Bangkok Diplomacy Club

The Bangkok Diplomacy Club is one of the first asian Diplomacy communities.

Bangkok

Genesis[]

Created in february 2020 in preparation of the World Diplomacy Championship 2021 by Chris Sanderson (Battlefield Bangkok), Fabian Weiner (Ninive Game Store) & Lei Saarlainen (WDC Bangkok 2021).

The Bangkok Diplomacy Club aims to organize Diplomacy games and Diplomacy-style board games (Game of Thrones, Dune, ...).

A first game was organised in the Battlefield Bangkok Boardgame cafe in 2016 and won by Chris Sanderson.

Some games were organised by Tom Aikins at the American bar, but any traces of them have been lost.

Thai Diplomacy Championship 2020[]

Thai diplomacy championship qualifiers are played along the year and the seven best players will play a final in January 2021. Also included are games played by the Da Nang Diplomacy Center (DN), the Hong Kong Diplomacy Community (HK) and First Saturday Games (FS) organized by the Asia Pacific Diplomacy Association.

Bangkok 2020 rating system[]

Power

1 point for every supply center

Domination

12 points divided between dominating players according to the following rules:
- 3 shares to topping players
- 2 shares to players finishing at 1 center from the top
- 1 share to players finishing at 2 centers from the top

Survival

3 points to every player surviving at the end of the game
0.3 to eliminated players multiplied by the years of survival

Thailand 2020 qualifiers ranking system[]

The points of every game played are added and divided by number of games +4.

Thai Diplomacy Championship 2020 standing[]

	Player	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6	HK	FS	#7	SI1	total	#	rating
1	Mario Huys			4		23			13.43	26	6	72.43	5	8.05
2	S. Heylmann	13	6	31	8	4	14		8	6	1.2	91.2	9	7.02
3	L Saarlainen	7	18				9.33		5		17.5	56.83	5	6.31
4	Peter Darby	15.5	4	16	1.2		14					50.7	5	5.63
5	Wenzel Frick	6	7	0.9	20.2	7		5		11	6	63.1	8	5.26
6	J-P Blanchet						7			11	15	33	3	4.71
7	Tristan Lee							20.2				20.2	1	4.04
8	F. Weiner	7	9		9	5	6					36	5	4
9	Tom Barbé		18									18	1	3.6
10	H. Boulanger										17.5	17.5	1	3.5
11	Du Pontavice				16.8							16.8	1	3.36
11	Kelvin Kwok							16.8				16.8	1	3.36
13	C. Sanderson			6	6	4	11.66			4	1.8	33.46	6	3.35
14	A. Reardon	15.5		4								19.5	2	3.25
15	Andrew Goff								16.14			16.14	1	3.23
16	C.de Graaf					15						15	1	3
17	J. Anderson								13.43			13.43	1	2.69
18	C. Borgeat					9						9	1	1.8
19	Michael Chan							8				8	1	1.6
20	Richard Hau							8				8	1	1.6
21	G. Radford								8			8	1	1.6
22	Pash Chan							7				7	1	1.4
23	Hackenbracht									6		6	1	1.2
24	Jono							5				5	1	1
25	S. Rajapogalan		5									5	1	1
26	H.Stillman						5					5	1	1
27	Jeffrey Tjeuw							5				5	1	1
28	A. Geraghty				4							4	1	0.8
29	Frank Lei			1.5								1.5	1	0.3
30	Sean Colman								1.2			1.2	1	0.24
31	W. Rungroeng	1.2										1.2	1	0.24
32	Andrei Ducosin									0.9		0.9	1	0.18

Game #1 FTF 04 March 2020 Battlefield Bangkok[]

First qualifier played face to face at Battlefield Bangkok boardgame café

Country	Player	Sc	Pts
Austria	Wenzel Frick	3	6
England	Sascha Heylmann	7	13
France	Waranawong Rungroeng	E05	1.2
Germany	Fabian Weiner	4	7
Italy	Anthony Reardon	8	15.5
Russia	Lei Saarlainen	4	7
Turkey	Peter Darby	8	15.5

This was a 1905 face to face 7 players game played in 4 hours at Battlefield Bangkok boardgame café.

Game #2 FTF 11 March 2020 Ninive Game Store[]

Second qualifier played face fo face at Ninive Game boardgame café

Country	Player	Sc	Pts
Austria	Lei Saarlainen	9	18
England	Tom Barbé	9	18
France	Fabian Weiner	6	9
Germany	Siddartha Rajapogalan	2	5
Italy	Wenzel Frick	4	7
Russia	Peter Darby	1	4
Turkey	Sascha Heylmann	3	6

This was a 1905 7 players face to face game played in 5 hours at Ninive Game boardgame café.

Game #3 Correspondence 24 March 2020 - 23 April Webdiplomacy[]

As the coronavirus lockdown postponed the possibility of live FtF games, the activities of the club shifted to the internet on the Webdiplomacy platform.

Country	Player	Sc	Pts
Austria	Wenzel Frick	E04	0.9
England	Anthony Reardon	1	4
France	Chris Sanderson	3	6
Germany	Mario Huys	1	4
Italy	Frank Lei	E06	1.5
Russia	Sascha Heylmann	16	31
Turkey	Peter Darby	13	16

This was a 1907 7 player correspondence game played in one month on Webdiplomacy with free negotiations.

[1] Game history

Game #4 Correspondence 18 April - 2 May Webdiplomacy[]

Country	Player	Sc	Pts
Austria	Andrew Geraghty	1	4
England	Peter Darby	E05	1.2
France	Wenzel Frick	10	20.2
Germany	Emmanuel du Pontavice	9	16.8
Italy	Sascha Heylmann	5	8
Russia	Chris Sanderson	3	6
Turkey	Fabian Weiner	6	9

This was a 1907 7 player correspondence game played on Webdiplomacy.

[2] Game history

Game #5 Correspondence 2 May Webdiplomacy/Diplomacy Discord[]

Country	Player	Sc	Pts
Austria	Sascha Heylmann	1	4
England	Chris Sanderson	1	4
France	Mario Huys	11	23
Germany	Wenzel Frick	4	7
Italy	Claes de Graaf	9	15
Russia	Fabian Weiner	2	5
Turkey	Christophe Borgeat	6	9

This was a live game played as a test game on the Diplomacy Discord server.

Game #6 Correspondence 11 May - 2 June Correspondence Webdiplomacy/free[]

Country	Player	Sc	Pts
Austria	Jean-Pierre Blanchet	4	7
England	Lei Saarlainen	5	9.33
France	Peter Darby	7	14
Germany	Sascha Heylmann	7	14
Italy	Fabian Weiner	3	6
Russia	Hunter Stillman	2	5
Turkey	Chris Sanderson	6	11.66

This was a correspondence game played on webdiplomacy planned for seven years, but it ended in a draw after winter 04.

[3]Game history

First Saturday #1 3 October 2020 Speedboat (no negotiation, live) Backstabbr[]

Country	Player	Sc	Pts
Austria	Mario Huys	7	13.43
England	Sean Colman	E05	1.2
France	Sascha Heylmann	5	8
Germany	Andrew Goff	8	16.14
Italy	Graeme Radford	5	8
Russia	John Anderson	7	13.43
Turkey	Lei Saarlainen	2	5

This was scheduled as a first Saturday asia pacific league live game, but eventually played without negotiation and ending after five years.

Game #7 Correspondence 15 November 2020 - 12 January 2021 Correspondence Backstabbr/Discord[]

Country	Player	Sc	Pts
Austria	Bill Hackenbracht	3	6
England	Wenzel Frick	8	11
France	Sascha Heylmann	3	6
Germany	Andrei Ducosin	E04	0.9
Italy	Chris Sanderson	1	4
Russia	Mario Huys	11	26
Turkey	Jean-Pierre Blanchet	8	11

Correspondence game ending in 1907 with a domination victory for Russia.

Russian EOG: At the start I proposed Turkey we'd try something novel to get our armies and fleets quickly arrayed against Austria. I would convoy his army to Rum if he'd let me in Bla. He countered with a move set that would blow up my fleet in Rum. Not exactly what I had in mind, but I went with it, because it meant Turkey would take on the lion part of the battle, while I could venture elsewhere. While others were screaming "Steamroller", I could pretend to not be really involved, because for the longest time I only had an army in Gal as my only contribution to the RT. And with Italy such a staunch ally to Austria, the South was as good as deadlocked.

Meanwhile Germany was getting attacked from all sides with especially France successful in dominating the scene. I built a second fleet on StP south coast to join the fray as an ally of England, aiming to control the whole Baltic region.

Fall 1902 was a turning point. Italy had entered the Eastern Med, forcing Turkey to redeploy southwards and temporarily leave Rum. I was hoping to take it over from him, but bounced with Austria. As a result Turkey built a fairly useless army, whereas I was desperately in need for a unit in StP to keep a dittering England honest. Meanwhile Germany incomprehensibly allowed France to enter Mun. The game seemed rigged.

This need for a dot forced me to re-evaluate my alliances. I decided to side with Austria in order to secure Rum and get a foothold in Germany. Meanwhile I promised England whatever he wanted ("A game long alliance? Check.") to move him away from overrunning my Northern holdings. This worked marvelously well, so that by Fall I was looking at gaining two centers and tie France for the top.

But then I made the most foolish decision of the whole game. Unaware that Italy had decided to stab that turn, and in an attempt to placate Turkey, I voluntarily walked out of Rum. Simply protecting Sev with Ukr to cripple Turkey, or cutting Ser with Rum to aid Italy, would have been so much more sensical.

Upset by my own stupidity I became lackluster. No more astute plans, just take the easy dots. But Turkey had seen enough and decided to move against me. This quickly put him in Sev, if not for Austria's stab on him the very same season. Count on Bill Hackenbracht, the current number one in the world according to DBN, to seize the opportunity to explode to the top. And on me to blunt that stab with a seemingly counterproductive bounce on Rum. Turkey again avoided becoming marginalized by the rarest of luck.

Meanwhile France was in full attack against England who did all he could to protect his homeland. Italy was on the brink, because of the short-lived AT that had helped Austria into Ven. Things were in flux, but thanks to Austria's stab I no longer had to worry about further Turkish incursions. In fact I had no enemy anywhere near my borders. What a luxury.

From there on it was smooth sailing. I coordinated with England and Austria to push France out of Germany and the Lowlands and force Turkey back to his homeland. Then with Austria out of position I seized the opportunity to finally take Rum and descend on his exposed home centers, cheered on by an incensed Turkey.

I brought France to tears by never taking the Scandinavian centers from England. But my goal had already shifted. I not only wanted a board top, I wanted a top score that would put me in first place in the Thai Championship Standings, where Sascha (France) was in the lead. Diminishing his score was just as important as increasing mine. As long as I could keep the second finisher 3 centers behind, I would be guaranteed of the full 12 points domination score, which was vital, more so than the actual centers I would obtain.

Before the final turn, Fall 1907, I had already 9 centers assured and could vie for 11, unless stabbed. My main rivals were my two allies, England and Turkey, both at 6. They could really only hope to get to 8, but only if they worked with me, not against me. Even then, their 8th center (Bre and Tri) could be denied from them if their opponents chose to do so.

Note the beautiful symmetry of these two powers, as well as France/Austria who faced the same kinds of decisions and basically came to the same conclusions, priming their defences against me, the board leader, instead of against my allies, their main threats. They also ended with the same score. Karma?

So yes, I could stab for an extra dot here and there (Rum, Edi, Den or Hol). But I considered the likelihood of either of my allies stabbing me small enough that my 3 center lead, and thus my domination bonus, was not in any danger. And thus I care-beared even on the final turn. You'll all like me the more for it.

Game #8 Spice Island[]


Country	Player	Res.	Sc	Pts	Standing
Ayuthaya	Jean-Pierre Blanchet		9	15	4.71
Brunei	Wenzel Frick	File:Drapeau cambodgien.png	3	6	5.26
Dai Viet	Sascha Heylmann		A05	1.2	7.02
Majapahit	Lei Saarlainen		10	17.5	6.31
Malacca	Chris Sanderson		A07	1.8	3.35
Ternate	Mario Huys		3	6	8.05
Tondo	Hervé Boulanger	File:Drapeau colombien.png	10	17.5	3.5

Competition[]

World Diplomacy Championship 2022[]

The greatest Diplomacy event organised for the first time in Asia

Battlefield Bangkok Diplomacy Open[]

2 days, 3 games, event leg of the Asia Pacific Grand Prix

Ninive Game Store Diplomacy Open[]