There are seven countries: Russia, Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and the Ottoman Empire. Each one is going to be controlled by a different person, and we’ll determine who is who randomly at the beginning of the game.

Everyone moves simultaneously. Twice a week, everyone will send me movement orders, and then I’ll compile them and post the map the next day (this will be faster when I get my broadband connection).

The game begins in spring of 1900, and there are two turns a year (e.g. the first move is spring 1900, the second is fall 1900, the third is spring 1901, etc).

The rules are pretty simple; the real meat of the game is in what sorts of unofficial agreements and alliances you get into with other players. But basically put, it is a game of moving armies around.

UNITS AND SUPPLY CENTERS

You have as many units as you have got supply centers. Supply centers are marked on the map with a dot (e.g. Moscow, Marseilles, London). Areas without dots are pretty much useless except for strategic purposes. If you have a unit in an supply center at the end of the fall turn (i.e., over the “winter”), this means that you now control the supply center. This doesn’t matter if you’re at war with the person you’re stealing it from or not, either way you get it.

Gaining supply centers means that you get to make another unit. Losing them means you lose a unit. Each “winter” the numbers have to add up: your total number of supply centers must equal your number of units, or else you lose or gain units. If Germany stays like this over the fall turn, then the Germans gain one supply center and the Russians lose one.

Units must be built in one of your starting cities (e.g. for Germany, they can build armies only in Berlin, Kiel, or Munich).

Units are of two kinds: armies and fleets. There’s no real difference between them, except that of course armies go on land and fleets in the ocean. Either type of unit can go into a coastal area (e.g. Marseilles). Fleets can also convoy armies across an ocean, but I’ll get into that later. Only one unit can occupy one area (e.g. you can have only one army in Marseilles or one fleet there, not two armies, not an army in a fleet, etc). If two armies try to move into the same area in the same turn, they end up butting heads and neither of them moves in. This is the same even if they’re both your armies, or it’s you and your ally’s army, or if it’s you and your enemy’s army.

Inland areas (e.g. Moscow) can’t build fleets. Coastal areas (e.g. London) can build fleets or armies.

ORDERS

Moving

Twice a week you’ll have to submit orders. An example of orders looks like this (don't worry too much about the shorthand): FRANCE Army Gascony moves to Burgundy or A Gascony - Burgundy GERMANY A Munich - Burgundy

In this example, nothing has happened, because the troop strengths are evenly matched: it's one army versus one army. The two armies clash over Burgundy and neither takes it. This can happen between friendly armies, enemy armies, or even your own armies.

So what needs to happen is support. Another army from a neighboring area has to aid the attack (or the defense). I hope these pictures aren't really confusing, I'm putting in those arrows to be clear. If a unit does not move, it is considered to be holding. If you forget to give a unit orders, it automatically holds.

Supporting

FRANCE A Gascony - Burgundy A Paris supports the Army in Gascony's move to Burgundy or A Paris S A Gascony - Burgundy GERMANY A Munich - Burgundy

In this example, the French move into Burgundy and the Germans are forced to remain in Munich. If a move fails, your unit simply stays where it was in the last round. If your unit is kicked out of an area, it retreats to any neighboring spot you like.

Here is an example of international support.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY A Greece Holds TURKEY F Aegean Sea - Greece ITALY F Ionian Sea supports the Turkish F Aegean Sea - Greece In this example, the Turkish fleet takes Greece, and the Austrian army must retreat to Albania, Serbia, or Bulgaria. The Italian fleet remains where it is.

In the above example, if the Italian fleet had ordered: "F Ionian Sea - Greece" as well, then in each conflict (Austrian versus Italian, Austrian versus Turkish), there would have been a tie, so no one would have moved anywhere. You can think of it as being as though the attack was not well coordinated.

Here is another variation

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY A Greece Holds A Bulgaria Supports A Greece Holding TURKEY F Aegean Sea - Greece ITALY F Ionian Sea supports the Turkish F Aegean Sea - Greece

In this case, it's two units against two units, so nobody goes anywhere.

Cutting Off Support

If a unit that is supporting an attack or a defense is itself attacked, the support is cut off (it's all the army can do to save itself), and the army might well have to retreat. Here is, I promise, the most complicated example on this website:

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY A Greece Holds A Bulgaria Supports A Greece Holding TURKEY F Aegean Sea - Greece ITALY F Ionian Sea supports the Turkish F Aegean Sea - Greece RUSSIA A Romania - Bulgaria F Black Sea supports A Romania - Bulgaria

In this case, the Russian attack on the Austrian army in Bulgaria not only causes it to stop its support for the army in Greece, but kicks it out of Bulgaria into either Serbia or Constantinople. So ultimately, the Russians take Bulgaria, and the Turks take Greece. Here is what the aftermath looks like:

Finally, the last type of order: Convoying

Fleets can transport armies across the ocean. You can transport your own, or other peoples' armies. The orders look like this:

FRANCE A Brest - Holland F English Channel convoys A Brest - Holland ENGLAND F North Sea convoys the French A Brest-Holland If for some reason the English player didn't pull through and put that order in, it would mean that the French army would remain in Brest.

That's pretty much it. Agreements you make with other people are entirely up to you and there's no rules governing them, so expect people to lie and agree to things they have no intention of doing. That's really part of the fun.

SPECIAL AREAS

First of all, England is hard to see, and so is Italy. Here is a blow-up image of those countries:
ENGLAND
ITALY

Secondly, a word about coastlines. Here in Bulgaria, you see it has two sections that are open to the sea: the East Coast (EC) and the South Coast (SC). Spain and St. Petersburg are similar. In this situation, a fleet moving into Bulgaria can only reach the coast it is nearest to. What I mean is that if your fleet is in the Black Sea, it moves into the East Coast of Bulgaria. It cannot then move on to Greece or the Aegean, because this would be bypassing Constantinople. If this seems confusing, just think of it practically; a ship on the east coast of Bulgaria has to get through Constantinople before it reaches the Mediterranian Sea. Other than this, the coastlines make no difference. A fleet landing in the EC can dislodge a fleet sitting in the SC, and vice-versa. Armies don't have to worry about this.

Now, you'll notice that Kiel has no coasts. This is because in 1900 a canal existed bypassing Denmark. Ships in Kiel can go from Holland to Berlin with no problem, and ships in Helgoland Bight can cut through Kiel to reach the Baltic.