The Game of Diplomacy
by Richard Sharp
APPENDIX
STANDARD NOTATION
Diplomacy game reports are printed in a kind of simple shorthand. It may vary in small
details from zine to zine, but the following is broadly common to all British
gamesmasters; if you master this system and write your orders the same way it will avoid
possible accidents.
A army
F fleet
S supports/supported
C convoys/convoyed
MS mutually support
— moves to
An asterisk after a unit shows that it is dislodged and its retreat, if any, will be
listed below. Underlined moves fail; underscored moves are illegal and have no
effect on the destination province; struck out units do not exist.
Some G Ms, myself included, save space by using the ‘support chain’ notation
where several units support each other, e.g. A(Sev) S A(Ukr) MS A(War) means that the
first unit is supporting the second which is supporting the third which is supporting the
second. An order such as A(Boh) S A(Vie)— Tyr is normally accepted as a valid order
to both units.
Province abbreviations
The standard procedure is to use the first three letters of the province name, capitals
for sea-spaces, upper and lower case for land. A few exceptions are listed here. Where two
variations are given you are recommended to use the first; the second is for information
only.
Adriatic Sea - ADS/ADR
Aegean Sea - AES/AEG
Baltic Sea - BAL/BAS
Barents Sea - BAR/BAS
Black Sea - BLA/ BLS
Eastern Mediterranean - EMS/EAS
English Channel - ENG/ENC
Gulf of Bothnia - GOB/GBo/Bot
Gulf of Lyons - GOL/GLy/Lyo
Ionian Sea - IOS/ION
Irish Sea - IRS/IRI
Liverpool - Lpl/Liv
Livonia - Liv/Lvn
Mid Atlantic Ocean - MAO/MID
Norway - Nor/Nwy
North Sea - NTH
Norwegian Sea - NWG/NOR
North Atlantic Ocean - NAO
North Africa - Naf/NAf
St Petersburg - StP
Tyrolia - Tyr/Tyo
Tyrrhenian Sea - TYS/TYR
Western Mediterranean - WMS/WES
There is no accounting for individual GM idiosyncrasy — I myself use EAS and ION
quite illogically, without knowing why.
Variants
Most variant rules include lists of province abbreviations and other notation. A few
common abbreviations from variants, which may enable you to make some sense of variant
reports in zines you see, are:
2A, etc. - Double army, etc.
DA (or D) - Defensive army
A/F - Army-fleet
FF - Fast ferry
BB - Boat-bunch
=A - Ring-bearer (Tolkien games)
G - Garrison
The Game of Diplomacy is (c) 1978 by Richard Sharp. It is reproduced here with
Richard's permission.
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