Machiavelli
Machiavelli - a Map-only Version by The White Wolf (Andrew Jameson)
Based on the Diplomacy variant copyrighted by Avalon Hill, 1995.
All rules of Standard Diplomacy apply, except as amended below.
This version of Machiavelli is a test run of the map only. No special rules are used, seasons run exactly as in regular Diplomacy, and there are no Garrison units. If this test run is successful, further Machiavelli influences may be added in the next revision.
This version is based on scenario one (The Balance of Power) from Machiavelli Version 2. Setup is for eight powers, detailed below.
The start date is Spring 1454.
The map contains 44 Supply Centers, and 23 SCs are required for a solo victory.
The Setup:
Austria - A Austria, A Hungary, A Tyrol
Florence - A Arezzo, A Florence, F Pisa
France - A Avignon, A Swiss, F Marseille
Milan - A Cremona, A Milan, A Pavia
Naples - A Bari, A Messina, F Naples, F Palermo
Papacy - A Bologna, A Perugia, A Rome, F Ancona
Turks - A Albania, F Durazzo, F Tunis
Venice - A Padua, A Treviso, F Dalmatia, F Venice
Chaos builds will be utilized in this version, in order to facilitate some semblance of balance where otherwise landlocked powers are concerned. This may change in future revisions, if Chaos is deemed inappropriate.
Changes from the published Machiavelli game:
The Garrison normally starting in Venice has been replaced by a fleet, due to the lack of Garrison units in this test run of the game.
There are no "Ports" - Fleets can be built in any coastal home SC.
Armies can be built in Venice.
There is no besieging, due to the lack of Garrison units.
Units cannot convert between armies and fleets.
A Fleet in Messina does not control the strait between Messina and Otranto. Therefore, there is no impediment to a fleet moving between the Ionian Sea and the Gulf of Naples at any time.
There is no difference between city types - there are only standard SCs.
"I. The Balance of Power
About the year 1454, the five major Italian powers, having reached a rough parity in strength, sought to create an anti-aggression peace alliance among themselves. The geopolitical situations had advanced a great deal since 1400. Many independent states had been absorbed, and five great states now dominated the political scene: Venice, Milan, Florence, Naples and the Papal States. Venice was now a major land power, as well as retaining much of her sea empire and mercantile wealth. Florence had expanded and now was a sea power as well as a mercantile power. The Papacy had been restored to Rome, and under such dynamic Popes as Martin V, reasserted its sovereignty over the Papal States. With the resources and contributions of the faithful all over Europe, the restored, renewed, but now thoroughly secular Papacy was a force to be reckoned with. Milan, having failed in its bid to dominate the peninsula was still, under Francesco Sforza, one of the most powerful centralized Italian states. Finally, Naples, after being unified once again with Sicily by Alfonso of Aragon, was now a major maritime and land power. A new complicating factor was the interest in Italy by outside powers such as France and Austria, but especially by the Ottoman Turks. The Turks, unified and eager to expand, fresh from victory at Constantinople, were ready to move against Venice in the Balkans or Naples in southern Italy."
- From the Machiavelli RuleBook, Copyright 1995
