F

Face-to-Face Diplomacy: Format of play that has all the players in a game in the same physical location.

Faerie Tale alliance: An alliance of England, France and Austria, named by combining the initials of each power: F, A, E.

Fall: The second turn in a game year, featuring the Fall Diplomacy Phase and, if a unit has been dislodged, a Fall Retreats Phase; may also feature an Adjustment Phase if this phase isn’t separated into a Winter Turn.

False Ally: A player who thinks they are allied to another, but the other player is simply using them to further their own aims while their true alliance is to a third player.

Farside Alliance: Alliance featuring France, Austria and Russia. Named by combining the initial letters of France, Italy and Austria: F, A, R.

Fear: Escalation of ANXIETY when, ten minutes later, players are still huddled in corners, haven’t returned from other rooms, and there’s no sound of a flush coming from the bathroom.

Feud: An argument in Diplomacy featuring two opposing personalities or sides, usually not based in games (see STONEWALL DIPLOMACY) but around other aspects of the Hobby. There have been many, usually based on personality clashes, often ridiculous. See BATTLE OF THE SITES.

Fiat Alliance: Alliance featuring France, Italy and Austria. Named by combining the initial letters of France, Italy and Austria: F, I, A. Fiat is not only the name of a car manufacturer in Italy, it also means “a decree” in Italian.

Figtree Alliance: Alliance featuring France, Italy and Germany. Named by combining the initial letters of each power: F, I, G.

Finalise (orders): In online play, this is an option whereby a player who has entered their orders, and doesn’t require any further time to discuss the game, can choose to complete their phase. If all players do this, the deadline will end early and orders will be adjudicated.

Finalised: When a player has decided to FINALISE their orders.

Firtree Alliance: Alliance featuring France, Italy and Russia. Named by combining the initial letters of each power: F, I, R.

Fleet: A playing piece in Diplomacy that can move at sea and on coastal land spaces (those neighbouring a sea).

Fleet-heavy policy: A way of playing Diplomacy that sees a player building more fleets than armies.

Fleet Rome: A renowned variant of Diplomacy in which Italy starts with A(Ven), F(Nap) and F(Rom) (replacing the army in Rome). This makes Italy stronger and arguably makes the game more balanced, as it gives Italy a fleet that can remain at sea while the other captures Tunis. Potentially makes Italy much too strong.

Fluid Supply Centres: Alternative name for the BUILD ANYWHERE variant.

Flying Dutchman: In FTF Diplomacy, a situation where a player surreptitiously introduces an illegal unit to the game by adding an extra unit to the board (one to which they are not entitled to have based on SC-count); doesn’t remove a unit from the board, or exchanges a fleet for an army or vice versa. If they can get away with it initially, then the player may be able to work the unit into the game so that removing the unit doesn’t become possible without wrecking the game. Although this was seen as within the ‘Spirit of the Game’ by some, in that it doesn’t contravene any rules, it is clearly cheating. See also: MALTESE FALCON.

Fog of War: A variant of Diplomacy in which players could only see parts of the board, typically spaces bordering spaces they occupied, and SCs they owned (occupied or not). A devious game for devious players – and absolutely no good to those players who don’t bother to communicate.

Format: The way in which the game is played: House (or fun, one-off games), Tournament or League (the latter being Arena Diplomacy). See also MEDIUM.

Franconaut alliance: An alliance featuring France, Russia and Turkey. Named by adding ‘Franc’ (= France) with the ‘naut’ from Juggernaut, the Russo-Turkish alliance.

Friendly Attack: An action whereby you attack and dislodge an ally’s unit in order to allow it to Retreat, this often being to a forward position against a common enemy and, ideally, to an SC.

FTF: See FACE-TO-FACE DIPLOMACY.

Functional Stalemate Line: When is a stalemate line not a stalemate line? When it could be broken but the players don’t have the correct units in place to do so and can’t move units around to break it.