Rules, Maps, and Country Assignments

[Jus]

Ever since I played my first Diplomacy game, I wondered what it would have been like if the game had included airplanes as a unit type. Of course, planes would have no limit to where they could go, over land or over sea, and they would sort of nullify the importance of armies and fleets. That got me thinking: could there be a way to bring aircraft into the game and keep it balanced at the same time? Lately I (hopefully) figured out a way to have aircraft, yet keep armies and fleets as strategic pieces that players would wish to build. In this variant, there are two kinds of planes (a sum total of 4 kinds of units) and two maps (included, with explanation, at the bottom of this post). The air units come with their own set of strengths and limitations, just like the armies and fleets.

Planes

Bombers:

These, unlike the fighters, may capture territories and supply centers. Available actions include Move, Support, Hold, and Bomb. When a bomber is ordered to "Move" somewhere, it is implied in the "Move" order that the bomber is moving to an adjacent airspace, and is not attacking a land/sea territory. The latter is accomplished by the "Bomb" order. When ordered to "Bomb" an adjacent land/sea territory (or even the land/sea territory directly below the bomber) the bomber will attack said territory, and the bounce rule will apply if a standoff results. A bomber, when Bombing a territory, can bounce with a fleet, army, a fighter plane, or even another bomber if it does not have adequate support. In a nutshell, the difference between the "Move" order and the "Bomb" order for a bomber is that, when Moving, the bomber is going to an adjacent airspace, and when Bombing, the bomber is attacking the ground or the sea, and must therefore contend with the armies or fleets contained in the attacked territory. After a successful "Bomb," the bomber goes into the airspace of the bombed territory, and an icon appears next to it indicating that the bomber has "secured" the territory. When a bomber has "secured" a territory, it cannot Bomb (or give support into) adjacent territories, and it may only move to an adjacent airspace. Upon moving away from the "secured" territory, the bomber is free to Bomb and support once more.

Fighters:

As before mentioned, fighters cannot capture territories or supply centers. They make up for this weakness with several strengths. Fighters are built in pairs, not single units; each supply center corresponds to 2 fighters.

For example: say England captures 2 centers in a certain year, and all of his home centers/home centers' airspaces are open. He builds a fleet in London and a pair of fighters; one in London Airspace, and the other in Edinburgh Airspace (he's allowed to choose where each fighter is built, since 2 planes can't occupy the same territory). If he has only 1 home airspace open to build in, he is allowed to build a single fighter; next build phase, if the number of his centers and units hasn't changed, and there is an open airspace for him to build in, he is allowed to build a single fighter there, since each center corresponds to 2 fighters.

Also, every fighter has +1 support against bombers; for example, if a fighter attacks a bomber, and neither has outside support, the fighter will force the bomber to retreat. If the bomber had 1 outside support from another bomber, both bomber and fighter will bounce. If an army or fleet gives support for a bomber to Bomb a certain territory, and an unsupported fighter is contained in the airspace of that territory, the bomber's move will succeed, because the support given by the army or fleet will beat the fighter. Basically, in this situation, the bomber has 1/2 support (vs. the fighter), the fighter has 1 support, and the army/fleet has 1 support. This amounts to 1 1/2 support lined up against the fighter.

Fighters can also disrupt convoys if ordered to do so, and they do not require support to do this. When fighter is in an airspace over a fleet, and the player whose fighter that is suspects a possible convoy move, he can order his fighter to "cut convoy," and if a convoy was ordered involving that fleet, the convoyed army will be bounced back, unless a back-up convoy route has been specified. This is the only instance in which a fighter has anything to do with sea-level territories or units.

Other Stuff

About builds: In the first year, countries do not have planes of either kind, but in the first build phase and all other build phases, players are allowed to build planes, along with armies and fleets, as best they see fit. Remember, 1 supply center corresponds to 1 bomber, 1 fleet, 1 army, OR 2 fighters.

And, to be totally clear, there can be, say, an army in a territory over which flies a plane. You just can't have two planes in the same airspace, nor can you have two sea-level units (armies or fleets) in the same territory.


So you have the basic concepts of the planes and the variant, and I'm quite open to ideas regarding changes in the rules, abilities of bombers and fighters, etc. If you have any questions, ask them. Below are the two maps which are required for this variant: the normal map (on the bottom), with icons denoting the presence of armies, fleets, and bombers which have "secured" their territories, and the "airspace" map (on the top), where icons denoting the presence of planes are (will be) located. The purpose of two maps is to prevent one map from having to deal with all 4 units (which can be quite confusing).

More on Support

Support in this game follows the basic principle in Classic: the supporting unit must have been able to move to the attacked/supported-into territory itself. Army Sweden supporting Army Kiel to Denmark is a legal move, because Sweden could have, in theory, moved to Denmark. Thus, because fighters cannot move to sea-level territories and only to airspaces, support cannot be provided to a fighter by an army or a fleet, or vice versa. However, the case is different with bombers. Bombers have the "Bomb" order, which indicates that they are attacking a sea-level territory and not an airspace (a move to an airspace is the "Move" order). They must therefore contend with the army or fleet that is contained in the attacked territory. This means that they are able to receive support from armies/fleets if they are Bombing.

If a bomber is ordered to "Support" something, it could be another bomber, or a fighter, or an army/fleet. Whether or not the bomber is supporting into an airspace or sea-level territory does have to be specified. When a bomber supports a fellow bomber to "Bomb," it must include the fact that it is, indeed, supporting that bomber to "Bomb" and not to "Move." When "Moving" or supporting to "Move," bombers must specify the territories as airspaces (e.g., bomber Edinburgh SUPPORT bomber Norwegian Sea Airspace MOVE North Sea Airspace).

Maps

[Jus]

Country assignments:

General Jaster -- Germany

Epcylum -- Austria

Firestorm94 -- France

Jstott -- Turkey

Lordelindel -- Russia

Raytheruler -- Italy

Trouble -- England

[Jus]

Ok, I'm making a small tweak in the rules here. Before it was sort of unclear as to what kind of support a bomber needed if it wanted to beat a fighter.

If the bomber had 1 outside support, they will bounce. If an army or fleet gives support for a bomber to Bomb a certain territory, and a fighter is contained in the airspace of that territory, the bomber's move will succeed, because the support given by the army or fleet will beat the fighter.

Changed to:

If the bomber had 1 outside support from another bomber, both bomber and fighter will bounce. If an army or fleet gives support for a bomber to Bomb a certain territory, and an unsupported fighter is contained in the airspace of that territory, the bomber's move will succeed, because the support given by the army or fleet will beat the fighter. Basically, in this situation, the bomber has 1/2 support (vs. the fighter), the fighter has 1 support, and the army/fleet has 1 support. This amounts to 1 1/2 support lined up against the fighter.

[overlord170]

I think the arispace above Switzerland should be open.