Modern

Created by: Vincent Mous

Variant Description:

Modern Diplomacy is intended to be diplomacy with an updated map, circa 1994, taking place in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Any country with more than 30 million inhabitants was made a power. Those with more than 60 million inhabitants were given 4 home centers, while Russia (with 200 million plus) was given 5. Iran would have qualified as a 4 supply center power, but this would have made it necessary to extend the map into Asia, so it was not done.

Historically, we have to consider that the European Community and all international alliances and organizations such as NATO and the UN were broken down. Perhaps the United States suffered a major cataclysm, or simply decided to ignore the outside world - but in any case, it will not intervene in Europe.

Other than this, borders and neutral supply centers were distributed to even out the game. Monaco was made a neutral SC (it has lots of money) even though it's size does not warrant it, and Gibraltar was made a British home SC, bot to give Britain a port in the Mediterranean, and to give Spain more than one neighbour).

Also, there was originally, a new type of unit - planes - added to the game. Planes could go over water and land but could not capture a supply center. Therefore, if France managed to move a plane over London, England would still own it, but not be able to build there. The game was playtested both with and without planes, and it was felt that both were valid games. For reasons of simplicity in moving it to the judge, what is discussed below is the game without planes.

Game Powers:

3 center powers:

. Egypt (E)
. Poland (P)
. Spain (S)

4 center powers:

. Britain (B)
. France (F)
. Germany (G)
. Italy (I)
. Turkey (T)
. Ukraine (U)
 

5 center powers:

. Russia (R)

Starting Positions (Spring 1994):

Britain (B) : f EDI, f GIB, f LIV, f LON

Egypt (E) : f ALE, a ASW, f CAI

France (F) : f BOR, a LYO, a MAR, a PAR

Germany (G) : f BER, a FRA, f HAM, a MUN

Italy (I) : a MIL, f NAP, a ROM, f VEN

Poland (P) : f GDA, a KRA, a WAR

Russia (R) : a GOR, a MOS, a MUR, f ROS, f STP

Spain (S) : f BAR, a MAD, a SEV

Turkey (T) : a ADA, f ANK, a IST, f IZM

Ukraine (U) : a KHA, a KIE, a ODE, f SEV

Winning Conditions:

38 home centers + 26 neutral = 64 total centers

33 needed to win

Notes On Geography:

Cairo, Hamburg and Istanbul behave as Kiel and Constantinople did in the original game: they have no coasts but fleets can pass through them to bodies of water of both sides.

There is another canal linking Rostov and Volga, thus permitting access to the Caspian Sea to ships. Rostov is situated along the Don River which empties into the Black Sea, while the Volga empties into the Caspian Sea. In the real world there is a canal at Volgograd linking the two rivers, somewhere in the southern Volga region on the map. This is the only way to get ships into and out of the Caspian Sea.

Iran is the only territory with multiple coasts in the game - the south coast touches the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf, while the north coast touches the Caspian Sea.

Where possible, the full name of a territory was put on the map. The following were only abbreviated by the first three letters:

 adr sea : adriatic sea
 ana : anatolia
 apu : apulia
 auv : auvergne
 bar : barcelona
 bel : belgium
 bos : bosnia
 bri : brittany
 cly : clyde
 cze : czech republic
 edi : edinburgh
 fra : frankfurt
 gib : gibraltar
 ham : hamburg
 hel : heligoland bight
 hol : holland
 isr : israel
 liv : liverpool
 lon : london
 mac : macedonia
 mar : marseilles
 mil : milan
 mol : moldavia
 mon : monaco
 mun : munich
 nap : naples
 pic : picardy
 pie : piedmont
 por : portugal
 pru : prussia
 rom : rome
 sax : saxony
 ska : skagerrak
 tus : tuscany
 ven : venice
 wal : wales
 yor : yorkshire

Map Abbreviations:

Abbreviations for territories are the first 3 letters of the territory, except for:

 barents sea: bare, bars  (conflict with barcelona)
 bornholm sea: born, bors  (conflict with bordeaux)
 eastern black sea: ebs
 eastern mediterranean: emed
 eastern sahara: esah
 gulf of bothnia
 gulf of lyon: gol
 libyan sea: lbn
 north atlantic ocean: nao
 north sea: nth
 norwegian sea: nwg
 seville: sve          (conflict with sevastopol)
 western black sea: wbs
 western mediterranean: wmed
 western sahara: wsah

Alternatives are also available for many spaces, especially water spaces. See the map file for these alternative abbreviations.