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Once I was in Diplomacy game with two experienced players, one intermediate (me), and four people who had never played the game before.

As it were, the two best players drew England and Turkey, and ran all over the board. Two of the new ones ended up with Italy and Austria-Hungary. "Italy," in particular complained, "I didn't know what I was doing the whole game." Meaning he wasn't about to play it again.

England, France, Russia, and Turkey are relatively easy to play because they are in the corners of the board. Germany, Austria, and Italy are much harder because they are in the center, and more easily surrounded.

If I had it to do again, I would have had the four newbies draw for the "corner" countries, and the three veterans draw for the three "center" countries. Would such a plan have made it a better, more balanced, game? And more fun for the newcomers?

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I don't think it would've changed the outcome at all. A strong player will walk all over weak ones regardless of which country they are assigned.

A better plan might be to play several "mini-games". Play for the most centers at the end of 1904, then take 15 minutes to "debrief" so that the newer players can get an idea of the strategy that was going on "behind their backs". Draw for new countries, and repeat, maybe playing a little longer this time.

Knowing that their entire day isn't ruined by a bad start and that they only have to wait a little while to start over should keep you from losing the new players, and the experienced players should be challenged by trying to repeatedly pull off strong showings. While ending at a particular year does result in some weird tactics toward the end, it should still serve as a good learning session that hopefully leaves everyone wanting more.

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"A strong player will walk all over weak ones regardless of which country they are assigned." I once heard of a history class where students had to play Diplomacy as a class exercise. The two best students wanted to be on the same team. "Fine," said the teacher, "as long as you play Austria-Hungary." They got crushed. – Tom Au Mar 11 at 23:09
@Tom Best students or best diplomacy players? Either way, it's certainly possible for new players to target a skilled player and eliminate them first. But usually the skilled player can find a way to make it worth people's while to keep him around and then slowly find a way back into the game. But as for Austria, I had more solos in e-mail play as Austria than any other country. – bwarner Mar 12 at 2:40

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