Avital and I just finished a day long in-person game of Diplomacy. It was group based so we teamed up with our friends Nathan and Andrew to run France. The other nations had 2-4 players each.

Playing with a group was great – it was fun scheming together and we could also send envoys to the other nations. We did a great job of negotiating with our neighbors and that led to a fairly strong early game.

After a little bit of uncertainty, we secured a strong alliance with Germany. With a trusted ally to the east, we focused on devouring England. They didn’t stand a chance...

We then formed a triple alliance with Germany and Russia. Italy and Austria were staunch allies, inseparable. Our alliance slowly rolled down and put pressure on Southern Europe. By 1908, it was clear that we would win and our enemies surrendered.

Overall it was a very fun day and we had a great time with both the tactics and negotiations. It’s definitely worth trying this at least once, though I don’t think we’ll be playing again soon.