Put this up on the old forums just before they went down. Just looking for thoughts.

Diplomacy Variant Ruleset

Commerce

A variant that attempts to introduce the concept of trade to the normal Diplomacy ruleset, giving players additional bargaining chips in their negotiations.

New Terms:

Commerce Points (CPs): A new resource available to each nation. A nation has a number of CPs equal to:

SC's controlled divided by 3 (rounded down)

Thus all nations have one Commerce Point to begin with, and gain more at 6, 9, 12... SC's.

Trade Partners: Any two nations that have a Trade going between them in either direction.

1. In the Spring turn, a nation can declare that it is Trading with a nation for X Commerce points, up to his total available CP's. This information is made public. (Public means enemies can attempt to block routes. Possibly keep secret, in order for all Trade information to be private. 3rd Alternative: Have Fund Raider successes be reported to funder.)

2. Alternatively, a nation may choose to Fund Raiders with one CP. He must choose two countries - all trade between these two countries is blocked. This information is kept secret. Declaration is as Follows: Fund Raiders Russia-Turkey.

Ex. Britain could choose to Fund Raiders between Turkey and Russia. Any Trades between Turkey and Russia that year are blocked and have no effect.

3. Finally, in the Spring turn a country may choose to Allow Trade (Target Country). Any Trades originating from this Target Country can pass through land controlled by armies of the ordering power.

Note: Trades are NOT ALLOWED by default.

Ex. Italy announces with his Spring orders that he is Allowing Trade (kept secret? No?) from a country.

4. After the Fall turn (and subsequent retreats) Trade Successes are determined. A Trade is successful if:

-No Raiders were targeted at the two countries.

-A Line can be drawn between the two countries' borders (through other provinces) that has no other armies than those belonging to the Trade Partners, with the exception of armies Allowing Trade from the originator. This line can vary from sea to land and back as many times as needed.

If these two conditions are met, then the Trade is successful.

In the Winter (Build) phase, any country successfully recieving a Trade gains the equivalent of one extra supply in addition to controlled SC's. This lasts for one year.

Ex. Britain sends one CP to Austria, and the Trade is successful. Austria gains one extra Supply point and can build (or maintain) one more unit. The following year, Austria recieves no successful Trades and his Supply is once again equal to the number of SC's he controls.

Thus, sending a CP is essentially sending a Supply Point to another player. These rules are designed with the Standard map in mind, but I think that any other map with a similar ratio of space to players could use it, perhaps with some tweaking.

Issues:

It may be more beneficial and intriguing to keep all Trade information secret from the other players, save of course the Successful Trades Recieving (allowing additional supply). Sender remains a secret. This allows players to stealthily support other players without making it too obvious.

Possibly have one more order: Hire Security (uses one CP). This would let you 'guard' another trade against Raiders.

Should Trade be allowed through Switzerland?