B

Backstabbr: Dedicated game site for Diplomacy. Probably the most used Dip site thanks to it’s use by many tournaments and leagues to host their games. A good site to play on, although it doesn’t have too much of a community feel. Unlike the biggest Dip sites of the past, Playdiplomacy and webDiplomacy, it doesn’t have a dedicated forum, although it does has a sub-Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/diplomacy/ Play here: https://www.backstabbr.com/

Bad Player: A player who is incapable of lipreading.

Balanced-build policy: A way of playing Diplomacy that sees a player building approximately equal numbers of fleets and armies.

Balance of Power (1): The theory that, to maintain peace, opposing powers maintain a strategic and military balance. In early Modern Europe, this was maintained through open communications and diplomacy between the major powers. In Diplomacy, it means ensuring that no one power can attain a position whereby it is able to move on to win the game.

Balance of Power (2): A strategy favoured by some players, whereby they will attempt to prevent any one power from achieving a position from which it could go on to win the game. This can be achieved in one of two ways: (1) by helping powers to grow to oppose each other equally, or (2) by supporting powers to attack an emerging power in the game. The ultimate aim is, however, to manage the progress of other powers while continually expanding your own empire.

Balkans, The: An area of the board that covers the same geographic area in Europe as the Balkans. In Diplomacy, it includes the spaces Rumania, Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Albania. Of these, Albania is the only non-SC space. Albania is, however, an important strategic space.

Balkan Zone: An area of the Diplomacy board comprising the BALKANS and the sea spaces Aegean Sea, Eastern Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea. An important area of the board in the EARLY GAME, with Austria-Hungary, Italy, Turkey and Russia all interested in gaining control over the region.

Barren Zone: The line of spaces from North Africa, in the south-west, to Livonia, the Gulf of Bothnia, Finland or even the Barents Sea in the north-east that splits the board into west and east. Also known as the NEUTRAL ZONE.

Base Openings: A set of moves made in Spring 1901. See EXPANDED OPENINGS.

Battle of the Sites: A feud between the (then) two biggest Diplomacy sites online: webDiplomacy (known as phpDiplomacy when it started) and Playdiplomacy. It involved the use of the phpDiplomacy software, which was open source, by the creator of Playdip to set-up that site, which was seen as an attempt to shut webDip down. The feud between site owners spread to the communities on each site, with rancour and rage rampaging between the two. Although this never completely ended, the ferocity died down to some extent over time. An attempt by a webDip player to reignite the feud later, by infiltrating the Playdip community’s forum and posting inflammatory comments was shot down on the basis that, by this time, the software used by Playdip had been completely re-written from the ground up to make it less cumbersome.

Behemoth: A terrible creature that is created when a player in a game of Diplomacy appeals to a community of players for help in that game. Instead of being a game of seven individuals playing against each other, it becomes a game of six individuals against a community.

Beleaguered garrison: A unit protected by a set of moves governed by the BELEAGUERED GARRISON RULE.

Beleaguered Garrison Rule: A rule in Diplomacy that prevents a unit that states that a unit cannot be dislodged by two or more attacks of equal strength. If two attacks of equal strength occur, neither succeeds, so the attacked unit is not dislodged.

Beyerlein Ploy: The act of carrying out an Off-the-Board Retreat, often in a Spring Turn, so that an additional build can be gained in the next Winter Turn and placing the new unit in a better position on the board.

Big Brother alliance: An alliance in which a weaker power works with a stronger one, where the weaker ally has some options but is still unlikely to prevent the larger power from winning.

Big Casino: A large scale attempt at deception, often using elements not part of the game.

Black and Blue Triangle: The area of the board centred on Belgium involving England, France and Germany.

Black Press: Messages sent from one player to others that seek to impersonate another player or the GM.

Bliss: Orgasmic reaction to watching the 18th SC become yours!!!

Blitz: A sudden all-out attack by two or more players on a common enemy, with the aim of removing the victim from the game in as fast a time as possible.

Blitz Diplomacy: A form of Diplomacy in which players have five minutes (yes five minutes!) to negotiate and enter their orders. Madness!!!

Blood Pact: An alliance between two players that sees them stay allies for the length of the game until they can fight for, or decide, the win.

Boardman numbers: In the Postal Hobby, a system of numbering allowing the tracking of games played across the Hobby. No longer used (except in reference to this version of the Hobby).

Board Top (1): To end a game of Diplomacy as the player with the most SCs.

Board Top(per) (2): The player who ends a game of Diplomacy with the most SCs.

Bounce: Common name for a STANDOFF.

Box, The: What the Turkish player has to fight themselves out of. Surrounded by Russia to the north, Austria to the north-west, and Italy to the west, Turkey can find it difficult to make much progress past the EARLY GAME.

Briefing, The: Weekly email newsletter about the Diplomacy Hobby; also known as The Diplomacy Briefing.

British System: British name for the INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM. No longer used except, perhaps, in a Postal game (of which there are few).

Buffer zone: A space or spaces between two players that they are attempting to keep demilitarised for their mutual security.

Build: The act of adding units to the board.

Builds (1): Alternative name for the Adjustment Phase; also BUILDS PHASE.

Builds (2): Units that are added to the board in an Adjustment Phase.

Build Anywhere: A variant of Diplomacy in which players can build in any vacant Supply Centres they own. A rule that is often incorporated into other variants.

Build(s) Phase: See WINTER TURN.