Eugene's favorite Diplomacy articles

Diplomacy is a game that rewards three skills : strategy, tactics, and negotiation. The winning Diplomacy player must master all three. There are lots of articles on the Internet for improving these abilities, but these are the ones I feel are the best. Bolded links are ones that I consider to be the cream of the crop, and should be read by any serious player.

Rules

For complete beginners, or people who don't remember the rules.

The Play-by-Email Judge Interface

For an introduction to using the Judge interface, read:

For software that will display a map of your board, play with the units, and show you how the judge will resolve the moves, see :

Strategy

Important general strategy articles:

Jake Orion Teaches Diplomacy

These are excellent strategy articles that don't concentrate on specific moves, but on general concepts for playing the game well.

Richard Sharp's Game of Diplomacy

This is an out-of-print book on Diplomacy, now published on the Web. Not every chapter is excellent (in particular, the one on Turkey is weak) but there are lots of good strategies here for almost every power.

Tactics

You can be the best planner and talker in the world, but if you can't move the pieces well, your pieces will be less effective. In fact, tactics are the main factor that separates a beginner from an intermediate. Master this section, and you will win most newbie games provided that you aren't an ogre. Here are articles on tactics:

Negotiation

The most important skill of all, the hardest to learn, and the hardest to master. A gifted diplomat with adequate tactics and strategic understanding will rarely get eliminated. (Winning requires strong tactics and strategy.)

Basics

For aspiring Jedi Knights and other students of manipulating the mind :

Advanced

These are written at a higher level compared to the other articles, but they are rewarding study.

Masochists Only

These are for diehards. Beware, you could spend hours here.

Happy stabbing!