Hyperpower, a.k.a. Cold War

Hyperpower is a two-player variant, and highly balanced. In fact, results on vDiplomacy have shown it to be more balanced than the perfectly symmetrical Duo variant.

Hyperpower is known as COLD WAR on vDip and other sites. The name was changed because there is already a variant named Cold War in the DipWiki.

Hyperpower was adapted for Realpolitik by Eamon Driscoll. Some superficial changes were made to follow standard Dip naming conventions, like changing Albania to Tirana.

Starting SCs:

NATO

• F Darwin
• F Istanbul
• F London
• A Los Angeles
• A New York City
• A Paris

USSR

• F Havana
• F Leningrad/sc
• A Moscow
• A Shanghai
• F Tirana
• A Vladivostok

Special rules/information:

The Hyperpower variant is set just two years before the Cuban Missle Crisis, and explores the potential conflict between the world's two great superpowers at that time, NATO and the USSR. First and foremost, however, Hyperpower is a one on one variant designed to be as entertaining and as balanced as possible. Please note that to that end, a few small liberties have been taken to improve gameplay, such as the historically inaccurate border between East Germany and Denmark.

General Notes:

The supply centers Ontario, Alaska, Iran, and Japan were historically allied with NATO. However, to improve the balance of the map, they start off the game neutral. There are two cases in which bordering islands can be traversed by armies: Indonesia<=>Phillipines, and Indonesia<=>Darwin. Western Canada does not border Greenland. Panama and Egypt contain "canals," meaning that fleets can traverse them as if they only had a single coast. They are analagous to Kiel in Classic Diplomacy. Because of the lack of a Skagerrak territory, North Sea borders Sweden. Knowledge of this border is key for the first few moves of any game.