DANELAW
Diplomacy variant ca. 835 CE
For those who aren’t familiar with Diplomacy, it is a board game created in 1954 by Allan B. Calhamer that focuses on player to player communication and negotiation. There is a rich community of variant designers, including myself.
Most recently I’ve been inspired to design a map focused on the Viking Age.
Map and Rules are open for non-commercial use with attribution.
Contents:
- Overview
- Motivations
- Comparisons to Other Variants
- Variant Rules
- References
Overview
Danelaw is a Diplomacy variant designed for 14–17 players, but can accommodate up to 50 in a full chaos setting. Play begins in the early 9th century when petty kingdoms were starting to form modern day nations of Norway, Sweden, England, and Scotland.
Diplomacy points (DP) are utilized, which allow players to influence neutral units into action.
Each Scandinavian power begins with an unsupported unit in the British or Baltic regions.
Motivations
It’s easy to be captivated by the Viking Age. There’s some specific things that got me going on this though.
- Try designing with Diplomacy Points (DP). The Heptarchy seemed like a perfect setting to involve the lesser kingdoms whilst not being players.
- For some reason, I wanted to design something with a high seas province in the North Sea.
- Manifest a balanced board that reflects history rather than bending history to fit game balance.
- Capture the Viking vibe.
- I wanted something to really capture the interaction between Vikings and England during this era, which is why I titled it “Danelaw”, even though the Great Heathen Army hadn’t invaded yet. You get to do that!
Comparison to other variants
Joe Janbu’s “Viking Diplomacy”
This has some good historicity, but I might have called it “10th Century” or something since it involves all of Europe, not just Vikings. Although Vikings were certainly present in the Mediterranean, I wanted to hone in on the primary regions of Viking activity and cut out the peripheral powers to distinguish it from Classic.
Benjamin Hester’s “The Dark Ages”
This begins in 825 and has the same scope as “Danelaw”, but starts with a solidified England, Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. In the early 9th century these modern-day countries were still made of petty kingdoms with a lot of infighting. This map implies a setting more like 10th century. If you’re constraining a design to 3-unit starting positions, which I’m sure Hester was, this is just kind of what you have to do.
But why not use 1 or 2 center powers?
The start will be more like the chaos variant, but I think it is the best way to capture the era of petty kingdoms. Besides, there aren’t many base-1 variants out there, so I’m happy with the uniqueness it brings Danelaw. Combined with a diplomacy point system, this should be pretty fun.
War For Britannia and Other Heptarchy Variants
Other Heptarchy variants I’m familiar with have also felt less historical than I like to go for. The two that I’m familiar with are both seven player maps, but the seven powers aren’t of the Heptarchy; they include Ireland, Picts, and Celtic Britons.
Turns out it’s tough to do Heptarchy proper, since Kent, Essex, East Anglia, and Sussex are all lumped in a tight spot. As I researched, I found justifications for including the other nearby powers such as the Picts, and I’ve added some of those powers as well. I might focus on a Heptarchy variant proper someday, but it turned out to not be this one.
Other motivations
I had imagined a later setting, 10th century or so, but as I researched the time window, I was drawn to the early-to-mid 9th century, when a rapid consolidation of power occurred. I would still like to do a viking setting in the 10th or early 11th century, but that will be another time.
VARIANT RULES
All standard diplomacy rules apply except for the following changes:
Start Year
~ 835 CE; each phase represents 1 year (5 years per spring-fall-adjustment cycle)
Win Condition
A solo requires 18/50 support centers.
A short game can be played to 13/50 support centers. A long game can be played to 23/50 support centers.
If more than 1 power passes the win condition the same year, the player with more centers is the solo winner. If the multiple players have the same center count, play continues until only one player has the most support centers above the win condition.
Build Rules
Chaos aka Build Anywhere (can build in any owned and unoccupied support center).
- I think this fits the era. It also is needed for the 1 and 2 base starting powers.
- Support centers will change color to coordinate with the province color to help indicate full control.
- I considered a rule of consolidation, where once a power establishes at least 3 centers within a region (4 centers for base-2 or base-3 powers), they raise up from petty kingdoms to established kingdoms. The centers they hold at that point become their home centers. However, I’m not sure how much it brings to the game and it might discourage trans-North-Sea movement, which, as in the title, is the premise.
Major Powers
There are 14 major powers (players)
- Each Britannia power begins with 2 armies adjacent to each other.
- Each Scandinavian power begins with 1 army or fleet in a home center and a viking fleet elsewhere on the map.
Optional Powers
There are 50 support centers, so a true chaos game could accommodate up to 50 players. However, the board was designed for 14 to 17 players with a few special optional powers in mind.
- Bretons were disjointed, but are a fun power to bring action to the west. Could be played by 3 individual players or left as neutral support centers if desired.
- Rus’ Khanganate may or may not have existed as a state, but it was an important area for viking expansion and makes sense to play.
- Carolingian Empire was a big empire at the time, but not too involved in Viking expansion (other than being raided occasionally), the Heptarchy, or Eastern Europe. They break up in 843 CE (Treaty of Verdun), will they fare better in Danelaw???
- Other single support center powers may be added to accommodate more players. The most sensible are other Heptarchy powers (Kent, E. Anglia, Sussex, and Essex), Strathclyde, Alba (although Caithness probably makes better game balance), Oppland, Hedmark, Naerriki, Gastrikland, Lituania, or Amberland. Ui Neill and Mumhain could be used, but historically were deadlocked in conflict for control of Ireland and might make boring gameplay; other support centers could be added as needed. GM and player choice.
- If even more players are desired and you want a real Chaos feel, the base 2 powers like Mercia could be divided into 2 players.
- I don’t think any player-powers makes sense to drop if fewer than 14 players are wanted, but could be tried. Maybe Rogaland makes sense, since they are sandwiched.
Minor Powers
All neutral support centers begin with a unit, which can be influenced by players who secretly make orders for said neutral units.
Diplomacy Points (DP) and Minor Powers
Neutral support centers are all occupied by units. These units can make “moves” if players use their Diplomacy Points (DP) to influence the actions of minor powers.
- Each player gets 1 DP per unit they control per season (maximum of 3 DP), if a unit is disbanded after spring, the player loses the DP that fall until the unit is rebuilt).
- Players can influence minor powers by casting votes along with their normal orders (DP can only be dished out in whole numbers only, no 0.5's).
- If a minor power has multiple players trying to influence them, they will go with the highest bidder. If there is a tie bid, the unit will hold.
- If multiple players vote for the same move, the DP are added.
- DP do not rollover. If they aren’t used they aren’t used.
- Minor powers can cast all support, convoy, move, and hold orders as normal.
- Votes are cast in full secrecy and are not revealed until the end of the game.
RESOLUTIONS
- Neutral units do not actually move even if the order is a “move”. This is to avoid a scenario where a player “tricks” a minor power into leaving their center unoccupied so that the player can move in behind and occupy it. These “moves” have all the same effects as a normal move (bouncing, disbanding other units, cutting support, & blocking territories from retreat options).
- The Jomsburg fleet is an exception to this since there is no SC on board for them to guard and it doesn’t matter if they move. (Historical note: Jomsburg was hidden and the true location never revealed. Likely they were somewhere in the area shown on the board though).
- If a minor power’s unit is dislodged, it disbands.
- If a minor power’s unit disbands, but remains in control of the the support center, it will automatically rebuild the same unit.
Jomsvikings (Special Minor Power)
The Jomsviking fleet is a special unit with it’s own rules. They were an incredibly powerful society of mercenary vikings with an unknown home base location. For this reason, they do not have a support center.
- Like other Minor Powers, the Jomsviking fleet can be bid on.
- Unlike other Minor Powers, the Jomsviking fleets can actually move and acquire new support centers.
- BUILDS: If the Jomsviking gain a support center, they auto-build a new fleet in Jomsburg. If Jombsburg has a unit in it, they instead build a new fleet in the North Sea. If Both North Sea spaces are occupied, They hold the build until there is an open space to build on.
- RETREATS: If the Jomsviking fleet is made to retreat, they force disband and rebuild according to the build rules above, during the adjustment phase.
- CONTINGENCY: A player can use their DP to cast contingency vote and say where the Jomsviking fleet would retreat to if they are dislodged. This must be done in the move phase along with regular orders.
EXAMPLES
Westrogothia:
A Westrogothia to Alfheim
F Skane to Kattegat
- - - - -
Westrogothia's DP allocations:
A Varend to Njudung (1pt) - [this gets awarded]
A Kinda supports A Varend to Njudung (1pt) -
[this gets beat by Ostrogothia's orders below]
Ostrogothia:
A Ostrogothia to Njudung
F Gotland to Gogland
- - - - -
Ostrogothia's DP allocations:
A Kinda supports A Ostrogothia to Njudung (2pts) - [this gets awarded]
Tiunda:
A Tiunda to Birka
F Eistland to Gogland
- - - - - -
Tiunda's DP allocations:
A Naerriki to Sudermania (1pt) - [this gets awarded]
F Jomsburg to Oland (1pt) - [this gets awarded]
Jelling:
F Jelling to Kattegat
F Normandy to English Channel
- - - - - -
Jelling's DP allocations:
F Roskilde supports F Jelling to Kattegat -
[this does not show point allocation and is ambiguous,
especially since there is no second order. This order would not be counted]VIKING FLEETS
Each Scandinavian power begins with a permanent +1 viking fleet elsewhere on the board. These are labeled with a “V” in the center of the fleet and 4 letters above the fleet to help identify their associated power.
- If a viking ship is forced to disband, they cannot be rebuilt.
- If a power is reduced to 0 support centers, their viking ship automatically disbands. This rule is in place because with the extra units on board, the map could get too unit-dense. As some powers are naturally eliminated toward the middle and late game, and the extra viking units disband, stalemates from too many units should be less of a problem.
- If a power with a viking fleet gains a new support center, they can build a new unit (even though the viking fleet remains “unsupported”). Otherwise, Scandinavian powers might have too hard of a start.
- If additional Scandinavian powers are played, such as Hedmark, they do not start with a viking fleet.
- The extra Viking fleets are in very historical locations (Isle of Man, Hebrides, Channel Islands, etc.) and kick off the Viking-England interactions right from the get-go.
Special Provinces
Adjacency arrows on the map will be used to clarify army movement.
Canals and continuous coasts:
- Dal Riata
- Jelling
- Roskilde
- Skane
- Sudermania
- Birka
Armies can move between:
- Jelling <-> Roskilde <-> Skane
- Sudermania <-> Birka
Bicoastal:
- West Francia
- Kvenland
- Ribe
- Devon
Other Adjacency Clarifications:
Tiunda:
Tiunda is coastal, but does not border any sea provinces, fleets must move to Sudermania or Birka to get in or out of Tiunda
Mann and Stathearn:
These spaces border each other.
Jelling and Oland:
These spaces border each other.
East Francia and Roskilde:
These spaces do not border each other
North Sea:
North Sea is a high seas territory. Moves must specify which north sea space is targeted or moving (e.g. “F Jelling to NS1" is okay, “F Jelling to north sea” is not).
A fleet can move between NS1 and NS2.
Islands:
Several spaces contain and are named after islands such as Nordreyjar, Gotland, etc; these spaces function as normal sea spaces. They cannot be occupied by armies. Fleets can convoy armies through island spaces.
Games and discussion will mainly be held on a dedicated discord server. You can join the server with this invite link:
REFERENCES:
This site is really neat as it has an interactive map where you can click on areas and read about it:
Scandinavia / Viking Expansion
Above site is really neat in that there is an interactive map, and you can just click on the map to read about that area.
