UESP Forums

Set-up recommendations:
I highly recommend everyone to download Realpolitik. It's a free download that you can get here. Realpolitik is the program that I am using for adjudication and for maps. It is also a helpful tool for players to test what could happen.
Once you have Realpolitik, find your Realpolitik folder (by default it saves to C:\Program Files\Realpolitik in Windows) and enter the variants folder. Create a new folder there called Morrowind and download the files found here into that folder. Doing so is necessary to play my custom map in Realpolitik.
You may also want to peruse some of the articles at Diplomacy Archive, though a great many of them deal with strategy for the standard game and so would not be very helpful on a variant map.

Board set-up
This board is divided into 49 provinces. 11 of these provinces are water, which should be identifiable by their light blue colour. 24 of the provinces are what we call "Supply centers." Supply centers are major cities and can be identified by the 'double circle' symbol. Note that some of them are islands; I'll get to that in a bit.
Of the supply centers, 15 are "home centers." Home centers are the supply centers that players have possession of at the beginning of the game, and they are shaded in the player's colour. You will also note that each home center is occupied by either an army (cannon) or fleet (ship) in the player's colour and marked with the initial of the power they are playing.
The remaining 14 provinces are simply land regions to balance the board and provide leverage in attacks.

The object of the game is to control more than half of the supply centers on the board, i.e., 13 on this map.

Fundamental Rules
The following rules form the basis of all other rules.
- The game is based around strategy and human nature. There is no random element apart from that which you consider associated with the latter.
- No province may ever be occupied by more than one unit
- All units are of equal strength. In order to "win" a battle, you will need support (which I will discuss in the section on spring and fall.)
- All players move simultaneously
- Players should be regularly communicating with one another, making alliances etc. You may say whatever you want to any player (please don't be crass) and nothing you say is binding. Of course, if you lie, you may be less likely to be trusted in the future.
- Don't take things too hard; it's just a game. Also, try not to hold grudges from one game to the next.

Gameplay
The game begins in the spring of 1901 (which is actually inaccurate based on the calendar of Morrowind, but for simplicity it remains.) Every year has up to five seasons: spring, summer, fall, autumn, and winter.

Spring and Fall
From a mechanics standpoint, spring and fall are identical, thoguh strategically they may be different because fall more immediately precedes winter. During the spring and the fall players "diplome" i.e. communicate, and issue orders.
Orders should follow a very specific syntax. You may also write out the order longhand. If you do not use the suggested syntax, you should be very clear as any ambiguously written order is a "misorder."
During each spring and fall season you may issue exactly one order to each unit you control. You issue orders by sending the mod (that's me) a PM. Email is also acceptable, but I prefer PM. You may change your orders at any time before adjudication by issuing a new set of orders. These orders will supersede the previous orders for all re-ordered units. The types of orders you may issue are as follows:
Hold
The hold order is the simplest order you can issue. To issue a hold is to order the piece not to move (and to defend its current position.) The syntax for a hold order is F Bla H (fleet in Blacklight holds.)
Any unit that is not issued another order will be assumed to hold.
Move
This is the basic move order.
Armies may be ordered to move from the land province they currently occupy to an adjacent land province (regardless of whether it is occupied.)
Fleets may move from open water to adjacent coastal provinces and vice versa, from open water to adjacent open water, or from a coastal province to an adjacent coastal province, along the coast. (See "special map features" later on in this post.)
The syntax for a move order is A Ran-Mol (army in Ranyon-Ruhn to Molagreahd).

If you move into a province that would otherwise be vacant, or if you attack with more force than the current occupant defends, you will successfully move into the province. If you move to an occupied province on the same turn that the current occupant leaves the province, the move will be successful, or likewise if you move uncontested to a vacant province. The following situations will result in failure to move:
Attempting to move to an occupied province with insufficient force to oust the current occupant (fails)
Attempting to move to a province to which another unit of equal force also attempts to move (bounce, nothing moves)
Attempting to move to a province to which another unit of greater force also attempts to move (fails)
Attempting to exchange locations with another unit (bounce) You CAN rotate three or more units. Also, you can exchange locations with another unit *if* at least one of the two units involved is convoyed (see convoy)

Support (defensive)
By offering defensive support to a unit you are essentially agreeing that the unit has the right to stay in its current location. You may offer support to a unit in any province to which the supporting unit could have moved (adjacent, land for armies, etc.)
By supporting a unit defensively, you increase the defensive strength of the unit by one during that turn. There is no limit to the number of units which may support you except the practical limit of board layout.
If the unit you are supporting is issued a move order, your support is invalid, even if the move order fails (you can't defensively support a unit that is on the march).
If the unit (sorry about the typo, thx sam) with which you are supporting is attacked by a foreign unit, the support is cut and rendered invalid (you can't defend someone else if you have to defend yourself.)
The syntax for defensive support is A Kra S Riv (army in Kragenmoore supports Riverbridge).

Support (offensive)
Similar to defensive support, through offensive support you increase the force of an attack (move) order. In order to render offensive support, the supporting unit must be otherwise able to issue a move order to the destination of the attack. It is NOT necessary to be able to move to the origin of the attack.
You may support any player's attack; it does not have to be your own. There is no limit to the amount of offensive support you may receive except the practical limit imposed by the board. If the unit you support does not make the move you supported, your support is rendered invalid. If you are attacked by a foreign unit EXCEPT the target of the attack you are supporting, your support is cut. Exception to the exception: If you are dislodged by the target of the attack you are supporting, your support is cut.
The syntax for offensive support is F Alm S Mou-Adr (Fleet in Almalexia supports Mournhold to Alt Drethan)

Convoy
A convoy is a special move order that caters to the fact that the land areas are not all contiguous. It allows a player to move an army across open water.
In order to initiate a convoy, you must have a fleet in open water. Coastal fleets cannot convoy. The army you wish to convoy must be located in a coastal province adjacent to the convoying fleet, as must be the destination.
You may convoy across multiple waterways in a chain, provided that there are fleets present in all necessary water provinces and all are properly ordered. The army and all convoying fleets must be properly ordered. The syntax is as follows:
A Tea-Nec (Army in Tear to Necrom; same syntax as a normal move for an army)
F SSD C Tea-Nec and F MSD C Tea-Nec *or* F SSD and F MSD C Tea-Nec (Fleets in Southern Sea of Dreams and Mid Sea of Dreams convoy Tear to Necrom)
If there exists an overland and a convoy route for a move, the army will take the overland route by default. In order to specify a convoy route, append via convoy to your move order.
The only way to interrupt a convoy is to dislodge one of the convoying fleets (see adjudication)

Adjudication
At the end of the spring or fall season, the mod (me again) will adjudicate the turn. Units that can move without conflict will do so. In the event that there is a conflict (generically defined as "two or more units attempt to occupy the same province") adjudication is as follows:
The unit that has more un-cut supports wins. If the loser was attacking, that unit does not move. If the loser was defending, that unit is dislodged (see summer/autumn). If the winner was attacking, that unit successfully moves. If the winner was defending, that unit holds its ground.
If the conflicting units have the same number of un-cut supports, none of them move. This is called a bounce.
Special case: If two attackers of equal strength attack the same province, and the province is currently occupied by a defender of lesser strength than the attackers, the defender is not dislodged by the bounce. This is called a "beleaguered garrison."

NOTE: you cannot dislodge, nor support the dislodgement, of your own units. If such an event would occur, the offending units are considered to hold.

Summer and Autumn
These seasons are also sometimes called "spring and fall retreat phases."
During summer and autumn, any unit that was dislodged during the previous season is given the option to retreat. There is to be no discussion during summer and autumn.
A dislodged unit may retreat to any province to which it would otherwise be able to move EXCEPT one of the following:
An occupied province
The province from which the dislodging attack originated
A province that was left empty as the result of a bounce

The player also ALWAYS has the option to immediately disband a dislodged piece, and remove it from the board. There are times when this may be beneficial, perhaps to rebuild a new piece, or to appease a neighbour.

All dislodged units retreat simultaneously. If two or more units attempt to retreat to the same province, all are disbanded.

Winter
This is also called the "build phase."
If any supply center is occupied at the beginning of winter, that supply center comes under possession of the player who occupies it. If a supply center is unoccupied in winter, its ownership does not change. This means that once all the neutral supply centers are owned (usually first or second year) Diplomacy becomes a zero-sum game.
Once ownership has been established, the number of supply centers a player owns is tallied. The player may control as many units as they own supply centers. If the player controls more units than the number of supply centers they own, they must choose to disband any of their units they wish until the numbers become equal. If the player controls fewer units than they own supply centers, they may build units in their home centers until the numbers become equal, or until all of their home centers are occupied. A player may not build a unit in a home center they are not currently in possession of. Otherwise, they may choose where they build and what type of unit they build (you may not build a fleet in a landlocked province). You are not required to use all of your builds, and if you opt not to you will not *lose* them, due to the counting system I've just described.

Special Map Features
There are three island locations: Sad, Dag, and PTe. Because of the proximity of the islands, either armies or fleets can travel to them from the nearest landmass (or water in the case of fleets.) They also do not hinder sea travel along the mainland coast. e.g. Dag does not prevent Gni and Gra from sharing a coast.
The Zenithar Channel is narrow enough that armies are able to cross it and wide enough that fleets are able to navigate it. That is to say that any unit may move freely across the borders between Ebo, Eag, KAi, Cor, Gah, and Sto.
The provinces of Mol and Aka (Molagreahd and Akamora) have two separate coasts. Fleets moving to or from these locations are restricted to the side of the landmass they are on. They do, however, occupy the entire province, and so it is impossible to have a fleet on each coast. Whomever is playing house Indoril should also note that if they choose to build a fleet in Akamora, they must specify on which coast they wish to build it.
There are two greyed areas. The large grey area on the southern and western borders of the map represent the lands of Skyrim, Cyrodiil, and Black Marsh, which have no intention of being involved in this conflict. They are impassable. The grey area at the center of Vvardenfell island is Dagoth Ur. It is impassable due to volcanic activity and blight diseases.

If you have any questions, post them here, send me a PM, an email, or an IM. My contact information can be found in reply zero.