Human Shields - collateral damage

[Tripper]

I had this idea a while ago, and tried it out in Diplomacy the other day.

It's only useful in Diplo, preferably Premium Diplomacy.

Basically, the plan is to place your silos directly on top of major cities. This is quite easy to do with the exception of Africa and SA. Also, put airbases on cities and even outlying radars on cities if convenient.

This will have two useful effects in Diplomacy.

Firstly, it is a common tactic to nuke allies' infrastructure. But if an ally does this to you when you are suing human shields, they will pay a heavy collateral penalty. I was comprehensively backstabbed by NA when I played, and he ended up lost 20 points in collateral. Enough to take him from a clear winner to a narrow draw.

Secondly, it's quite common in Diplo to nuke only infrastructure and leave their population defenceless. Then, other players can waste nukes levelling the defenceless country. However, if you are backstabbed when using human shields, you will lose a significant part of your own population. This will propel you down the scoreboard and make you a slightly less attractive target. The other players will then be tempted to waste their nukes on each other, rather than pile in on you.

When I trialled this as Russia, I was pounded from all directions but still came in 4th, only a handful of points off the lead in a low scoring game (scores were also low due to the above-mentioned collateral)

I"m looking forward to trying this again in future (and seeing the collateral mount up lol)

Cheers, Tripper

[Solanum]

intresting idea

[NZ ARMY]

Strangely enough, I gave this some thought the other day too.
I think you need to be with good players - the kind that consider a request to kick from the alliance - rather than just voting 'yes' to the first request they get.
The longer you stay allied with your neighbours the better.
But certainly an idea with some merit.

IMHO.

[Dävid]

Was trying this out recently too, just to have more fun and try something diferent. It is definitely more of a subtle aproach, and very much dependant on the players in the game. However it is a valid strategy if considered in diplomacy.

All the Best

Dävid