I hope to open a blast from the past, quite possibly the LARGEST Diplomacy game ever played on the web? NWO (New World Order) is BACK!

I am getting back to the roots of this Redscape classic. Gone are most of the confusing rules that attempted to make the game more realistic. In my effort to create realism, I may have made things too complex and less fun to play. The game is back to it' simpler format and is back to it's crazy nuclear explosive fun.

The game is HUGE, the game is NOT balanced, it is quite unfair from the start!
With that in mind, the games voting structure makes a win by ANY power very possible and that balances the playing field making the crazy unfair, unbalanced game quite fair in the end?
The game has 50 players, each representing a current real world power, some are superpowers that start with multiple units (like the USA or China or Russia, etc) some are tiny powers that start with only a single unit (such as Peru, Senegal, Kenya, Sweden, etc) We also have many powers in the middle. Heck some powers like the USA, France and UK start with units all over the globe! (and note the WING units, not quite a powerful in that they have range restrictions and can not take ownership of supply centers, they have their role and are a lot of fun as well) Trust me, many if not most of the small nations will be eliminated early, but should they find a way to survive, suddenly the small guy doing "well" is a VERY attractive "partner" for a large power. If you are to do well, you must understand the nature of the end game voting format, it encourages alliances in a big way and it encourages all sorts of ways to have power groups of various sizes to compete for the win. This end game promotes a unique alliance system, sometimes secret, sometimes changing, but always challenging. Do not underestimate the political aspect of this game, power alone will almost never win, you must work the politics of the game if you hope to win! Do not think this is a game of power ONLY, power helps of course, but politics is most certainly a game within the game and best not be ignored!

The really fun part of the game is how it mirrors the real world in many ways. Those who have nukes vs those who do not. Those who have power vs those who do not, the protests of the have-nots vs the haves. Some of the current world hot spots boil over in this game as well. The game WILL start to devolve, to some this gets rather silly and I must agree, when the nukes start to fly it gets downright "stupid" and the real world could not survive what this world will no doubt go through. That being said however, the nukes are one of the most fun parts of the game ...even getting hit by them can be fun (not likely I know but play along and it CAN be a joy)

The game is called "Beer and an Airline" a quote from a Frank Zappa song. Check the game rules out at http://www.freewebs.com/tomahaha/nwosimplified.htm
But be sure to scroll to the very bottom map! (the one with the big beer glass on the bottom left side). This game is doing away with the Armageddon Rules, no UN Peacekeeping troops, no terrorism rules, no world opinion / three strike nuke rules.

If you have played before, you should still check out the web page, there ARE those few changes you want to be aware of! The biggest change is simple:
Powers are restricted in what SUPPLY CENTERS they may nuke. Powers may nuke any space on the map that is not a supply center, SC's can be attacked but must fall into a certain criteria:
You may nuke a SC of any same size or larger nation, You may also nuke any nations SC's that are ONE class size smaller than yourself as well.
...easy enough?

OK, here's the big "problem" with this game.
It requires 50 players!
It can take a long while to fill, it may NEVER fill and I want to be up front about this, this is a big undertaking and MIGHT be pulled if we can't fill it and that is quite possible (maybe even probable?) so please do not hold that against me or Redscape if we can not fill the game.

With this in mind, if you have any friends here or elsewhere that may be interested, please let them know. You need not be a Redscape member to play thought the maps will be posted on Redscape, they need not register (though it's freaking free why NOT register so they can post in game?). If they are interested but do not join, they do need to contact me so I know we have another body willing to play.
My email for this game: explorediplomacy (at) gmail (dot) com

You can email and/or post your interest below

The map is too large to post here
You can view the starting map here:
http://www.freewebs.com/tomahaha/nwo%20beer%20start.png

Those who have expressed interest so far:
(if you guys would send me a message so I have your emails, that would be nice)
I will try to keep the list updated

Illum
TheManinBlack
Ruffhaus 8
Corruptone
Sassenach
Crow cabinetmaker
Reuben
Feanor
Kender Commander
Mtodd
Orange (GMBobby)
Bbauska
Superant
Olowin
Telcontar
Archduke Russel John
Exgbear
Kal
Vidar
Roadkill315 (GMPatrick)
Talrus
Joe B
Sandiegosmith
Danivon
Admiral Corncob
Rolls
Comrade Paul
Sendric
Rewind
Dario
Mabbas
crawdadr
MauiPotiki
Grooloops
GPW


35 of 50

I will send personal invites to those who I can find in my inbox (though I need to go to my old computer for that and it's gonna be hard to find all, excuse me if I miss YOU, ALL are of course welcome! I will send to those I know from other sites as well, I hope you guys who are interested do the same?

Also,
Please advise if you have a power preference. No promises on what will be assigned (I may "ignore" your request but I will do my best to try and make the most people happy as possible, so if you wanted say France, and another two people already said they want France, speak up and say you too want it, don't worry about others, they may not be getting what they want and hell, the game isn't fair now is it?), I try to give the larger powers to players I know are committed to the game and I know will write to others. A silent larger power can ruin the game FAST, I do take measures to ensure that does not happen! If you want a particular power, speak up, if you would like a particular power class size, that may be even more likely to be accommodated. In the MANY times this game has been played (though not in a few years now) just about every power size has taken part in the win, superpowers of course do best, but the little guys have found their way to part of the win I think EVERY time.

I'm in. I would prefer a smaller power. Do you have anything in Central Idaho?

Central Asia? ...yes
Central America? ..yes
Central Africa etal ...yes
Central Idaho? ...no

Sure, count me in.

Put me in coach.

Never having played the game before, no preference.

Heh... when I played this game a long time ago I was eliminated as Iraq. I note that Iraq is now occupied by the imperialists from the get-go!

While I can't play, I encourage others to do so. I had great fun in the middle east while it lasted (7 game years).

Yep, the game STARTED way back before the US invaded Iraq.
It was updated (long ago) to try and stay current
Note the new Libyan flag (I need to adjust the banner still)

The game is FAIRLY accurate with a few exceptions
of note, the UK no longer has bases in Canada and Singapore but they are kept for THIS game.
The Azores is a national capital while they are not even an independent nation (it's there to add capitals for Canada and the UK among others to grab for some extra importance in that area)
Some mapping errors are there on purpose, the Caprivi Strip comes to mind ...it should extend a bit further than it does, plenty of small issues like that.
"stupid" supply centers such as a freaking ROCK in St Helena make little sense but they add a great deal of strategy to an area that could use it and it works well, similar such silly centers all over the place.

But the map and the dynamics follow real life quite well, at least at the games start before it starts to devolve into a nuke happy festival of loud explosions. The game does certainly devolve but it does show how incredibly foolish nukes can be and the way some protest the haves vs the have not's, it mirrors the real world well. You will possibly see the Arab world unite against Israel but just as likely you may find an unusual Israel working closely with Iran? It's 50/50 it might be like the real world but it's possible we see a completely opposite world in many ways?

It would actually make for a real nice teaching tool to have kids play out in class. Require them to learn about their country and have them discuss in reports what they are trying to do and accomplish. Draw conclusions to how the game progresses to what is happening in the real world. Ahh, but alas, I am not a social studies teacher!

my email is srtedesco at gmail dot com

my preferences are: Nigeria, Japan, Mexico. There's no order to them, if i get one of them I will be happy.

2/5 the way there and we are slowing down, I am not worried about it yet, I figured it would take at LEAST a week to fill, but after the initial rush we did slow to a crawl and that's not promising!
What I may try to do is take a look-see at one of the really old games that were much smaller, take one of those or one of those ideas and reformulate a smaller map? That could take some time and is not as well tested as we are at now.

I have told my friends, I have told my Mom, and I am telling you too. Do this as a service to your country!

I'll play; preferably something in Africa. South Africa is my first choice. Egypt would be my 2nd.

cheers,

sandiegosmith at hotmail dot com

D or C in S.America or Africa, no Europe or Asia please!

crow(Dot)cabinetmaker(at)gmail(dot)com

If I had friends, I'd ask them to join, too.

Slow to fill, not looking good fellas!
I did some quick thinking and need to go over the ideas in more detail, flesh them out on a map but I might be able to reduce the number of players while still keeping the same dynamics in place.

My ideas (off the top of my head):
The following powers are to be removed from game play

Canada
maybe the toughest power to play, if she does well, it's almost certainly as the lapdog of the USA, seems a shame to 'dismiss" such a large and powerful nation but this one was easy knowing how this game plays out.
To help make things tougher in the area, I would add standing armies (garrisons like we have in Switzerland) in the current starting centers as well as MTL and VNC

Guatemala
standing army
also remove as supply centers ELS and GML
This makes the region equally accessible to all in the area, not a cakewalk for Mexico, and while Mexico is the biggest "winner" here. that actually helps one of the real tough powers to play, this could actually help the game?

Peru
standing army in LIM
combine Bolivian LPZ and BNI spaces into one LPZ
maybe split AMZ space into east and west sections (might be a good idea regardless?)

Zimbabwe
standing army
remove BLO as a supply center

Libya
standing army in TRI, add a standing army to BEN
combine LIB and FEZ into one area, also combine Algerian GEO and AHA into one
Northern Africa is less congested and interaction across the Sahara may be encouraged by combining spaces as noted?

Serbia
standing army
add a standing army in BUD as well

Sweden
standing army
add a standing army in HLS

...these last two contractions help "decongest" Europe a touch?

Kazakhstan
standing army

Sri Lanka
standing army
Remove BHO (India) as a supply center, India now starts with two units
add standing army in DHA
redraw NIO sea zone so MLD now touches NEI sea zone (Brings Indonesia into the arena faster, also keeps USA a bit further from SRI)

Thailand
standing army
add standing army in RAN

Mongolia
standing army
remove supply centers BAO and LNZ from China

Philippines
standing army in MNL
add standing army to MIN

New Zealand
standing army

Those are the working ideas for the moment
this reduces the game by 13 powers, still a massive game of 37 players and still quite a ways to get to from our current 23. But I fear there is no way we can reach 50 at this rate.
I will draw up a map with the ideas and post later for thoughts.