Object
The object of the game is to use your units to conquer as much of Europe as you can. Specifically, you must capture and be in possession of at least 37 of the 72 land spaces on the map - i.e. a simple majority - at the end of a year.
Draws occur if no one element can win in 60 turns.
Geography
The board is divided into a large number of spaces, each identified by coordinates. There are three types of space on the board: ocean or sea spaces, land spaces, and coastal land spaces. The type of space determines which units can occupy them.
There are 72 land spaces. Possession of these land spaces allows the powers which control them to raise and maintain armies and fleets. As they are also a central part of the game's victory conditions, they are the focus of much of the game's activity.
Each player is given four spaces. These spaces are the starting point for their owning power's initial forces. The players can then build new units at these home supply centers as they capture further supply centres. New units can only be built on a power's home supply centers. If a power loses all of its home supply centers it may continue to play, however, it may not build new units until it has recaptured at least one of its home supply centers.
Units
In Elemental Diplomacy, there are five types of units:
Armies can move to a land space that shares an edge or corner with the space they are currently at.
Fleets can move two times across water, or once on a coastal land space. They create phantom "tail" ends when they move twice. They can also do convoys (see below).
Artillery can move like armies, but for attack they must stay still and attack a space 2-3 spaces away (moore distance). They cannot defend against direct attacks.
Air units can move to any space that shares an edge or corner with the space they are currently at. They need the support of a unit that could capture their target spot to capture, though.
Turtlers can move like armies, but they must do captures on separate turns. They have the power of 4 units when still, though.
The speed limits given above can be surpassed with a successful convoy, where a convoyed army may travel multiple spaces depending on the length of the chain created by the convoying fleets. A convoyed army must embark from a coastal land province and land at a coastal land province.
Game Phases
Gameplay begins in turn 1, and odd and even turns are different.
Before each odd turn, orders for all of a player's units are submitted to me via PM's.
If a unit is dislodged as a result of the move (overpowered by other players), the player must submit Retreat Phase orders that the unit either be retreated to an unoccupied adjacent province or else disbanded and removed from play.
If two or more units attempt to retreat to the same province, they are destroyed and removed from play. A unit may not retreat to an "embattled" province, meaning one left vacant by a bounce/standoff that turn.
After even turns, and before the next turn begins, a tally is made of the total number of spaces controlled by each Power (all the element's units must have paths of adjacencies through unclaimed or owned spaces at the end of even turns, after the Retreat Phase). 2 land spaces can support one military unit, so Powers that have gained spaces over the course of the year can build new units. New units are created one at each of the player's unoccupied home spaces. For this reason, no more than 4 new units per player can ever be created at a time.
On the other hand, if a Power has more units than half the spaces occupied after even turns, then it must disband units of its choice until it has 2 spaces for every unit it has.
Powers may not choose to disband below twice the number of spaces in their possession, for this would allow players to replace units in the field with new units back home instantaneously. For instance, a player who has more armies than necessary and wants a fleet in order to capture a far-away supply center cannot simply disband an army and build a new fleet on a home supply center. (See "Movement" below).
Orders and the Movement Phase
There are four basic orders in Elemental Diplomacy: Hold, Attack, Support, and Convoy. There are also unit-specific orders: Attack for artillery and attack and capture for Turtlers.
At each Movement Phase, players may order each unit either to hold its position, to attack (or move to) another province, or to support another unit (either to hold its position or to attack a province). Fleets may also be ordered to convoy armies across bodies of water to coastal provinces.
Hold
This is the default for all units (what they will do if not given any other orders). The unit will stay in its position, and will not move, support, convoy, or do anything. Holding units can be supported by units in neighboring spaces or be attacked by foreign units. If the attacking unit has more units supporting it than the holding unit, the holding unit is ousted from that province and must either retreat or disband (see above).
A hold order is written as follows:
(Unit type) (Coordniate of the space the unit is in) holds.
Example: Fire: Air force (7,6) holds.
Attack/Move
This order moves the unit in one space to an adjacent space. Of course, there are limits to where units may go.
A unit may not move into a space held by another unit unless it has support. As units may be supported either in attacking a province or in holding a space, the attacking unit must have more support than the defending unit if the attack is to be successful. If the attack is not successful, the attacking unit does not move anywhere.
Fleets can move twice over water, but they can only attack and capture their final destination—if attacked mid-way, they do not complete their move.
A move order is written as follows:
(Unit type) (Coordniate of the space the unit is in) to (Coordniate of the destination space).
(Fleets can move twice.)
Examples:
Water
Army (1,1) to (1,2)
Aether
Fleet (8,4) to (7,3) to (7,2)
When the destination province is occupied by another unit, for instance:
Gravity
Turtler (3,4) holds
Water
Air Force (2,4) to (3,4)
Turtler (3,4) and Air force (2,4) do not move, unless either are attacked or defended by stronger support.
When two units with equal support try to move into the same destination province, for instance:
Time
Army (5,6) to (6,7)
Gravity
Fleet (7,7) to (6,7)
Neither of the two units can go into (6,7). Army (5,6) will stay in (5,6), and Fleet (7,7) will stay in (7,7). Again, this is assuming that these two units are the only two units in this little battle, and that they have equal support for their moves.
Support
Support is the trickiest aspect of the rules, and the most important of the game. Support may involve cooperation between two (or more) powers, and is the only way to make forward progress through enemy territory (unless you can convince the enemy to let you in). Simply put, more support defeats less support.
The support order is given in reference to another unit's move. That other unit's move must be to a province into which the supporting unit could otherwise attack. Support may also be given to a unit holding its position. In addition, units giving support can themselves be supported in their holding position.
Support is a unit's sole action for a given turn, and supporting units remain where they are (unless they are attacked by greater support and have to retreat or disband during the retreat phase).
Cutting Support: If the supporting unit is attacked during the turn by some other unit, its support is cut. In effect, the support order becomes a hold order, as the unit must defend its space against the attack. Note that a unit occupying the province into which the support is directed cannot cut support, unless its attack successfully dislodges the supporting unit.
Support orders are written thus:
(Unit type) (Coordniate of the space the supporting unit is in) supports (Unit type) (Coordniate of the space the supported unit is in) to (Coordniate of the supported unit's destination space)
or
(Unit type) (Coordniate of the space the supporting unit is in) supports (Unit type) (Coordniate of the space the supporting unit is holding)
Example found here {attack linky here}
Convoy
This move is used to transfer units across sea spaces, or to move large distances in one move. Fleets cannot be convoyed, and only fleets may convoy.
Let us say, for instance, that in turn 2 Life has the following position:
Army (2,7)
Fleet (3,8)
Fleet (4,7)
A convoy order would be:
--Air--
Army (2,7) to (4,8)
Fleet (3,8) convoys Army (2,7) to (4,8)
Army (2,7) will move to (4,8), unless another unit should prevent this process by dislodging or destroying the convoying fleet. If a convoy order fails and the convoyed piece could not ordinarily move there without the convoy, the convoyed army unit holds.
The unit being convoyed can be supported into its destination space by any other units that border the destination space, just like any other support. However, if the convoying fleet is dislodged, it cannot convoy the unit and the entire move will fail. Note that convoys are not "broken" as easily as support; a convoying fleet that is attacked but not dislodged will successfully carry out its convoy order.
Convoying fleets can be supported to prevent them from being dislodged or destroyed. Convoying fleets cannot perform any other order.
A fleet on a coastal space may not convoy.
Note especially that the convoyed army's order does not have to specify the convoy - the fleet's convoy order takes care of this. This could potentially lead to a situation where an army is convoyed without the intention of being so.
Attack/Capture
Artillery units and Turtling units are special in that they have special attack and capture rules.
Artillery units must stay still to attack a space, 2-3 spaces away. If they are attacked directly, they must retreat or disband, and the attack fails. Artillery units auto-capture spaces that they move onto, not spaces they attack.
When a turtling unit holds, it automatically has 4 attack power- that is, a unit supported by 3 others has equivalent attack power., but while moving or capturing, it has the same power as any other unit. Turtling units must submit a separate capture order to capture a space, and they can only capture the space that they are on. If the turtling unit is attacked with equal or greater power than the power of its support, then the capture fails.
Examples of each order:
Attack: Artillery (Coordniate of the space the unit is in) attacks (Coordniate of the target space).
Artillery (3,4) attacks (5,5)
Capture: Turtler (Coordinate of the space the unit is in) captures.
Turtler (5,6) captures
To avoid things such as leaks and command conflicts, try to keep info from players that don't need it, and plan who will send PM's ahead of time.
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Specifically, try to find ambiguities, inconsistencies, and stuff that forum games need that I'm missing. This was from a wiki page about the game Diplomacy, edited by me.
