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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.
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
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.
Programmed for the judge by Vincent Mous & Nicholas Fitzpatrick