapse into civil disorder. In the event no replacement player is found and the GM declares the Great Power to be in permanent civil disorder, the following rules apply:

• All units of the Great Power in civil disorder (GPCD) are immediately disbanded.

• All SCs controlled by the GPCD that are unoccupied are immediately considered newly independent minor powers. Minor power army units are built in those minor power spaces.

• All SCs controlled by the GPCD that are occupied by a unit belonging to another Great Power are unaffected. If the occupying Great Power moves its unit out of the GPCD’s SC so that the SC is unoccupied at the conclusion of a Fall turn, a minor power army unit is built there and that SC is considered a newly independent minor power.

• For the remainder of the game, all newly independent minor powers are subject to the provisions of the Minor Powers rules. In particular, this means the new minor power can be influenced using Diplomacy Points.

• Once a Great Power is declared to be in permanent civil disorder, it may not be played by an active player again.

Victory Conditions

As soon as one Great Power controls 18 SCs, the game ends immediately and the player rep-resenting that Great Power is the winner.

If two Great Powers each gain control of 18 or more SCs at the same time, the player representing the Great Power with the most SCs is considered the winner. If the two Great Powers each control the same number of SCs, the game continues until one player has 18 or more SCs and that player has more SCs than any other player.

Players may terminate the game by mutual agreement before a winner is determined. If this occurs, any decision reached by the players (e.g., concede game to one player, concede game to an alliance) must be accepted unanimously. If the players cannot agree, all players who still have pieces on the board when the game ends share equally in a draw.

Special Rules

• The first turn of the game begins in Spring 1926.

• France, Britain and Italy may not build units in their respective colonial SCs, i.e Algiers and Beirut for France, Tripoli for Italy and Suez for Britain.

• Britain starts the game with a fleet located in Gibraltar, whereas there’s no unit in Liverpool.

Map Clarifications

• Gibraltar and the Dodecanese are sea spaces that contains land. This means that a fleet stationed in Gibraltar or in the Dodecanese can convoy an army. Equally, army movement from Gibraltar to Spain much as from the Dodecanese to Izmir (and vice versa) is allowed. Gibraltar's land portion divides Spain's southern coastline in two, while Morocco has merely one coast.

• Kiel, Suez, Denmark and Istambul are canal provinces. Hence, they have merely one coast.

• The Arabian Sea and the African Coastal Waters are adjacent and are divided by a line in the Red Sea. Blue bands along the map edges indicate that these portions of the Red Sea respectively belong to the Arabian Sea and African Coastal Waters.

Four-way Intersections:

• Sicily and Naples are adjacent as shown by the landbridge arrow. Both fleet and army movement across the Straits of Messina is possible.

• Northern Ireland is an integral part of Edinburgh. Edinburgh, Ireland, the North At-lantic Ocean and the Irish Sea all border eachother.

• Gibraltar, Morocco, the Mid-Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean all border each other.

• Greece, the Aegean Sea, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Ionian Sea all border each other.

• Sweden, the Gulf of Bothnia, the Gulf of Danzig and Baltic Sea all borer each other.

Space Names and Abbreviations

All spaces on the Locarno map, along with their abbreviations, are listed below. SCs are an-notated with an asterisk (*).

Albania		     	Alb
Alexandrette		Ale
Algiers*		Alg
Ankara*			Ank
Archangel		Arc
Armenia			Arm
Austria*		Aus
Azerbaijan		Aze
Beirut*			Bei
Belgium*		Bel
Berlin*			Ber
Brest*			Bre
Bulgaria*		Bul
Burgundy		Bur
Byelorussia		Bye
Cologne*		Col
Czechia*		Cze
Denmark*		Den
Dobruja			Dob
East Prussia		EPr
Edinburgh*		Edi
Egypt*			Egy
Estonia			Est
Finland*		Fin
Gascony			Gas
Gdynia*			Gdy
Gibraltar		Gib
Great Poland		GPo
Greece*			Gre
Hungary*		Hun
Iceland			Ice
Iraq*			Ira
Ireland			Ire
Istambul*		Ist 
Izmir*			Izm
Kazakhstan		Kaz
Kiel*			Kie
Konya			Kon
Krakow*			Kra
Kurdistan		Kur
Kuweit			Kuw 
Latvia*			Lat 
Leningrad*		Len
Lithuania*		Lit
Liverpool*		Liv
London*			Lon
Marseille*		Mar
Milan*			Mil
Morocco*		Mor
Moscow*			Mos
Munich*			Mun
Naples*			Nap
Netherlands*		Net
Norway*			Nwy
Palestine		Pal
Paris*			Par
Persia*			Per
Picardy			Pic
Piedmont		Pie
Pomerania		Pom
Portugal*		Por
Rhineland		Rhi
Rome*			Rom
Rumania*		Rum 
Saudi Arabia		SAr
Saxony			Sax
Siberia			Sib
Sicily			Sic
Silesia			Sil
Slovakia		Slo
Southern Algeria	SAl
Spain*			Spa
Stalingrad*		Sta
Suez			Sue
Sweden*			Swe
Switzerland*		Swi
Syria			Syr
Tripoli*		Tri
Tunisia			Tun
Ukraine			Ukr
Venetia			Ven
Volhynia		Vol
Wales			Wal
Warsaw*			War
Yorkshire		Yor
Yugoslavia*		Yug

Adriatic Sea		ADR
Aegean Sea		AEG
Arabian Sea		ARA
Baltic Sea		BAL
Black Sea		BLA
Caspian Sea		CAS
Eastern Mediterranean	EAS