We interview English - now Australian player - Robert Hillier about his Diplomacy experiences and more. We also have some great Diplomacy chat about how the game compares to other board games and Gavin points out similarities between Diplomacy and the TV show "The Traitors"
We're joined by relatively new but very experienced player Zoe Cameron as she shares great advice for new and existing players alike. Intro and Diplomacy chat The guys introduce the venue and their drinks (0 mins 10 secs) They set up this episode's interview with Zoe Cameron (3 mins 30 secs) Interview with Zoe Cameron The interview with Zoe kicks off who has only been playing since early 2024 but has got massively into the game and some of her thoughts on the game (5 mins 5 secs) They get into a...
After three episodes recorded online, the guys at last get the tech working offsite at the bar again. They discuss WDC 2025, their upcoming tournament plans and their latest online games. Intro and Diplomacy chat The guys introduce the venue and their drinks (0 mins 10 secs) They talk about the 2025 World Diplomacy Championship and congratulate Noam Brown (who we interviewed about Cicero) (2 mins) We talk about the upcoming WDC's planned for 2026 (Athens) and 2027 (Chicago) and whether there wil...
The guys discuss one of them winning their first Diplomacy tournament and their latest games. Intro and Diplomacy chat The guys start rolling the show early before introducing the episode (after Ken encourages keeping in some pre-show discussion) (0 mins 10 secs) They talk about their drinks (4 mins) The Bangkok New Year's Tournament 2025 Ken won his first tournament! And also scored two best country trophies (6 mins 45 secs) He talks about his game that got him best Russia (12 mins) Ken discuss...
Following on from last episode we discuss with Peter McNamara and Bradley Grace the fastest Diplomacy solo possible, all the math and all the reality of how to make it possible! Intro The guys introduce the episode and explain the latest comedy of errors plagueing the show. This includes recording at home again (another dumb reason why) and why Gavin is recording on his iPhone's speaker (0 mins 15 secs) Interview with Peter McNamara and Bradley Grace on soloing fast We begin setting the scenes f...
The guys suffer from user error while catching up for our Christmas episode. Seasons greetings everyone! Intro and Diplomacy chat The guys introduce the episode and why this is the second recording of it (0 mins 15 secs) Ken describes his own homebrewed ale before it gets their creative juices going on the most incredible Russian opening ever (2 mins 30 secs) The greatest Diplomacy solo challenge (8 mins 50 secs) Ken talks about the "Return of the Mac" game (15 mins 15 secs) He goes onto discuss...
The guys talk about the 2024 Asia Pacific Diplomacy Championship and the creation of the Asia Pacific Diplomacy Association. And of course have a few drinks! Intro The guys introduce their drinks (0 mins 15 secs) The 2024 Asia Pacific Diplomacy Championship They begin talking about their attendance at the Asia Pacific Diplomacy Championship and Ken winning the Shane Cubis Award (1 min 30 secs) Gavin corrects the audio levels and talks about their venue (3 mins 45 secs) They get back to talking a...
The guys catch up after a busy few months IRL and talk about aspects of their favourite game Intro The guys introduce the venue and their drinks (0 mins 15 secs) They explain why the recording schedule hasn't been so great this year (2 mins 30 secs) Diplomacy chat Ken shows Gavin the prototype trophy for the January 2025 Diplomacy tournament planned for Bangkok (3 mins 15 secs) The guys get some more drinks and discuss their upcoming attendance at the Asia Pacific Diplomacy Championship (13 mins...
The guys interview Jacob and Jamal from the A Christian and Buddhist Walk into a Bar podcast as a cross over episode. Plus Gavin discusses WDC in Milan and more. Intro The guys open the show and introduce their drinks and venue (0 mins 10 secs) Gavin has a cough but goes into his experience playing at the 2024 WDC in Milan (2 mins 40 secs) Interview with Jamal Blakkarly and Jacob Traeger from the podcast A Buddhist and a Christian Walk into a Bar about Diplomacy and faith The guys start introduc...
The guys interview Davide Cleopadre, the tournament organiser of the 2024 World Diplomacy Championship in Milan, Italy. Intro The guys open the show being recorded on Skype and introduce their drinks with a couple of stories along the way (0 mins 10 secs) Interview with Davide Cleopadre, TD for the 2024 WDC in Milan They start introducing the interview with Davide Cleopadre, the tournament organiser (11 mins 50 secs) The interview begins and Gavin asks Davide why he nominated Milan as the host f...
The guys open the show and introduce the venue, Maniax, an axe throwing bar (0 mins 10 secs) Gavin mentions a Bizarre Map originally published on X, which explains what bits of Australia are like if they were American (6 mins 15 secs) They also discuss the old pronunciation issue for “Arkansas” (8 mins 20 secs) The guys flag there’s no interview this episode, and an update where they stuffed up an interview (9 mins 30 secs) Gavin talks about setting a regularly scheduled day each month so people...
The guys discuss their latest face to face tournament, the Melbourne Open and have an around the card table discussion with many great players. Plus Ken's shoe story. Enjoy! Intro The guys open the show discussing their drinks, Gavin's incredible rustiness and a little about the tournament (0 mins 15 secs) They mention DBN is having a chat also coming up blow by blow about the tournament (9 mins secs) Card table chat around Melbourne Open and player experiences The guys introduce the card table ...
The guys interview Zach Moore about all things NADF. Plus we talk our online games. Intro The guys open the show talking about some recent off topic discussions (0 mins 15 secs) They discuss their drinks and initial venue (1 mins 30 secs) Loser's round stuff (3 mins 30 secs) Interview with Zach Moore about NADF The guys start introducing their interview with Zach, current NADF President who gives us a tour of his car (6 mins 30 secs) Zach explains how he took over the presidency of NADF from Sio...
The guys interview Chris Brand about the upcoming 2024 DipCon/Cascadia Open in Vancouver. Plus we talk upcoming tournaments and our online games. Intro The guys open the show about Gavin's wife's recent interest in Ticket to Ride and talk about a number of other board games (0 mins 15 secs) They discuss their drinks and initial venue which they last visited in episode 2 (4 mins 20 secs) Ken's been brewing beer (6 mins 20 secs) Interview with Chris Brand The guys start introducing their interview...
After almost 4 years the guys bring back creator and publisher of the Diplomacy Briefing , Umbletheheap, to see where the weekly email newsletter is at and where it's going. Plus we award the end of year Best Player award between each other, the new South of Sahara variant and progress on the Big Stick Diplomacy variant. Intro The guys open the show and discuss their drinks and initial venue which they last visited in episode 14. They discuss why Russia doesn't open Warsaw to Silesia more often....
The guys interview Sascha Heylmann who they met and played at WDC. Plus we address the myth of Diplomacy being the favorite game of Henry Kissinger... unfortunately surprisingly timely. Intro The guys open the show and discuss the venue and their drinks before they introduce their interview with Sascha Heylmann, one of the behind the scenes organisers at WDC in Bangkok (0 mins 15 secs Interview with Sascha Heylmann The interview with Sascha begins (2 mins 45 secs) How Sascha got into Diplomacy: ...
The guys interview Bradley Grace about his love of Diplomacy. Plus they discuss a great new variant devised on a mini bus in rural Thailand and their online games. Intro The guys introduce themselves, the bar and their drinks for the evening (0 mins 10 secs) They discuss what life's like now back in Australia, instead of their super chill selves in Thailand. Ken talks about some of the places he visited in Thailand after Kanchanaburi (4 mins 30 secs) Interview with Bradley Grace They start intro...
With the guys about to head off to WDC in Bangkok, they play a face to face game & discuss their learnings to apply. Plus updates on their podcast listener game and new variants in development at vDip. Intro The guys introduce their drinks and tonight’s initial venue (0 mins 10 secs) They talk a little around their plans for Bangkok's WDC before a bit of an intro on their recent face to face game in Brisbane (3 mins) Chat with Reily Chapman on their face to face game in Brisbane The guys set...
With just a month until the first World Diplomacy Championship in Asia we catchup with organisers Andrew Goff and Lei Saarlainen about WDC Bangkok 2023, plus lots more. Intro The guys introduce their drinks and tonight’s venue (0 mins 10 secs) They discuss why Italy doesn’t open more often to the west and some crazy openings (5 mins 35 secs) Interview about WDC Bangkok with Andrew Goff and Lei Saarlainen They introduce the interview today with Lei Saarlainen and Andrew Goff about WDC 2023 in Ban...
Kaner & Amby catch up to discuss the upcoming new official board game rules, their game with podcast listeners and much more. Intro The guys introduce their drinks and tonight’s venue (0 mins 5 secs) New board game rules & face to face They talk about the proposed board updates and rule changes from Renegade, the new publisher (7 mins) Amby discusses the beer taps before they move onto the last 2 rule changes (25 mins 40 secs) They discuss whether any of the upcoming tournaments from Aug...
Lots of stuff been happening in the guys' lives, so they catch up to discuss the game. Intro The guys give some context for the delay in podcast episodes (0 mins 10 secs) Kaner gives Amby his belated Christmas gift (1 mins 50 secs) They discuss their face to face game in January, their first game since Covid. They discuss having another game in mid-April (5 mins 20 secs) The guys move onto discussing ChatGPT and using it for a Diplomacy game. Kaner discusses the jail breaked version (10 mins 30 ...
The guys interview Noam Brown from Meta about all the things you don't know about Cicero. Plus a good old Diplomacy chat. Intro The guys introduce the show and venue. Amby explains his screw up pre-recording (0 mins 10 secs) Amby asks for listener's feedback on the Christmas show and they discuss their drinks (6 mins) Interview with Noam Brown from Meta The guys start introducing today's interview with Noam Brown from Meta about the work they've done teaching their artificial intelligence (AI) a...
The guys celebrate the festive season with Round 2 of Diplomacy Trivia, some Christmas gift giving and much, much more. Intro The guys introduce the show, venue and drinks. They throw in a bit of weather talk (0 mins 10 secs) The guys introduce the 2022 Christmas Diplomacy Trivia game and contestants: reigning champ Markus Zijlstra/CaptainMeme, 3rd place 2022 WDC player Peter McNamara, variant extraordinaire David E. Cohen and podcast Patreon supporter and well known player Hal Schild (7 mins 30...
The guys interview Stephen Agar, creator of the Diplomacy Archive for zines and the Variant Bank, on getting back into the hobby. Plus the guys talk cheese and languages. Oh and their games too. Intro The guys introduce the show, venue and drinks. They grab some lunch and then return (0 mins 10 secs) Interview with Stephen Agar The guys start setting the scene for their interview with Stephen Agar, creator of the Variant Bank and collector of Diplomacy zines around returning to the hobby (4 mins...
The guys interview Kestas about his suggested options for how vDip and webDip could better work together or possibly merge. Plus how their games are going. Intro The guys introduce the show, venue and drinks (0 mins 10 secs) Interview with Kestas on vDip and webDip Kestas is welcomed back to the show and starts by discussing his thoughts on how vDip and webDip could possibly work better together (4 mins 30 secs) He outlines some of the challenges for vDip and how webDip may be able to assist (9 ...
The guys interview BlueDog, an old school Diplomacy player who got back into the game after many decades. Plus Diplomacy chat, entering the Australian Podcast Awards and more drinking. Intro The guys introduce the show and an ongoing apology for the break in episodes. Before they go onto discuss what Kaner's reading, the venue and their drinks (0 mins 15 secs) Interview with BlueDog The start discussing the interview today with BlueDog, an ally of Amby's in a WWIV sealanes game . Amby talks a li...
The guys interview Traci Brown, leading expert in detecting deception using body language. Plus two new variant maps are making the rounds. Kaner keeps on winning. And Amby screws up the tech. Intro The guys introduce the show and an apology for the break in episodes. Before they go onto the venue and their drinks (0 mins 15 secs) Interview with Traci Brown The start discussing the interview today with leading deception detection expert Traci Brown (2 mins 30 secs) The interview begins with Amby...
The guys interview Joren, one of the Diplicity app's incredible map creators. They talk all things Diplomacy maps. Plus all the cool updates over at webDiplomacy will blow your mind. And Kaner picks on Amby's 1066 variant. Intro & webDiplomacy awesomeness The guys introduce the show, the venue and their drinks. They then go through how the show will run this episode (0 mins 15 secs) Kaner introduces a new games engine introduced to webDiplomacy: a great new click interface, against bots and ...
The guys interview Tejas Patel, who is DARPA's the project lead for SHADE: an AI research initiative using Diplomacy to better understand the nuance of communication intent behind actions. Plus the guys games and how does a famous UK Diplomacy player get himself a novice rank in Australia's Diplomacy association. Intro The guys introduce the show, the venue and their drinks (0 mins 15 secs) They discuss getting how to get a French fleet into Tunis. Hint hint, they're wrong! (Spring 1901 MAR-GOL,...
