Strategy for Alliances in the Long Term?

[Jont828]

Hey everyone! I've been getting into Diplomacy lately, and I'm not sure how to proceed with the mid/late game. What do you do about your ally once you two have eliminated the odd man out (e.g. Juggernaut vs Austria, England and Germany vs France)? Do you keep the alliance going and try to take down another player, or do you generally try to stab them? Also, what do you do when your ally is ahead on centers? Stab, or try to get more centers and surpass them? For instance, Russia often gets more centers than Turkey from the Juggernaut when the three Western powers are still locked in conflict, and France usually gets the better end of the deal when teaming with England against Germany. Thanks!

[asudevil]

Everything depends. Usually I talk before we finish the odd man out about the SC split to make sure it ends pretty even.

As for what to do next...also depends...if they are still locked into a 3man fight...where they are flipping alliances...then Ill try maybe stab since Im not facing a locked in 2man alliance against me.

Also, where is Italy...in either half...can I get Italy to help me against my ally.

Have I noticed my ally isn't as strong of a tactician/diplomat that I am...where I think I can beat him at the end...so keep him around in a race to 18/stab at the end? Ton of variables to look at

[Iggy]

If the answers to these questions were easy, this game wouldn't be so much fun!

It really depends on the game. What does the rest of the board look like? What is the most likely outcome if you do __________? Really kind of hard to answer any of these questions without looking at a specific game instance. Even then, there likely isn't 1 "right" answer but rather several possibilities that you have to decide between.

Looking at other game AAR's might be a good way to dissect some of these topics and see how people proceeded in those scenarios.

What do you do about your ally once you two have eliminated the odd man out (e.g. Juggernaut vs Austria, England and Germany vs France)?

Take just this one... Say you are Turkey involved in a juggernaut and Austria is dead or at least mostly dead. What do you do next? Well, what does the rest of the board look like? Is there a strong alliance that has formed in the west that the two of you now have to tackle? If so, stabbing the other maybe suicide. Is the rest of the board unstable? If so, you could stay true and continue to gobble up centers and see how things go. You could also use a well time stab to keep Russia from getting to powerful. But which is the better/right/preferred option? Really hard to say without looking at a given board. Even then there could be multiple right answers.

[asudevil]

And even looking at the map...randomly...without the background coms...still impossible to know for sure what the right move is.

[Iggy]

And even looking at the map...randomly...without the background coms...still impossible to know for sure what the right move is.

true. that's why reading aar's of games you aren't in can be fun. to try to get some insight into the "why" things happened rather than just seeing what happened.

[WHSeward]

I have posted some basic thoughts on mid-game play that are applicable to your questions in three parts, part 1 for the leaders, part 2 for those behind, and part 3 is general advice. The posts themselves are simple, but the links in those posts to outside articles have more value. Still, the mid-game is one of the under-analyzed portions of Diplomacy in hobby literature.