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I'm sure everyone will have a different take on how to write about their supply center. My take will be to exploit the fact that many people disagree on the best type of unit to place in Rome to start the game. I'll discuss what happens when Rome begins with a fleet and then what happens when it begins with an army. In so doing, I plan to discuss and name an opening, the Italian Oktoberfest, which I've long discussed and tried in various forums. I will make no attempt to be comprehensive in discussing Italian openings. I join the others in thanking all the writers and editors responsible for this and hope it honors and surprises Manus Hand appropriately. A greater man has not been seen in the Diplomacy hobby in many a year. Thanks for everything, Manus! . . . . . . . . . .The Variant Fleet Rome:Fleet Rome carries the official Variant Bank number rb41, which means that it is a rule revision using the regular board (r), it is a minor change to one component only (b), and it is the forty-first variant of that type. It also may set a record for being one of the shortest variants as measured by the length of its rules: "Italy starts with a Fleet in Rome instead of an Army." This variant is credited to the late Richard Sharp, who sadly passed away just this very week as I finished writing this article. I actually am not sure precisely when Richard named and started players using this variant and was unable to discover it from research. It is notable that Richard does not refer to this variant in the excellent Chapter 13 of his book, "The Game of Diplomacy", which describes his opinion on a number of the major variants from the 1970's. But the use of the variant surely goes back to the 1970's, as I recall knowing of it back then. Since Richard Sharp was a Brit, it was a bit more commonly used in the British hobby around that time, up until a pretty damning series of articles in 1984 by Geoff Challinger and James Nelson. I've never read these articles, James' brother Mark kept telling me he would "scribe" them (a common practice in the early days of the Internet back in the early 1990's), but as far as I know he never did. In any case, as I understand it, they pretty much killed the use of Fleet Rome variants in the British postal hobby (The articles were titled "Fleet Rome -- A Failed Experiment"). James Nelson did summarize some of his thoughts (most of which I agree with and will discuss in due course) on Fleet Rome in his Diplomacy World article from Issue #70, "Italy/Austria, Dip's Weak Sisters?" in Spring 1993. But Fleet Rome was never a very common variant until the early 1990's when it garnered a new following in Electronic Protocol, the Eric Klien project where people mostly hand adjudicated E-Mail Diplomacy games. The EP hobby rather quickly transformed itself into the Judge hobby, a game play method most readers here know well. Originally, then, these Fleet Rome games were hand adjudicated, but then (in 1993, I believe, though I'm not sure of the exact date) the Fleet Rome variant was coded into the Judges, by David Kovar as I recall. And from there we have some statistics that will help illustrate the effects of this variants. The Beginnings of Fleet Rome on the Judges:In the first 29 games of Fleet Rome played on the Judges (as compiled by Mark Nelson over the first three years that the variant was on the Judges from 1993-1995), the two Italian fleets opened to the Tyrrhenian and the Ionian 27 times, thus setting up to take Tunis with the Fleet Rome and have some say in the East with the other in 1901. In any case, the only real variation in the Italian orders came with the order for A Venice. Half of the time, Venice either moved to Trieste or held (each about a quarter of the time). Most common after that were moves to Tyrolia or Piedmont. But whereas in regular Diplomacy Italy has numerous opening options, it is pretty clear that Fleet Rome restricts Italy's opening choices substantially, with the only real Spring 1901 choice coming in the choice of a move for Venice. But it may be more important to document what moves by other players ended up being more or less common in Fleet Rome. For these initial 29 Judge games, Austria only tried Hedgehog openings (F Tri-Ven) in two cases and nearly always tried variations of the Balkan Gambit (moving to Albania and Serbia). One of the important aspects of the Hedgehog is to prevent Italy from getting two armies on Austrian home centers for Fall 1901. But this can't happen without a second army for Italy. As a result, these moves are generally safer for Austria in 1901, since Italy can't mount any two unit attack on Austria, and thus Austria is one of the major gainers from the Fleet Rome variant. But still, in terms of variations in openings, both Austria and Italy have much narrower opening choices in Fleet Rome. Not much else can be said from Mark Nelson's statistics of these early Judge Fleet Rome game openings, though the French Army Marseilles went to Piedmont four out of the 29 times, which strikes me as a bit of a higher percentage than is usual. This presumably occurred because Italy might think of attacking France earlier in this variant. After all, the fleet in Ionian can take Tunis, while F Tyrrhenian goes to Western Mediterranean or Gulf of Lyon in Fall 1901. And thus France may try to block a move of A Ven-Pie. I would think that most French players, even in Fleet Rome, would be trying to convince Italy to go elsewhere, rather than inciting early conflict. Explosion in Popularity for Fleet Rome:After Mark's discussions of Fleet Rome and these statistics in the Winter of 1995-96, the popularity of Fleet Rome on the Judges exploded (in a period when Judge use in general was increasing). By the end of October of 1996, 81 Fleet Rome games had been completed on the Judges. And there were frequent debates on r.g.d about the usefulness of the variant. The focus of this discussion still was on the importance of the Fleet to strengthen the chances and options for Italy. People tended to make broad tactical statements that Italy was better off as a fleet power, without recognizing the strategic importance of playing off options for directions of attack in negotiations. Austria was also thought to gain, but France and Turkey were thought to be the big losers, mostly because of the big focus on Italian expansion. And through this period I was arguing that Russia would be the big winner from Fleet Rome, since I believed that Italian impotence in getting Armies into the center of the board as an option would help Russia. Then, Doug Massey stepped in with some more statistics, this time at the other end to address game outcome differences. And boy, was I wrong! Doug uses a system that gives 6 points for a win, -1 for a loss, and 7/(N-1) for an N-way draw (this system which backs up eliminating players as a goal) and came up with the following table a few months later on 99 Fleet Rome games:
Italy does worse than everyone except the Juggernaut and Russia has just done horribly in this variant on the Judges. I do believe that these statistics are a bit skewed by the love of Juggernauts among Judge players. What this really says is that while in regular Diplomacy, a Juggernaut overwhelms an AI alliance, the AI alliance kicks butt here and Russia gets eliminated. Italy doesn't especially win more in this variant, but it does get in the most three way draws, which some would say is a good representation of expert play. But helping England (!) and Austria and unbalancing the game is not a good outcome. This seemed to put a bit of a damper on Fleet Rome games on the Judges and of course as more games were played the extreme nature of these results softened a bit. A few years later the results of the same statistics compared to Standard Diplomacy changed to:
Everyone regressed toward the mean (zero) except for Germany, who got quite a bit better, and Italy was at almost exactly zero. But the general outcome as compared to standard Diplomacy remains striking. One little change makes it a very different game. Where an RT Juggernaut is a powerful alliance in regular Diplomacy, it appears that the AG Anschluss alliance is the powerful alliance in Fleet Rome. This is not necessarily a bad thing since the Anschluss is an underused alliance and also is very powerful in regular Diplomacy. Fleet Rome also gives Austria and Italy more reason to work with each other, given the limited Italian opening options. AI can watch each other's back, though Italy still doesn't have a very potent anti-French attack in 1901. Or AI can work a speedier Lepanto since Italy can pick up Tunis while working the other fleet East in Fall 1901. The Key Lepanto is less useful in Fleet Rome though. And in the west, France gets distracted to the south more easily and strengthens the hands of England and Germany. But I suppose the thing that bothers me about Fleet Rome the most is that it seems to cut Italy off from actively being involved in the northern half of the board at the beginning of the game. While it is still possible to move A Ven-Tyo and then to Pie, Boh, Vie, or Tri, without that other army to back it up, it is even more likely to be impotent in battle. And, since I play Russia so badly in regular Diplomacy, I'd never want to play it in Fleet Rome. Options with Army Rome:Technically, A Rome can move to Naples, Apulia, Venice, Tuscany, or it can hold. Rome seldom moves to Naples, since it can accomplish the setup to convoy better from Apulia and Apulia also covers Venice and doesn't cover up Naples for a build if Italy decides to hold with that Army in the Fall. Moving to Venice is most important if the original Army Venice is moving, and in particular, the ability to move A Rom-Ven and bounce a Hedgehog attempt by Austria is an important factor in freeing up Army Venice to move to Piedmont or Tyrolia. More rarely, Italy will move to Tuscany, on the way to Piedmont, which essentially is equivalent to the option in Fleet Rome and would be exercised about as often. Italian Oktoberfest:But one of the biggest needs for Army Rome is to support the Italian Oktoberfest opening where Italy gets two builds in 1901 for Tunis and Munich. I wanted to take the opportunity of this article for a fuller accounting of the strategic and tactical issues involved in the Italian Oktoberfest. In particular, on the strategy side, it can be an excellent way for Italy to hook up with an Anschluss and set up for an initial containment of Turkey while attacking France. It is now pretty well known that an Italian Army in Munich can move to Burgundy and be supported by that army from Army Rome (moving to Venice and then to Piedmont in 1901, and then on toward Marseilles in 1902) or more directly by a German unit in Belgium or Ruhr. But let's go over the tactical options in the Italian Oktoberfest in detail.
Options are mainly with our original Army Rome, which can go to Apulia to set up a Lepanto or can go to Tyo in Fall 1901 if following up the move into Germany (or faking it for France's edification). Germany usually will try to get Belgium with F Kie-Hol-S A Ruh-Bel; A Mun-Ruh-Bel; A Ber-Kie-Den so Germany also gets two builds. Problems with the Tactics of the Italian Oktoberfest:Usually, the move to Burgundy in Spring 1902 requires some subterfuge or misdirection, as France likely has the units to oppose it, even with German support. In general, hiding the nature of Italy's plans is important in this opening, but that should be easy since it has many strategic alliance options. Italy can ally with France and continue the attack on Germany if negotiations and interactions support it. But generally, this only helps Austria, who will have too many opportunities to stab Italy. These options are even worse in the Fleet Rome variant. Italy also can have A Ven hold, move to Tyrolia, or even go for THREE builds by trying to sneak into Trieste, in an attempt to convince France that they are not the Italian true target. There also is the simple question of whether Italy actually gets into Munich in the Fall of 1901. Germany always has the option of bouncing. If France moved to Burgundy in Spring 1901, you can even get France to support the move to Munich, and still stab France in the next year. Or, Italy can follow through working with France to take out Germany, though generally it is not in Italy's long term strategic interests to have Germany eliminated from the game. This is a common issue for all three of the Central Powers: Italy, Germany, and Austria. Thus, it is fitting to end this assessment of Army Rome with a more global assessment of the influence of Army Rome on Italy's strategic options. Strategic Options for Italy Using Army Rome:I should state my strong bias up front, that my view of "Strategy" in Diplomacy is that strategic gains are obtained from creating options that can be exploited in negotiations. Any very strong tactical position, right up to but not including a forced win, can be defeated by an alliance of the other powers on the board. But strategic options create uncertainties that can result in sequences of stronger and stronger tactical positions. And the more options there are, the harder it is for your opponents to garner allies and resources to oppose you. This means that every unit move in the game, even when having no immediate impact, sets you up with options for the future. My main point in this article is that Army Rome creates more options, more easily, than Fleet Rome. And as the "middle unit" of the three home center units where Italy begins, the choices of which way to move Army Rome represent the strategic options for Italy as a whole as well. Army Rome can move back and forth across the boot and set up for convoys, establish flexibility for defense, and quickly give Italy two armies to move in concert into the center of Europe. By the end of 1902, Army Rome realistically can find itself participating in an attack on France and taking Marseilles, or even Spain; participating in an attack on Germany and following up the other army into any of the three German home centers; participating in an attack on Austria and similarly possibly finding itself in any of the three Austrian home centers; or finally participating in a Lepanto attack on Turkey and making it into Smyrna. Arguably, there is no other starting position army on the board that realistically and commonly can find itself in home centers of any one of four other powers by the end of 1902. Now those are strategic options! Now stop thinking of Italy as a "wait and see" power and get out there and play the whole board. And do it clean from Allan Calhamer's subtle and brilliant original game board setup.
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