Welcome all to this first ever World War IV game in diplomaticcorp!

GENERAL:
I’m amazed that we filled up 35 players in about a week and a half, this must be an insanely popular variant! By my count we have about 20 diplomacy veterans and 15 relative newbies in the mix. However – I have had at least a minimal discourse with all that have joined, and believe we have a solid group of players that all have the basics of the game firmly in hand, and should have hopefully very few problems with NMRs.

NMR:
For those who are new – NMR means No Moves Received… it’s what happens when you haven’t turned in moves by the deadline. All your units end up holding, and you usually get hosed during these times. Therefore I strongly suggest all players turn in PRELIM orders every turn. That is, as soon as you get results, pick some orders, ANY orders, and turn those in. They may not be what you want eventually, but you can always revise them later in the turn.

IF YOU CANT PLAY:
If you cant play, or don’t realize that this is likely going to be over a year long commitment if you do well (much less if you don’t!) then PLEASE let me know now. Because there are so many players, that means that many of you will get lied to, cheated on, and outright slammed with unexpected orders! This is of course the fun of the game, and if you would even think of quitting the game if you get slammed, then again, PLEASE LET ME KNOW NOW. You will put out 35 other people if you are not in this for the fun of playing it out to the death, even in the face of adversity.

REPLACEMENTS:
We shouldn’t need them, because everyone here is going to confirm they are in it for the long haul. Regarding Civil Disorder or Replacements tho, I will default to my standard house rules. That is I will not allow any 01 NMR. I will hold up the game, contact the player, and figure out what the heck is up. I will replace anyone that drops out in year 01. After that, once we enter year 02, we go with standard NMRs. That is if you NMR your units hold, if you NMR two major turns in a row you are out of the game and your country goes into Civil Disorder.

CONFIRMATIONS:
Every player must respond to this message to me, and confirm one last time, now that we have 35, that you are still interested in playing this game, and that you’ve read this mail, and my house rules, and that that’s all ok, and most of all that you are here to play to the death. You can find my house rules here: www.sims-family.net/dip/houserules.htm

COUNTRY ASSIGNMENTS: Random

VICTORY: Half + 1, or the first person to 50 sc with a 5 sc lead. That is only around 25% of the board needed to win.

DRAWS and VOTING:
Contrary to my house rules, in this game if you fail to vote, you will ABSTAIN and not be assigned the default vote of no. Any unanimous vote will pass, even if some players did not vote. However even a single no vote is enough to cause a proposal to fail. This is simply to make end-game-proposals realistically possible to pass. Players that don’t care to vote will not stand in the way of it passing.

TIMING:
1 week turns, with 2-3 day retreats. Deadlines on Mondays Wednesdays, and Fridays, at 10am Pacific US Summertime (5pm GMT). This means if you get results on a Monday, the next turn will be due the following Monday. If there is a retreat due, it would be due 2 days after, on Wednesday, with the following turn then the next Wednesday. I wont ever go faster than 1 week. Total turn, from results to adjustments would then be about 9-10 days.

EXTENSIONS:
I will allow each player 2 (two) 2-day extensions for the game… (3-days, if a Friday to Monday) That is, it’ll push back to the next of the M, W, or F. This could make a normal 7 day turn up to 9 days, or an adjustment phase up to 4 days. Extensions can only be granted in advance of the coming season, never for the season currently in play. I’ll track these privately in a spreadsheet, and never reveal who has used them or not.

BUILDS:
The game is CHAOS builds. (www.dipwiki.com?title=Chaos_Builds) There is no delay in the time required after capturing an enemy or neutral sc till you can build there. You can build in ANY supply center you own!

PROXIES:
You may NOT hand control of your units in this game to another player in game.

DELAYS and STAND-INS:
I will not allow delays beyond those granted above per Extensions! If you have a vacation, or other need to be away from the game for a period of time, then you can either make your best guess and turn in moves early (including conditional orders), or, you may pick your best friend or trusted player that is not in or ever was in the game – and declare him your temporary stand-in. I have 3 very good and reputable players lined up to fill in if necessary, in case you don’t have anyone you trust to do this for you.

ORDERS:
To ME: mike(at)southwall(dot)com.

INTROS:
Definitely welcome, and encouraged! So many new faces here.

FIRST DEADLINE:
You must confirm to me (per above Confirmations) by Wednesday 6/18, 10am Pacific (5pm GMT). Players not confirmed by this time will be queried, and if not reached, then we’ll take the next in line to get in the game. Once I get 35 confirmations, we’ll get a final game number, assign countries, and be on to our wars!

Enjoy,
-mike