WRITING ORDERS FOR DIPLOMACY
Or "My GM is an idiot"

Hi, I am Mark Mizak and I am a GM on our fair site. I have decided to take up the gauntlet and write a short discourse on writing orders for the Diplomacy game here on the DIPLOMACY 2000 site. One of my challenges in writing this essay is in keeping the subject limited to the actual writing of orders and not letting it digress into a discussion of legal vs. illegal moves. Perhaps someone will write on that topic as well later, but this article is limited, I hope, to just the nuts and bolts of writing your orders. I am not telling you that all my suggestions must be followed, but I am saying that if you follow them your chances of accidentally misordering will be reduced greatly. Plus you will have the added benefit of making your GM a happy man.

The first thing to remember is that your GM is an idiot. He has the intelligence of a kumquat. OK with the possible exception of myself this is not true. Our GM's are a hard working, bright lot who are trying to make the game of Diplomacy more enjoyable for all of us. But if you want to write clear unambiguous orders which will not be misunderstood then pretend I am your GM and that you have to spell everything out so that a four year old can understand it. At the end of the article I will show you how I write my own orders and also show you how the orders would be written as per these directions, these are not the same thing..

PROVISIONALS: Provisional orders are pretty straightforward. Provisional orders are those orders you thoughtfully send into your GM right after getting the adjudication. Provisional orders are there for YOUR protection. They are designed to keep you from NMR'ing. Remember two consecutive NMR's and you are declared in ANARCHY; you are out of the game, and most likely banned from the site. For God's sake, you don't want that to happen do you? So when you get the adjudication, turn around and send in provisionals right away. Now I can hear you saying, "But I haven't had time to think about what to do yet." And this is often true particularly in the latter portions of the game when multiple units and multiple enemies can mean truly mind boggling possibilities. That's OK, your provisionals can be that all your units hold. This is a common provisional order and God Forbid that something horrible happens and you don't send in a second set of orders, at least you haven't NMR'd upsetting your fellow players and sending your hardworking GM into worry mode, afraid that the game will be disrupted with a NMR and upcoming ANARCHY.

ABBREVIATIONS: On the Diplomacy 2000 site we use an accepted set of abbreviations for the regions on the map. They are as follows:
First three letters of the area Ex: Munich=Mun
However there are exceptions to that rule and they are as follows on land:
Lpl = Liverpool
Lvn = Livonia
Nwy = Norway
NAf = North Africa

Sea regions are handled a little different. First it is best to Capitalize all three letters this will help to identify the region as water for the GM. So Aegean Sea becomes AEG. Now there are also some water regions where the abbreviation is not the first three letters:
ADS= Adriatic Sea
EMS= Eastern Mediterranean Sea
GoB= Gulf of Bothnia
GoL = Gulf of Lyons
MAO = Mid Atlantic Ocean
NAO = North Atlantic Ocean
NTH = North Sea
NWG = Norwegian Sea
TYS = Tyrrhenian Sea
WMS=Western Mediterranean Sea

The reasons for the exceptions are pretty obvious if you look at them. Livonia and Liverpool start with the same three letters. Liv could be either of them. Now it is true that your GM in going to know that Army Mos(Moscow) -> Liv would be Livonia since obviously your Army can't go from Moscow to Liverpool, but we are trying to make your GM's job as simple as possible and using Lvn for Livonia and Lpl for Liverpool removes confusion.
The esteemed Mr. Tweedy mentioned to me a foreign country recognising that a Russian player ALWAYS uses 'Liv' for Livonia, and had fleets in BAR, NWG, NAO and IRI - he could order Fleets convoy Russian A(Stp)-Liv. It's unlikely of course but Mr. Tweedy tells me it has in fact heard of it happening.
Now the reason to use Nwy for Norway has to do with its two of its closest liquid neighbors, The North Sea and the Norwegian Sea. All three of these start with Nor so Nwy is used for Norway. This is much more important than the Lvn, Lpl situation since the three regions in question are all contiguous. The GM could easily have a hard time interpreting Fleet Edi(Edinburgh) -> Nor. this could be either the Norwegian sea or the North Sea. Or worse yet imagine this order Fleet Norwegian sea -> Nor. This could be North Sea, Norway or even the North Atlantic Ocean!!! So always use Nwy for Norway. GoB and GoL are both Gulfs so GUL would never work. We have already discussed the Norwegian Sea, North Sea, North Atlantic problem. TYS for Tyrrhenian Sea is to keep it from being confuse with Tyrolia. Now I know that no army can move to the Tyrrhenian Sea just as no Fleet can move to Tyrolia but the point is to make the identification as quick and painless for your overworked GM right??

Another reason to use the previous abbreviations is that they are the ones the GM finds in the adjudication program many of us use to assist in our running of the game. That explains EMS and WMS. We try as GM's to move your units where you intended them to move and if we have only one destination possible and the order though poorly written moves the unit we will usually do so. For Example: Army Tyr -> Mu. Now Mu can only mean Munich so I as a GM would allow this move. But what if it were Army Rum -> Bu. This could be either Bulgaria or Budapest so the unit would just stay put. So if you are going to use abbreviation please use the ones I have suggested.
Now a quick word on the way you abbreviate or symbolize them actions of the units themselves. You can of course write out the the words, HOLD, SUPPORT, MOVE, CONVOY, and CONVOYED TO, which is of course just fine. You can also utilize the first letter 'H' for hold, 'S' for support, and so on. Finally you can use the symbol of '->' to move and some GM's prefer just a dash to symbolize the move. A Mun - Bur for example. One other thing to watch is that if you write A Ruh S A Bel the GM will assume that the order is a support of A Bel HOLDING !! if the Support is for a move you must write the move out. A Ruh S A Bel - Bur is the way to correctly support a moving unit.

CONDITIONAL ORDERS: This is the part of the game that often frightens new players the most, when in fact in my experience as a GM I see far more misorders from faulty abbreviations or lack of double checking players moves than I see from faulty conditional orders One of the basis of conditional orders is the fact that all moves on the board occur simultaneously for each phase of the game. So the actual moves can not be conditional since all units move at the same time. But your retreats, builds, and disbands can be conditional to the moves. Your builds and disbands can be conditional to the moves and/or retreats. Though this sounds complicated it is in fact not. The key to successful conditional orders is pessimism, and paranoia, which you will have plenty of after playing diplomacy for awhile. Once you have decided on the brilliant moves you are going to send into the GM then let the pessimist within you take over. Consider the worst possible moves by your enemies and your allies as well. Assume everyone is against you. If there is the slightest chance that a unit will be forced to retreat then order a conditional retreat for it. Even if it would take all six of your opponents to band together against you, assume they will and order a retreat.
Remember that just like the original moves all retreats are made simultaneously so if two units attempt to retreat to the same space they will bounce and be forced to disband. Now you cannot stop this from occurring when only one of the units is yours while the second is your neighbors but you can prevent this from happening when both units are yours. If there is a chance that both of your units might retreat to the same space specify to your GM which unit has priority for the space.
Ex: Fleet English Channel retreat Mid-Atlantic Ocean
Fleet Spain (nc) retreat Mid-Atlantic Ocean (unless Fleet English Channel is forced to retreat also)/Gascony/Potugal

As you can see in the example you can list multiple retreat possibilities for each unit but remember the danger of two units bouncing in retreat and being forced to disband. In addition to deciding where you want your units to go in retreat and where to build your new units when you are fortunate enough to get that opportunity you need to consider the reasons why you wish to build or retreat. Often there is little that needs to be considered. Ex: You are France and in Fall of 1901 you take Spain and Portugal - lucky you - and you want to order your builds. So you tell your GM: Build Army Paris, Army Marseilles. "Hey wait a second," your paranoid mind says,"what if our 'ally' England moves to the English Channel?"

So you need to conditional your moves such. Build Army Paris, Army Marseilles UNLESS England moves a fleet to the English Channel in which case build Fleet Brest, Army Marseilles. Now before you can send the orders your little voice speaks again, "What about that German army in Ruhr what if it goes to Burgundy instead of Holland?" so you have to change your conditionals again to read: BUILD Army Paris, Army Marseilles unless England moves a fleet to English Channel in which case build Fleet Brest, Army Marseilles unless Germany also moves to Burgundy in which case build Fleet Brest, Army Paris (I can protect Marseilles from Spain). Of course this is just as true in retreating units. You don't want to retreat a unit into a space that would upset an ally but you might want to retreat there if your "ally" had just stabbed you so you can condition your retreat based on such things as well. The possibilities can become quite numerous at some times but remember that you only have three SC's to build on unless you are Russia in which case you have four and some of them cannot build Fleets anyway, so there are not going to be as many possibilities as you might fear.
Remember to word your conditionals carefully. Build fleet Marseilles if England attacks Germany is not acceptable, the GM is not a mind reader he does not know for sure that England moving to Denmark is an attack, after all Germany may have given England permission to move there, they might have an alliance. Build Fleet Marseilles if England moves unit into Denmark is better. Also remember that not all moves are successful. Do you want to build that fleet if England bounces in Denmark or only if he succeeds in taking the country. you need to decide this. I as a GM would find the conditional order Build fleet Marseilles if England moves to Denmark as an ambiguous order if England ordered Fleet North Sea -> Denmark while Russia ordered Fleet Sweden Denmark at the same time. I would assume that the move failed and that you did not want the fleet in Marseilles built. So be as specific as possible and if you are not sure ASK the GM (see notes later on acceptable questions). So you can condition your builds to not only whether your move was successful but whether another players move was successful or even if another player attempts a move, successful or not.
Finally, as a safety measure always include a final build order like this: Ex: If any situations are not covered in my previous conditional orders then for them build Army Brest, Army Paris, Army Marseilles. While you may not be delighted in the builds you get once you see the situation, which remember you did not foresee, at least you WILL get all your deserved builds. This is important. If you tell your GM Build Army Paris If I take Belgium-- and then you take Holland instead(perhaps when you retreat) you will get no build, unless you have the final Catch all conditional that I suggest.

MISCELLANEOUS POINTS: I would like to quickly make a point about Fleets and coasts. Please try to always include the coast the fleet is moving/retreating to even if it is obvious to everyone or even if there is only one possibility. This is a great help to the GM as we are not always looking at a map while we adjudicate. I know for a fact there are GM's who insist on the coast always being specified and I do not blame them--though I am not one myself. Try to remember that the GM is running as many as 13 games as once--the masochist known as Steve Turner is carrying this load as I write this--not to mention the games he is playing in, so don't assume he will immediately recognize your game and specific situation; if you have a question specify your game and country when you write to your GM. In regards to questions, remember the GM is there to help, but he cannot answer some questions. Do not ask him if a move is good--that is not his decision. Ask him if the move is legal--that he can answer. Ask him how to word a move, don't ask him "how can I attack Denmark successfully?" You can ask him if a specific order is clear, but remember just because it is clear does not mean it is correct.
Ex: Army Brest -> Belgium is very clear BUT is also NOT POSSIBLE.
Asking questions correctly is just as important as writing orders correctly, how you word the question will effect whether you get the information you are looking for. Always go to your GM if you have rules question. But if you have a pressing question don't wait to ask it till you send in your final orders, the GM may need a little time to explain the answer to you, or he might (in my case) want to double check with one of the other GM's. Try to understand what the GM is telling you. We are, as a rule, patient but some of our older GM's--you figure out who, I am not going to mention any names--can get curmudgeony on occasion when a player, or a new GM *sigh* is a little slow on the uptake.
In addition to writing the game information on the subject heading it helps the GM if you include it in the body of the letter as well. Some GM's don't look at the subject before they open the letter so if the information is within the body of the letter as well they don't have to backtrack.
While press and draw proposals are not part of ordering moves they are often included in the orders you send to the GM. When sending press be clear as to what the press includes. write Press: and then write out what you want. Remember only what is written after press and before End Press will be included so your press will be anonymous unless you specify who it is from. And yes you can lie and claim to be one of the other players. Remember if a draw proposal is on the table and you fail to vote it is a vote IN FAVOR of the draw. And you must vote on each draw proposal out at the time. Draw proposal votes can be conditional.
In my own orders I do not use abbreviations. I do this for a specific reason. That is I am a terrible typist. I am deathly afraid I will accidentally type Army Por when I mean Army Par, or A Tir when I mean Army Tyr, so I always write the names out in full, this helps me to reduce my potential accidental misorders. Also, always double check your orders before you send them in. Try to look at them in a fresh perspective to catch any errors, either in typing or in wording. Look at the map when you are setting up orders if it helps you.

From: "The Mizaks"
To: "Steve Turner"
Sent: Friday, March 16, 2001 12:15 AM
Subject: Re: ZEPHYR -Moves Autumn 1910 Turkey (1)

Good Evening Steve,

MOVES
Fleet Trieste SUPPORT Army Greece -> Albania
Fleet Tyrrhenian Sea SUPPORT Fleet Ionian Sea -> Tunis
Fleet Ionian Sea -> Tunis
Fleet Aegean Sea -> Ionian Sea
Army Serbia -> Budapest
Army Bulgaria -> Rumania
Army Greece -> Albania
Army Ankara HOLD

RETREATS--Units are given in priority preference if two units are both ordered to retreat to same area unit higher on list gets preference, lower unit moves to its next choice.
Fleet Trieste--VENICE--ADRIATIC SEA--ALBANIA
Fleet Tyrrhenian Sea--IONIAN SEA--ROME--NAPLES--WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA
Fleet Ionian Sea--NAPLES--ADRIATIC SEA--TUNIS
Fleet Aegean Sea--GREECE--BULGARIA (sc)
Army Serbia--GREECE--ALBANIA--BUDAPEST
Army Bulgaria--CONSTANTINOPLE
Army Greece--NONE
Army Ankara--NONE

BUILDS In order stated.
Army Smyrna, Fleet Constantinople UNLESS Russia moves into Rumania or Armenia in which cas build Army Constantinople, Fleet Smyrna

PRESS: None
I vote for the draw

Thank you
Mark

Now here are the same orders written as I have described above:

PLAYER: Mark Mizak
GAME: Zephyr
COUNTRY: Turkey
SEASON: Autumn 19010 (1)

MOVES
F Tri S A Gre - Alb
F TYS S F ION - Tun
F ION - Tun
F AEG- ION
A Ser - Bud
A Bul - Rum
A Gre - Alb
A Ank H

RETREATS
F Tri - Ven/ADS/Alb
F TYS - ION/Rom/Nap/WMS
F ION - Nap(Unless F TYS is forced to retreat and cannot go to Rom)/ADS(Unless F Tri is forced to retreat and cannot go to Ven or ADS)/Tun F AEG - Gre/Bul (sc)
A Ser - Gre(Unless F AEG is forced to retreat)/Alb(Unless F Tri is forced to retreat and cannot go to Ven or ADS)/Bud
A Bul - Con
A Gre - NONE
A Ank - NONE

BUILDS In order stated.
If Russia moves into Rum or Arm build A Con, F Smy
If no other conditions apply build A Smy, F Con

PRESS: None
I vote for the draw

Thank you
Mark

CONCLUSION: As you can see there is not much difference between the two and both are equally clear for the GM, in this case Steve Turner. The point to writing this article is not to force all players into a standard order format--though some GM's would like that, I believe-- but instead to try to assist you in writing orders that make it easy for your GM to do what you want most--to move your units with the least chance of an accidental misorder.