And so we approach the end of another year of Diplomacy. Outside my window autumn is in full force, and winter is fast on its heals. In North America this means that the tournaments are all but over until after the new year. Around the world, the year's final events are wrapping up, and eyes are turning both to the next year's schedule, and to thoughts of growing the hobby at home.

A mix of very well attended events, and some dissappointingly poor attended ones have players in several countries asking themselves the old questions about how to attract new players. It's one of those questions where everyone has an opinion, but it sometimes seems like nobody has an answer.

DAANZ Bismark Cup Standings (Top 10) With only Gong Con remaining, Rob has a commanding lead and looks to bring the cup back to New Zealand! (complete standings) 1 Rob Schone WEL 31.20 2 Grant Steel AKL 26.79 3 Will Black AKL 22.61 4 Andrew Goff ACT 22.40 5 Christain Gemballa Moura VIC 19.07 6 Dominick Stehpens WEL 18.19 7 Peter Taylor AKL 18.00 8 Brett Chatterton NSW 16.37 9 Grant Torrie AKL 16.06 10 Craig Sedgwick NSW 15.74

European Diplomacy Grand Prix Standings (Top 10) Eight events are down, and two more to go. William isn't out of the woods yet! (complete results) 1 FRA William Attia 5085 2 FRA Yann Clouet 3520 3 ENG Simon Bouton 3000 4 SWE Niklas Perez 2150 5 NOR Frank Johansen 1838 6 SWE Jens Persson 1836 7 SPA Miguel Martinez 1800 8 NET Ronald Lokers 1741 9 FFA Philippe Clavaud 1225 10 ENG Vick Hall 1213

North American Diplomacy Grand Prix Standings (Top 10) Making a big move down the final stretch, Andy apprears to have won the 2002 North American Grand Prix!(complete standings) 1 Andy Bartalone MD 543 2 Edi Birsan CA 488 3 Andy Marshall MD 423 4 Nathan Barnes WA 418 5 Edward Hawthorne WA 418 6 Chris Martin NY 410 7 Ike Porter MD 303 8 Rick Desper NJ 287 9 Jerry Fest OR 275 10 Ken Lemere WA 273

Tempest In A Teapot IV SILVER SPRINGS - The first ever tournament win for one of of U.S. Dip's newest stars!(complete results) 1 Conrad Woodring 2 Andy Bartalone 3 Tom Pasko 4 Martin Smith 5 Edward Hawthorne 6 Grant Flowers 7 Rick Desper 8 Roy Rink 9 Jeff Dwornicki 10 Spencer Bernard

RegnCon 10 BERGEN - RegnCon managed a decent showing, despite the absence of foreign players. (complete results) 1 Havard Nja 2 Frank Johansen 3 Nikolai Martens 4 Rolf Andreassen 5 Hans Marius Haukedal 6 Andre Svalland 7 Arne Jaeger 8 Dag-Olav Lillefoss 9 Kristian Nordstroenen 10 Martin Lie

Auckland Championships AUCKLAND - Some new faces and the Auckland Champs...and some old ones! (complete results) 1 Grant Torrie 2 Grant Steel 2 Brandon Clarke 4 Jimmy Millington 5 Josh Luckstedt 6 Peter Taylor 7 Will Black 8 Rob Schone 9 Josh Guilbert 10 Ben Guilbert

Diplocamp 2 CAMPINAS - Another successful step in the development of the Brazialian tournament scene. (complete results) 1 Wolfgang Lenk 2 Cristiano Corte Restitutti 3 Rafael Ozzetti 4 Tiago "Sumare" Tomazi 5 Igor Peretti 6 Tiago Ali de Oliveire Bueno 7 Paulo Fisch 8 Grahal Benatti 9 Fabio Pernilongo 10 Leonardo Rossatto Queiroz

Conquest 2002 PALO ALTO - Adam Silverman topped the field in his first California tourney! (complete results) 1 Adam Silverman 2 Jashau Shank 3 Kurt Horner 4 Robert Silver 5 Andy Hartwell 5 Justin Newport 7 John Marsaella 7 Alex Rajeff 7 Mark Beyak 7 Eric Fitzgerald

Here's Quentin Ball's review of the New Zealand Championships this October. Proof that you can have a fun event, even if you don't get a great turnout.

Yippee - we managed a tournament!!

Truely dissapointing turnout - 7 people turn up on Saturday, gulp, a 1 board tournament - is this a tournament??!!

Of course it is - so, countries are drawn, deals are struck and we're off. Will Black goes nuts, he drawn Germany and is on 10 by 1904 . . . then the sharks hit the water and start clawing things back - by the time it's finished Grant Torrie(Austria - and defending champ) is 11, Rob Schone(Italy) is 12 and Grant Steel(England) is on 8. (OH, by the way, Detour was used as the scoring system).

Sunday - John Lukstedt can't make it, so I actually get to play . . . first tourney as a player in a while, the nerves were jangling. I'd drawn Turkey, Rob and Grant T were in Germany England respectively, Will and Brian Bull in Italy, Austria and Grant S in Russia.

We see an EFG form very quickly in the West and settle arguments in the East to defend (that took longer than it should . . ) - the line forms and EG whip into France to maximise their gains - by the time the dust settles, E has locked MAo and StP and is basically lurking - Germany grinds itself back to the stalemate line and a draw is agreed to - Germany 9, England 8, Turkey 7 and two 5's - Rob and Grant T are definitely leaders . . .

Monday - Final round - I get to play again (and pay for yet another round), I draw France - and see Rob in England, Grant T in Germany. Will's in Turkey, Grant S is in Austria, Brian in Russia and Andrew in Italy.

I'm nervous but happy - the two tourney leaders are next to me (as I was playing, the scores were available to the players) and surely they must attack one another. I open relatively neutral (Grant T doesn't think Par - Bur is neutral, but hey, what Frenchman feels comfy with nothing in Bur . . .) and see similar moves around the board - the most aggresive opening is Italy moving to Tyr.

Fall '01 see's Tyr moving to Vie (with Gal support) and general movements against Austria. Italy builds two fleets and I get really nervous. In '02 Grant T and Rob agree to give me Bul and we see Rob pounce - he enlists Russian aid and punches into Den while I give Grant Ven. In the mean time, Turkey, Russia and Italy have torn Austria apart, leaving him on two.

We fuss about for a year - life getting grimmer for Austria and Germany, so I decide to finish the job on Grant - so do Rob and Brian and Grant is gone in 1904 - the other Grant is gone in 1905 so Will now works on taking out Italy - and I try to get Brian to stab Will - I was spectacularly unsuccessful here and Will goes on to top the board.

With all this, time finally runs out and while my second gets me best France, I only make fourth . . . behind Grant T, Will B and the eventual winner, Rob.

Thanks to everyone who turned up - we really need to start recruiting new blood, we might get more players to a tournament!!

Quentin

  Matt Shields
(chirchill@diplom.org)