Paranoia + Defcon

[Soldant]

People stick to alliances too much, it's killing me!

In a diplomacy game yesterday, I was NA, while Europe, Asia and Russia ended up allied at one point. Russia was winning, considering it had Europe and Asia as missile defense (and I had my west coast bombed severely by asia).

Anyway, Russia was at 100 points, Europe at 68 or something, me at 58. South America (the other remaining member of the green alliance) just got nuked bad and was below Europe somewhere. Instead of going for the win and bombing Russia really hard, Europe decided to waste all his nukes on pushing me down more! No fun in a game where people stick to alliances


Course, I made up for that by betraying Asia in a freeforall game. We both had 270 or so points, he a few more than me. Victory timer starts and I unload 50 nukes from my silos, ending the game with 320+ points. (we were playing with 200 mil pop)

Sounds like an excuse for you to get frustrated

It's not less fun when somebody backstabs somebody else, but it can throw a spanner in the works every so often.

[worto]

Would you attack an ally to win if you are in 2nd place?

I wouldn't just attack them I'd laugh manically while doing it.

MUWUHUHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!!!


worto.

[Daxx]

I enjoy conducting a stab whilst still talking to the person who I am stabbing. Check out this article, it's got some interesting info about communication in alliances:

http://devel.diplom.org/Zine/S1998R/Dor ... exity.html

[Missile Command Kid]

Just finished a game that had atrocious connexion issues, but essentially half-way through the game there were only three human players left. I tried to convince one of them to kick the other guy out, so he agrees but because of "technical issues" he seemingly can't vote to kick the guy out. Yeah, right! I then ask the *other* guy if he wants to kick the first guy out, and he just doesn't respond, so I know something's up. Sure enough, I'm dropped from the alliance, and attempt to nuke the hell out of Europe (second guy).

There were some technical issues later in the game, as I could neither receive nor send any messages, but finally, FINALLY the victory timer started - and despite being ganged up on, I tied for first. Invisible, Jet, if you guys are reading this, I'd love to play again sometime!

MslCmdKid

[SLS058]

I recently played a game of diplomacy and I was a victim of a backstab

I was europe and I allied with Russia and Africa and we were attacking SA and asia

With our combined might we destroyed SA and had destroyed all but 1 of asias silos so I launch 3 silo loads of ICBMs at asia and destroy them.

After that, the victory timer still haden't started so I started to get a bit paranoid about backstabs that i send 6 carriers to Africa and 6 Subs to Russia. My paranoia had paid off when russia, still on our alliance, started attacking my battleships.

I ask Africa to kick and backstab russia with me but they kick me off instead

After I got kicked I launched my subs MRBMs but the subs were quickly destroyed, but luckily my carriers near Africa had found 6 African subs heading my way that were quickly destroyed. Then Russia launched 1 Silo load of ICBMs at me, none hit, Launched 1 more silo load, none hit. He launched the rest of his nukes and only a few of them hit. I also had launched multiple bombers at russia, only 2 or 3 hit, but they hit Moscow and Leningrad.

After Russia's attack Africa had launched And I had launched bombers at some major cities. Africa only hit me once or twice but my bombers had destroyed some of thier cities.

I had ended up winning the round at 84 points with Russia at 2nd place with 70 .

[furtim]

Defcon is one of the few games where backstabbing isn't just allowed, it's practically required. I consider all alliances to be functionally like the Nazi-USSR Non-Aggression Pact before WWII. Both sides entered the agreement with the understanding that the other side would inevitably break it -- the only question was when. So it is with Defcon. Your allies will backstab you. You should backstab your allies. But you have to know when to do it!

[grim]

It's only worth backstabbing to get those nice big juicy capital cities unexpectedly. Unless of course you're going to disable their silos and airbases to prevent them taking out your nice big juicy capital cities unexpectedly. >)

[Dunblas]

If a friend or clanmember, I will ask first.
else YESSSS!

[Feud]

If it is a hard fight, I'll stick with my allies. I won't backstab unless I"m convinced that the other team doesn't have a chance to win (when I backstab, I go solo). But, if my allies are doping well, then I'll consider it. I personally don't have a problem with finishing 2nd (or 3rd) so long as a team member is in first.

[cleverivan]

Yep, It's all about who gets the most individual points at the end of the day It's an individuals results game not a team results one.

[rawera]

If I'm in an alliance that is working well together, I'll take whatever place I get.

If I hate the guys I'm allied with (for the sake of geography) I'll take the chance to get some radar positions and free points.

[HUNdefcon]

When i play really fairly, and im in a good mood, i just used to drop 3-4 nuke to every allied capital at the end of the victory timer, but normally, YES, i'm a backstabber bitch

[shinygerbil]

The votes say it all

[Sydney CDN]

Absolutely, although backstabbing goes counter to how I play other games, once I unlearned the "stick it out with you ally" behavior I win way more often. If I have no hope of hitting first place then I will generally not backstab unless the ally was being an ass.
Played a game on the weekend where I was Europe & my ally was the Soviet Union. We attacked Africa & I took the opportunity to blow away the nearby Soviet Radar & Silos.
It was a blast. He finally looked up from managing his southbound bombers to see my last nuke hit & destroy his last silo.
I got a message that said "HEY MAN WTF are you doing?" rather than kick me or leave he kept asking what happened. I kept it up with "What do you mean?" & he would type out an explanation of how I attacked him & I would answer "When?" & he would retype the whole explanation & I would answer "No. Really?" & he would type the whole thing again. Went on & on. I felt bad in the end but it was a riot. Anyhow he got his revenge, I had friends arrive with a load of beer & only remembered the game was still running after about an hour. Was long over. Don't think I won that one.

[HermanKahn]

I typically go into a game planning to back stab from the very start, it's just a matter of when to break the alliance and do it. Some of the best, most chaotic games I have played with shifting alliances and backstabbing treachery are in diplomacy games. Even though I tend to avoid them because I hate survivor mode. Diplomacy once and a while is fun though.

However, I have noticed more and more people disabling team switching in the game. Considering that I feel like changing alliances backstabbing is half the fun of the game, this greatly annoys me.