Variants: Europe

Selfmades

Rulemodifications

styling, corrections

testet

Ancient Mediterranean © 2001, Don Hessong.

The Ancient Mediterranean is a five-player Diplomacy variant based on the empires that dominated the Mediterranean area during ancient history. The powers are Rome, Carthage, Greece, Egypt and Persia. Much emphasis has been placed on the playability of the variant. As for its historical accuracy, the game depicts a period of history which is quite broad - not a single point in time. The rules are consistent with the normal rules of Diplomacy, with some exceptions.

As this variant is part of Realpolitik a download isn't needed. For more information regarding this variant please have a look at the original infotext.

Europe 950 a.d: A chaotic time in which Viking is set. This is reflected through widely spread home centers of all powers. As no power has less than four direct neighbours playing a country in this variant feels a bit like playing Austria in Standard. Without real efforts in diploming with other countries there is no chance of survival. Other specials include holding neutrals and waterways where convoys are possible.

A very complex and difficult variant for very good diplomats.

Infotext

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Renaissance Diplomacy © Earle Ratcliffe and Michael Cuffaro.

Renaissance Diplomacy by Earle Ratcliffe and Michael Cuffaro.

Renaissance is basically a modification of Standard. As the name says, the game starts in the beginning of the European Renaissance in 1454.

To reflect the historic situation, there are different great powers than in Standard. For example, Spain as a great naval power throws it’s hat in the ring as well as the merchants of Venice.

The great powers start closer to each other than in Standard. This makes this variant more brutal and intense in case of negotiation tactics and soon to be realized stabs. And finally, you’re allowed to occupy Switzerland as a neutral SC.

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Another variant set in the 17th century starting in 1600. Nine powers fight a war to dominate Europe. This map variant is a bit more crowded with Denmark, England, France, Habsburg Empire, Ottoman Empire, Poland, Russia, Sweden and Spain taking part than Standard. Germany isn't a power itself in this variant but works as the Balkans do in Standard with lots of neutrals surely a point of conflict. Rules are standard with the exception of some canals allowing Poland and Russia access to the seas. For more information please refer to the infotext.

Conclusion: 1600 simply appeals through various changes in the balance of power if compared with standard.

Interested? Then Download variant files for Realpolitik.

This variant is set in the Renaissance period. A period in which new conceptions of the world grew and the sciences began to question the idea of an almighty power. But it was as well a time of struggle for the catholic church fighting against the "new" protestantic church. Those developments are exactly what this variant is all about.

Eleven powers fight each other in a war that is about confessions but not solely about confessions. As troops weren't as specialized in these days as they're today it is possible to change an army into a fleet and vice versa (known as Trafo-option). Nations can change their confession as well. How long that change needs is directly affected by that powers sc count.
But there are even more interesting features: All rivers are fully navigable and if a fleet moves downstream it could move two provinces instead of one while moving upstream. Last but not least religious warfare plays a vital role, e.g. if a catholic unit is surrounded by protestantic ones, it changes confessions what has consequences of its own....

These are only some of the features this variant offers. For the exact rules and or additional information please contact the designer Arne Senftleben at arne@xnot.net or take a look at the original infotext if you have some German.

The Realpolitik variant files are provided on Arnes Homepage

Deutsches Reich 1871 is a six-player Diplomacy variant.

The map of DR1871 shows the borders of the "Deutsche Reich" (green area) and its direct neighbours (bright beige area) in 1871. The division in territories is based on the borders of the different "national" kingdoms,
dukedoms and principalities.The adjacent countries are neutral thus there are no supply centers to conquer but they give units the permission to cross their countries. For a better playability some kingdoms and dukedoms are subdivided into further provinces.

Because there are no water-areas in this variant, a special unit was added instead of fleets. This cavalry-unit has a two-field movement, thus it can´t reach the adjacent countries of a territory.

Here you find the original info-text of this variant and the download of the Realpolitik variant-files.

This 10 player variant contains the standard map with slight modifications plus Asia and the northern and eastern parts of Africa. New powers are China, Japan and India. To travel from one side of the globe to another there are Offboard boxes who bring you for example from Japan directly to the North Atlantic.

This variant is part of the Realpolitik download but once more some minor issues had to be fixed.

Original infotext

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1939.Blitzkrieg © Stefan Mrdja.

In Standard seven nations are standing on the edge of World War I. Taking place several years later, the 8-player-map "1939.Blitzkrieg" takes us to the beginning of the second global conflict.

Blitzkrieg introduces several additional countries and supply centers. You can occupy a lot of new regions on the African continent, as well as many borders are new or different now in Eastern Europe or the Balkan region. This leads to a total amount of 53 supply centers.

Different to Standard, Spain is added as a new great power, Austria is replaced by the Balkans. Furthermore, the English starting position is split up, with two units deployed far from home in Northern Africa.

Download of variant files

Modern © 1995, Vincent Mous.

This 10 player variant is played on a map of modern Europe in 1994 and comes with Realpolitik. Every country having a larger population than 30 million (Spain, Poland, Egypt), starts with three units, countries with more than 60 million inhabitants with 4 units (England, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Ukraine) and Russia with more than 200 million with five units. Due to the number of countries the map is a bit more crowded what should at least partially be compensated by Switzerland being no longer impassable.

Here a translated excerpt of Germany's EoG from our first game of Modern: This variant guarantees a lot of fun during play but a definite prob are the very long ways to the front in the endgame. Occupying the Med is nearly impossible for Northern powers and vice versa.

We tried to solve this issue with creating a "new" variant called Modern Aberration. Now a power can build in any owned center as long as it owns at least one home sc.

Download of Modern Aberration variant files

Modern Aberration infotext

Original infotext

After our first game of Modern we decided to modify the variant because of the following:

Here a translated excerpt of Germany's EoG from our first game of Modern: This variant guarantees a lot of fun during play but a definite prob are the very long ways to the front in the endgame. Occupying the Med is nearly impossible for Northern powers and vice versa.

We tried to solve this issue with creating a "new" variant called Modern Aberration. Now a power can build in any owned center as long as it owns at least one home sc.

Download of Modern Aberration variant files

Modern Aberration infotext

Original infotext

Modern III is, as the name indicates a variation of the Modern Map by Vincent Mous. Ricardo tried to balance Modern a bit more by giving each country two home centers (Russia three) to start with. He further modified the surrounding provinces around those home sc's. Every nation has now three times as much provinces as it has centers. Additionally he deleted centers like Monaco and Gibraltar.

Maybe a more balanced version of Modern....

Original Infotext

Download of variant files