LogFAQs > #926630121

There's a bunch of spaces on the board.

34 of the spaces have a dot on them. Those spaces are the ones that "count".

A player wins by controlling 18 (half plus one) dots at the end of a year.

Each country starts out controlling 3 dots, except Russia which starts with 4.

The dots you start out controlling are called your "home centers". Whenever you build additional units, they must be placed on one of these 3 home centers. You may only build new units in an unoccupied home center which you control. If all your home centers have pieces on them or are controlled by other countries, you can't build at that time.

The number of pieces you can have on the board equals the number of dots you control. You start with 3 (or 4) dots and 3 (or 4) pieces. Take control of more dots = build more units, lose control of dots = remove units.

It's important to understand the difference between Spring and Fall. Each move alternates between Spring and Fall. The game starts in Spring 1901. So the moves will be described as:

Spring 1901
Fall 1901
Spring 1902
Fall 1902
Spring 1903
Fall 1903
etc
etc
etc

The Fall is when it matters how many dots you have. After every Fall move you will either build additional units or remove units so that the number of units you have equals the number of dots you control.

Example: You start as France with 3 dots and 3 pieces. At the end of Fall 1901 you have moved into Belgium and now you control 4 dots. Thus you may now have 4 pieces. So you choose which of your home centers you wish to place your new unit it and build it there.

If you leave Belgium in the Spring 1902 turn and somebody else puts a piece in Belgium, that doesn't affect your number of units right away. If you kicked them back out of Belgium on the Fall 1902 turn, then it would be like you never lost it.

So you can think of Spring as a free turn to just get yourself into a better position in order to attack/defend dots better in the Fall. So you're kind of looking forward a move or two to make sure you control things after Fall.

There are exactly 2 types of units - Army and Fleet. Armies can only go on land. Fleets go on sea OR a land space that has a coast.

You may also use a Fleet that is in a sea space to move an Army across to a different land space which borders the same sea. (hence why England starts with an army even though it's an island. Would be kinda pointless if there was no way to move armies across water)

How pieces move and how you force people out of spaces

Every unit is equally powerful. So, if I send 1 Army to Paris and you send 1 Army to Paris, our armies "bounce" out of Paris, and neither of us gets to move into it.

You overcome that by issuing a support order. Let's say I send 1 Army to Paris and you send 1 Army to Paris, but you have a 2nd army nearby which also borders Paris. Then you can order your second army to support your first army into Paris. Now you are approaching with a power of 2 and I only have a power of 1. So you get the space and my army is bounced.

Forcing units out of a space also works the same way. Let's say my army is already sitting in Paris. If you approach Paris with 1 army, nothing happens. You just bounce back to where you started. But if you come with 1 and another supporting it into Paris, then my army is forced out and I have to choose a nearby empty space to retreat to. If there is no valid space to retreat to, my army is instantly disbanded (removed).

Note that sending two armies to a space at the same time is NOT the same as sending 1 in and the other supporting it. If I send 1 and you send 2 separately, it all still bounces.