Note from the Author:

I designed this game for no other purpose than to give a break from the usual European struggles. Well, that and I like creating Diplomacy variants. And I like maps - a lot. I know there are a few Diplomacy variants set in Africa that already exist. I have yet to look at them, so I cannot make any comparisons or judgements. However, examining my variant, I see that there is great potential to play. Each power has its strengths and weaknesses, as in regular Diplomacy. Certain spaces and supply centres are strategically located between powers, sure to be the sights of much debate and conflict. Ultimately the game will be won or lost depending on the alliances made and broken. That is essentially what any Diplomacy variant requires.

I am not a historian, but I am an amateur cartographer. Thus the map is pretty true to Africa as we know it today. Of course in real life, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, and Zaire are hardly major powers, unlike Libya, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa, and they may never be. I suggest that the variant takes place in the year 2000. I don't expect things will change so much in the next ten years, but, if nothing else, the number is easy to remember.

Starting positions for Spring of 2001.

South Africa: Fleet Cape Town.
South Africa: Army Pretoria.
South Africa: Fleet Port Elizabeth.

Ethiopia: Army Addis Ababa.
Ethiopia: Army Djibouti.
Ethiopia: Fleet Somalia.

Ivory Coast: Army Freetown.
Ivory Coast: Army Ouanadougou.
Ivory Coast: Fleet Abidjan.

Libya: Army Bengasi.
Libya: Army Tripoli.
Libya: Fleet Tunis.

Saudi Arabia: Army Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia: Fleet Damascus.
Saudi Arabia: Fleet Mecca.

Zaire: Army Kisangani.
Zaire: Army Lubumbashi.
Zaire: Fleet Kinshasa.

There are 36 supply centres, so you need 19 to win

Map notes

• The Suez Canal through Eygpt is like the Kiel canal through Kiel.
• Greece borders Turkey but NOT Italy
• Mauritania does border Western Sahara Desert
• Djibouti does border Addis Ababa, Eritrea, Somalia and GOA
• Addis Ababa does NOT border GOA
• Tanzania does NOT border Mitumbu Mountains
• Mozambique does border Orange Free State

[Note: The following bullet reflects a change made to the variant in 1992. The maps at The Diplomatic Pouch maps page reflect this change.]

• Uganda does *not* border Zambia. Thus, there is a narrow impassable area along the border between Mitumba Mountains and Tanzania (where the skinny part of Uganda now extends south to connect to Zambia) and Uganda then ends up only bordering Mitumba Mountains, Kisangani, Sudan, Kenya, and Tanzania.