@YCHTT
I am Christian Dreyer, former WDC champion from Sweden (nowadays Finland) . I have been playing diplomacy FTF since 1989, by mail since 1992 and by email since 1994. I think I qualify as a "dignitary from the global hobby".

"Am I correct in understanding from this that in the scenario where 'via convoy' is specified, a convoy is *not* given, but an equivalent land-based move is unopposed, the move succeeds?"

You are correct.

"JECE, I have read the test case, and in fact the whole DATC carefully."

David: Did you reread 4.A.3? Please read the overview of disputable convoy issue "4.A.3. CONVOYING TO ADJACENT PLACE". The specific test case 6.G.8 is just an application of the decision Lucas made in 4.A.3. I've read the whole DATC carefully before too, but I had to go back and reread it for this discussion.
http://web.inter.nl.net/users/L.B.Kruijswijk/#4.A.3

Frozen Dog: Yup, as to my position.

Christian, you are definitely a "himself". I suppose I qualify as a "himself" too, but I will skip the resume recitation. ;^)

Yes, JECE, I did look at that section again. I just come to a different conclusion than Lucas, for the reasons stated. The 2000 rules could have been drafted more clearly here and in a few other spots, but we must work with what they have given us, at least until another edition comes out. Over all they are an improvement over both the '71/'76 rules, which are what I first used, and the '82 rules.

Yeah, sorry about the arrogant sounding post. I forgot to put a few smileys there ;)

@vixol - I never would have known had you not just told us. It's not like "vixol" has meaning. And even if Manus were here with the ID "Manus Hand" , we'll we are dip players and Dip players, like poker players and Timelords, lie. :-)

Oooo... Dr Who reference! +1

Yes, but *good* Dip players only lie when its necessary.

And if someone came her claiming to be Manus, they could be a bad dip player lying to hide the fact.

An experienced and theoretically superb player might not perform great in actual play. It's like being the good football coach (eh, soccer) , you know how it should be done but you're not able to do it yourself. And sometimes the ones that do it superbly have no clue what they are doing ;)

Well I have *no* clue what I'm doing. I wing it all the time and could never do a proper EoG. I guess I could be (not am, just could be) a good player. :-)

I know a few good people who claim their best FTF games were played under the influence of beer ;)

Ahh, drunk Dip. Back in college (circa 1981), one of my opponents, playing drunk, excused himself, walked to a window, opened it, stuck his head out and barfed for half a minute or so. He then washed his mouth out with some beer, spat that out the window as well and returned to the table.

Charming

I do remember some FTF games back in days when you played postal, or at cons or on evenings where you or another dipper arranged the game to introduce a group of friends to Diplomacy. They tended to be after a meal with wine etc and negotiations went on in different parts of the house in 20min phases . I remember getting back to the room with the board to see its sole occupant - a 1 centre Turkey - slide slowly lower and lower he was on the floor, under the table, completely unconscious.

"What shall we do?" asks a concerned neophyte...
"Easy, record him as an NMR, his Army stands, and adjudicate the game ..."

Its called dedication to the Game JECE! LOL

I played a game at the British NDC. One player who had not many centers went for a beer (and a few more) and I got him to proxy his units to me. What he didnt know, since he was away having beer, was that with his units I could help myself to a solo. That was fun.

Hey, vixol, we might even have seen each other in the distance - in '73 possibly, though RL probs overtook me for a while in '74 and after... That's where RJW and I became friends ...

Oh, 73 was before my time. I'm Swedish (living in Finland) and I was active FTF player at the time when Swedish players travelled the world for conventions. Active British players were Toby, Gihan, Shaun D, David N to name a few.

Yep, certainly after my time; my best friend, Richard Sharp, co-founded the BDC with the insect Levine, and ran it for a while; the regular hard-drinking band of brothers? (ill-assorted misfits) - the Old Hardcore of which we were members - tended to meet up in nearby pubs and played our Diplomacy more in house cons.

I guess you mean Toby Harris, Shaun Derrick, Gihan Bandaranaike... I knew Shaun as a long-time Midcon organizer, along with my other best friend RJW. The others because I did a lot of data collection for the Archives and for a while was the Boardman Number Custodian in the UK. By the mid-1990s I only had minimal contact with the hobby ... After 2 decades of heavy involvement I'd moved on to other things (mainly working waaaay too hard).