Game #11: Computer "Diplomacy"
The vote is closed. Results soonish.
A TRI S A SER: 4
F ALB-GRE: 12
A SER S F ALB-GRE: 10
You can check the exact votes in the voting posts I updated.
Fall 1901
(either non-standard notation or the notation was slightly different in 1984. Tsss)
The KuK easily conquered Greece from Albania. The last words of George I were, allegedly, "what did I do?"
Meanwhile, Russia takes Rumania despite an attempt from Turkey to retake it:
[It is not easy to read, but what happens is that:
Turkey did : A BUL - RUM
Russia did : F NOI - RUM and A UKR S F NOI-RUM. Russia had 2 in strength and Turkey only 1, so Russia took Rumania]
After that, all the Turkish movements, which were foolishly counting on the Bulgarian army clearing the way, were blocked: the army in Constantinople could not move to Bulgaria, the fleet in Ankara could not move to Constantinople.
Honestly, the other moves were even more puzzling: Italy renounced Tunisia, but still moved one of its armies, uselessly, toward the bottom of the boot. United Kingdom decided to move its fleets West. The only good moves were French (3 centers captured) and to a lesser extent Germany (2 centres captured).
I had hoped the AI to be better, but well...
Before the new year starts, we take control of Serbia and Greece (+2 centers), so we can build two armies. There are only two possible locations: VIEnna and BUDapest, so no vote on army building this turn. We have 5 armies.
For the record, there was no risk of losing Serbia, and so no reason to support it defensively. The Turkish could only attack Serbia with one army, so it would have bounced due to 1:1 battle, and we would have kept Serbia. Saying this for the more junior diplomats here :).
Spring 1901:
We now have 5 armies to command (France: 6!). I am not going to write all the possible orders because there are a lot of them. Time to vote for the movements of:
A VIE
A BUD
A SER
A TRI
F GRE
Heh, I just can't find any logic in the actions of Italy. And I'm not only one; in fact, we just received a letter from the Merchants of Venice where they are requesting to become a part of Austria. I think we should approve their request, but not to alert the Italian government, we move through the Alps.
A TRI - TYR
That many Russians near our borders can never be a good sign, so we must strengthen our Eastern border:
A VIE - GAL
A BUD S A VIE - GAL
A SER Hold
F GRE - ION
I've not been available for a couple of days and it feels like this game has been moving as swiftly as a horde of winged hussars charging across a plain!
Here's my tentative list of orders. I'm thinking it could be a good idea to leave some troops holding territory to defend from possible Northern aggressions.
A SER-BUL
F GRE S A SER-BUL
A VIE S A BUD
I wonder if the old saying that where two are fighting, the third is profiting, can be useful for us here?
A VIE - GAL
A BUD - SER
A SER - BUL
A TRI - VEN
F GRE S A BUL
The votes so far (14 in total). Everyone agrees that Italy should be punished for being stupid and a small plurarity to also piss the Ottomans off.
A VIE:
A VIE-GAL:5
KarbonKitty (ZG), Operative Lynx (ZG), Hag (Codex), Luka-Boy (Codex), Flockingbird (ParadoxOT)
A VIE S A BUD:1
Argyraspide (ZG)
A VIE - BUD:1
Modron (Codex)
A VIE Holds:1
Lucumo (Codex)
A VIE - TYR:6
Premu (PDX-OT) Avernite (PDX-OT) Trinitrotoluen (PDX-OT) elektrizikekswerk (PDX-OT), Catacombs (Codex), LouisSteColombe(PDX-OT)
A BUD:
A BUD-SER:1
KarbonKitty (ZG)
A BUD-GAL:3
Premu (PDX-OT) Trinitrotoluen (PDX-OT), LouisSteColombe(PDX-OT)
A BUD S A SER-BUL:1
Lucumo (Codex)
A BUD Holds:1
Argyraspide (ZG)
A BUD S A VIE-GAL :1
Operative Lynx (ZG)
A BUD - RUM:6
Modron (Codex) Hag (Codex) Luka-Boy (Codex) Avernite (PDX-OT), Catacombs (Codex),Flockingbird (ParadoxOT)
A BUD S A SER-RUM:1
elektrizikekswerk (PDX-OT)
A SER
A SER-BUL:3
KarbonKitty (ZG) Argyraspide (ZG) Lucumo (Codex)
A SER Holds:1
Operative Lynx (ZG)
A SER S A BUD-RUM:6
Modron (Codex) Hag (Codex) Luka-Boy (Codex) Avernite (PDX-OT), Catacombs (Codex),Flockingbird (ParadoxOT)
A SER-GRE:2
Premu (PDX-OT) Trinitrotoluen (PDX-OT)
A SER-RUM:2
elektrizikekswerk (PDX-OT),LouisSteColombe(PDX-OT)
A TRI
A TRI - VEN:10
KarbonKitty (ZG) Hag (Codex) Luka-Boy (Codex) Premu (PDX-OT) Modron (Codex) Avernite (PDX-OT) Trinitrotoluen (PDX-OT)elektrizikekswerk (PDX-OT), Flockingbird (ParadoxOT),LouisSteColombe(PDX-OT)
A TRI - TYR:1
Operative Lynx (ZG)
A TRI S VIE-TYR:1
Catacombs (Codex)
A TRI Holds:1
Argyraspide (ZG)
A TRI - SER:1
Lucumo (Codex)
F GRE
F GRE-ION:6
Operative Lynx (ZG) Premu (PDX-OT) Avernite (PDX-OT) Trinitrotoluen (PDX-OT) elektrizikekswerk (PDX-OT),Flockingbird (ParadoxOT)
F GRE-AEG:4
Hag (Codex) Luka-Boy (Codex),Catacombs (Codex),LouisSteColombe(PDX-OT)
F GRE S A BUL:1
KarbonKitty (ZG)
F GRE S A SER:1
Modron (Codex)
F GRE S A SER-BUL:2
Argyraspide (ZG) Lucumo (Codex)
Final results (14 votes):
A VIE - TYR : 6 votes. Beats A VIE-GAL by 1 vote
A BUD-RUM: 6 votes, no challenge
A SER S A BUD-RUM: 6 votes, no challenge
A TRI -VEN: 10 votes!
F GRE-ION : 6 votes. Beats G GRE-AEG by 2 votes.
Update incoming.
As usual, I updated the voting thread if you want to check what happened.
Fall 1902:
Austria continues to expand. The rest of Europe is trying to avoid Great Powers war!
OK now this is frustrating. Here is the complete list of orders from the other powers:
Russia : A UKR S F RUM
OE: A CON S A BUL
Italy: F GOL C A TUS-SPA
Italy: A TUS - SPA
France: A BEL - HOL
France: F BRE - ECH
France: A MAR S A SPA
Germany: F KIE - DEN
Germany: A SWE - NOR
UK : F NAO-WME
UK : F ECH-NAO
Less than half of the enemy armies/fleets move. As for the rest of the moves, well, they could just as well have been random.
In a nutshell: Russia & the Ottoman Empire don't move. UK just patrols somehow. Italy attacks France in Spain unsupported and fails. France moves only 1 army and 1 fleet out of 6 in total. Only Germany does something somehow useful.
I feel like this "interactive game" is not working due to the AI being idiotic. It is a good proof of concept that it would work with a better AI (or against real players), but I prefer to end the experiment here for this session. I don't think the expected entertainment value - or lack thereof - will be worth the time.
I apologize, but I prefer to stop now. I will pick a safer game next time. Meanwhile, thanks to everyone that played this game!
At least some of you were initiated to Diplomacy!
Sorry for dropping off, but at this point it's a smart move.
Of all the games that can be ported on a virtual machine, Diplomacy methinks is a terrible pick: it works on social interaction and, well, diplomacy. Not having a functional AI pretty much breaks down the ruleset of the game that requires cooperation/betrayal.
We did have a Codex Diplomacy game, I don't remember anything about it bar how irrationally angry it made me, so I guess it worked perfectly!
Hmm, based on that map France has now 7 units on board (6 being their maximum at this point). Did they really have 2 fleets in Brest? Does this game even work correctly?
Even if we had continued to prove that democracy is the worst form of government, we would have steamrolled this AI. Avalon Hill must have put the minimal effort in creating AI, raising the question why they even bothered to make this adaptation which truly was born obsolete.
Too bad, since the concept has the potential of being entertaining. Well, Merry Christmas to all anyway!
Very fair to end it here. Not your fault, but Diplomacy against AI is about the dullest game I can imagine. There's not even enough meat on the bone for an entertaining roleplaying session. Frankly I'm impressed that the AI manages to be bad at a game this simple.
Merry Christmas!
Quote from Operative Lynx on 25 December 2023, 14h04Hmm, based on that map France has now 7 units on board (6 being their maximum at this point). Did they really have 2 fleets in Brest? Does this game even work correctly?
Even if we had continued to prove that democracy is the worst form of government, we would have steamrolled this AI. Avalon Hill must have put the minimal effort in creating AI, raising the question why they even bothered to make this adaptation which truly was born obsolete.
Too bad, since the concept has the potential of being entertaining. Well, Merry Christmas to all anyway!
Ah! Good catch for the French armies. It comes from the way I make those maps: I have to take 9 different screenshots and put them together - that's long so I usually cut corners after having finished the first map and only update what changed - but here I did a mistake and did not update Western France; there is no fleet in BRE indeed as it left to the English Channel.
Merry Christmas everyone!