Diplomacy Player's Technical Guide

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Diplomacy Player's Technical Guide (DPTG)

By Kristie Black, Thaddeus Black (ed.), Brandon Clarke, Bob Dengler, Bogdan Florescu, Cait Glasson, Manus Hand, David Lawler, Gary Pennington, Ray Setzer, Simon Szykman, Tarzan and Sandy Wible, October, 1998.

The Diplomacy Player's Technical Guide lies in the public domain. Diplomacy is the Avalon Hill Game Company's trademark for its game of international intrigue, which game is copyright 1976 by Avalon Hill. Avalon Hill belongs to Hasbro [1].

Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 INTRODUCTION 2 I. PLAYERS AND COUNTRIES 3 II. OBJECT OF THE GAME 4 III. SHORT GAME 5 IV. DIPLOMACY 6 V. UNDERLYING ECONOMIC STRUCTURE OF THE GAME (SUPPLY CENTERS) 7 VI. THE BOARD AND SET 8 VII. THE MOVE ORDER AND THE MECHANICS OF WRITING ORDERS 9 VIII. CONFLICTS 10 IX. THE SUPPORT ORDER 11 X. CUTTING SUPPORT 12 XI. RETREATS 13 XII. THE CONVOY ORDER 14 XIII. GAINING AND LOSING UNITS 15 XIV. MISCELLANEOUS

INTRODUCTION

Diplomacy merits such a body of game laws as chess has: one that is clean, clear, consistent, comprehensible, conventional, concrete, concise, complete, discrete, finite, playable, unambiguous, standard, traditional, elegant, firm, precise and logically whole. The Guide, read in conjunction with your Diplomacy rulebook, sets that body of game laws forth.

The contents of the Guide supersede rulebook language on a number of technical points. Read carefully. Especially Chapters I and II.

The Guide's fourteen chapters track the fourteen chapters of Games Research's 1971 and Avalon Hill's 1976 and 1982 Diplomacy rulebooks. Yet it matters not which edition of the rulebook you own, nor in which language; any legitimate edition, dated 1971 or later, in any language, will do. When you have both read your rulebook and mastered this Technical Guide, you will then understand the laws of Diplomacy in absolutely standard form. This is true, regardless of which rulebook edition you own.

The Guide alone, however, does not define Diplomacy. It is intended for Diplomacy players who already have read and understood the rulebooks that came with their Diplomacy sets. You'll need your rulebook. If you do not yet own a Diplomacy set, why, Diplomacy is the best board game ever drawn on a game board; go to the game shop, buy a set, set it up, study that rulebook, read the Guide, gather six hardy opponents, raise your standard of battle, and go to war. Good luck in battle, warrior.

I. PLAYERS AND COUNTRIES

Seven players play the standard game of Diplomacy. An eighth person serves as gamemaster, or GM.

At the start of the game, each player secretly submits to the GM a preference list, ranking the seven Great Powers in the order the player prefers them. A player may group together on his list Powers he prefers equally; an example: France; [Germany, Italy or Austria]; [England or bussia]; Turkey. A player may list fewer than seven Powers if he wishes; he may even list none. Or, instead of listing Powers, he may secretly request a Random Power. To write nothing is as to write a list of zero Powers, which is not the same as specifically to request a Random Power.

The GM secretly reviews the lists. To any player who has specifically requested a Random Power, the GM at once randomly assigns a Power. Then, taking the remaining lists one by one, in random order of players, the GM awards each player the player's top choice from among the Powers still available. Where grouped Powers are equally top choice, the GM awards one of the available top choices randomly; in the example above, had France, Italy and Russia already been taken, the GM would award either Austria or Germany. Where the list lists fewer than seven Powers, and all the Powers listed have already been taken, the GM awards nothing; he discards the list and moves on to the next player. After awarding Powers to all the other players, the GM assigns randomly the Powers left over to the players left over.

Unlike with orders, the GM does not reveal preference lists, not even after he has assigned the countries. Nor does he reveal details, such as whose list he has read first. He merely reports which player will represent each Great Power.

Where no GM is available, naturally, the players must reveal their lists openly to one another, just as they would reveal their orders - yet the procedure otherwise runs exactly the same way.

A Diplomacy tournament may prefer to employ an alternate method of country assignment, as appropriate to the tournament's format and circumstance.

II. OBJECT OF THE GAME

In Diplomacy, naturally, as in almost any other game, the players may agree to end the game when and how they see fit to end it. Such agreements lie beyond the scope of this Technical Guide, though, so we will speak no further of them here. This chapter tells when and how the game ends by rule.

A player wins the game when his Great Power controls the requisite number of supply centers. How many pieces the Great Power actually has on the board does not matter; it's the centers that count.

The game ends in a draw when seven consecutive years' ends have each seen no one capture any supply center, or when thirty-five game years have ended with no victor. All players who still own supply centers share equally in the draw.

A Diplomacy tournament may prefer to give an alternate game-ending rule, as appropriate to the tournament's format and circumstance.

When the game ends by rule, whether in victory or draw, the ending year skips the meaningless final adjustments. Supply centers get captured, as usual, and then the game ends right there; no one writes adjustment orders in that last year.

If you want to compare from game to game, there are many scoring formats - some zero-sum, others not. Here is one example of a zero-sum format:

       GAME RESULTS
       Win         +360
       2-way draw  +150
       3-way draw   +80
       4-way draw   +45
       5-way draw   +24
       6-way draw   +10
       7-way draw  zero
       Loss         -60

III. SHORT GAME

The standard game of Diplomacy has no Short Game.

IV. DIPLOMACY

Diplomacy's diplomacy lies beyond the scope of this Technical Guide.

V. UNDERLYING ECONOMIC STRUCTURE OF THE GAME (SUPPLY CENTERS)

The supply centers within a Great Power's home borders, the ones the Power controls at game's start, are the Power's "home supply centers"; the supply centers within no Great Power's home borders, the ones that no Power controls at game's start, are not home supply centers at all.

A supply center may fall under the control of various foreign Powers as the game progresses, but whose home supply center it is, if anyone's - that never changes.

VI. THE BOARD AND SET

The laws of Diplomacy do not care how many or how few physical playing pieces your Diplomacy set includes. Nothing in the laws of Diplomacy forbids Austria, for example, from fielding seventeen armies at the same time.

Seventy-six separate spaces divide up the entire board. Unlike on a chessboard, where diagonal spaces can meet at a single point, on the Diplomacy board there are no point-meetings; all the spaces meet along lines. Iceland, Ireland, Sicily, Cyprus, the Caspian Sea, Lake Ladoga and all the other places not specifically named on the map are not spaces and are not part of the game.

Switzerland is impassable and lies out of play. The other seventy-five spaces come in only two kinds: provinces and bodies of water.

The provinces of Bulgaria, Spain and St. Petersburg each have two coasts. A fleet that sails in along one coast may not then sail out from the other coast, having passed overland through the body of the province! The fleet may only sail out from the coast along which it came in, to a space adjacent along that coast.

If a fleet could sail to either coast of a two-coast province, then, of course, the fleet's order to sail must name one coast or the other.

A fleet next to a two-coast province can support an action anywhere in the province, even an action on the far coast! (The converse, though, is not true: a fleet in a two-coast province can't support an action off the far coast, because the action occurs in a space to which the fleet couldn't even move.)

A fleet in a two-coast province does occupy the whole province, just as an army there would. It's the spaces that matter, not the coasts. Even the following sort of thing would just be an ordinary head-to-head standoff: English Fleet Portugal to Spain (north coast); French Fleet Spain (south coast) to Portugal.

Armies, naturally, don't care about coasts.

Sweden, Denmark, Kiel and Constantinople are ordinary one-coast provinces. A fleet that sails in one side may, on another move, freely sail out the other side. Fleets in these provinces, though, like fleets in any other land provinces, may not convoy.

There are a few other spots on the map that sometimes confuse Diplomacy players; let's discuss them briefly. The Mid-Atlantic does border, among other spaces, North Africa, the Western Mediterranean and both coasts of Spain. Norway does border St. Petersburg. Kiel does border the Baltic Sea. Denmark, perhaps the most confusing space of them all, does border both Kiel and Sweden; an army in Denmark could march to either. Denmark also borders the Helgoland Bight, the North Sea, the Skagerrak and the Baltic Sea. Denmark does not border Berlin. Spain does not border North Africa. Finland (which, incidentally, is a Russian province in Diplomacy) does not border Livonia. The only body of water the Baltic Sea borders is the Gulf of Bothnia. The Black Sea borders no bodies of water at all, only land provinces. Constantinople borders three land provinces; an army there could march to any of the three.

VII. THE MOVE ORDER AND THE MECHANICS OF WRITING ORDERS

A unit may be ordered to do only one thing on each move. An army may be ordered:

• to hold,
• to move (directly),
• to move by convoy,
• to support a hold, or
• to support a move.

A fleet may be ordered:

• to hold,
• to move (directly),
• to convoy,
• to support a hold, or
• to support a move.

An order to hold names only the unit holding. Any unit may hold. Examples: Army Galicia holds; Fleet Bulgaria (south coast) holds.

The words "move" and "attack" mean the same thing in Diplomacy. An order to move (directly) names the unit moving and the target space. If it's a fleet moving to a province with two coasts, then the order also names the target coast (if it fails to name the target coast, when the fleet could sail to either coast, then the order is illegal). Examples of direct moves: Army Galicia to Silesia; Fleet Mid-Atlantic to Spain (south coast).

A unit may attempt to move (directly) to an adjacent space only. Even certain adjacent spaces may be forbidden; for example, Army Berlin may not move to the Baltic Sea. Your rulebook explains the matter clearly, though, so we will speak no further of it here.

An illegal move order, whether direct or by convoy, is as a hold order, except that, because it is a move order, a unit so ordered may receive no support to hold. Examples: Army Tyrolia to Switzerland; Army Bohemia to Burgundy; Fleet Tuscany to Venice; Army Berlin to the Baltic Sea; Fleet Black Sea to Switzerland. Nothing prevents a player, incidentally, from purposely ordering a unit to a forbidden space (Switzerland is always a good choice) to guarantee that the unit receives no support. No unit may move to the space it already stands in, whether the move be direct or by convoy.

Chapter XII addresses the order to move by convoy, and also the convoy order itself. Chapter IX addresses the two kinds of support order.

VIII. CONFLICTS

This chapter sets forth the orderly way to execute conflicting orders on the Diplomacy board. The procedure is detailed, laborious, complete and correct. While, in actual play, we will not really need to follow the full procedure most of the time, nevertheless, the procedure is complete and correct and will never lead us astray. Employ it at need. The reader will want to review his rulebook and read the Guide's Chapters VII, XII and IX before attempting this difficult Chapter VIII for the first time. He will then find this chapter's detailed step-by-step adjudication procedure easiest at first to learn indirectly, after the manner of the following plan: the summary (just below); the note before Step 1; Step 4; the note before Step 14; the note before Step 15; Step 18; Step 19 (the most important step); Step 20; the example after Step 20; Step 3; the note before Step 15 (again); Step 15; Step 16; Step 17; the examples after Step 17; the note before Step 14 (again); the note before Step 1 (again); Step 2; the note before Step 5; Step 6; Step 7; Step 8. Having learned these more important parts in the recommended order, the reader will then find it practical to learn the entire procedure, reading this Chapter VIII straight through from beginning to end.

This chapter is indeed lengthy and dense, yet provides many useful instructional examples. It will greatly assist the reader in comprehending some of the more difficult parts of the chapter if he actually sets up a few units on his game board and just tries the instructions and examples out. To do so is suggested. To neglect to do so probably would not be wise.

The properly-prepared reader need not feel overly intimidated by this important chapter's length. Much of the length is in the many useful examples given. Also, while some of the chapter's steps, especially Steps 4, 18 and 19, come frequently into actual play, many of the steps, especially Steps 1, 5 and 9 through 14, rarely if ever come into actual play, and, while philosophically interesting, need not necessarily be learned at all until needed. The philosophically-interested reader, nevertheless, will naturally wish to learn the entire procedure. So will the expert GM. And the curious reader will naturally wish to explore. Let the reader therefore learn part or all, as suits his need and desire.

The procedure, in summary:

1. Cancel inconsistent convoys. 2. List the convoys and their fleets. 3. Cancel inconsistent supports. 4. Let direct attacks cut support. 5. Identify convoy subversion. 6. Disrupt convoys. 7. Cancel disrupted convoys' convoyed moves. 8. Let convoyed attacks cut support. 9. If useful, return to Step 5. 10. Break circles of subversion. 11. Repeat Steps 5 through 9. 12. Resolve unconfused circles of subversion. 13. Resolve confused circles of subversion. 14. Let rings of attack advance. 15. Identify head-to-head battles. 16. Resolve unbalanced head-to-head battles. 17. Resolve balanced head-to-head battles. 18. List targets of attack. 19. Fight ordinary battles. 20. Return to Step 18 if any attacks remain unresolved.

The procedure, in detail:

Steps 1 through 13 address two matters: convoys and the cutting of support. See Chapter XII for background on convoys, Chapter IX for background on support, and your rulebook for background on both.

The topic of Diplomacy convoys, considered in all its facets, is undeniably a complex one. And a confusing. Prior to 1982, Diplomacy rulebooks had included a basically correct but sometimes ambiguous convoy rule. Since 1982, Diplomacy rulebooks have included a basically unambiguous but sometimes incorrect convoy rule. Here you will find the correct, unambiguous rule: Steps 1 through 13 correctly adjudicate even the toughest convoy knot.

1. Cancel inconsistent convoys.

Neither an army nor a fleet alone can complete a convoy. Naturally not. A convoy needs both an army and a fleet. Always one army. At least one fleet. The army and the fleets must cooperate; that is, the army and the fleets must have orders, respectively, to move by convoy and to convoy, and must agree as to which army is to be convoyed to which target province.

The cooperating fleet or fleets must lay at least one unbroken route from the army to its target, a route that does not pass through the same body of water twice. Where the cooperating fleet or fleets lay no such route, or where there are no cooperating fleets, cancel the entire convoy: cancel both the army's move order and the fleets' convoy orders. Cancel a fleet's convoy order where the army to be convoyed refuses to cooperate.

Where more fleets than necessary cooperate in a convoy, the convoyed army may find two or more alternate convoy routes available to it. This is acceptable, but an army prefers, if possible, to be convoyed by its own countrymen only - that is, only by fleets belonging to the same Great Power the army belongs to. (This does not mean that an army prefers to be convoyed by fewer foreigners rather than more -- only that it prefers to be convoyed by zero foreigners, if possible; if impossible, then the army sees two foreigners as no worse than one.) For this reason, if there are sufficient cooperating countryman-fleets to complete the convoy without foreign fleets' help, then exclude all foreign fleets from the convoy, cancelling the foreigners' convoy orders.

(Multiple convoy routes, incidentally, are no insurance for a convoy but rather are a danger to it. The reason is that, if any of the routes is disrupted, then the the entire convoy is disrupted and the convoyed army may not move. See Step 7.)

After refusing foreign cooperation if possible, an army may find that it has an extra cooperating fleet it could not use even if it wanted to. This is a fleet that is not part of any remaining route the army could follow to its target. The fleet's convoy order is superfluous; cancel it.

This Step 1 cares only that orders to convoy and to move by convoy are properly consistent, that convoys trace correct routes, and that foreign cooperation is declined where possible. It does not care whether a convoying fleet is under attack, nor whether some unit contests the convoy's target province. It also does not care about support of any kind.

An army with a cancelled move order holds normally, except that it can receive no support to hold. A fleet with a cancelled convoy order holds entirely normally; it cannot convoy anything, of course, but may still receive support to hold from another unit.

An annotated example:

• RUSSIA
  • Army Rumania to Ankara.
  • Fleet Black Sea convoys A. Rumania to Ank..
  • F. Both. convoys German A. Livonia to Swe.. [cancelled]

• TURKEY
  • Fleet Armenia to the Black Sea.
  • Fleet Const. supports F. Armenia to Black.
  • Army Albania to Smyrna.
  • Fleet Aegean convoys A. Albania to Smyrna.

• AUSTRIA
  • F. E.Med. convoys Turk. A. Alb. to Smyrna.

• ITALY
  • F. Ionian convoys Turk. A. Alb. to Smyrna.
  • Army Naples to Spain. cancelled
  • Fleet Tyrrhenian convoys A. Nap. to Spain. cancelled

FRANCE

• • Fleet Gulf of Lyon holds.

• GERMANY
  • Army Livonia to Sweden.
  • Fleet Baltic convoys A. Livonia to Sweden.

• ENGLAND
  • Army Sweden holds.
  • Army London to Belgium.
  • Fleet North Sea convoys A. London to Belg..
  • Fleet Engl. Ch. convoys A. London to Belg..
  • Fleet N.Atl. convoys A. London to Clyde. cancelled
  • Fleet Nwg. Sea convoys A. London to Belg.. cancelledFleet Irish Sea convoys **A. London to Belg.. cancelled

The Russian Army Rumania and Fleet Black Sea form a convoy to Ankara. The Turkish attack eventually will disrupt the convoy, of course, in Step 6 below, but this Step 1 doesn't mind the Turkish attack.

Because the French Fleet Gulf of Lyon declines to cooperate, there is no Italian convoy. (This does not mean, incidentally, that the Italian orders are illegal. Viewed individually, they are possible and therefore legal. They would be illegal if there were no French fleet, though. See Chapter XII.)

The German Army Livonia and Fleet Baltic Sea form a convoy to Sweden. The English defense in Sweden eventually will stand the convoyed attack off, of course, in Step 19 below, but this Step 1 doesn't mind the English defense. The convoy excludes the Russian Fleet Gulf of Bothnia because the German army has an all-German convoy route available to it. If there were no German fleet, of course, then the convoy would include the Russian fleet, instead. If both fleets were Russian or both were German, then the convoy would include both fleets.

The Turkish Army Albania, the Italian Fleet Ionian Sea, the Austrian Fleet Eastern Mediterranean and the Turkish Fleet Aegean Sea together form a convoy to Smyrna. This convoy features four distinct convoy routes, none of which is all-Turkish: Ionian-Aegean, Ionian-Eastern-Med, Ionian-Aegean-Eastern-Med and Ionian-Eastern-Med-Aegean. Were the Fleet Ionian Sea Turkish rather than Italian, the Ionian-Aegean route would be all-Turkish, so the convoy would exclude the Austrian fleet.

The English Army London, Fleet North Sea and Fleet English Channel together form a convoy to Belgium. This convoy features four distinct convoy routes: North Sea, English Channel, North-Sea-English-Channel and English-Channel-North-Sea. If the English Fleet North Atlantic would cooperate, the convoy also would include the three English Fleets North Atlantic, Norwegian Sea and Irish Sea, and would feature two additional convoy routes, one looping each direction about the Isle of Britain, giving the complete convoy a total of six routes and five fleets. Since the Fleet North Atlantic will not cooperate, however, the convoy excludes the three extra fleets.

2. List the convoys and their fleets.

Make a list of all convoys not cancelled by Step 1. Name each convoy after the space the convoyed army starts from. List with each convoy the convoying fleets.

The convoy list for Step 1's example:

• GM'S CONVOY LIST
  • Rumania: Black Sea.
  • Albania: Ionian Sea; Aegean Sea; Eastern Mediterranean.
  • Livonia: Baltic Sea.
  • London: North Sea; English Channel.

The order in which the convoys are listed does not matter. The order in which each convoy's fleets are listed also does not matter. Notice that the Albania and London convoys each include more fleets than really are needed to complete the convoy, but that the Livonia convoy includes no extra fleet.

A convoy list's purpose is to keep track of the various convoys on the board through the complex steps that follow. If a convoy is cancelled (see Step 7), the GM simply strikes the entire convoy from the list.

3. Cancel inconsistent supports.

Cancel supports to hold where the unit supported attempts to move. Cancel supports to move where the unit supported fails to attempt to move, or where it does indeed attempt to move, but to a space different than the space the support is given to.

A unit ordered to move cannot receive support to hold under any circumstance, not even if the move order has been cancelled or is illegal. Accordingly, if any such support to hold is offered, cancel it now.

A cancelled supporter holds normally. It no longer gives any support, of course, but may still receive support to hold from another unit. The cancelled supporter counts strictly as a holding unit, never again as a supporting unit, from now all the way till procedure's end. (This same principle, incidentally, applies whenever any step of the procedure cuts or cancels an order. From the time an order is cut or cancelled until procedure's end, the unit with the cut or cancelled order counts strictly as a holding unit.)

An annotated example:

       FRANCE
       Army Burgundy to Munich.
       Army Paris supports A. Burgundy to hold.     [cancelled]

       GERMANY
       Army Holland to Switzerland.                 [illegal]

       ENGLAND
       F. North Sea supp. German A. Hol. to hold.   [cancelled]

       AUSTRIA
       Fleet Trieste holds.
       Army Serbia supports F. Trieste to Albania.  [cancelled]

       RUSSIA
       Army Sevastopol holds.
       Army Moscow supports A. Sevastopol to hold.
       Army Prussia to Silesia.
       Army Warsaw supports A. Prussia to Silesia.
       Army Ukraine supports A. Warsaw to hold.

4. Let direct attacks cut support.

With only two exceptions (we'll discuss these in a moment), let any direct, non-convoyed attack against any supporter cut the supporter's support. A cut support is a cancelled support; it has no further effect once it has been cut.

The two exceptions --

A. No support-cutter can cut a countryman's support. For example, there's no support-cut here:

       GERMANY
       Army Munich holds.

       AUSTRIA
       Army Silesia to Munich.
       Army Tyrolia supports Army Silesia to Munich.
       Army Trieste to Tyrolia.

B. The target of an attack cannot cut support for that attack. That is, if

       X to Z
       Y supports X to Z
       Z to Y

then the support is not cut. (Some other attacker, some Unit W, may cut the support, but Unit Z can't cut it, at least not here in Step 4.) For example, there's no support cut here:

       AUSTRIA
       Army Silesia to Munich.
       Army Tyrolia supports Army Silesia to Munich.

       GERMANY
       Army Munich to Tyrolia.

If, however, a Unit W were added to the example -- Italian Army Venice to Tyrolia -- then the support would indeed be cut.

(Actually, we'll see later that, even if there is no Unit W, Unit Z may still be able to cut the support -- by dislodging the supporter -- but that happens in a later step, not yet.)

This Step 4 lets only direct, non-convoyed attacks cut support. Convoyed attacks cut support in Step 8.

                                *  *  *

Step 5 below introduces the difficult concept of convoy subversion. Steps 5 and 10 explain the concept in complete technical detail, yet the reader may find it helpful, before he dives into the detail, to view an overall picture.

An example or two will serve to paint the picture. These examples make no attempt fully to explain convoy subversion; they mean only to motivate the topic (for the full explanation, see Steps 5 and 10 below).

The first example:

       TURKEY
       Army Greece to Apulia.
       Fleet Ionian Sea convoys Army Greece to Apulia.
       Fleet Tunis supports Fleet Ionian Sea to hold.

       ITALY
       Fleet Naples to the Ionian Sea.
       Fleet Tyrrhenian Sea supports Fleet Naples to the Ionian Sea.

       FRANCE
       Army Spain to Tunis.
       Fleet Western Mediterranean convoys Army Spain to Tunis.

To adjudicate the Turkish convoy correctly, we must first consider the French convoy's action. If we let the Turkish convoy go first, we would get a false result on the board. This is where the concept of convoy subversion comes in. The French convoy subverts the Turkish convoy. The Turkish convoy, being subverted, waits patiently and does nothing until after the subverting French convoy has acted. (Caution: recent rulebooks, at the time of this writing, handle this example incorrectly; if your rulebook is a recent one, dated 1982 or later, then let it not confuse you.)

The second example:

       ENGLAND
       Army London to Belgium.
       Fleet North Sea convoys Army London to Belgium.

       FRANCE
       Fleet English Channel to the North Sea.
       Fleet Belgium supports Fleet English Channel to the North Sea.

       GERMANY
       Fleet Denmark to the North Sea.
       Fleet Holland supports Fleet Denmark to the North Sea.

The English convoy subverts itself, making it impossible for us to decide by any normal means whether the convoy goes through.

Steps 5 through 13 below correctly resolve all possible convoy scenarios, including the two above. To do so in an orderly manner, they employ the concept of convoy subversion. Step 5 explains the technical basics of convoy subversion. Step 10 magnifies certain technical specifics.

                                *  *  *

5. Identify convoy subversion.

Note which convoys on the convoy list presently subvert which.

Subversion is an indirect effect that one convoy has on another. One convoy subverts another, not by attacking directly, but rather by attacking a certain vulnerable supporter, threatening to cut the support.

Two kinds of supporter make a convoy vulnerable to subversion:

(i) A supporter that supports one of the convoy's convoying fleets to hold makes the convoy vulnerable to subversion. That is, Convoy X is vulnerable at P when

       X to Z
       Y convoys X to Z
       P supports Y to hold

(ii) A supporter that supports an attack against one of the convoy's convoying fleets makes the convoy vulnerable to subversion. That is, Convoy X is vulnerable at Q when

       X to Z
       Y convoys X to Z
       W to Y
       Q supports W to Y

With only three exceptions (we'll discuss these in a moment), a convoyed attack against either kind of vulnerable supporter -- against a P or a Q -- subverts the target convoy. (Notice that only a convoyed attack can subvert a convoy; direct attacks do not subvert.)

The three exceptions --

A. If the vulnerable supporter is a countryman of the convoyed attacker that threatens it, then (because there is no real threat) there is no subversion. For example, because Fleet London and Army Picardy are countrymen, there is no subversion here:

       GERMANY
       Army Holland to Norway.
       Fleet North Sea convoys Army Holland to Norway.

       ENGLAND
       Fleet London supports German Fleet North Sea to hold.
       Army Picardy to London.

       FRANCE
       Fleet English Channel convoys English Army Picardy to London.

B. (This exception is relevant only if the GM already has done Step 10.) The attacking convoy cannot be Futile. If it is, then there is no subversion.

C. (This exception also is relevant only if the GM already has done Step 10.) The target convoy can neither be Futile nor Indomitable. If it is, then there is no subversion.

There can be no subversion, of course, unless both the attacking convoy and the target convoy are still on the convoy list (see Steps 2 and 7). Even if both convoys are still on the list, if the vulnerable support through which the subversion is done has already been cancelled or cut, then, naturally, because no attack against the supporter can further influence the target convoy, there is no subversion.

A convoy may indeed subvert itself.

An annotated example:

       TURKEY
       Army Greece to Tunis.
       Fleet Ionian Sea convoys Army Greece to Tunis.
       Army North Africa supports Army Greece to Tunis.
       Fleet Constantinople to the Black Sea.
       Fleet Ankara supports Fleet Constantinople to the Black Sea.
       Army Smyrna supports Fleet Ankara to hold.

       RUSSIA
       Army Rumania to Ankara.
       Fleet Black Sea convoys Army Rumania to Ankara.
       Fleet Brest supports French Fleet Mid-Atlantic to hold.

       GERMANY
       Fleet Denmark to the North Sea.
       Fleet Norway supports Fleet Denmark to the North Sea.

       ENGLAND
       Army Edinburgh to Norway.
       Fleet Norwegian Sea convoys Army Edinburgh to Norway.
       Fleet Clyde supports Fleet Norwegian Sea to hold.
       Fleet Irish Sea to the North Atlantic.

       FRANCE
       Army Gascony to Clyde.
       Fleet Mid-Atlantic convoys Army Gascony to Clyde.
       Fleet North Atlantic convoys Army Gascony to Clyde.
       Army Holland to Brest.
       Fleet North Sea convoys Army Holland to Brest.
       Fleet English Channel convoys Army Holland to Brest.
       Fleet Spain (south coast) supports Fleet Mid-Atlantic to hold.

       ITALY
       Army Piedmont to Spain.
       Fleet Gulf of Lyon convoys Army Piedmont to Spain.
       Fleet Tuscany supports Fleet Gulf of Lyon to hold.
       Fleet Naples to the Ionian Sea.

       AUSTRIA
       Army Tunis to Tuscany.
       Fleet Tyrrhenian Sea convoys Army Tunis to Tuscany.
       Army Bulgaria to Smyrna.
       Fleet Aegean Sea convoys Army Bulgaria to Smyrna.
       Fleet Eastern Mediterranean convoys Army Bulgaria to Smyrna.
       Fleet Albania to the Ionian Sea.
       Fleet Adriatic supports Fleet Albania to the Ionian Sea.

       GM'S CONVOY LIST
       Rumania:    Black Sea.        [subverts itself]   [subverted]
       Bulgaria:   Aegean; E.Med.
       Greece:     Ionian Sea.
       Tunis:      Tyrrhenian Sea.   [subverts Pied.]
       Piedmont:   Gulf of Lyon.     [subverts Gascony]  [subverted]
       Gascony:    N.Atl.; M.Atl..   [subverts Edin.]    [subvtd. twice]
       Edinburgh:  Norwegian Sea.    [subverts Holland]  [subverted]
       Holland:    Nth.S.; Eng.Ch..  [subverts Gascony]  [subverted]

Notice that Edinburgh, Holland and Gascony form a closed circle of subversion. Notice also that, were Fleet Brest French rather than Russian, Holland could not subvert Gascony.

On the other side of the board, notice that the Bulgaria convoy has an extra, unneeded cooperating fleet in the Eastern Med. Were this extra fleet dislodged, the entire Bulgaria convoy would be disrupted (see Steps 1 and 7).

Steps 6, 7, 8 and 9 extend this example.

6. Disrupt convoys.

Excepting fleets in subverted convoys, resolve the set of attacks against each fleet presently on the convoy list, according to the standard instructions for resolving attacks, given in Step 19 below.

This Step 6 resolves attacks only against convoying fleets that belong to unsubverted convoys, not against any other units, nor against empty spaces. Any fleets not presently on the convoy list are not convoying fleets; this Step 6 does not resolve attacks against them.

Working further on Step 5's example, this Step 6 finds four convoying fleets under attack: the Turkish Fleet Ionian Sea, the Russian Fleet Black Sea and the French Fleets North Atlantic and North Sea. The latter three fleets, however, all belong to subverted convoys, so we resolve only the attack against the Turkish fleet. There, the Austrian attack overcomes the rival Italian attack two to one, then defeats the Turkish defense two to one to advance into the Ionian Sea, dislodging the Turkish defender. (It is instructive to note, incidentally, that, had Italy had an extra fleet in the Eastern Mediterranean to support the Italian attack, then the Italian attack would have stood the Austrian attack off two to two, and the Turkish convoy would have survived unharmed, never actually having had to defend.)

7. Cancel disrupted convoys' convoyed moves.

If Step 6 above has dislodged any convoying fleet, then the fleet's entire convoy is disrupted: cancel the army-move the fleet was supposed to convoy and strike the entire convoy from the convoy list. The disrupted convoy is indeed no longer a convoy.

Alternate convoy routes cannot act as insurance. Generally speaking, where an army has two convoy routes available to it, the disruption of either route disrupts the entire convoy -- so, unless a player actually wants to increase the danger to his own convoy, he will normally provide only one route. Can an opponent slyly join a convoy, providing an unwanted alternate route? Under most circumstances, no. See Step 1 for a detailed explanation.

Working further on Step 5's example, this Step 7 finds that the convoying Turkish Fleet Ionian Sea has been dislodged. Accordingly, this Step 7 cancels the Turkish Army Greece's move order and strikes the entire Greece convoy from the convoy list.

8. Let convoyed attacks cut support.

With only three exceptions (we'll discuss these in a moment), let any convoyed attack against any supporter cut the supporter's support. A cut support is a cancelled support; it has no further effect once it has been cut.

The three exceptions --

A. No support-cutter can cut a countryman's support.

B. No subverted support-cutter can cut a support at the present time. That is, if the convoy carrying the support-cutter is presently subverted, then, for now, there is no support-cut.

C. (This exception is relevant only if the GM already has done Step 10.) No Futile support-cutter can ever cut a support. That is, if the convoy carrying the support-cutter is Futile, then there is no support-cut.

Notice that the first exception is the same as in Step 4 but that the other exceptions are not. Specifically, notice that Step 4's second exception does not apply here.

A convoy no longer on the convoy list, of course, is no longer a convoy and therefore cannot cut any support (see Steps 2 and 7).

Working further on Step 5's example, this Step 8 lets the Austrian Army Bulgaria cut the Turkish Army Smyrna's support and lets the Austrian Army Tunis cut the Italian Fleet Tuscany's support. It does not let any other convoyed attack cut support, however, because all the other convoyed attacks that could cut support presently remain subverted.

9. If useful, return to Step 5.

If Steps 6, 7 and 8 have disrupted any convoy or cut any support, then return to the top of Step 5 now, to repeat Steps 5 through 8. Perform the 5-6-7-8-9 loop as many times as needed, until the loop can do nothing further.

Working further on Step 5's example --

We observe that Steps 6, 7 and 8 have indeed acted, so we loop back to the top of Step 5.

Step 5 finds that, because Fleet Tuscany no longer is a vulnerable supporter, Tunis no longer subverts the Piedmont. Steps 6 and 7 find three convoying fleets still under attack, but all three still belong to subverted convoys, so Steps 6 and 7 can do nothing with them. Step 8 lets the Italian Army Piedmont cut the French Fleet Spain (south coast)'s support. Arriving back here at Step 9, we observe that Step 8 has again indeed acted, so we loop back again to the top of Step 5.

Step 5 finds that, because the French Fleet Spain (south coast) no longer is a vulnerable supporter, the Piedmont no longer subverts Gascony. But Holland still subverts Gascony, so Steps 6 and 7 still can do nothing. Step 8 also can do nothing. Arriving back here at Step 9, we observe that the 5-6-7-8-9 loop has now evidently done all it can do, so we leave the loop and proceed to the top of Step 10.

If any convoy subversion remains on the board after the 5-6-7-8-9 loop above has done all it can do, then it will have to be either of a convoy subverting itself (Convoy X subverts Convoy X) or of some larger closed circle of subversion (Convoy X subverts Convoy Y subverts Convoy X, or Convoy X subverts convoy Y subverts Convoy Z subverts Convoy X, or some even larger circle). There may be more than one independent circle, of course, but Steps 5 through 9 will have eliminated any non-circular subversion.

An important feature of the circular geometry is that every convoy that remains subverted will itself subvert exactly one other convoy. Or perhaps subvert itself, instead. A related feature is that any subverted convoy will be subverted once only; multiple subversion can no longer be. Steps 10 through 13 depend on these features.

10. Break circles of subversion.

For each convoy that remains subverted, identify the one vulnerable supporter through which the subversion is done, then ask the following two questions:

A. If the one support survived intact, would the convoy then be disrupted?

B. Were the one support cut, would the convoy then be disrupted?

(A convoy is disrupted when one or more of its convoying fleets is dislodged. Refer to Steps 6 and 7 above and Step 19 below.)

The convoy remains subverted only if the answers are no and yes or yes and no.

(i) If the answers are yes and yes -- that is, if nothing can save the convoy -- then the convoy is Futile. Futility has two consequences: the Futile convoy can no longer cut any support or threaten to cut any support, so can no longer subvert any other convoy, nor even subvert itself; and the Futile convoy ceases to be subverted and, indeed, becomes immune to any further subversion.

(ii) If the answers are no and no -- that is, if the convoy is in no danger -- then the convoy is Indomitable. Indomitability has one consequence: the Indomitable convoy ceases to be subverted and, indeed, becomes immune to further subversion. (If an Indomitable convoy has been subverting itself, then the subversion ceases. Nothing especially prevents an Indomitable convoy, though, from continuing to subvert another convoy.)

(iii) If the answers are no and yes -- that is, if only the saving of the support can save the convoy -- then the convoy is Confused. Confusion has no direct consequence, but may play a role in Steps 12 and 13 below. Unlike Futility and Indomitability, Confusion does not save a convoy from subversion.

(iv) If the answers are yes and no -- that is, if only the cutting of the support can save the convoy -- then no special adjective applies to the convoy. This case also does not save the convoy from subversion.

A Futile or Indomitable convoy, being unsubvertible, gives Step 11 below a chink, so to speak, to dig into a circle of subversion and to pry one convoy out at a time, eventually resolving the entire circle. All Step 11 needs is one Futile or Indomitable convoy to break the circle open and clean it up. If this Step 10 cannot find any such Futile or Indomitable chink in the circle, though, then Step 11 will not be able to touch the circle, but will have to leave it for Steps 12 and 13 to resolve by indirect means.

An annotated example:

       TURKEY
       Fleet Constantinople to the Black Sea.
       Fleet Ankara supports Fleet Constantinople to the Black Sea.
       Fleet Armenia supports Fleet Constantinople to the Black Sea.

       RUSSIA
       Army Rumania to Ankara.
       Fleet Black Sea convoys Army Rumania to Ankara.

       AUSTRIA
       Fleet Albania to the Adriatic Sea.
       Fleet Trieste supports Fleet Albania to the Adriatic Sea.

       ITALY
       Army Apulia to Trieste.
       Fleet Adriatic convoys Army Apulia to Trieste.
       Fleet Venice supports Fleet Adriatic to hold.

       ENGLAND
       Fleet Irish Sea to the English Channel.
       Fleet Yorkshire to the North Sea.
       Fleet Edinburgh supports Fleet Yorkshire to the North Sea.
       Fleet London supports Fleet Yorkshire to the North Sea.

       FRANCE
       Army Picardy to London.
       Fleet English Channel convoys Army Picardy to London.
       Fleet Belgium supports Fleet English Channel to hold.

       GERMANY
       Army Norway to Belgium.
       Fleet North Sea convoys Army Norway to Belgium.

       GM'S CONVOY LIST
       Rumania:    Black Sea.        [had subvtd. self]  [Futile]
       Apulia:     Adriatic Sea.     [had subvtd. self]  [Indomitable]
       Picardy:    English Channel.  [had subvtd. Nwy.]  [Indomitable]
       Norway:     North Sea.        [had subvtd. Pic.]  [Futile]

All four convoys escape subversion, two by being Futile and two by being Indomitable. The Rumania convoy is Futile because, even if it could cut the one Turkish support, the Turkish attack would still disrupt the convoy. The Apulia convoy is Indomitable because it would survive even if Fleet Trieste's support remained in force. The Picardy convoy is Indomitable because it would survive even if the Norway convoy cut its Belgian support. The Norway convoy is Futile because the English attack would still disrupt it even if the Picardy convoy cut the one English support.

A second annotated example:

       TURKEY
       Fleet Constantinople to the Black Sea.
       Fleet Ankara supports Fleet Constantinople to the Black Sea.
       Fleet Bulgaria (east coast) to the Black Sea.
       Fleet Armenia supports Fleet Bulgaria (e.c.) to the Black Sea.

       RUSSIA
       Army Rumania to Ankara.
       Fleet Black Sea convoys Army Rumania to Ankara.

       AUSTRIA
       Fleet Albania to the Adriatic Sea.
       Fleet Trieste supports Fleet Albania to the Adriatic Sea.

       ITALY
       Army Apulia to Trieste.
       Fleet Adriatic convoys Army Apulia to Trieste.

       ENGLAND
       Fleet Irish Sea to the English Channel.
       Fleet Wales supports Fleet Irish Sea to the English Channel.
       Fleet Yorkshire to the North Sea.
       Fleet London supports Fleet Yorkshire to the North Sea.

       FRANCE
       Army Picardy to London.
       Fleet English Channel convoys Army Picardy to London.
       Fleet Belgium supports Fleet English Channel to hold.

       GERMANY
       Army Norway to Belgium.
       Fleet North Sea convoys Army Norway to Belgium.

       GM'S CONVOY LIST
       Rumania:    Black Sea.        [subverts itself]   [Confused]
       Apulia:     Adriatic Sea.     [subverts itself]   [merely subvtd.]
       Picardy:    English Channel.  [subverts Norway]   [Confused]
       Norway:     North Sea.        [subverts Picardy]  [merely subvtd.]

None of the four convoys escapes subversion. Two of the four are Confused. The Rumania convoy is Confused because it survives only if it fails to cut Fleet Ankara's support. The Picardy convoy is Confused because it survives only if the Norway convoy fails to cut Fleet Belgium's support. Such convoy knots cannot be solved directly; Steps 12 and 13 solve them indirectly.

Steps 12 and 13 extend this second example.

11. Repeat Steps 5 through 9.

If Step 10 has found at least one Futile or Indomitable convoy, then return to Step 5 now, to perform the 5-6-7-8-9 loop as many times as needed, until that loop can have no further effect. When the loop can have no further effect, continue with Step 12 rather than Step 10.

This Step 11 cleans up any circles of subversion that Step 10, by finding Futile and Indomitable convoys, has been able to break. If any circles remain after Step 11, they will be unbreakable circles. Steps 12 and 13 below indirectly resolve such unbreakable circles.

An annotated example:

       TURKEY
       Fleet Constantinople to the Black Sea.
       Fleet Ankara supports Fleet Constantinople to the Black Sea.
       Fleet Bulgaria (east coast) to the Black Sea.
       Fleet Armenia supports Fleet Bulgaria (e.c.) to the Black Sea.
       Fleet Naples to the Tyrrhenian Sea.
       Fleet Ionian Sea supports Fleet Naples to the Tyrrhenian Sea. 

       RUSSIA
       Army Rumania to Ankara.
       Fleet Black Sea convoys Army Rumania to Ankara.
       Fleet Livonia supports German Fleet Baltic Sea to hold.

       AUSTRIA
       Fleet Albania to the Adriatic Sea.
       Fleet Trieste supports Fleet Albania to the Adriatic Sea.

       ITALY
       Army Apulia to Trieste.
       Fleet Adriatic Sea convoys Army Apulia to Trieste.
       Army Rome to Tunis.
       Fleet Tyrrhenian Sea convoys Army Rome to Tunis.
       Fleet Tuscany supports Fleet Tyrrhenian Sea to hold.

       ENGLAND
       Fleet Yorkshire to the North Sea.
       Fleet London supports Fleet Yorkshire to the North Sea.
       Fleet Irish Sea to the English Channel.
       Army North Africa to Tuscany.
       Fleet Western Mediterranean convoys Army North Africa to Tuscany.
       Fleet Gulf of Lyon convoys Army North Africa to Tuscany.
       Fleet Tunis supports Fleet Western Mediterranean to hold.

       FRANCE
       Army Picardy to London.
       Fleet English Channel convoys Army Picardy to London.
       Fleet Belgium supports Fleet English Channel to hold.
       Fleet Marseilles to the Gulf of Lyon.
       Fleet Spain (south coast) supports Fleet Marseilles to Lyon.

       GERMANY
       Army Norway to Belgium.
       Fleet North Sea convoys Army Norway to Belgium.
       Army Sweden to Livonia.
       Fleet Baltic Sea convoys Army Sweden to Livonia.

       GM'S CONVOY LIST
       Rumania:    Black Sea.        [subverts itself]   [Confused]
       Apulia:     Adriatic Sea.     [subverts itself]   [merely subvtd.]
       Rome:       Tyrrhenian Sea.   [had subvtd. NAf.]
       N.Afr.:     W.Med.; Lyon.     [had subvtd. Rome]  [Futile]
       Picardy:    English Channel.  [subverts Norway]   [Indomitable]
       Norway:     North Sea.        [had subvtd. Pic.]  [merely subvtd.]
       Sweden:     Baltic Sea.       [had subvtd. self]  [Indomitable]

Step 10 finds five circles of subversion: Rumania; Apulia; Rome-North-Africa; Picardy-Norway; Sweden. It cannot find any chinks in the Rumania and Apulia circles, but it can and does find Futile or Indomitable convoys in each of the Rome-North-Africa, Picardy-Norway and Sweden circles. We will not expect this Step 11 to do anything with the former two circles, but we will expect it fully to resolve the latter three. Step 11 notes that Step 10 has indeed broken some circles, so it sends us up to the top of Step 5 to begin cleaning the broken circles up.

Step 5 finds Rumania, Apulia and Norway to remain subverted. North Africa, Picardy and Sweden escape subversion because Futile and Indomitable convoys cannot be subverted. Rome escapes subversion only because North Africa, being Futile, cannot subvert it. (Were there no French Fleet Spain, then North Africa, being Indomitable, could indeed subvert Rome. Rome would then be Confused.) Steps 6 and 7 disrupt North Africa, striking North Africa from the convoy list. Steps 6 and 7 try to disrupt Picardy and Rome, too, but fail. Since Picardy, Rome and Sweden are neither subverted nor Futile, Step 8 lets Army Picardy cut Fleet London's support, lets Army Rome cut Fleet Tunis' support and lets Army Sweden cut Fleet Livonia's support. Step 9 loops back to the top of Step 5.

Step 5 finds only Rumania and Apulia to remain subverted. Norway escapes subversion because its formerly vulnerable support in London has now been cut. Steps 6 and 7 try and fail to disrupt Norway. Since Norway is neither subverted nor Futile, Step 8 lets Army Norway cut Fleet Belgium's support. Step 9 loops back to the top of Step 5.

Step 5 finds only Rumania and Apulia to remain subverted. Steps 6, 7 and 8 can do nothing. Step 9 observes that the 5-6-7-8-9 loop has now evidently done all it can do, so it breaks out of the loop and proceeds directly to the top of Step 12.

Notice how this Step 11 has exploited the chinks in the Picardy-Norway and Rome-North-Africa circles to break them open and resolve them.

A second annotated example:

       FRANCE
       Army Wales to Brest.
       Fleet English Channel convoys Army Wales to Brest.
       Fleet Belgium supports Fleet English Channel to hold.
       Army Gascony to Edinburgh.
       Fleet Mid-Atlantic convoys Army Gascony to Edinburgh.
       Fleet North Atlantic convoys Army Gascony to Edinburgh.
       Fleet Norwegian Sea convoys Army Gascony to Edinburgh.

       GERMANY
       Army Norway to Belgium.
       Fleet North Sea convoys Army Norway to Belgium.

       ENGLAND
       Fleet Yorkshire to the North Sea.
       Fleet Edinburgh supports Fleet Yorkshire to the North Sea.
       Fleet Picardy to the English Channel.
       Fleet Irish Sea to the Mid-Atlantic.
       Fleet Brest supports Fleet Irish Sea to the Mid-Atlantic.

       ITALY
       Fleet North Africa to the Mid-Atlantic. 
       Fleet Western Med. supports Fleet N. Africa to the Mid-Atlantic.

       GM'S CONVOY LIST
       Wales:      English Channel.  [subverts Gascony]  [Indomitable]
       Gascony:    MAt; NAt; Nwg.    [subverts Norway]   [Confused]
       Norway:     North Sea.        [had subvtd. Wal.]  [merely subvtd.]

Step 10 finds the one large Wales-Gascony-Norway circle of subversion. It finds a chink in the circle at Wales, finding that convoy Indomitable. We will therefore expect this Step 11 fully to resolve the circle. Step 11 notes that Step 10 has indeed broken a circle, so it sends us up to top of Step 5 to begin cleaning the broken circle up.

Step 5 finds Gascony and Norway to remain subverted. Wales escapes subversion because Indomitable convoys cannot be subverted. Steps 6 and 7 let the English Fleet Picardy try and fail to disrupt the Wales convoy, but, because Gascony and Norway remain subverted, Steps 6 and 7 cannot yet resolve the attacks against the Mid-Atlantic and the North Sea. Since Wales is neither subverted nor Futile, Step 8 lets the French Army Wales cut the English support at Brest. Step 9 loops back to the top of Step 5.

Step 5 finds only Norway to remain subverted. Gascony escapes subversion because its formerly vulnerable support at Brest has now been cut. Steps 6 and 7 let the Italian attack disrupt the now-unsubverted Gascony convoy. Since the Gascony convoy has now been disrupted, Step 8 cannot let Army Gascony cut any support. Step 9 loops back to the top of Step 5.

Step 5 finds no convoy to remain subverted. Norway escapes subversion because its formerly vulnerable support at Edinburgh is now no longer under convoyed attack. Steps 6 and 7 let the English Fleet Yorkshire disrupt the now-unsubverted Norway convoy. Step 8 therefore refuses to let Army Norway cut Fleet Belgium's support. Step 9 loops back to the top of Step 5.

Step 5 finds no convoy to remain subverted. Steps 6 and 7 can no longer find any unsubverted convoy to disrupt. Step 8 can do nothing. Step 9 observes that the 5-6-7-8-9 loop has now evidently done all it can do, so it breaks out of the loop and proceeds directly to the top of Step 12.

Notice how this Step 11 has exploited the chink in the Wales-Gascony-Norway circle to break it open and to pry one convoy at a time off the broken end, thus to clean the entire circle up. Notice also how the procedure could not tell the fate of the Belgian support until the procedure had travelled all the way around the circle, so to speak -- but how this was okay because, as it happened, the Belgian support didn't matter, anyway. Had the support mattered, there would have been no chink; Step 11 would not have been able to touch the circle, which would have had to wait for Step 13 indirectly to resolve it.

Step 13 extends this second example.

12. Resolve unconfused circles of subversion.

If all a circle's convoys remain subverted, but none of the circle's convoys is Confused (see Step 10), then this Step 12 resolves the impasse by letting all the circle's convoys be disrupted. Cancel the convoyed move of every convoy in the circle. Then, among the fleets of the circle's convoys, identify all the convoying fleets that are under attack. Resolve the set of attacks against each of the convoying fleets, according to the standard instructions for resolving attacks, given in Step 19 below. Then strike all the circle's convoys from the convoy list.

Working on Step 10's (not Step 11's) second example, this Step 12 finds three unbreakable circles of subversion: Rumania; Apulia; Picardy-Norway. The Rumania and Picardy-Norway circles both contain Confused convoys, so this Step 12 addresses only the Apulia circle. It cancels the Italian Army Apulia's move, lets the Austrian Fleet Albania dislodge the Italian Fleet Adriatic, and strikes the Apulia convoy from the convoy list.

13. Resolve confused circles of subversion.

If all a circle's convoys remain subverted, and one or more of the circle's convoys is Confused (see Steps 10 and 12), then this Step 13 resolves the impasse as a grand standoff. Cancel the convoyed move of every convoy in the circle. Cancel also all attacks against the circle's convoying fleets. Then strike all the circle's convoys from the convoy list.

Working further on Step 10's second example, this Step 13 finds two remaining circles of subversion: Rumania; Picardy-Norway. It cancels the moves of the Russian Army Rumania, the French Army Picardy and the German Army Norway, then cancels the attacks by the Turkish Fleets Constantinople and Bulgaria (east coast) and the English Fleets Irish Sea and Yorkshire, then strikes all three convoys from the convoy list. The Ankara, London and Belgium supports survive uncut. It's a grand stand-off: the convoying fleets survive undislodged but the vulnerable supports are not cut and the convoys do not go through.

Shifting our attention to Step 11's second example and adding the following fleet to that example yields the convoy list below:

       ENGLAND
       Fleet London supports Fleet Picardy to the English Channel.

       GM'S CONVOY LIST
       Wales:      English Channel.  [subverts Gascony]  [Confused]
       Gascony:    MAt; NAt; Nwg.    [subverts Norway]   [Confused]
       Norway:     North Sea.        [subverts Wales]    [merely subvtd.]

This Step 13 finds the one large Wales-Gascony-Norway circle of subversion. As the reader may verify, Step 11 above is unable to crack this circle. Step 12 cannot resolve it because it includes Confused convoys. This Step 13 therefore cancels the moves of all three convoyed armies, but also cancels the attacks by the Italian Fleet North Africa and the English Fleets Irish Sea, Yorkshire and Picardy. It then strikes all three convoys from the convoy list. The Brest, Edinburgh and Belgium supports survive uncut.

Steps 4 and 8 are the only chances to cut support simply by attacking the supporter. Thus, any supports that remain intact at this point in the procedure are safe from being cut, unless and until the supporter actually gets dislodged (which could happen in Step 19 below).

Steps 1 through 13, in addition to being concerned with the cutting of supports, have largely been concerned with the proper handling of convoy situations. In the steps below, the convoying fleets themselves don't really matter any longer; the convoys have gone through, so to speak, and, if any convoying fleet were going to be dislodged or any convoy were going to be cancelled, it would have been, already, in Steps 6 and 7 (or possibly 12 and 13) above. Note that this does not mean that the convoyed attacks necessarily will succeed; they can still be stood off, just as any attack can be. If stood off, a convoyed attacker is stood off all the way back to the land province it came from.

(It is interesting to notice the progression in Steps 1 through 13 above -- how the steps generally have dealt with progressively unlikelier convoy scenarios, until finding the last possible scenario in Step 13, a scenario so unlikely that the chance the reader ever will see it arise naturally in a game seems small. Steps 14 through 20 below, by contrast, will be seen to follow an opposite progression in movement and combat scenarios; the steps generally will deal with progressively likelier movement and combat scenarios, until finding in Steps 18 through 20 the general scenario that almost certainly occurs every season.)

14. Let rings of attack advance.

What is a ring of attack? A ring of attack is three or more units, each attacking the next, to form a closed circle of attack. An example:

       GERMANY
       Army Munich to Bohemia.

       AUSTRIA
       Army Bohemia to Tyrolia.
       Army Tyrolia to Munich.

Two units may form a ring of attack, but only if at least one of the two attacks by convoy; otherwise, it's not a ring but just an ordinary head-to-head battle.

Ordinarily, all the units in a ring of attack just advance, but an extra attacker can interfere, breaking the ring. Let's add an extra attacker to our example:

       ITALY
       Army Venice to Tyrolia.

Handle each ring of attack in the following way --

First identify all the target spaces in the ring where an extra attacker interferes. (In our example, Tyrolia is the only interference space.) Cancel all but the single strongest attack against each interference space. Where two attacks tie for strongest, cancel all the attacks -- and make a note that the target space was the site of a standoff on the move.

If the ring of attack has survived intact, with all the ring's attacks surviving any interference, then let all the ring's attackers advance in their ring now. If interference has broken any part of the ring, though, then do nothing further with the ring at this time; the broken ring is indeed no longer a ring.

In our example, both attacks against Tyrolia (Austrian Army Bohemia to Tyrolia; Italian Army Venice to Tyrolia) get cancelled. No one interferes with the other two attacks (Austrian Army Tyrolia to Munich; German Army Munich to Bohemia); they both survive this Step 14. But the interference has broken the ring, so we do nothing further with the ring at this time; we expect Steps 18 and 19 below to resolve the two surviving attacks.

Let's add a fifth unit to our example:

       AUSTRIA
       Army Trieste supports Army Bohemia to Tyrolia.

What do we do now? Since the Austrian Army Bohemia now has the single strongest attack on Tyrolia, we cancel only the interfering Venetian attack. The ring has survived intact, so we just let all three of the ring's attackers advance at this time.

The instructions for the final six steps, below, are technical and dense, but particularly important to understand correctly. Five thorough examples are provided, one for Step 17 alone, two for Steps 15 through 17 together, one for Step 18 alone, and one for Steps 18 through 20 together. It is strongly suggested that the first-time reader of this Technical Guide actually set the pieces up on his game board and play through the examples; failure to do so is likely to lead only to confusion. It is also suggested that the first-time reader learn Steps 18 through 20 first, and then return to learn Steps 15 through 17. Of course, if the reader has not yet read and understood his rulebook, then he will want to do that first, for, without that background, he cannot reasonably expect to understand correctly this Technical Guide.

15. Identify head-to-head battles.

Two units, each attacking the other directly, without convoy, make a head-to-head battle. If outside attackers attack either or both of the two head-to-head units, then they are part of the battle, too.

Make a list of all the head-to-head battles on the board. Note on the list, for each of the battles, whether the battle is balanced or unbalanced.

What, precisely, makes a head-to-head battle balanced or unbalanced?

A head-to-head battle is balanced if the two head-to-head units each attack the other with equal strength, or if they are countrymen (that is, if both belong to the same Great Power). Otherwise, with one possible exception, the head-to-head battle is unbalanced. The one exception: support given by the weaker unit's countrymen to the stronger unit's attack cannot unbalance the battle.

(If this seems confusing, then here's how it all looks from a player's point of view. If you provide support for an attack on your own countryman, that support will be counted only up to the point where it balances the battle. You can never unbalance a battle against your own countryman. In other words, you can never dislodge, or provide useful support for someone else to dislodge, one of your own units.)

An example:

       AUSTRIA
       Fleet Ionian Sea to the Aegean Sea.
       Fleet Eastern Mediterranean supports Fleet Ionian to the Aegean.
       Fleet Adriatic Sea supports Turkish Fleet Aegean to the Ionian.
       Fleet Albania supports Turkish Fleet Aegean to the Ionian.
       Fleet Greece supports Turkish Fleet Aegean to the Ionian.

       TURKEY
       Fleet Aegean Sea to the Ionian Sea.
       Fleet Smyrna supports Austrian Fleet Ionian to the Aegean.
       Fleet Constantinople to the Aegean Sea.

       ITALY
       Fleet Naples to the Ionian Sea.
       Fleet Apulia supports Fleet Naples to the Ionian.
       Fleet Tyrrhenian Sea supports Fleet Naples to the Ionian.
       Fleet Tunis supports Fleet Naples to the Ionian.

       RUSSIA
       Fleet Black Sea to Constantinople.

The Turkish attack beats the Austrian attack four to three -- but the Turkish attack has Austrian support, without which it could not beat the Austrian attack. The battle therefore balances three to three. Is the Turkish attack therefore only three strong? No. Even though the Austrian supporters refuse to unbalance the battle against their own Austrian countryman, they still make the Turkish attack fully four strong -- strong enough to stand the Italian attack off in Steps 16 and 17 below.

(It is instructive to note that, had Fleets Greece and Albania been French rather than Austrian, the battle would still have balanced three to three. But had Fleet Adriatic Sea been French, too, then the battle would have unbalanced four to three, in favor of the Turkish attack. Had the two head-to-head Fleets Aegean Sea and Ionian Sea both been Turkish, though, then the battle would have balanced regardless of the number and country of the supports.)

The two outside attacks, by the Italian Fleet Naples and the Turkish Fleet Constantinople, have no influence on whether we classify the battle as balanced or unbalanced, but they do indeed belong to the battle and may very well, as we shall see, have an important effect on the battle's outcome. The head-to-head battle excludes the Russian attack, though, since its target Constantinople is neither of the battle's two head-to-head spaces (the Russian attack, just as any other ordinary attack, must wait for Steps 18 and 19 to resolve it).

Step 16 below will resolve the unbalanced battles; Step 17 below, the balanced.

16. Resolve unbalanced head-to-head battles.

Begin an unbalanced head-to-head battle by resolving the attacks against the weaker head-to-head unit's space, per the standard instructions given in Step 19 below. Let all attacks against the weaker unit's space join in the fight, including any outside attacks. Let the defender receive no support to hold. If the head-to-head attack beats the outside attacks, and then also beats the defense, then let the head-to-head attacker advance, dislodging the defender and cancelling the defender's move order; the head-to-head battle is over (if there are any outside attacks against the now-empty space the head-to-head attacker started from, then Steps 18 and 19 below will handle them, but the dislodged head-to-head defender will take no part in that battle and will have no effect at all on the now-empty space).

However, if the defender survives undislodged, or if it is dislodged by an outside attack, then proceed to resolve the attacks against the stronger head-to-head unit's space, per the standard instructions given in Step 19 below. Let all attacks against the stronger's space join in the fight, including any outside attacks. Let the weaker head-to-head unit join in the fight, even if the weaker has been dislodged. Let the stronger, now the defender, receive no support to hold. If the weaker, now an attacker, has strength sufficient to stand all other attacks against the stronger's space off, then cancel all attacks against the stronger's space; let the stronger survive undislodged. (In fact, even if the weaker has strength sufficient to dislodge the stronger, still cancel even the weaker's attack, and still let the stronger hold safely; the weaker head-to-head unit in an unbalanced battle cannot ever dislodge the stronger, no matter how strong the weaker's attack.) If an outside attack beats all other attacks against the stronger's space, though, and then also beats the defense, then let the outside attack advance normally, dislodging the defense.

(The weaker head-to-head unit in an unbalanced head-to-head battle is never permitted to dislodge the stronger. Does this mean that the weaker's attack is meaningless? No. The weaker's attack may suffice to stand off an outside attack, saving the stronger from dislodgement. This is true even if the weaker has been dislodged by an outside attack. If, however, the weaker has been dislodged by the stronger's attack, then the weaker's attack is indeed rendered meaningless; it has no effect whatsoever on the space the stronger attacked from.)

17. Resolve balanced head-to-head battles.

Balanced head-to-head battles go a little differently than unbalanced ones. The key to understanding the balanced head-to-head battle is to understand that neither of the two head-to-head units may move. (Does this mean that the two head-to-head attacks have no effect? On the contrary. Either head-to-head attack, or both, may save its target from outside dislodgement.)

Divide a balanced head-to-head battle into two halves: one half including the attacks against one head-to-head space; the other half including the attacks against the other head-to-head space. Let each half's defender hold without any support to hold.

An example of a balanced head-to-head battle:

       AUSTRIA
       Army Galicia to Warsaw.

       RUSSIA
       Army Warsaw to Galicia.

       TURKEY
       Army Rumania to Galicia.

       ENGLAND
       Army Livonia to Warsaw.

       GERMANY
       Army Prussia to Warsaw.
       Army Silesia supports Army Prussia to Warsaw.

One half of the battle:

       RUSSIA
       Army Warsaw holds.

       AUSTRIA
       Army Galicia to Warsaw.

       ENGLAND
       Army Livonia to Warsaw.

       GERMANY
       Army Prussia to Warsaw.
       Army Silesia supports Army Prussia to Warsaw.

The other half of the battle:

       AUSTRIA
       Army Galicia holds.

       RUSSIA
       Army Warsaw to Galicia.

       TURKEY
       Army Rumania to Galicia.

Resolve each half of a balanced head-to-head battle separately, according, with one exception, to the standard instructions given in Step 19 below. The one exception: where the single strongest attack in a half-battle is the head-to-head attack, cancel even the head-to-head attack; the defender is safe. Neither head-to-head attacker in a balanced battle may dislodge the other.

In the example, the Austrian attack is not strong enough to stop the German attack from dislodging the Russian Army Warsaw. The German advances into Warsaw; no one else moves.

In our example head-to-head battle given in Step 15 (not Step 17) above, in the half-battle over the Aegean Sea, the Austrian head-to-head attack beats the outside attack from Constantinople three to one, then beats the defense in the Aegean Sea two to one (not three to one; while the Turkish support does count against the outside Turkish attack from Constantinople, it does not count against the Turkish defense in the Aegean Sea). Because the battle is balanced, though, the Austrian may not advance in truth, and the Turk is not dislodged. Only if the battle were unbalanced in the Austrian's favor would the Austrian have a chance to advance.

In the half-battle over the Ionian Sea, the Turkish head-to-head attack and the outside Italian attack stand one another off four to four, leaving the Austrian defender untouched. (It is instructive to note that, had the Italian Fleet Tunis, instead of supporting the main Italian attack, made its own attack against the Ionian Sea, then the Turkish head-to-head attack would have beaten the pair of outside Italian attacks four to three to one, yet still would have failed one to one to beat the Austrian defense in the Ionian Sea. Not that it would have mattered: since the battle is balanced, the Turk would not have been allowed to advance, anyway. Had the Austrian Fleets Albania and Greece simply held, however -- had only the Austrian Fleet Adriatic Sea supported the Turkish attack against the pair of outside Italian attacks -- then the head-to-head battle would have balanced two to two, but the outside Italian attack from Naples would have beat the rival Turkish and Italian attacks three to two to one, and then would have overcome the Austrian defense in the Ionian Sea three to one. The Italian Fleet Naples would then have advanced in truth, dislodging the Austrian defense.)

A second example may help further to illustrate the head-to-head battle:

       GERMANY
       Fleet Denmark to the North Sea.
       Fleet Helgoland Bight supports Fleet Denmark to the North Sea.

       FRANCE
       Fleet Belgium to the North Sea.
       Fleet Holland supports Fleet Belgium to the North Sea.
       Fleet English Channel supports Fleet Belgium to the North Sea.

       ENGLAND
       Fleet North Sea to Denmark.
       Fleet Skagerrak supports Fleet North Sea to Denmark.

       RUSSIA
       Army Livonia to Denmark.
       Fleet Baltic Sea convoys Army Livonia to Denmark.
       Army Sweden supports Army Livonia to Denmark.

The head-to-head battle is balanced two to two. The French attack beats the German attack three to two, then advances into the North Sea three to one against the English defense. The Russian attack, by itself, would now beat the German defense two to one, advancing into Denmark -- except that the dislodged English fleet's attack still counts; it stands the Russian attack off, two to two, thus saving the German Fleet Denmark from dislodgement.

(It is instructive to note that, had the French Fleet English Channel supported the German move from Denmark to the North Sea, the battle would have turned out rather differently. The head-to-head battle would have unbalanced three to two in the German's favor. The German attack on the North Sea would have beat the French attack on the North Sea three to two, then advanced, dislodging the English fleet there three to one. What is more, the German advance would have cancelled the English attack on Denmark, leaving Denmark completely open for the Russian to convoy into, unopposed, in Step 19 below.)

This concludes the matter of head-to-head battles.

18. List targets of attack.

(A thorough example illustrating Steps 18 through 20 is provided at the end of Step 20's instructions. Feel free to refer to it.)

Make a target list of all spaces under attack. Consider only attacks that remain as yet unresolved; that is, ignore moves that already have advanced or that we already have cancelled. List the target spaces whether they are empty or occupied, whether they are each the targets of one move or several. However, strike from the list, at least for now, any space where there's a unit trying to move out of the space (Step 20 will eventually deal with the occupied space, but we've got to give the occupying unit a fair chance to move out of there before we prosecute the attack against it).

An example:

       ITALY
       Army Rome to Venice.
       Army Venice to Trieste.
       Fleet Naples to the Ionian Sea.

       AUSTRIA
       Army Vienna to Trieste.
       Army Budapest supports Army Vienna to Trieste.
       Fleet Trieste to Albania.

       RUSSIA
       Army Norway holds.

       ENGLAND
       Fleet North Sea to Norway.

       GERMANY
       Fleet Helgoland Bight to the North Sea.
       Fleet Denmark supports Fleet Helgoland Bight to the North Sea.

There are six target spaces: Venice, Trieste, the Ionian Sea, Albania, Norway and the North Sea. Three of the six, however -- Venice, Trieste and the North Sea -- contain units with unresolved orders to move, so we strike those three spaces from the target list for now, leaving only the Ionian Sea, Albania and Norway. Does this mean that the attacks against Venice, Trieste and the North Sea will never be resolved? No; they'll eventually be resolved -- Step 20 will see to that -- but we cannot resolve them properly, can we, until we know whether Venice, Trieste and the North Sea are going to be empty or occupied!

Step 19 below will resolve the attacks against the three listed spaces: the Ionian Sea, Albania and Norway. Then Step 20 will send us back here to Steps 18 and 19, to list Trieste and the North Sea, and then to resolve the attacks against those spaces. Then Step 20 will send us back here to Steps 18 and 19, again, to list Venice, and then to resolve the attack against that space. So we must run three times through the 18-19-20 loop, in this example, to complete the adjudication. This is the correct order of things, ensuring that every attack has its proper resolution in turn.

19. Fight ordinary battles.

For each space on the target list --

Identify the single strongest attack against the target space -- that is, the attack with the most support to move. (Where there is only one attack, that one, naturally, is the single strongest.)

Cancel all attacks against the target but the single strongest.

Where two or more attacks tie for strongest, no attack is single strongest, so cancel all the attacks, strong and weak. If the target space is occupied, then simply let the occupying defender hold. If the target space is empty, then leave it empty, and make a note that the space was left vacant due to a standoff on the move (at retreat time, we'll need to remember that there was a standoff here).

If a countryman of the single strongest attacker -- that is, a unit belonging to the same Great Power the attacker belongs to -- occupies the target space, then cancel even the one attack; the defender is safe. No attacker may dislodge a countryman.

If the target space is empty, then simply let the single strongest attacker, if there is one, advance.

If a unit foreign to the single strongest attacker occupies the target space, then ask, is the one attack stronger than the defense? -- that is, does the one attack have more support to move than the defense has support to hold? If the one attack is stronger than the defense, then, with one possible exception (we'll discuss this in a moment), let the attack advance, dislodging the defense. If the one attack is merely equal, though, or if it is weaker, then let the defense hold safely; cancel even the one attack.

The one exception: when the defender's own countryman supports the single strongest attack, this support does not count against the defense; it counts only against other attackers in the struggle for single strongest attack. No supporter may directly help to dislodge its own countryman. (The converse, though, does not apply. Support to the defense counts regardless of country.)

No dislodged unit can ever give support; therefore, if a dislodged defender happens to be giving any support to anyone, cut that support now.

20. Return to Step 18 if any attacks remain unresolved.

If any move on the board remains unresolved, then return to the top of Step 18 now, to repeat Steps 18 and 19. Perform the 18-19-20 loop as many times as needed to resolve all the moves on the board. Notice that, because Step 14 above has either resolved or broken any rings of attack, and because Steps 15, 16 and 17 above have resolved any head-to-head battles, the 18-19-20 loop is guaranteed to resolve all the moves on the board within a finite number of iterations.

A thorough example illustrating Steps 18 through 20 might be helpful. Get your game board out and set this one up:

       TURKEY
       Fleet Tunis holds.

       AUSTRIA
       Fleet Western Mediterranean to Tunis.
       Army North Africa supports Fleet Western Mediterranean to Tunis.
       Fleet Ionian Sea supports Turkish Fleet Tunis to hold.

       ITALY
       Fleet Tyrrhenian Sea to the Western Mediterranean.
       Army Marseilles supports French Fleet Gascony to Spain.

       FRANCE
       Fleet Spain (south coast) to the Western Mediterranean.
       Fleet Mid-Atlantic supports Fleet Spain (south coast) to W. Med.
       Fleet Gulf of Lyon supports Italian Fleet Tyrrhenian to W. Med.
       Fleet Gascony to Spain (north coast).

       GERMANY
       Fleet Bothnia supports English Army Finland to St. Petersburg.
       Army Prussia to Warsaw.
       Army Silesia supports Army Prussia to Warsaw.
       Army Berlin to Prussia.

       RUSSIA
       Army Warsaw holds.
       Fleet St. Petersburg (south coast) to the Gulf of Bothnia.
       Fleet Barents Sea supports English Army Finland to St. Petersburg.
       Army Livonia to St. Petersburg.
       Army Moscow supports Army Livonia to St. Petersburg.

       ENGLAND
       Army Finland to St. Petersburg.
       Fleet Skagerrak to Sweden.

In the example, before we even reach Step 18, the Russian Fleet St. Petersburg has tried up in Step 4 to cut the support given by the German Fleet Gulf of Bothnia, but the German support remains intact because it supports an attack against St. Petersburg itself.

We begin Step 18 by listing target spaces: Sweden, Warsaw, Prussia, Tunis, the Western Mediterranean, Spain, the Gulf of Bothnia and St. Petersburg. Because Prussia, the Western Mediterranean, Spain and St. Petersburg each contain a unit with an unresolved order to move, we remove these four spaces from the target list, leaving only Sweden, Warsaw, Tunis and the Gulf of Bothnia on the list. We proceed now, with Step 19, to resolve the attacks against each of the four target spaces that remain on the list.

Sweden: The English attack is the single strongest attack against Sweden (in fact, it is the only attack against Sweden). Since Sweden is empty, we just let the attacker advance.

Warsaw: The German attack is the single strongest attack against Warsaw (in fact, it is the only attack against Warsaw). As single strongest attack, it beats the Russian defense two to one, advancing into Warsaw and dislodging the defense.

Tunis: The Austrian attack is the single strongest attack against Tunis (in fact, it is the only attack against Tunis). As single strongest attack, it fails two to two to beat the Turkish defense. The Turkish defender holds safely. The Austrian attacker is left standing, without any support to hold, in the Western Med.

The Gulf of Bothnia: The Russian attack is the single strongest attack against the Gulf of Bothnia (in fact, it is the only attack against the Gulf of Bothnia). As single strongest attack, it fails one to one to beat the German defense. The Russian attacker is left standing, without any support to hold, in St. Petersburg, on the south coast.

We have now exhausted our target list, so we proceed to Step 20 where we observe that several attacks still remain unresolved. We loop back, accordingly, to the top of Step 18.

We begin Step 18 again as before, listing target spaces: Prussia, the Western Mediterranean, Spain and St. Petersburg. Because Spain still contains a unit with an unresolved order to move, we remove that space from the target list, leaving only Prussia, the Western Mediterranean and St. Petersburg on the list. We proceed now, with Step 19, to resolve the attacks against each of the three target spaces that remain on the list.

Prussia: The German attack is the single strongest attack against Prussia (in fact, it is the only attack against Prussia). Since Prussia is empty, we just let the attacker advance.

The Western Mediterranean: The Austrian fleet here has failed in an attempt to move, so must now attempt to hold without support. There are, however, not one but two attacks against the space. The two attacks tie for single strongest, two to two. Either attack, by itself, would have dislodged the Austrian fleet two to one, but, since neither attack is single strongest, we cancel them both. The Austrian defender holds safely, never having actually had to defend. (It is instructive to note, however, that, had the Austrian defender been trying to give support rather than to move, then the support would not have survived Step 4 above. Either or both attacks would have cut it.)

St. Petersburg: The English attack from Finland beats the Russian attack from Livonia three to two, so we cancel the Russian attack, leaving only the English attack as single strongest. The support by the Russian Fleet Barents Sea to the English attack did indeed count against the rival Russian attack from Livonia, but it does not count against the Russian defense in St. Petersburg. Still, with the help of the German support, the English attack succeeds, advancing against the defense two to one. (It is instructive to note that, had there been one additional unit in the example -- Russian Fleet Baltic Sea supports Fleet St. Petersburg (south coast) to the Gulf of Bothnia -- then the Russian Fleet St. Petersburg would have advanced into the Gulf of Bothnia, dislodging the German fleet there and cutting the German support. Then the English attack on St. Petersburg would merely have stood off the Russian attack on that space, two to two, leaving St. Petersburg an empty standoff zone.)

We have now exhausted our target list, so we proceed to Step 20 where we observe that the attack on Spain still remains unresolved. We loop back, accordingly, to the top of Step 18.

We begin Step 18 again as before, listing the target spaces: this time, Spain only. We proceed, with Step 19, to resolve the attack against that one space.

Spain: The French fleet here has failed in an attempt to move, so must now attempt to hold without support. The attack from Gascony is the single strongest (and, in fact, the only). Fleet Gascony would advance two to one, except that the defender in Spain is a countryman. We simply cancel the attack, regardless of how strong it is. (It is instructive to note that, had Army Marseilles been French rather than Italian and Fleet Gascony Italian rather than French, then the attack from Gascony would still have failed, but for a different reason. The reason: the French support would not have counted against the French defense in Spain, so the Italian attack would have failed one to one. Of course, had both Fleet Gascony and Army Marseilles been Italian, then the attack would have advanced two to one, dislodging the French defense.)

At this point, no attack remains unresolved, so that's the end of the procedure.

IX. THE SUPPORT ORDER

As Chapter VII has noted, there exist two distinct kinds of support order: the support to hold and the support to move. A support order cannot be both; it must be one or the other.

A unit giving support, whether support to hold or to move, must have the ability to move without convoy to the target space for that support, if it were unopposed by other units; otherwise, the support is illegal. (Coasts don't matter, only spaces. Accordingly, though Fleet Spain (south coast) could not support Fleet Gascony to hold, Fleet Gascony could indeed support Fleet Spain (south coast) to hold, or even support Fleet Portugal to move to the south coast of Spain.) In a support to move, the target space is the space the mover moves to, not the space it moves from; thus, Army Moscow could support Army Warsaw to hold or Army Galicia to Warsaw, but could not support Army Warsaw to Galicia.

An order to support a hold names only the unit supporting and the unit supported; it does not say specifically what the unit supported is doing. A hold-support can actually give support whether the supported unit holds, supports or convoys, so long as that unit does not attempt to move. For example, the following suffices to support Fleet North Sea against attack, whether Fleet North Sea holds, supports or convoys: Fleet Edinburgh supports Fleet North Sea to hold.

An order to support a move names the unit supporting, the unit moving and the target space of the move. It does not say whether the move is direct or by convoy, though, nor does it name a target coast. For example, the following suffices to support either a direct move or a move by convoy: Fleet Gascony supports Army Marseilles to Spain. And the following suffices to support a fleet moving to either coast: Fleet Gascony supports Fleet Portugal to Spain. If a support tries to include information on convoys or coasts, then that is just extra information that the GM disregards.

One cannot legally order a unit to support an illegal move; thus, one cannot legally order Army Ukraine to support Army Paris to Moscow.

Support may indeed be given to a foreign unit. Examples: Russian Fleet Edinburgh supports French Fleet North Sea to hold; English Fleet Gascony supports Italian Army Marseilles to Spain.

No unit may support itself, neither to hold nor to move. No unit may support an attack against itself, either (that is, Army Munich may not support Army Silesia to Munich).

Support may not be ordered at retreat time, only at movement time.

X. CUTTING SUPPORT

This Technical Guide has much to say about the cutting of support, but all of that is said in Chapter VIII above. The only additional remark would be that there is no support-cutting at retreat time, because there is no support at retreat time.

XI. RETREATS

A dislodged unit may not retreat to any space which is occupied, nor to a space which was left vacant due to a standoff during that turn. A unit dislodged by a direct, non-convoyed attack may not retreat to the space its attacker came from. If no place is available for retreat, the dislodged unit is destroyed; its marker is removed from the board at the end of the move, before the players even write their retreats.

A player may choose to disband a unit, removing it from play, rather than to retreat it. If two or more units are ordered to retreat to the same space, they are all disbanded. Retreats may neither be convoyed nor supported.

Examples of retreat orders: Army Galicia retreats to Silesia; Fleet Mid-Atlantic retreats to Spain (south coast); Army Rome disbands.

XII. THE CONVOY ORDER

Your rulebook explains the basic concept of the convoy; this chapter presumes that the basic concept is familiar to you.

An order to move by convoy names the army moving and the target land province, but does not mention any coasts; an example: Army Naples to Spain. The order ordinarily need not specifically say that the move is by convoy; if, however, the target is adjacent, then the order must indeed specifically say, or the direct move is assumed; that is, if Army Rumania wishes to move to Sevastopol by convoy, then it must say so: Army Rumania to Sevastopol by convoy.

An order to convoy names the convoying fleet, the convoyed army and the target province of the army's move, but does not mention any coasts; an example: Fleet Gulf of Lyon convoys Army Naples to Spain.

One can legally order neither an army to move by convoy nor a fleet to convoy if there exists no possible complete convoy chain to carry the army to its destination; thus, if the Skagerrak stands vacant, then one can legally order neither Army Sweden to move to Yorkshire nor Fleet North Sea to convoy Army Sweden to Yorkshire. One cannot legally order a fleet to convoy if the fleet could not possibly take part in the convoy; thus, if the Western Mediterranean stands vacant, then one cannot legally order Fleet Mid-Atlantic to convoy Army Naples to Spain. No convoy chain can pass through the same body of water twice; as a consequence, one can never legally order Fleet Irish Sea to convoy Army Naples to Spain. One cannot legally order an army to move to the space it already occupies, neither directly nor by convoy.

Only fleets in bodies of water may convoy. A fleet in a land province may not convoy, not even if the province is Denmark, Kiel or Constantinople.

A fleet may indeed convoy a foreign army; an example: German Fleet English Channel convoys English Army London to Picardy. And two or more fleets need not be countrymen to form a convoy chain together; an example: Austrian Fleet Tyrrhenian Sea convoys Italian Army Naples to Spain; Italian Fleet Gulf of Lyon convoys Army Naples to Spain.

There are neither convoys nor moves by convoy at retreat time, only at movement time.

XIII. GAINING AND LOSING UNITS

At the end of the Fall season, after all moves and retreats, any unit that occupies a supply center that its country does not already control captures that center for its country. The capturing country then continues to control the center until another country captures the center at the end of a future Fall season, even if the center is left empty in the meantime, even if another country's unit is in the space at the end of a Spring season.

To end the game year, after the capture of supply centers, the players adjust. A player who has fewer centers than units on the board must remove the excess units only. A player who has more centers than units on the board may build enough new units to make up the difference. A player who has equal numbers of centers and units, though, doesn't adjust at all.

A removing player may choose freely which of his units to remove, but he must remove the exact number required, neither more nor fewer.

When a removing player fails to order sufficient removals, the GM removes further units to meet the required number. He removes first the units that stand most distant from home. To measure the distance from home, an army counts the smallest number of moves it would have to make to reach a home center in its own country, if it were the only unit on the board and if it had the fictional ability to enter both bodies of water and land provinces (but not Switzerland); a Russian army in Constantinople, for example, would stand two spaces distant from home. A fleet measures the distance from home a little differently: it counts the smallest number of legal fleet-moves it would have to make to reach a home center in its own country, if it were the only unit on the board, but with no fictional ability; a Russian fleet on the south coast of Bulgaria, for example, would stand three spaces distant from home. It does not matter for this purpose, incidentally, whether a foreign Power controls the nearest home center; in the examples, the Russian army and the Russian fleet could still trace routes to Sevastopol, even if Turkey presently controlled that center.

When an army and a fleet stand equally distant from home, the GM removes the fleet before the army. When two units of the same kind stand equally distant from home, the GM removes first the unit that stands in the space whose name comes earlier in English-language alphabetical order. The correct English-language alphabetical order, according to Oxford and Webster alike: Adriatic Sea, Aegean Sea, Albania, Ankara, Apulia, Armenia, Baltic Sea, Barents Sea, Belgium, Berlin, Black Sea, Bohemia, Gulf of Bothnia, Brest, Budapest, Bulgaria, Burgundy, Clyde, Constantinople, Denmark, Eastern Mediterranean, Edinburgh, English Channel, Finland, Galicia, Gascony, Greece, Helgoland Bight, Holland, Ionian Sea, Irish Sea, Kiel, Liverpool, Livonia, London, Gulf of Lyon, Marseilles, Mid-Atlantic Ocean, Moscow, Munich, Naples, North Africa, North Atlantic Ocean, North Sea, Norway, Norwegian Sea, Paris, Picardy, Piedmont, Portugal, Prussia, Rome, Ruhr, Rumania, St. Petersburg, Serbia, Sevastopol, Silesia, Skagerrak, Smyrna, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Trieste, Tunis, Tuscany, Tyrolia, Tyrrhenian Sea, Ukraine, Venice, Vienna, Wales, Warsaw, Western Mediterranean, Yorkshire.

Turning now from the topic of removals to the topic of builds --

A building player, in contrast to a removing player, may, if he wishes, build fewer new units than he is entitled to; he may even build none. He may not just build anywhere, though. He may build a new unit only in his own home supply center in his own home country -- and only if the center is vacant and is presently under his control. A building player, of course, may not build two units in the same center at the same time -- not even fleets on opposite coasts of St. Petersburg.

A build in an inland center may naturally be a new army only, never a new fleet. A build in a coastal center, though, may be either a new army or a new fleet, whichever the builder has ordered. A Russian build in St. Petersburg -- the only coastal home center with two coasts -- may be a new army, a new fleet on the south coast, or a new fleet on the north coast, whichever the Russian builder has ordered.

Examples of adjustment orders: Turkey removes Army Albania; Russia builds Fleet St. Petersburg (north coast).

XIV. MISCELLANEOUS

The standard game of Diplomacy is played by seven players, neither more nor fewer.