Human vs. Human: A Multiplayer Diplomacy Guide

Features various tips and strategies on how to succeed in a multiplayer game, specifically in the Diplomacy mode.

Introduction

DEFCON diplomacy is one of the most widely played game types. With 6 players and potentially hours in strategic gameplay, diplomacy can be a difficult game type to do well in. From the start, it may seem that your odds of victory are 1/6. However, that is simply not the case. Through good communication, firm defensive strategies, and intelligent responses, your odds of winning can increase greatly. This guide will attempt to shed some light on the more personal aspects of DEFCON diplomacy, namely how to interact with your neighboring continents through war and, ideally, peace.

It is highly recommended that you have an intermediate know-how of diplomacy already. I recommend playing at least a couple games to understand how everything unfolds.

Isolation vs. Cooperation--Setting up for Success

A good winning strategy begins as soon as you place down your first radar station. Knowing where (and when) to place your units can be critically important.

Your starting continent is randomly decided, so instead of attempting to give specific tips for each, I will instead give general giuldelines that should be followed in most cases while setting up.

First and foremost, don't be the first one to set up your units. Most likely, the first few stages of DEFCON will play out in real time, giving you a dozen or so minutes to place all of your buildings and units. Ideally, you should spend the first few minutes in the communications window, chatting with your fellow opponents. But who should you talk to first and what should you say? Well, if you're Europe, talk to the USSR. If you're North America, talk to South America. If you're Africa, talk to Asia. To put it plainly, talk to the continent nearest to you.

Start by greeting them. If they do not respond, wait a few minutes. They could be placing units or be distracted by other conversations. If they do not respond after a while, that could be a sign that they are not interested in any sort of alliance or pact. If this is the case, do not worry: this doesn't necessarily mean your downfall. I will address what to do in this case in a subsequent section.

After an initial greeting, ask them if they would like to ally with you permanently. Almost always, they will say yes. If they ignore you, that may be a sign of aggression, especially if they greeted you earlier. If, however, they agree, then do not stop there. Ask them where they are going to place their silos and airbases. Ask them if they think getting someone else into the alliance would be a good idea. Typically triple alliances are:

NA, SA, Africa;
EU, USSR, Africa;
EU, USSR, Asia

Asia and the Americas typically get the short end of the stick. Why? They are farthest from the immediate action and easy first targets. The EU and USSR almost always ally, and they should. Their proximity gives both mutual advantages. The USSR can protect against North American and Asian attacks, and the EU can protect against American and African attacks. North and South America are also a good pair. By placing silos in Mexico and Texas, the Americas can protect each other's silos quite well, and it is very easy for them to see any threats. As an added advantage, by placing the silos in Texas, the EU and/or the USSR's subs cannot hit the silos from the Arctic. Yes, this does leave the majority of your cities vulnerable, but if you are skilled in naval defense/warfare, then you most likely can stop many potential attacks on your coasts.

After you agree to an alliance, the next step is to maintain it (and make sure it's legitimate). First, humanize yourself. Ask them where they're from and maybe how old they are. Just by them knowing some basic facts about you, they are most likely much less likely to attempt to betray you. As well, you gain a closer relationship with them. You're thus better able to look out for each other, plan attacks together, and help guard each other's borders instead of maintaining a cold war on the seas. This is especially true for Asia-Africa in the Indian Ocean. Many times this will be the first battlefield of the nuclear war. Make sure this does not happen. Talk to the other person before placing units. Ask if they'd like to only put one or two carriers in the Indian Ocean, and agree to do the same. This way you can position your units much better. It's to a mutual benefit and will help greatly. Trust is everything.

After meeting your alliance member(s), keep up a good communiaction throughout the game. Not only will it keep strengthing trust, but it can be helpful having someone else watch the map for any happenings that you should be aware of.

It is always good to have more than one alliance for a few reasons. Most importantly, since it is a 6 person game, having an alliance of 3 guarantees that no unwanted votes can be cast. It also guarantees that in an event of an outright world war, you will only have to deal with half of the world instead of two-thirds.

I wouldn't recommend making more than 3 alliances. It's better to have a strong 3-4 on your team than trying to juggle relations with everyone. Combat is inevitable, so there should be someone who takes the inital heat after DEFCON 1. Ideally, this person should be as far away from you as possible. Whenever two nations attack each other, you benefit the most by not being involved. Not only do they waste limited resources, but the attention is taken off of yourself. Staying under the radar is key to winning diplomacy.

To summarize:
-Assess your situation at the start of the game.
-Make alliances based on trust. Communicate frequently.
-Consider bunching your silos if you're EU, USSR / NA, SA
-Try to covertly influence the world to attack the person farthest away from you.

The Navy

Utilzing your navy is another critical aspect to a winning strategy.

A good navy placement is a good defensive placement. However, you must also consider potential threats from neighbors. If you failed to secure an alliance from one of your neighbors, it is imperative that you put a hefty fleet on the border. Do not place the fleet in an attacking position, however. Put it close to your land, in a defensive arc. Do not seem like the aggressor, or you may be kicked out first. The first person kicked out is an almost guaranteed loser unless quickly joined by allies. Make sure you are not the one attracting attention.

Always make sure to keep 3-10 units on your sea borders purely as a deterrent for subs. One quick note about sub protection: it may be much more beneficial to leave carriers instead of battleships or subs on your coast. Also, make sure to put the carriers in bomber mode. This way, as soon as you get the launch warning, you can launch a bomber at the attacker, instead of being forced to move to the subs location. Bombers are faster than ships, and they are much more deadly than battleships or fighters or even your own subs. Bombers are simply the best chance you have at stopping subs from launching all 5 of their nukes.

If another player demands that you move back your fleet in public chat, do so. But do it slightly. If that doesn't satisfy them, and they keep asking, say you already complied. Do not put yourself in a compromising position due to a player's random whims. Make sure to secure a good defensive ring around your cities. It another country is threatening your coasts, ask them nicely in private chat to move back. If they continue, announce it in public chat. If they keep going, attempt a vote to kick them out and also request help from allies. With their help and votes, the player will be kicked and face several simultaneous attacks.

Use your subs' active mode as a further deterrent to getting attacked. Use your subs' passsive mode if you think a hostile continent may attack you and you want to be ready to launch a counter attack. Use your subs' nukes on enemy ships (yes this works) if you are close enough and their ships are very close to each other. You may be able to take out a fair percentage of their ships with this bold move. It may be much more effective than using their attack mode. The loss of the nukes isn't something to worry about if you can get a few good hits on their navy. This will put the balance of the fight in your favor and enable you to move into a better position to take our their silos.

To summarize:
-Be defensive, never aggressive.
-Put ships in reserve for the mid-late game to help combat subs.
-Be diplomatic but also firm.
-Use your subs effectively.

Avoiding Being the First Target

The most important thing is to avoid looking aggressive to the other players, but also not seeming like a pushover and an easy target. Make it seem like you are ready and able to counter any potential attack with full force, but also do not appear hostile.

Do not spread lies to try to get players to attack each other. Not only does it rarely work, but it frequently backfires and makes players suspiscious of you. Do not tell your alliance that you are planning to betray someone else, because all that does is make you look untrustworthy. Also, what if one of your alliance members is in an alliance with the person you're planning to betray?

Don't do a lot of public chatting in the communications box. You want people to know you're there, but you also do not want them to have you on their mind as an annoyance.

Do not ever launch fighters or bombers from your carriers or air bases. There is little point to doing this unless you are either planning a sneak attack (which you shouldn't be doing if you want to win) or think someone is going to attack you soon. All this does is bring a whole lot of attention on you. Even if someone launches a few fighers on you, do not reply in kind. Instead, mention it in public chat and then request a vote to kick them.

Do not request a vote to kick someone if you think there is a chance it will backfire. It's too big a risk for a small gain.

DEFCON 1

Once defcon 1 hits, within a few minutes someone will most likely make a first move. If it's not towards you, great. If it is, you should request a vote to kick the person. Once kicked, it might be a good job to launch your silos at the aggressor's silos. You can most likely eliminate at least a few of them, drastically increasing your chance at survival. It may be beneficial to just do nothing if you're far enough away and not a target for them. For example, if NA gets kicked and you're the USSR, it's probably best not to launch at them and instead keep your nukes as a deterrent in case Asia attacks. However, if you're SA, it may be highly beneficial to launch your silos to take theirs out pre-emptively. If you do this as soon as they are kicked, you may be able to take them out while they're busy with their navy. If you're really lucky, you'll hit their silos as soon as they launch and have virtually no resistance.

It may also be beneficial to hold onto your silos' nukes until the end game simply because it serves as a deterrent for someone to betray you. If they do, you can launch a full scale counterattack. Hopefully, it doesn't come to that point, though.

Keep an eye on your coasts. Someone else may see an opportunity to hit your silos/cities while you are preoccupied with another player.

Miscellaneous Tips

-Do not betray your allies unless you are certain they will betray you. Try to gain a reputation as a loyal ally and you will benefit down the road.

-SA is probably the most likely to win just because of the distance between yourself and other countries. Asia/USSR are most likely to attack NA. Africa usually allies with you just because they're probably busy with Europe or Asia. As well, NA may be able to take out some nukes headed your way if ther silos are on the eastern coast.

-NA or Asia are probably the least likely to win. NA is seen as an easy target because no matter where you put your silos at least one of your coasts is vulnerable. Asia always has an awkward position. It's difficult to manage the Indian Ocean, threats from the USSR, and the Japan/China area. It may be good to place your silos in either India or southeast Asia and sacrifice the areas around Japan.

-If if looks like you lost because someone betrayed you and now you're all by yourself, by all means, feel free to disconnect. You'll reward their disloyalty with dissatisfaction from killing the easy CPU. Don't feel bad if you have no chance at winning and want to leave. Diplomacy games are long and it's no fun to waste your time when you've already lost.

-Make a list of players that can't be trusted. You may have to find this out the hard way, but it helps greatly in future games. Once someone betrays you, you know their word means absolutely nothing. Feel free to nuke these punks right off the bat, because they'll probably be headed your way eventually.

-Make a list of players that can be trusted. Keep allying with these people every game possible. Your trust will be so hgih that you can be virtually worryfree the whole game. Make permanent multi-game alliances and have fun killing everyone else.

-Be friendly. People might not want to nuke you if you are.

-If you didn't know this already, place your silos together to maximize defense. Read about that in the other guides.

-It's survivor so there's no point in nuking someone pre-emptively unless they will eventually be a threat to you.

-Don't be afraid to get 2nd or 3rd but have an alliance member in 1st. Your team still won, and that was somewhat due to your help. What's the point of betraying someone last minute to "win"? It's better to keep that trust and have fun with them in future games.

-When nuking a target, send as many nukes as possible because many more will get through. Try to take out their radar, because that will significantly reduce the silos' ability to attack. Remember that airbases, planes, and ships all have radar too, so it may be beneficial to try to take them out as well.

[Furi_]

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[Harrison]

Russia bouta nuke da world.

[yellowtoad_]

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[TwofacedPlace45]

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[john helldivers (real)]

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[Theodorrex]

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[Derp88_]

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[TheBigCheese]

Ik, but still...

[Mr Lt Dr Cool]

This was written almost 4 years ago dude

[TheBigCheese]

1 problem with this guide: you dodn't mention that no one ever plays this game, so finding enough people to play diplomacy is hard :P