Blast From The Past

Articles from the Annals of 'Zines Past


How Many Valid Openings Are There?


In this journey into the past, we look back at a series of submissions to the 'zine Electronic Protocol. The prolific Danny Loeb started the discussion with a not-so-innocent question posed in EP #211:

How many different sets of opening orders are there? Such a set of orders must specify a legal movement, support, or hold for each of the 22 units on the board. (Convoys are of course impossible in Spring 1901.) You must consider all possible movements including stupid ones like moving Smy-Syr or Lon-Yor with Edi-Yor. However, you should only count supports which are not void. That is to say, the supported unit must be ordered to do what is supported to do. Furthermore, only count useful supports. That is to say, only count supports which are given by a country "A" for himself or for a country "B" which in theory could prevent the success of the move or hold by a country "C" distinct from "A" and "B".


In EP #215 (dated December 30, 1990), Magnus Selhammar's solution was presented:

I have calculated the number of opening moves, and the the number of opening moves suggested in The Gamer's Guide to Diplomacy. In order to forestall Daniel Loeb's next quiz, I have also calculated the number of possible orders for a typical Fall 1901 position, and the number in the sample game at the Spring 1904 positions in The Gamer's Guide. Please take these numbers as approximate; it's very likely that I have made errors.

I have counted all possible orders, even orders such as:

I have not counted holding supports to empty territories, but all supports to an empty territory from an occupied territory wherefrom a unit can enter. Even though most of the orders are improbable and bad (but not illegal), the Fall 1901 position I have calculated on is quite plausible.

The number of opening moves are 1.84*10^22. If one use the suggested moves in The Gamer's Guide, the possible opening moves there are 46656. In the typical situation at Fall 1901 there are 4.93*10^35 possibilities, and in the sample game at Spring 1904 there are 6.92*10^44 possible sets of orders. In the "typical" position at Spring 1902 the positons were: (Belgium is still a neutral supply center.)

Austria   A Tri Vie Bud Ser                F Gre 
England   A Nwy                            F Edi Nwg Nth
France    A Par Bur Por Mar                F Spa(sc)
Germany   A Ruh Den Mun                    F Hol Kie
Italy     A Ven Tun                        F Nap Ion
Russia    A StP War Ukr Sev                F Swe Rum
Turkey    A Bul Ank                        F Con Smy
In these situations the convoy possibilities are rather limited. They are the main reason why the number increases so much. With more fleets on the water, the number will raise considerable. As an example, in the sample game there are 63 different legal orders for the fleet in MAO.

In chess there are most often less than ten "good" moves. In Diplomacy, there are many more, often thousands of them. The problem of writing a program is then quite different and much more difficult than chess, even when one uses parallellism as Michael Hall suggested, and a great challenge indeed.


In this same issue of Electronic Protocol, Danny Loeb's own solution was published. The EP editor commented, "Danny's answer is about a million times smaller than Magnus's. Although 10^22 and 10^16 are in the same ballpark of big numbers." Danny's solution follows:

First we must count for each unit the number of neighbors it has and could move to. Obviously, besides supporting, a unit can move to one of these spaces or it could hold. The asterisks in the table below indicate units which can offer "useful" supports in Spring, 1901.

Number of Neighbors
        Edi Lvp Lon     Bre Par Mar     Ven Rom Nap     Tri Vie Bud
        4   4   4       4   4*  5*      6*  4   3       3   5*  5*

        Con Smy Ank     Mun Kie Ber     Sev Mos War StP/sc
        3   4*  3*      7*   3  4*      3   5   6   3
Next we must consider the map and determine which are the "useful" supports to which I was referring. (Again, units which can offer these are distinguished by an asterisk in the table above.) The only "useful" support on nation can give another, you will note, is that any of Austria, Italy, and Germany can support a second to prevent the third from taking Tyrolia. In fact, it is possible for two of these countries to so support the third!
Useful triples:
        country         units           dest
        France:         Par,Mar         Bur
        Germany:        Mun,Ber         Sil
        Turkey:         Smy,Ank         Arm
        Austria:        Vie,Bud         Gal
                        Vie,Bud         Tri
        G+A+I:          Vie,Mun,Ven     Tyr
Thus, answer is the following product:
                 +----------- number of moves
                 | +--------- HOLD order
                 | |  +------ number of units for which this is true
                 | |  | +-- "useful" support orders
                 | |  | |
                 V V  V V
ANSWER  =       (3+1)^6         (Nap, Tri, Con, Kie, Sev, StP)    4096
        x       (4+1)^5         (Edi, Lpl, Lon, Bre, Rom)         3125
        x       (5+1)^1         (Mos)                                6
        x       (6+1)^1         (War)                                7
        x      ((4+1)^1         (Par)
           x    (5+1)^1         (Mar)
           +            2)      (Par S Mar-Bur, Mar S Par-Bur)      32
        x      ((4+1)^1         (Smy)
           x    (3+1)^1         (Ank)
           +            2)      (Smy S Ank-Arm, Ank S Amy-Arm)      22
        x       A               (Mun, Ber, Vie, Bud, Ven)        13174
Where A is the number of possible combinations for Munich, Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, and Venice. We break up A into the possibility that Vie and Bud support each other to Gal or Tri, and if Mun and Ber support.
            (4               (Vie*Bud)                           4
     x       ((6+1)          (Ven)
        x     (7+1)          (Mun)
        +           2)       (Ven S Mun-Tyr, Mun S Ven-Tyr)  x  58
     x       (4+1))          Ber                             x   5 =  1160
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  +         (4               (Vie*Bud)                       +   4
     x       (6+1)           (Ven)                           x   7
        x            2)      (Mun S Ber-Sil, Ber S Mun-Sil)  x   2 =    56
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  +         ((5+1)           (Bud)                           +   6
     x              2        (Mun S Ber-Sil, Ber S Mun-Sil)  x   2
     x       ((5+1)          (Vie)
        x     (6+1)          (Ven)
        +           2)       (Vie S Ven-Tyr, Ven S Vie-Tyr)  x  44 =   528
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  +         ((5+1)           (Bud)                           +   6
     x       (4+1)           (Ber)                           x   5
     x       ((5+1)          (Vie)
        x     (6+1)          (Mun)
        x     (7+1)          (Ber)
        +           2(5+1)
        +           2(6+1)
        +           2(7+1)
        +           3)                                       x 381 = 11430
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  A = TOTAL OF SUMS                                                = 13174
Thus, the final answer is 4,985,969,049,600,000. At a rate of 1 game per person in the world per minute, it would take about 2 years to try every possible Diplomacy opening!
Trevor Green took a slightly different approach, calculating the number of valid (as defined) openings for each of the seven powers, and came up with yet a third figure. His response to Danny Loeb's request to provide the details of his solution was was published in Electronic Protocol issue #265 (dated December 5, 1991).

While transcribing Mr. Green's solution for re-publication, I (Manus Hand, Publisher of The Diplomatic Pouch), corrected a number of errors, changed the notation used, and took into account Danny Loeb's comments describing the openings which were missed by Mr. Green. To quote Danny Loeb's comments on Green's original solution, "In your list of openings, you don't count, for example, the possibility of Turkey supporting Russia to Armenia, and himself moving to Armenia. This is clearly different from just moving to Armenia, or not moving to Armenia. (Same goes for France and Germany in Burgundy [and Germany and Russia in Silesia and Austria and Russia in Galicia --Manus].) Such a set of orders could be used by someone who definitely didn't want Armenia empty (for some strange psychological reason). Perhaps the problem is exactly in defining what a set of distinct orders is?"

Indeed, even after my own updates, what appears below does not consider, for example, A CON-ANK, A SMY-ARM, F ANK S A SMY-ARM to be a separate opening from A CON HOLD, A SMY-ARM, F ANK S A SMY-ARM. That is, bounce moves having no effect are considered useless (indeed, they are, tactically, and thus this answer fits Danny Loeb's problem description -- diplomatically, of course, is another story).

Therefore, what appears below is not a faithful reproduction of Green's solution published in EP #265, but rather a corrected and updated solution based on the work begun by Mr. Green. With no further ado, here it is.

Okay, here goes. The notation I'm using should be self-explanatory. Parenthesized orders mean that (given the other units' moves) the orders(s) specified within parentheses would not be distinct from one of the other possible openings for that country. As per always, I invite you to check my math and correct me if I did anything wrong.

DISTINCT OPENINGS FOR AUSTRIA-HUNGARY
Order    F Tri       A Bud        A Vie
-----    -----       -----        -----
  A      HOLD        HOLD         HOLD
  B      -Alb        -Gal         -Tyr
  C      -Ven        -Rum         -Gal
  D      -Adr        -Tri         -Bud 
  E                  -Vie         -Tri 
  F                  -Ser         -Boh
  G                  S Vie-Gal    S Bud-Gal 
  H                  S Vie-Tri    S Bud-Tri 
  I                  S War-Gal    S Ven-Tyr
  J                               S Mun-Tyr
  K                               S War-Gal

         F Tri       A Bud        A Vie       Total 
         -----       -----        -----       ----- 
           A           A          ABCHIJ         6 
                       B          ABCDFGIJK      9
                       CF         ABCDFIJ       14 
                       E          BCF            3 
           ABCD        GI         C              8 
           BD          D          ABCDEFHIJ     18 
           BCD         A          ABCEFIJ       21 
                       B          ABCDEFGIJK    30
                       CF         ABCDEFIJ      48 
                       E          BCEF          12 
                       H          E              3 
           C           D          ABCDFIJ        7 
                                              ----- 
Total distinct openings for Austria-Hungary:   179

DISTINCT OPENINGS FOR ENGLAND

Order    A Lvp       F Edi        F Lon 
-----    -----       -----        ----- 
  A      HOLD        HOLD         HOLD
  B      -Cly        -Cly         -Yor 
  C      -Edi        -Nwg         -Nth 
  D      -Yor        -Nth         -Wal 
  E      -Wal        -Yor         -Eng

         A Lvp       F Edi        F Lon       Total 
         -----       -----        -----       ----- 
           A         ABC          ABCDE         15 
           B         AC           ABCDE         10 
           C         BC           ABCDE         10 
           D         ABC          ACDE          12 
                     D            ADE            3 
           E         ABC          ABCE          12 
                     D            ABE            3 
                     E            ACE            3 
           ABC       D            ABDE          12 
                     E            ACDE          12 
                                              ----- 
        Total distinct openings for England:    92 

DISTINCT OPENINGS FOR FRANCE

Order    F Bre       A Mar       A Par
-----    -----       -----       -----
  A      HOLD        HOLD        HOLD
  B      -Mid        -Bur        -Pic
  C      -Pic        -Gas        -Bur
  D      -Gas        -Spa        -Gas
  E      -Eng        -Pie        -Bre
  F                  S Par-Bur   S Mar-Bur
  G                  S Mun-Bur   S Mun-Bur

         F Bre       A Mar       A Par        Total 
         -----       -----       -----        ----- 
         A           ADE         ABCE           12 
                     B           ABCDFG          6 
                     C           ABDF            4 
         BE          ADE         ABCDE          30 
                     B           ABCDEFG        14 
                     C           ABCE            8 
         C           ADE         ACDE           12 
                     B           ACDEFG          6 
                     D           ACE             3 
         D           ADE         ABCE           12 
                     B           ABCEFG          6 
         ABCDE       FG          C              10
                                              ----- 
         Total distinct openings for France:   123 

DISTINCT OPENINGS FOR GERMANY

Order    F Kie       A Ber       A Mun
-----    -----       -----       -----
  A      HOLD        HOLD        HOLD
  B      -Ber        -Pru        -Kie
  C      -Hol        -Sil        -Ber
  D      -Hel        -Mun        -Sil 
  E      -Den        -Kie        -Boh
  F      -Bal        S Mun-Sil   -Tyr
  G                  S War-Sil   -Bur
  H                              -Ruh
  I                              S Ber-Sil
  J                              S Vie-Tyr
  K                              S Ven-Tyr 
  L                              S Mar-Bur
  M                              S Par-Bur 
  N                              S War-Sil

         F Kie       A Ber       A Mun        Total 
         -----       -----       -----        ----- 
         A           A           ADEFGHJKLM     10 
                     B           ACDEFGHJKLM    11 
                     C           ACDEFGHIJKLMN  13 
                     D           DEFGH           5 
         B           B           ABDEFGHJKLM    11 
                     C           ABDEFGHIJKLMN  13 
         CDEF        A           ADEFGHJKLM(B)  40 
                     B           ABCDEFGHJKLM   48 
                     C           ABCDEFGHIJKLMN 56 
                     D           CDEFGHJKLM(A)  40 
         ACDEF       FG          D              10
         BCDEF       D           BDEFGH         30 
                                              ----- 
        Total distinct openings for Germany:   287 

DISTINCT OPENINGS FOR ITALY

Order     F Nap      A Rom      A Ven
-----     -----      -----      -----
  A       HOLD       HOLD       HOLD
  B       -Apu       -Tus       -Pie
  C       -Ion       -Ven       -Apu
  D       -Rom       -Apu       -Rom
  E       -Tys       -Nap       -Tus 
  F                             -Tyr
  G                             -Tri
  H                             S Mun-Tyr
  I                             S Vie-Tyr 
  J                             S Vie-Tri
  K                             S Bud-Tri 

          F Nap      A Rom      A Ven         Total 
          -----      -----      -----         ----- 
          B          A          ABFGHIJK(E)      8 
                     B          ABDFGHIJK        9 
                     C          BEFG             4 
                     E          ABDEFGHIJK      10 
          CE         E          ABCDEFGHIJK     22 
          D          B          ABCFGHIJK        9 
                     D          ABEFGHIJK        9 
          ACE        A          ABCFGHIJK(E)    27 
                     B          ABCDFGHIJK      30 
                     D          ABDEFGHIJK      30 
          ACDE       C          BCEFG           20 
                                              ----- 
          Total distinct openings for Italy:   178 

DISTINCT OPENINGS FOR RUSSIA

Order     F Sev      F StP/sc   A Mos      A War
-----     -----      --------   -----      -----
  A       HOLD       HOLD       HOLD       HOLD
  B       -Arm       -Lvn       -StP       -Lvn
  C       -Bla       -Bot       -Sev       -Mos
  D       -Rum       -Fin       -Ukr       -Ukr 
  E       S Ank-Arm             -War       -Gal
  F       S Smy-Arm             -Lvn       -Pru
  G                                        -Sil
  H                                        S Bud-Gal
  I                                        S Vie-Gal
  J                                        S Mun-Sil
  K                                        S Ber-Sil 

          F Sev      F StP/sc   A Mos      A War         Total 
          -----      --------   -----      -----         ----- 
          ABCDEF     ACD        A          AEFGHIJK(BD)   116 
                                D          BCEFGHIJK(A)   134
                                E          BDEFG           90 
                                F          CDEFGHIJK(A)   134 
                     B          A          AEFGHIJK(D)     48 
                                B          ACDEFGHIJK      60 
                                D          CEFGHIJK(A)     48 
                                E          CDEF            24 
                     CD         B          ABCDEFGHIJK    132 
          BCD        ACD        C          ABCDEFGHIJK     99 
                     B          C          ACDEFGHIJK      30 
                                                         ----- 
         Total distinct openings for Russia:              915 

DISTINCT OPENINGS FOR TURKEY

Order     A Con      F Ank      A Smy
-----     -----      -----      ----- 
  A       HOLD       HOLD       HOLD
  B       -Bul       -Con       -Con 
  C       -Ank       -Bla       -Ank
  D       -Smy       -Arm       -Arm 
  E                  S Smy-Arm  -Syr
  F                  S Sev-Arm  S Ank-Arm 
  G                             S Sev-Arm

          A Con      F Ank      A Smy         Total 
          -----      -----      -----         ----- 
          A          A          ADE              3 
                     C          ADE(C)           3 
                     D          ADEFG(C)         5 
          ABD        EF         D                6 
          B          A          ABDE             4 
                     B          ACDE             4 
                     C          ABCDE            5 
                     D          ABCDEFG          7 
          C          C          BE(A)            2 
                     D          BEF(A)           3 
          D          A          DE               2 
                     BC         CDE              6 
                     D          CDEFG            5
                                              ----- 
         Total distinct openings for Turkey:    55 

TOTAL DISTINCT OPENINGS

Austria-Hungary         179 
England                  92 
France                  123 
Germany                 287
Italy                   178 
Russia                  915 
Turkey                   55
--------------------------- 
Total 5 207 528 463 013 800
Note that Trevor Green's published answer was, like Danny Loeb's, over four quadrillion. After correcting errors, however (for example, he had counted 999 distinct Russian openings), I reached a total of only 338,171,034,482,560 (338 trillion). Only after adding the openings described by Danny Loeb (ANK S SEV-ARM, SMY-ARM, etc.) did the total jump to this figure over five quadrillion.
Determined to see how many of these five-odd quadrillion possible openings actually result in separate positions (that is, how many possible positions can be reached from the starting setup), I (me, Manus, again) decided one more calculation would be nice. To be eliminated, then, are all openings which contain bounces. For example, any opening with Brest and London standing off in the Channel is identical to those in which both these units hold.

Notice that all self-bounces (such as Mar-Gas with Par-Gas) are already discounted. So all that are left to remove are situations like the following:

Lon-ENG with Bre-ENG
Sev-BLA with Ank-BLA
Ven-Pie with Mar-Pie
Mun-Bur with Par-Bur and without Mar S Mun-Bur and Mar S Par-Bur
Mun-Bur with Mar-Bur and without Par S Mun-Bur and Par S Mar-Bur
Par-Bur with Mar-Bur and without Mun S Par-Bur and Mun S Mar-Bur
Sev-Arm with Ank-Arm and without Smy S Sev-Arm and Smy S Ank-Arm
Sev-Arm with Smy-Arm and without Ank S Sev-Arm and Ank S Ank-Arm
Ank-Arm with Smy-Arm and without Sev S Ank-Arm and Sev S Ank-Arm
-etc.-
Unfortunately, the situation around Tyrolia makes determining all the situations in which there is any bounce out of this province very difficult. For example, some of these situations are:
Ven-Tyr with Vie-Tyr and without Mun S Ven-Tyr or Mun S Vie-Tyr
Ven-Tyr with Vie S Ven-Tyr and Mun-Tyr
-etc.-
We could, in this way, go through and describe all situations resulting in bounces, but it would seem more straightforward to attack this problem anew. We must then determine the possible ending locations for each of the 22 units and then remove those which have two (or more) units in the same location.

And here is where I take the professor's cop-out and say, "Determining the final solution from this beginning is left as an exercise for the reader." We'll have a contest. First one to send in the correct, documented answer will win a free lifetime subscription to The Pouch!


Fodder for this article was supplied through Mark Nelson's collection of on-line Diplomacy articles.