DCTP Forums

First off, these are the rules, and only the rules. Most of the game is about diplomacy, i.e. bluffing, convincing, blackmailing and backstabbing, and these don't follow many rules. You'll all probably learn which kind of trick works and which doesn't while playing. As you are all beginners, noone is at a disadvantage due to this (though things were different if I were playing a well ).
Foremost, however, there is a very important rule (which is way more important than you'd think):
Do not hold anything that happens in the game against each other!

CONTENT

• Phases
• Diplomacy
• Orders and Movements
  • [li]Hold
  • Move
  • Support
  • Convoy
  [/li]
• Retreating
  • [li]Retreat
  • Disband
  [/li]
• Occupying and Building
  • [li]Occupy
  • Build
  [/li]
• End Of The Game
• Special Rules
  • [li]Coasts
  • Traversable Waterways
  • Special Situations
  [/li]

The game is divided in years, turns and phases. There are an infinite number of years, though seldom more than 10, until the game ends (see End Of The Game). Each year is divided in two turns, or seasons: Spring and Fall (which has nothing to with hopping around, BTW). Each turn is divided into several phases, in the following order:

• Diplomacy Phase
  • [li]Hand in Orders (can happen at any time during Diplomacy phase)
  [/li]
• Execution Phase (automatic)
• Retreat Phase (if necessary)(
• Occupation Phase (only in Fall, automatic)
• Build Phase (only in Fall)

All's fair in love and war. Well, not quite. There are some rules that need to be followed in order to ensure no "cheating" ensues:

• No obviously-not-faked or unquestionable evidence
  • [li]BCC functions of the PM or similar systems
  • Impersonating
  • Hacking or entering other players' accounts etc. in any other way
  • Direct quoting of large amounts of text (as a rule of thumb, anything up to 20 lines is easily quotable, anything beyond 40 is forbidden, for anything in between, it depends on the line length)
    • [li]Entire IRC logs
    • Multiple PMs
    • Extraordinary long PMs (especially ones including other, quoted PMs)
    • Exception: A list of move orders is always quotable, as they are easily faked and do not change when paraphrased anyway
    [/li]
  [/li]
• No interference between the game and the outside world (e.g. RL threats or similar things)

I think these two rules are pretty straightforward and obvious - as the game is about convincing and persuading, unquestionable evidence would destroy all the fun. And, of course, anything that happens in the game happens only in the game, and, for example, Conia mustn't threaten Kleene to never talk to her again  in case she doesn't move her armies how he wants. Note that especially not holding grudges is terribly important (as I stated above).
Besides these two rules, anything is allowed. Conia may swear to being Kleene's ally all the time and to never betray her while secretly plotting her downfall and allying with her enemies. Similarly, no matter how much xpon insisted in front of Conia that he will attack Kleene and not tell her about their scheme, nothing stops him from betraying Conia and informing Kleene about every of Conia's secret plans.
The only person you mustn't lie to is the GM, just like the GM won't lie to you


After diplomatic interactions have taken place and before the deadline (hopefully ), everyone sends a PM (or multiple, if corrections were necessary) to the GM. For every unit, the player can choose between four different movements: Hold, Move, Support and Convoy (if the player fails to give one, or gives an impossible or ambiguous one, it is treated as a Hold order).
After executing commands, any command that was impossible or failed for some reason is underlined in RL play. In this explanation, this rule only applies to examples outside of running text.

Hold
The easiest comment by far. The unit will try to defend and hold the province against any attacker: A Mun XXX means that the army (A) in Munich (Mun) will hold (XXX). Other examples:
A Ven XXX
A StP XXX
F Bre XXX
F NTH XXX

Move
As great as Hold may be, it isn't really productive. You won't conquer much by staying at home. This is why the Move/Attack command exists, which tells a unit to move in a neighbouring province: A Bud - Ser means that the army (A) in Budapest (Bud) will move to (-) Serbia (Ser).
However, armies can only move on land provinces, and fleets can only move on sea provinces and provinces with a coast. Fleets can either move from a coast province to a sea province (F Lon - ENG; note that sea provinces are always caps only), from one sea province to another (F ENG - MAO), from a sea province to a coast province (F MAO - Bre) and from one coast province to another (F Bre - Gas).
Note that two-way exchanges via the move order are not possible, as the armies would meet at the border ans start fighting. Three-way exchanges are, though, as no army would meet another army this way (i.e. F Kie- Ber, A Ber- Kie is not possible, but F Kie - Ber, A Ber - Mun, A Mun - Kie is. Also, any territory not named on the abbreviation map cannot be accessed (e.g. Switzerland or Ireland).
Further examples:
A Par - Pic
A Lpl - Lon - Liverpool and London are not adjacent!
A Mun - Switzerland - Switzerland is not named and cannot be moved to!
A Mun - Bur
A Ven - ADR - Armies cannot move on water!
F Edi - NTH
F Rom - Ven - Fleets cannot move over land!
F Sev - Arm
F MAO - WMS

Support
You can move your armies to conquer territory, as explained in Move. However, what happens if you encounter another unit holding the province, or another unit trying to conquer the same province? Well, in this case, your Move order fails, and you remain in the province you started from; nothing has changed. To conquer a defended province, you need another unit to support you: A Vie S A Mun - Tyr means that the Army (A) in Vienna (Vie) supports (S) the Army moving from Munich to Tyrol (A Mun - Tyr).
Now, if there was an enemy's army in Tyrol (A Tyr XXX), this unit would be dislodged. However, if yet another unit supported the army in Tyrol (A Ven S A Tyr XXX), it would be two-against-two, and, once again, a draw would ensue.
There are restrictions to this move, though:
First, a unit can only support a Move order if it could move to the province as well, and it can only support a Hold order if it could move into the province being held.
Second, supports can be cut off. If a supporting unit itself is attacked by an enemy, it will have to defend itself and be unable to support anyone. To further expand the example above, if a fifth unit would attack the unit in Venice (F ADR - Ven), the support of the army in Venice would be cut off, reducing the forces defending Tyrol to one (only the A Tyr itself), meaning A Mun - Tyr would work again, dislodging the A Tyr.
Third, only two types of orders can be supported - Move and Hold. However, both Support and Convoy can be treated as a Hold order, so instead of A Bud S A Vie S A Mun - Tyr one writes A Bud S A Vie XXX. If the A Vie were to be attacked, it would need three units (one attacking and two supporting) to conquer Vienna, though even one unit would suffice to cut off its support for the army in Munich.
Lastly, no nation can dislodge or cut off support from its own units. Yes, there might be situation where people actually want to do exactly that (for further information, see the complete rules link).
Further examples (orders in the same line take place in the same season)(assume all units belong to different nations)(if you don't understand why a certain order fails or succeeds, reread the rules above, and always look at the map):
F Edi S F Lon - NTH; F Lon - NTH;
F Edi S F Lon - NTH; F Lon - ENG;
F Edi S F Lon - ENG; F Lon - ENG;
F Edi S F Lon - NTH; F Lon XXX;
F Edi S A Lpl - Yor; A Lpl - Yor;
F Edi S A Yor - Lpl; A Yor - Lpl;
F Edi S F Lon XXX; F Lon S F Bre - ENG; F Bre - ENG;
A Hol - Bel; A Ruh S A Hol - Bel; A Bel XXX; A Pic S A Bel XXX; F NTH S A Hol - Bel;
A Hol - Bel; A Ruh S A Hol - Bel; A Bel XXX; A Pic S A Bel XXX; F NTH S A Hol - Bel; F NWG - NTH; F Nor S F NWG - NTH;
A Hol - Bel; A Ruh S A Hol - Bel; A Bel XXX; A Pic S A Bel XXX; F NTH S A Hol - Bel; F NWG - NTH; F Nor S F NWG - NTH;
  F Edi S F NTH XXX; F ENG - Pic;
A Hol - Bel; A Ruh S A Hol - Bel; A Bel XXX; A Pic S A Bel XXX; F NTH S A Hol - Bel; F NWG - NTH; F Nor S F NWG - NTH;
  F Edi S F NTH XXX; F ENG - Pic; A Bur S A Bel XXX, A Mun - Bur; A Tyr - Mun;
A Hol - Bel; A Ruh S A Hol - Bel; A Bel XXX; A Pic S A Bel XXX; F NTH S A Hol - Bel; F NWG - NTH; F Nor S F NWG - NTH;
  F Edi S F NTH XXX; F ENG - Pic; A Bur - Ruh, A Mun - Bur; A Tyr - Mun;
And now two questions on the last example: How "strong" were the attack on and the defence in Belgium, and how does the board look after these moves?

Convoy
Now, a lot of fun is possible with the rules we have until now (as the examples above clearly evidence ), but one thing is a little annoying - armies cannot move over water. This is what the Convoy movement allows: F ENG C A Lon - Bel means that the fleet (F) in the English Channel (ENG) transports/convoys (C) the army from London to Belgium (A Lon - Bel).
However, onvoy movements can only be given to fleets, and only to fleets in sea provinces, not in coast provinces, and can only transport armies. The following things should be noted:
First, convoys can continue over a multitude of provinces. Even moves like A Nor - Gre are possible if there is a fleet convoying this very move in every sea province in between.
Second, there are many possible routes for a convoy (in the case of A Nor - Gre, for example, the convoy could (among others) go via either ENG or NAO). The convoy succeeds as long as there is any possible route.
Third, a convoy can be cut off, but only by dislodging enough convoying units so that there is no possible route left.
Lastly, there are once again terribly complex situations possible, which are, again, explained in the Complete Rules.
Further examples (orders in the same line take place in the same season)(assume all units belong to different nations)(if you don't understand why a certain order fails or succeeds, reread the rules above, and always look at the map):
F BAL C A Swe - Liv; A Swe - Liv;
F Nor - NAf; F NTH C A Nor - NAf; F ENG C A Nor - NAf; F MAO C A Nor - NAf;
F Nor - NAf; F NTH C A Nor - NAf; F ENG C A Nor - NAf; F MAO C A Nor - NAf; F Bre - ENG; F Pic S F Bre - ENG;
F Nor - NAf; F NTH C A Nor - NAf; F ENG C A Nor - NAf; F MAO C A Nor - NAf; F Bre - ENG; F Pic S F Bre - ENG; F Lon S F ENG XXX;
F Nor - NAf; F NTH C A Nor - NAf; F ENG C A Nor - NAf; F MAO C A Nor - NAf; F Bre - ENG; F Pic S F Bre - ENG; F Lon S F ENG XXX;
  F Bel S F Bre - ENG; F NWG C A Nor - NAf; F NAO C A Nor - NAf;
F Nor - NAf; F NTH C A Nor - NAf; F ENG C A Nor - NAf; F MAO C A Nor - NAf; F Bre - ENG; F Pic S F Bre - ENG; F Lon S F ENG XXX;
  F Bel S F Bre - ENG; F NWG C A Nor - NAf; F NAO C A Nor - NAf; A NAf XXX;
F Nor - NAf; F NTH C A Nor - NAf; F ENG C A Nor - NAf; F MAO C A Nor - NAf; F Bre - ENG; F Pic S F Bre - ENG; F Lon S F ENG XXX;
  F Bel S F Bre - ENG; F NWG C A Nor - NAf; F NAO C A Nor - NAf; A NAf XXX; A Tun S A Nor - NAf;


Now that we've learned how to dislodge units, we also need to learn what to do with them. After all, they can't continue standing around dislodged for the rest of the game, right? For this purpose, we have the Retreat Phase, right after the execution of the orders. For each of his dislodged units, every player has to decide to either retreat or disband it.

Retreat
If he chooses to retreat his unit, he can move it to any province as long as:

• the respective may legally Move to this province
• the province is not occupied
• the province is not the one where the unit that dislodged it came from
• the province did not stay empty due to a draw just now

Example:
A Tyr - Pie (Yeah, there's no difference to Move orders)

Disband
A unit is disbanded if:

• there are no provinces the unit may legally retreat to
• the player fails to issue a retreat order or orders an illegal one
• two units retreat to the same province
• the player chooses to disband his unit instead of retreating it

A disbanded unit is removed from the board, and is no longer part of the game for all purposes.


First off, these two phases always take place after retreats, and only in a Fall turn!

Occupy
During this phase, ownership of any province occupied by a unit from another nation than its owner's is transferred to said unit's owner. Basically, this is the phase where you actually conquer things. Yes, that's right - anything you conquered in Spring and lost in Fall never belongs to you!

Build
We've now learned everything, from moving and convoying to conquering and disbanding - but we never learned how to get new units. This is what this final phase is reserved for. In it, each player counts the number of Supply Centres he has now (after occupying, that is). If it exceeds the number of his units, he may build up to as many units as there are more Supply Centres. So, if France has 12 SCs, but only 10 units, it may build 0, 1 or 2 new ones. However, units may only build in Home Supply Centres (the SCs owned by the player at the beginning of the game), and only if the type of unit is allowed in that respective province. So, France cannot build new units in Spain, even if he owns it, and can never build a fleet in Paris (duh ). Also, you can obviously not build in provinces occupied by one of your own units, as there may be only one unit it any province.
If, however, the number of units exceeds the number of SCs, the player has to disband units until they are equal again. If he fails to order respective orders, the units furthest from the HSCs are disbanded, see here.
Example:
A Mun (same for building and disbanding, you can only do one anyway )


There are two ways a game can end for a player:

• LOSS: A player loses when, after a Fall turn, he doesn't own any SC anymore. Furthermore, all other players lose when one player manages to reach 18 SCs.
• VICTORY: There are two ways of winning the game for a player. He can try to gain a Individual Victory by reaching 18 SCs, making him the only player of all seven to win the game. However, you can also choose to have an Allied Victory, i.e. a victory of more than one player. For this, all players still playing (i.e. anyone with one or more SCs) has to agree to that victory. Basically, you need 34 SCs or the capitulation of all your opponents for an allied victory.

Coasts
There are some provinces (Spa, Bul, StP) that have two different coasts, which need to be specified when moved to. So, F MAO - Spa is not a valid order, it has to be F MAO - Spa(nc) or F Mao - Spa(sc) (north coast and south coast, respectively). Also, a fleet that travelled to Spa(nc) can only start from the north coast, not from the south coast. A fleet that just moved F MAO - Spa(nc) cannot move F Spa - LYO now; it could move F Spa - Gas, though. Armies, however, are located on the land and not at one coast, and don't distinguish between coasts in any way. An army that just moved A Mar - Spa can move A Spa - Gas without any problems. The same goes for StP and Bul, of course.

Traversable Waterways
Furthermore, there are Constantinople (Con) and Kiel (Kie). Both countries' coasts are divided by landmasses, but have only one coast nonetheless, as a traversable waterway leads through them. This coast functions like a normal coast of a normal province. Armies can also move through the provinces without problems, i.e. both of the following sets of movements are possible (not at the same time, of course ):
F BAL - Kie
F Kie - SKA
F SKA - Den
F Den - BAL
As well as:
A Mun - Kie
A Kie - Den
A Den - Swe
Constantinople works the same way.

Special Situations
There are a number of very special situations that can occur in the case of intertwining supports, though, usually, their outcome is logical. Please check the Complete Rules link below the spoiler box.