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Babylon 5 Diplomacy (st04)by Theo Kermanidis
Babylon 5 Strategy & Tactics Article The Starting Units Each power starts the game in Spring 2260 with the following units:
The listed worlds are the respective locations where new units are built in the build phase. The Rules The standard rules of Diplomacy® apply with regards to the following:
The Phases Like in standard Diplomacy® the game year is broken up into its various phases beginning with the movement phase in Spring 2260. The phases are as follows:
Note: All games years and seasons are in accordance with Earth Standard Time. The Map The total number of supply worlds is 74. Some worlds permit armies to move between them without the need of a fleet convoy. These worlds are adjacent on the map. There is only one no-go zones where units are not permitted to move. This area is called the Galactic Bulge. Victory Condition The victory condition is to capture 38 supply worlds. Optional Rules The above rules permit the variant to be easily adaptable to electronic judges and thus readily permit Play By Email (PBEM) diplomacy. Here are some optional rules that could just as easily be adapted to be used in Face To Face (FtF) diplomacy.
Any or all of the optional rules may be used for game play. Regions Below is an alphabetical list of all the regions on the map and their respective three lettered name.
Design Notes In a word, this variant was designed to capture the rich tapestry of the Babylon 5 series. Yes I am a fan of the TV show that had spanned for 5 series each with around 22 well crafted episodes. In an attempt to capture the spirit of the Babylon 5 universe, I designed this variant to include the myriad of worlds and general place names mentioned in the series. It is anyone's guess as to what the intended Babylon 5 universe was ment to look like, but knowing the series and something about the sequence of events I placed my best foot forward in designing the map. For example, it is known that the Shadow Realm did use Narn as a base for their expansion so that I could only conclude that the Narn Home World is strategically located close to Z'Ha Dum and the domain of the Shadows. The Vorlons and the Minbari once worked together to stop Shadow aggression, and it was concluded that they were co-located on the map. The Drazi Freehold and other members of the League of Non-Aligned worlds were once cannon fodder for the Centauri Republic hence most of those worlds would share a corner of the map. And so on. It was tough going to get a map that looks playable with a general balance. It remains to be seen how successful those decisions were. There will always be an argument against the use of armies in a fleet dominated game, so why do the powers begin with one useless army? A good question. The answer is that there are an abundance of connected worlds where armies may roam between without the use of fleets. It adds a dimension to the tactical question that requires consideration for the would be Napoleons amongst you. How can you use that army unit to a great effect? Naturally the winners would have an answer to that question. There are many worlds, and probably there will be many a stalemate line. In time those will be discovered and an assessment will be made to the general playability of the variant. Hopefully it will not require too many revisions to get the overall balance right between offensive and defensive play. Time is infinite, but we are finite. So get playing! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
