What Donald Trump can teach you about winning at Diplomacy

[sock]

Say what you will about Donald Trump, but his success in the GOP primary campaign is a classic example of one of Diplomacy's most effective solo strategies--divide and conquer. Successful PlayDip players seek to keep as many of their opponents around as long as possible during their slow and steady march towards a solo. Simply put, small powers can never effectively combine their collective strength against a superior opponent. Fear, jealousy, or boredom always gets in the way, especially when the lead player makes one of his weaker opponents a temporary ally. Consider then Donald Trump. Faced with over a dozen opponents, he allows himself to be overlooked while he builds an unbeatable base among white, non-college educated voters. His opponents, on the other hand, fight among themselves, carving up potential support, and allowing Trump to build momentum. When Trump clearly becomes a threat, they can't band together, as they let their personal agendas get in the way. Trump even used Cruz as an initial ally to provide cover as he grew in strength. But as the number of opponents shrinks, his path gets harder. The possibility of a brokered convention feels just like a three way tie when the top player has only 16 or 17 centers and no path to get the decisive 18th. The jury is out if Trump ultimately wins the Presidency, but there is plenty proof in my book that he is a savvy, natural PlayDip player that you won't want to mess with. And he already has a knack for flinging insults and juvenile language.

[Carebear]

Agreed, Trump has successfully navigated into a commanding position in the Republican primary. Blame the Greeks. When the gave us democracy, they also invented demagogues.

It takes an enlightened public to see past his ploys. Unfortunately, the American populous is more like noobs and Trump is like <insert high ranking name like gsmx> farming them in 12 hour games.

[Otherwise]

You guys are nuts!

I will eat my shorts [underwear], videotape it, and upload it, IF he wins.

-Bb

[Carebear]

You guys are nuts!

I will eat my shorts [underwear], videotape it, and upload it, IF he wins.

-Bb

I am not saying he will win nor do I wish for him to win. I am simply acknowledging his success in achieving front-runner status in the Republican primary.

I unfortunately regularly interact with Americans who believe that Obama is a Muslim and Trump is the guy to fix things, among other beliefs provided by the Evangelical Taliban. So, his failure to win the Republican nomination is not guaranteed nor is his failure in the general election should he gain the nomination.

[gsmx]

Unfortunately, the American populous is more like noobs and Trump is like <insert high ranking name like gsmx> farming them in 12 hour games.

[RedCandle]

Bbbumpy,

You need to start on the eating of the shorts.

tdoyle

[Ekphrasis]

This is a highly entertaining topic for me, thinking about Trump sitting down and playing a game of Diplomacy, Oh my!

I don't think he'd do very well, since it's usually the gregarious types (like KoD) who excel, and not the caustic blowhards. That's not a critique on his politics, just an observation of his mannerisms.

He'd absolutely fall flat on his face if he drew Austria or Italy, no doubt. But France or Russia...that's a different story. Trump is good when he's got some weight to throw around, so sitting in a corner with some quick and easy expansion, or strength in numbers, would suit him well. Plus, R & T don't absolutely need to align with someone in '01, and can kind of play it a little loose, so he might do well with them.

The biggest problem is that no one could ever trust him not to stab. He's in fact a stab artist, like gsmx. It would have to be an anonymous players game, and he would have to get Ivanka to write most of his messages, because it would be too obvious too quickly how cut throat he was if he were typing those communications out himself.

What's also highly entertaining is to envision DT dealing with real-life diplomacy, with nuclear codes and thousands of troops at his disposal. We all know he's a soloist, which is fine for a board game, but for the fate of the world...?

[gsmx]

He's in fact a stab artist, like gsmx.

Ouch!

[Octavious]

I very much doubt Trump would be any better at diplomacy than your average village idiot. If he's lucky he'd be seen as entertaining enough to be kept alive into the mid game, and if he's really lucky he'd be able to exploit the conflict between better players.

But I imagine that 9 times out of 10 he'd be smacked down early just to shut him up.

[TheHappyItalian]

Trump is good when he's got some weight to throw around, so sitting in a corner with some quick and easy expansion, or strength in numbers, would suit him well.

One of the scary things about trump is that he's actually good one-on-one. He regularly gets people to vouch for him even after he denigrates them in public and cannot be trusted to follow through on his promises.

I could also see him throwing $500 to get a set of moves from one player and suing the guy if he doesn't deliver.

Trump would do pretty well at diplomacy methinks. It's sad, but I think it's true.