I often say it is like risk, but without the element of chance in combat

If he's interested, we can do a "learning" game with some people here? I'd happily play an unranked game to help teach the basics and discuss strategies at a simpler level.

I learned when I was about 17, but if they like chess, this should come fairly naturally. The rules are very set in stone as to how things happen, just like how in chess there is no randomness either.

@drano019 yes! Cool offer, but I don't think his level of English will allow him to play on VDip this time. Maybe some day...

Diplomacy is ultimately about manipulating and using other people....building coalitions and then betraying people when they have served your purposes.

While Tactics (my personal disparaging title for gunboats) is easy enough for an 8 year old, Diplomacy is a game for multiple players engaging in complex shifting negotiations with each other. It is not really sporting for an adult to play such a game fairly against an 8 year old, and I am not sure that I would want to begin teaching a child to systematically mistrust other people that early in life. If you are really teaching the game to your child, you must lie and deceive. I would not want to sit down with a child of mine at 8 and say, "Now pay close attention and see if you can tell when Daddy is lying to you."

@gopher27 I didn't think about that point. Yes, it's rather weird to teach young person to lie.

flame where u from

wait russia? dang i would think it would be blocked

wait ukraine actually? even epicer

@DaveSpermbank yes. Ukraine.

it is possible to play diplomacy with success without stabbing
and with very few lie

Flame, Edi's one page rules are great:
http://uk.diplom.org/pouch/Zine/W2008A/Birsan/Dipteach.htm
Those who already have contact with any kind of board game learn easily from them!
Edi presented me the original draft, which I translated and printed. I use the one page rules in the four Dip Cons at the university and it allowed us recruiting more players from those who approached with curiosity.

here they are http://uk.diplom.org/pouch/Zine/F2006M/Birsan/DP_F2006M_teaching_diplomacy.htm

As a matter of interest, in the latest episode of the Diplomacy Games podcast we interview someone who uses Diplomacy for professional military training in the Australian Army.

Bit different to your son Flame, but interesting story to hear!

@CCR, @Amby thanks.

I would certainly not teach a child to play Diplomacy, at least not as it is supposed to be played.

I have taught my children to play when they were rather little (i.e. 8 and 5) but we made a house rule that says that it is prohibited to lie.

We play some other games that include diplomacy, but we always have the house rule that lying is prohibited. For example, we play rather often the game "Twilight Imperium" like that. The prohibition of lying in such games has the advantage to teach children to formulate, and to understand, the exact nature of an agreement.
For, example, if you promise to vacate a SC without specifying where the "vacating" unit would go, you are allowed to move it even further into enemy territory.

I would never want to play "normally" any kind of diplomatic game with my own children : for me, lies, any kind of lies, mustn't be present in our family.

Flame I think you can start by teaching gunboat so he can grasp the tactical part and treat it like another form of chess. When he gets into say secondary school then maybe you can start teaching press diplomacy - I mean by then he might have already acquired the skill of lying without playing Dip lol

Hi, I'm new to online diplomacy but I have some stuff to say

1) I've never solo-ed a game without a backstab or players dropping out mid-game
2) Children are more capable than you think
3) There are other lessons to be learnt in Diplomacy other than lying: negotiation, even to some extent geography
4) The more people who are into this game, the better; we want to keep the legacy of it, and getting people into it at a young age is great for this

That's all