League of Shadows

Diplomacy - League of Shadows

7 Players

Victory conditions: Number of Points at End-Game (see VICTORY CONDITIONS & END-OF-GAME SCORES)

The League of Shadows variant is an attempt to combine the games of 'Diplomacy' (specifically the 1897 variant) and the popular 'parlour' game: ['Mafia'] (also known as 'Werewolves')

The game begins in the Fall of 1897 and each player - once assigned their Power - uses their Autumn 97 orders to choose one of the traditional Home Centres of that Power, as their single starting Supply Center (eg. England may choose either London, Liverpool, or Edinburgh). The only exception to this rule is that Russia MAY NOT select St. Petersburg as their first Supply Center. This center is known as a "Capital" for the duration of the game.

For the Winter turn of 1897 Players select which type of unit to build in their Capital, at which point; the game enters the five standard phases of: Spring - Orders, Summer - retreats, Fall - Orders, Autumn Retreats & Winter - Adjustments) beginning with Spring 1898. Players may build in any vacant Supply Center they own until 1900.

After the Fall 1899 orders are adjudicated, and any retreats made - All Supply Centers owned by each power at that point become their Home Supply Centers for the duration of the game and - as with Standard Dip - are the only Centers each respective power may build in from that point on. If a player loses their Capital before Autumn 1899, it becomes a Home Center of the Power who owns it.

If players wish, along with their Winter 1899 Build Orders, they may change the name of their Power from the Standard name (ie. England, Austria-Hungary etc.) to something better suited to their collection of Home Centers (eg. The Nordic League, The Ionian Republic, etc.)

So much for the Diplomacy aspect of the variant.

After the Players have selected their initial Startup SCs the GM selects two of the remaining neutral Supply Centers at random from two separate pools: One from The 'North' Pool (Edi, Lvp, Lon, Nwy, Swe, Den, StP, Mos, War, Ber, Mun, Kie, Hol, Bel, Par, Bre & Por) ...and one from the 'South' Pool (Spa, Mar, Ven, Rom, Nap, Tun, Tri, Vie, Bud, Ser, Rum, Bul, Gre, Con, Ank, Smy & Sev).

These two selected neutral SCs are hereby occupied by 'The League of Shadows' - Europe's hidden uber-mafia. This is known only to the GM until a player occupies the province at the end of an Autumn turn, at which point they are informed that they own one of the Head Quarters of The League of Shadows.

Spring 1900 Home Supply Centers have been established and each Power is given a vote on the European Security Council - The taskforce designed to root out the evil of The League of Shadows, (be they mafia, werewolves, pirates or ninja). All voting must be done on a public forum and may begin as soon as the previous Winter map has been published. Powers may vote for any Supply Center which began the game as neutral. By voting for a particular province, the player is suggesting it is one of the two provinces occupied by the League of Shadows.

eg. England posts in the public forum thus:

VOTE: PORTUGAL

The English Player may change their vote as many times as they like until the following Winter Deadline.

eg. England posts: UNVOTE: PORTUGAL - VOTE:SERBIA

Players may VOTE: ABSTAIN if they wish, but they may not vote abstain for more than three consecutive game years. When the Winter Deadline is reached the votes cast in the forum are tallied.

ie:

VOTES:

Austria: GREECE England: SERBIA France: LIVERPOOL Germany: PARIS Italy: GREECE Russia: GREECE Turkey: SERBIA

TOTALS:

GREECE - 3 SERBIA - 2 PARIS - 1 LIVERPOOL - 1

In this example Greece 'wins' the vote and is 'purged' by the E.S.C. Any Unit occupying Greece must be automatically disbanded - irrespective of a players unit count. Additionally - should Greece be one of the occupying players Home Centres, it may not be used to build a unit for that turn. If the player occupying Greece is able to build a unit, or forced to disband; as per standard Diplomacy rules, they must still do so as if the unit in Greece had remained on the board.

Should any Province winning the vote prove in fact, to be one of the HQs of The League of Shadows; the Player occupying it has their unit auto-disbanded, and the province becomes impassable! (This does not affect the number of SCs required for a solo) The player also has XXX points deducted from their end-of-game score.

Play continues until one of the victory conditions are reached, a draw is declared, or the game reaches Winter 1912

VICTORY CONDITIONS

The game ends when:

1) A player achieves a solo victory (ie. Occupies 18 SCs at the end of a Fall turn)

2) Controls three Capital cities at the end of a Fall turn (eg. Fall 1904 - England owns London (own Capital), Kiel (Germanys' Capital) and Moscow (Russias Capital)

3) Controls both League of Shadows provinces simultaneously for 2 consecutive game years (eg. Mun and Bud are League of Shadows HQs, and Germany holds Mun from 1898 - 1903 & Bud from 1901 - 1903)

END-OF-GAME SCORES

Solo Victory = 200pts

League of Shadows HQs owned at EOG = +75pts per HQ

Capitals owned at EOG = +20pts

SCs (non-capitals) owned at EOG = +10pts

Survival til 1912 = +10pts

Events during the game which also affect EOG scores:

Casting the first vote in the European Security Council forum, to condemn a Province containing a genuine League of Shadows HQ: +25pts (The Province must 'win' the vote that year, for the points to be attributed to the Player)

Owning a League of Shadows HQ when it is discovered: -50pts

For every year that a player previously owned LoS HQ which remains undiscovered til EOG - BUT WHICH NOW BELONGS TO SOMEONE ELSE - the player receives +10pts (eg. England owns Belgium (The League of Shadows HQ for the game, selected form the North Pool of neutrals) from 1899 - 1905. Germany captures it in Fall 1906 and the game continues until 1912, Belgium's true nature remaining undiscovered.

In this example, the English Player receives +60pts at EOG

If a League of Shadows HQ owned by a player is captured from them, and subsequently discoverd by the E.S.C.: The player is deducted EOG points on the sliding scale as follows:

League of Shadows Province discovered the same game year as loss of control = -40pts The following game year = -20pts Any other game year before EOG = -10pts

There are many factors which I hope will add a refreshing twist to the Standard Map - and the manner and motives for which players conduct their Diplomacy with one another. The wide variety of the means of attaining EOG points should add a multitude of reasons for players to exchange SCs, form alliances or make enemies

The scoring system would also ensure that a players ongoing success could be easily monitored and assigned a 'Rank' position, and a place in a League.