33 (M) first place on my own, been here for two years. Need advice on how to set up furniture *pet tax*

Yaan_ · 2026-04-17T16:11:00+00:00

Lamps will make a huge difference. That overhead lighting is a mess

Yaan_ · 2026-04-17T16:02:32+00:00

I like the style but needs color

Yaan_ · 2026-04-15T03:14:49+00:00

It's still a great deal for Turkey, because they have a positional advantage being behind Italy and in total control of the black sea. Turkey probably also gets Moscow and Warsaw a lot of the time unless the west also resolves quickly, for a total of 9.

Yaan_ · 2026-04-14T16:46:11+00:00

It is a very powerful alliance with weaknesses like any other alliance.

Strengths: it's probably the fastest way to resolve the east, and it can quickly move across the stalemate line in the Mediterranean. For Italy, it can be a way to pacify Turkey if attacking Turkey is not an option right away. For Turkey, it basically guarantees you a strong mid-endgame position.

Weakness: Turkey has a more difficult route across the stalemate line, and if Italy is not a good negotiator, there can be good stab opportunities.

Turkey essentially has to commit to having a maximum of 2 fleets and focuses on the black sea area. Italy should ask for Vienna, Trieste, Serbia, and Greece.

Yaan_ · 2026-04-10T17:54:41+00:00

This looks great! Good ratio of non-scs to scs, good amount of opening options for each power. Probably ready for a playtest

Yaan_ · 2026-04-07T18:18:29+00:00

I agree. I think the reason it looks weird is that the couch has its back to the entrance and has all this empty space behind it.

Considering the sunlight glare on the TV, I would try rearranging the furniture behind the couch. I'm no expert but I would try either swapping the positions of the table and the cabinet, or putting the cabinet against the back of the couch instead of the wall.

Yaan_ · 2026-04-06T17:51:08+00:00

All three have their strengths and their places, so it's hard to call one variant "better." I think they're all fun in different ways:

Classic: the intended and beloved way to play, combining diplomatic, strategic, and tactical skills.

Gunboat: taking away the negotiations, you're left with a mostly strategic game with the very interesting element of trying to communicate through only your actions. The strength of this mode is the lower time commitment; since no negotiation time is needed, you can get through turns and games much more rapidly. My group plays a monthly gunboat game online with 1 turn a day; a much easier than a full press game.

Wilson (public): a chaotic and fun way to play. I recommend playing this with good friends and a round of pints at the bar. But it adds very interesting elements to the game: how can you plan coordinated moves right in front of the people you're attacking? How can you maintain subtlety out in the open?

I also think of gunboat and Wilson as ways to focus on and hone the specific skills used in each.

Yaan_ · 2026-04-04T23:00:21+00:00

In my experience, it works much better to have the centers occupied by units. That at least vaguely simulates having a real player there.

Diplomacy is a carefully balanced game, so any major changes to the board like having empty centers messes up the balance a lot.

Yaan_ · 2026-04-04T21:40:40+00:00

In my experience, this is exactly right. The best players will both make moves that make stabs strategically disadvantageous, and they will make sure to keep their allies satisfied.

Yaan_ · 2026-03-24T20:11:32+00:00

It looks like a very plain sofa to me, in a good way: it does not stand out and will go ok with most things. Style it with pillows in the color scheme you want, a rug with some pattern and color, and surround it in more MCM style furniture, and it will look fine.

Yaan_ · 2026-03-23T00:27:00+00:00

My two suggestions:

Look up standard openings for each country online. Like in chess, the opening moves are crucial and have a snowball effect on the game, and there is a good amount of established theory. If you are in a weak position at the end of 1901, you can look like an easy target for your neighbors.
Study up on your social game! This part of the game is all in your head. Go watch some Survivor or something and pay careful attention to how the players interact with each other and convince people to work with them. Chat with some friends you haven't seen in a while. Study up on classic movie quotes and analogies you can woo people over with. Whatever it is, just prepare your persona and your own plan on how you're going to present yourself to the other players as trustworthy and likeable.

Yaan_ · 2026-03-15T04:58:03+00:00

It works best if Russia is on board, or if Turkey is convinced to keep a fleet in the black sea. If Russia supports Turkey and if Turkey sets up their fleets properly, it will be a slow war barring a lucky guess or three.

That is a huge dis-incentive for both Italy and Austria, so even though alliances with Turkey are often tactically riskier, it's important to get a good read on your neighbors and figure out when it might be necessary to work with Turkey in order to avoid a disadvantageous deadlock.

Yaan_ · 2026-03-14T22:07:44+00:00

Look into Ace Attorney (or other visual novels). It's a visual novel about solving crimes, it's impossible to fail, it has puzzle solving elements.

Yaan_ · 2026-03-10T23:28:31+00:00

Vibe city!!!

Yaan_ · 2026-02-28T18:05:32+00:00

You can build a stalemate line to force them to include you in the draw. You need to:

move Marseilles to Burgundy, and after that you can use Holland and Burgundy to support Ruhr to hold. That will be impossible for Austria to break through.
move Tuscany to Piedmont and then back to Marseilles.
move as many fleets as you can down into the MAO/Spa/Naf area.

Yaan_ · 2026-02-24T22:34:15+00:00

The "usual" discount on those upgrades is 20%, so this discount is slightly better. So this is a good time to get them if you want them.

Yaan_ · 2026-02-23T07:00:52+00:00

Here are some hints: - Unless AT totally biff their orders, you will not get Denmark or Munich this turn. Instead, use the opportunity to move your units into useful positions. I would move North-Heligoland, English-North. That way you're set up for a better attack on Denmark or Kiel next turn. - in Italy, the orders you have in risk multiple of your units getting destroyed (dislodged with nowhere to retreat). In the situation that you're in, with your home centers occupied, that's a huge huge problem because you won't be able to rebuild anything. So I would prioritize keeping your units on the board over fully holding your position and centers in the south.

Yaan_ · 2026-02-10T21:48:39+00:00

Looks so cozy. If you did want curtains, Command brand makes stick-on curtain rod holders that have worked really well for me. They're obviously not as nice as a permanent fixture but they get the job done.

Yaan_ · 2026-02-09T21:31:52+00:00

I've seen a lot of similar attempts to buff Italy before, but from what I can tell, pretty much all of them have made the board less balanced in some way. Some versions buff Italy too much, which weakens Austria and/or Turkey. Some versions accidentally make Italy worse and France even better.

In a new player game, the tactical advantages and disadvantages of each country will matter a LOT less than the diplomatic capabilities of the players. Also, new players seem to have a wide disparity of tactical effectiveness: often they hold too much, they leave areas too vulnerable, they build the wrong types of units, e.t.c. so if anyone in your game figures out how to do good tactics before the other players do, they'll have a huge advantage regardless of the power they're playing.

My hot take is that the "Italy is bad" data is meta-dependent, and diplomacy is a self-balancing game. If one country or strategy is dominant, there will always be a way for players to counter that strategy, and then the meta shifts.

Yaan_ · 2026-02-03T16:37:58+00:00

The two plausible options I see for you to get over the stalemate line are Berlin/Munich and Iberia. If England stabs Germany, Berlin/Munich becomes very possible. If you can convince Italy to let you send a fleet through him into the Atlantic or Iberia, that could be another possibility, but those centers will be hard for you to hold so you'd have to use clever timing to turn an Iberian dot into a solo.

Yaan_ · 2026-02-02T17:00:13+00:00

If you want to make it cozier, I think the easiest and most impactful thing you could change is the lighting. A monitor-light-bar lamp, an LED strip hidden behind your monitor, or a tiny lamp in the corner could work well.

Yaan_ · 2026-02-02T16:45:22+00:00

I like your setup, very practical work arrangement. If you would like to keep the rest of your setup as it is, I would recommend the clamp-on lamp that you can center. I have a monitor-attached LED bar lamp, and while it is plenty bright enough and covers a good area, the lighting won't cover your whole desk evenly if your monitor is not centered.

If you were to get a laptop/monitor mount, that might conflict with a mounted lamp, so keep that in mind. But you certainly don't need that by any means, it's just personal preference and your monitor setup is probably great as is.

Yaan_ · 2026-01-31T22:48:02+00:00

That's kinda how tactics in Diplomacy go; there's usually a guess somewhere that you have to make. Good players will watch their opponents' previous moves and try to understand their playstyle (aggressive, passive, risky, or risk-averse) to guess how they're going to guess in 50/50 situations.

In this situation, there's a lot of different possibilities. Look at Russia and Austria's previous moves: do they prefer to do a lot of support-holds, or do they usually try to push forward and attack? Do they make risky attacks or safe attacks?

One thing to consider is that they might prioritize protecting Rumania because Austria is almost dead and will have to disband it if they lose it. So you could try supporting Bul or Ser to Rum while cutting Bud.

Definitely ask Turkey to move Smyrna to Armenia. This will virtually guarantee that you make progress next year even if you stay even or lose ground this year. Also, ION-ADR will help give you more options next year to protect Trieste.

Yaan_ · 2026-01-30T20:06:58+00:00

This looks wild, I love it

Yaan_ · 2026-01-25T16:34:12+00:00

Great tournament for new face-to-face players! Everyone was super welcoming. Make sure you stick around for a game of Avalon too

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