This post is for new players who have read the rules, maybe played a game or two with equally new players. So you understand the moves and the look of the board, but the nuances of the value of certain spaces, the tempo of your moves, the probabilities of a move being taken... these things may be unclear to you.
Disclaimer: In Diplomacy, there are always exceptions and exceptions to exceptions. This should be treated as a general rule for beginner to intermediate players, whose tactical ability is more-or-less divorced from their diplomatic skills.
The first trap I'd like to talk about is one I've run into a few times recently (and many times before that!), is new players in England making a rush for St. Petersburg. The usual culprit of this 'good idea' is France, although to be fair anyone on the eastern side of the board could be culpable. Or England could come up with it on his own, as from a beginner's perspective it does look like a decent move.
So it's 1901. You've read the rule book, you're ready to try your hand at the board itself. You've talked to Germany and France and Russia and they all sound friendly but fairly non-committal. That's okay though, you've read some articles online and you know that a lot of people try to hold off going to all out war until 1902. France suggests you DMZ the English Channel. You're willing to give it a go... but you're not ready to go all in and send (A) Liverpool to Edi. You take a more modest opening.
France kept their word! Looks like you're going to get to pick whether to ally with France or Germany next year, and with a nice safe dot in Norway.
Good show, good show. And Russia didn't move north with Moscow, so your Diplomacy skills are really paying off! And France stayed out of the Channel, whew! You bring up Belgium. Neither Germany or France are keen on moving you in this year, but maybe next year, for sure. Your England after all, you don't need five dots in 1901. But they both seem okay with you moving there so long as you're fine with a bounce. Well, might as well you don't want to just HOLD.
You get a dot. Sure it's one less than the Frogs or Jerrys have managed, but that's okay you have the advantage of a 'corner' start. And it looks like Russian and Germany are at each other's throats. France's navy is way down on the other end of the board now, and he's even done you the decency of building his second fleet all the way away in Marseille. Not like the German and his bloody fleet right there in Kiel!
France comes to you weeping and moaning. "THREE GERMAN ARMIES ON MY BORDER. And me with an army all the way down in Portugal acting useless! However shall we combat this?"
"Well, if my army was in Belg-"
"Yes, yes genius!" The Frenchman cries. "Let it be so. Picardy supports Yorkshire to Belgium!" I will hold the fort in the meantime!
"You know..." The Frenchman adds. "If Germany and Russia are at war, I bet you could pick up St. Peter if you wanted. "Maybe not right away," he adds, "but if Norway went to Barents and Edi went to NWG, I bet you could pull it off in a turn or two!"
It does look enticing. It borders your rightful frontier province of Norway, it's only three jumps from Edi... and hey you've got all these fleets just hanging around with nobody to fight.
You know what: scratch that, you tell France now that you've thought about it. You've done your research. What's the point of sending the BEF to Belgium only to have the whole lot of them gunned down by three German armies. Oh sure, you could support them from Picardy and North... if Helgoland doesn't sail into the North Sea. The attack is going to come from Burgundy most likely so Paris can't cut it in the fall. Belgium can wait.
"Well, I suppose you might as well convoy to Norway and get Sweden too if you can. At least then you can build and land with a strong force. I'll do what I can here."
MUCH better! "Well done!" France exclaims. "Now quick, into St. Peter while it's open... but you better take from Barents - we are going to need that army closer to Germany!"
That makes sense. And it's not like Russia is going to be able to do anything about it. The next turn you sail in. In fact, you even convoy to Belgium, only now it's a build phase!
"We could take out Jerry for sure if we just had more fleets to break the stalemate in Helgoland and Denmark," France points out helpfully. "I'd bring mine up from the south if I could - I guess I should have built in Brest but I didn't want to alienate you..."
"No problem," you reply helpfully. "Fleet London on the way."
And a year later your board looks like this.
Yes, a lot of the filler moves of other powers were cobbled together, they might not be the most realistic. On the other hand, stranger boards have happened. The key takeaways though are I've seen this play out scores of times with different move sets but the song remains the same.
1. Early St. Pete by England ends with a French Fleet in Liverpool.
2. Fleet in St. Pete is a dead end, ends up being one unit holding one dot, and Russia can basically ignore it.
3. France with three armies can hold out against Germany for a very long time, no matter if they start out of position.
4. Marseilles is not as far from MAO/NAO as you might like to think.
I will discuss intermediate gains that can be taken in Scandinavia in a later post, but unless you can commit to Baltic dominance, then new players should always be wary of the St. Peter cul-de-sac and if France is singing you a song too good to be true, it probably is. As a new player having a crack at England, your front door is North Sea your back door is Liverpool. France's sword into your vitals is MAO (it's also his weakness - an English fleet in MAO is usually worth a dot at least in itself.)
Unless you have no choice, early game your focus should be dots that allow you to pivot on NTH and MAO. Den, Kie, Hol if you're against Germany. Bre, Spa, Por if you're against France. Belgium either way. Anything else is almost certainly a trap for the inexperienced player.
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