If I may, I can provide a short summary of the rules of Diplomacy:
There are seven countries: England (sic - United Kingdom), France, Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Turkey (sic - Ottoman Empire), based on the Great Powers besides the United States and Japan before the first world war. Borders on the map are based on the 1914 borders of Europe, immediately before World War I, with some slight changes. A player plays each of the countries. On internet games, it is required to have an eighth player to moderate the game.
There are two ways to win at Diplomacy: Total Victory or Diplomatic Victory.
Total Victory is won by seizing an outright majority of the supply points on the map. This counts as one entire victory.
Diplomatic Victory is when all players agree to end the game where it is; at least one player must have been eliminated before Diplomatic Victory is allowed. This victory counts as 1/(number of remaining players) of a victory, and, therefore, not as prestigious as a total victory, but far more realistic.
There are no dice in Diplomacy: Only numbers.
Now, you may wonder how you can play without dice.
Every nation starts out with three supply centers (except Russia, with four). Each nation has an assortment of armies and navies, each of which requires exactly one supply center. There are multiple neutral supply centers, such as in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Romania, and so on.
Each navy may move exactly one adjacent territory, either from a sea territory to another sea territory, from a coastal territory to another coastal territory, or a mix of the two. Navies CANNOT be transferred by land.
Each army may move exactly one adjacent territory, only from a land territory to another land territory, unless in the case of a "convoy". A convoy means that a navy may move a single army across a single sea territory to another land territory, for example, a navy in the North Sea may convoy an English army from London to Belgium. Convoy "chains" are also allowed, allowing for a long chain of adjacent navies to move an army across the map; however, these chains are extremely rare. Each navy may only convoy ONE army per turn. Only one unit of any nationality may be in a territory at a time.
Now, to the business of conquest. With one army/navy ("unit") per supply center, with everyone having basically equal numbers, one might ask how you can get an advantage. To that, there is only one answer: expansion. You must seize supply centers, both enemy and neutral, to build new units. New units may only be built at your initial supply centers. The larger you grow, the more armies you can support, the more you can conquer.
To take a territory, you must outnumber the number of units defending that territory. You may ask, how can one invade if only one unit can move in at once? The answer to this is Support. An army that does not move may support a moving army, therefore magnifying its strength to attack the territory. However, defenders may also play at this game, supporting non-moving units to strengthen their defenses. If the total number of units on both sides is equal, whoever was already in the territory wins. If no one was in the territory, no one wins. If one side outnumbers the other, it wins.
Now, to the most essential part of Diplomacy: diplomacy. One must negotiate with other players, or one will be at the very best unable to accomplish anything and at worst be swept by the wayside by those who did negotiate.
The reason diplomacy is so important is because units can support other units, even if they are of different nationalities. For example, if England is in Belgium and Germany is in Munich, they can combine their forces, with either one supporting the other, to take out a single French unit in Alsace-Lorraine. However, one is not required to follow through on their promises, by any means; Germany could tell England they will support them, but then support the French in an attack on Belgium, or vice versa with the English in Belgium, supporting a French attack on Munich. Meanwhile, France may have an agreement with England to take Munich AND with Germany to conquer Belgium, and, therefore, not only are Germany and England backstabbing one another, but France could backstab one or both.
The important reason for this is that all sides move simultaneously; that's right, all at once. This means you don't know if someone backstabs you until the turn has gone through. That's why there is a moderator to monitor what happens during the turn; no cheating.
The game is played, starting in Spring 1901, then having Fall 1901, Spring 1902, and so on, even though the borders match 1914. Building is done after the fall turn (for those players who've conquered supply centers), as is reducing (for those players who've lost supply centers). One cannot build AND reduce at the same time, and one cannot have more units than their number of supply centers (however, less is allowed). Units can ONLY be built on your native supply centers. Armies may be built anywhere, navies may only be built on coastal provinces.
There are more, technical rules and some other points, but this is a basic version of the rules of Diplomacy, at least, all the rules you will need for most games.
I'd be willing to volunteer to be Game Moderator, so that everyone else may play.
