Tournament Descriptions and Rules
Diplomacy events vary widely in format and structure. Strong Diplomacy players know how to adapt to their surroundings, and succeed regardless of venue.
DIXIECON SCORING SYSTEM (for Diplomacy and Team Dip events)
Win: 270 points
2nd: 70
3rd: 50
4th: 34
5th: 20
6th: 10
7th: 0
Also, each player receives 4 points per center held at the end of the game.
Places are determined by the number of supply centers at the end of the game. Ties split the points for the tied places involved. Eliminations are scored by order of elimination, with the first eliminated being 7th place.
Participants in a draw split the total points for the places involved in that size of a draw. For example, a 2-way draw is worth 170 points each, plus the supply center points. Other common draw values are 130 for a 3-way and 106 for a 4-way.
Note that a 2-way draw is worth 10 "centers" more than a 3-way, and a 3-way is worth 6 "centers" more than a 4-way. Take that into account as you determine your position on draw votes during the game.
Draws are voted by secret ballot. You need David Hood or his representative to conduct any such votes. Draws need NOT include all survivors, but the vote for draws or concessions must be unanimous. No draw or concession can be proposed until after the Fall 1905 adjudication. A game cannot be conceded to a player who does not have at least 12 centers AND has centers greater than or equal to the number of any other current power on the board.
There are no overall time limits on the Friday and Saturday rounds. There is a limit of 15 minutes per negotiation phase, 5 minutes per order -writing phase unless different limits are imposed by unanimous vote during the game. The Sunday round ends at a time between 7 and 9 hours after the game begins. During the Sunday round, draw/concession votes will be conducted quickly while the time continues to run in any given phase. Should the GM believe that proposals are being made solely for delay purposes such proposals may be summarily dismissed. A player can publicly veto any proposal, in order to speed up play.
A player’s score is best two out of the three rounds.
LET'S TALK SCORING SYSTEMS - DIXIECON IS UNIQUE
Well actually, Dixiecon used to be just one of many tournaments in North America that used what is called "draw-based" scoring. Why do we still do this, when other tournaments have either moved to "topping the board" type systems, or the European systems that end games after particular game years? At Dixiecon we have always believed that Diplomacy is about control of the stalemate line, not possession of a certain number of centers at an arbitrary time. A Diplomacy board is under control when a player or group of players have the ability to force through the stalemate line from one direction or the other - or at least can convince the other players such a situation exists. So, for those not used to a draw-based system, the point is to establish such dominance of board position that the members of the draw have controlled the board. Of course, all the other surviving players must also vote to end a game in any particular draw. The game only ends with a win, a concession, a draw, or a demonstrated stalemate where no centers change hands for 4 game turns. We at Dixiecon believe that a skilled Diplomat can succeed under varying scoring systems - and that each system should be seen as emphasizing and rewarding different skills, similar to how golf events can be scored under match play, stroke play, skins, etc. and how tennis is played on different surfaces.
IRON MAN COMPETITION
Many other games are played at Dixiecon throughout the weekend. In the early years, separate tournaments in such games at 1830 and Titan were mainstays of the event. Now that the gaming world has so heavily diversified in game choices, the non-Dip gaming at Dixiecon is judged by wins in multiples games of multiple types. Games are divided by type into Schedule A, B, C, D, or E games, with wins in the longer, more difficult games counting for more than those of the lighter, frothier variety. Michael Lowrey is the GM for this event. Throughout the weekend, you'll get points for the number of players you finish ahead of, extra points for winning the game, and your score is then modified based on the length and complexity of the game as reflected in its Schedule A, B, C, D or E status.
Here are a few games of each type so you can get the idea:
A: 6 Nimmts!, Can’t Sop, Coloretto, Mint Works, Sushi Go
B: 7 Wonders, Azul, Carcassonne, Lost Cities, Splendor, Stone Age, Takenoko, Ticket to Ride
C: Alhambra, Castles of Burgundy, Catan, Innovation, Quacks of Quedlinburg, Race/Galaxy, Roll/Galaxy, St. Petersburg, Small World, Targi, Vinci, Wingspan
D: Agricola, Altiplano, Concordia, Nations, Navegador, Orléans, Power Grid, Puerto Rico, Terraforming Mars, Titan, Twilight Struggle
E: 18xx, Age of Renaissance, Here I Stand, Terra Mystica, Through the Ages
Battlestar Galactica: Human or Cylon?
They've Got a Ticket to Ride
Steve Koehler and Ed Rothenheber tangle over a Nations game
2021 Iron Man Champ Rick Desper Ponders
Hugo Max Fairbanks Sports Yankees Jersey
Ronke, Hood and Morgan Show Seersucker
Bruce Duewer and Eric Erikson compete in Ark Nova
Dixiecon 2023 Narrative Report
I had run the North American Diplomacy Championships, Dipcon, five times before this year, but it had been a while. So, running something like Dipcon…it’s a lot. The event is very important to the North American hobby, particularly in years (like 2023) when we do not host the World Dipcon. Obviously we want all of our face to face tournaments to be well attended and fun, but also it’s important to have one big event per year where folk from all over the continent, and beyond, can see each other to rekindle past friendships and to forge new ones.
Our face-to-face hobby is still recovering from the pandemic, with a fair number of attendees from the 2019 Seattle Dipcon, for example, still not back in the hobby on a regular basis. I was happy that this year at Dixiecon we were able to get some of that Old Guard back, even if they did not actually play Dip but instead opted to participate in the Iron Man gaming. We also had a great turnout of our newer players who became more active in the wider hobby during the pandemic, including sixteen players attending a live Dixiecon for the first time! Overall seventy-six folk descended on Granville Towers in Chapel Hill, North Carolina the last week of May to play Dip, compete in the Iron Man, and to consume large quantities of food at the traditional Saturday BBQ.
First things first, though, the gaming action actually started on Thursday night, as the Iron Man tournament for non-Diplomacy gaming got off to a raucous start with early attendees playing a number of titles, including Ra, Space Base, Terraforming Mars, Pinochle, 1775, Ticket to Ride Europe, and the venerable old classic from Dixiecons 30+ years ago, 1830. There was also a little side tournament of Magic the Gathering in which the Dip players and non-Dip players had a great opportunity to mingle, socialize and try to curse each other into oblivion.
In other words, good healthy fun.
Throughout the day on Friday, the Iron Man gaming continued even as many of us ferried travelers to the Con from the Raleigh-Durham airport. In between various activities getting ready for the start of the Dip event at 6pm that evening, I noticed the following games hitting the tables: Dune Imperium, Gaia Project, TMars, Scout, Wingspan, Paperback, Splendor, Mosaic, Strat-O Matic Baseball, Robo Rally and yes, you totally guessed it, the very strategic and not-at-all-ridiculous game, Battle Sheep!
The 52nd annual Dipcon Diplomacy tournament began that night with the Dixiecon tradition of the awarding of trophies, plaques and more for past Dixiecons - which this year included Bruce Reiff finally getting the Order of the Knife medal for his Dixiecon wins in…1994 and 1997! We also had four of us show up for the opening ceremony sporting our seersucker suits, another Dixiecon tradition - this year our seersuckers besides me were Greg Fairbanks, Bill Morgan and Alex Ronke.
Once the Dip action got started, though, it was all business. We had seven boards in Round One, all named after famous North Carolinians listed in the latest World Almanac. I won’t go through each board in detail, you can watch full coverage of all these games on the Diplomacy Broadcast Network’s Gameday Live coverage on YouTube, but I’ll just highlight two game results which seem important in retrospect. In 1A, the David Brinkley game, Doc Binder’s England was destroyed, largely by Doug Moore’s France, resulting in Doc’s elimination by 1904. Contrast this with the Russia of Mikalis Kamaritis in Game 1F, Andy Griffith, which was under significant pressure from Brian Ecton’s Austria and others but was able to turn things around, thanks to alliance with Ben Durfee’s Germany, such that Mikalis ended the game in a three way draw with 11 centers. Doc and Mikalis were to meet directly, in Round Two.
Iron Man gaming also continued apace during the Friday night slot. Games played included Conquest of the Empire, Mosaic, 1830, Split, much more Terraforming Mars, Puerto Rico and what clearly became the “Con game” of the weekend, Ark Nova. And if Ark Nova was the hot “new” game, Friday night also saw the return of a decades-long favorite at Dixiecon, a very hot “old” game, the venerable space-based economic game Outpost.
Saturday morning saw Round Two of the Diplomacy event, which at Dixie also doubles as the Team Tournament. Three-person teams face off their combined scores against the rest of the field, with this year the Doc Doc Goose team of Doc Binder, Tanya Gill and Andrew Goff easily taking the team title. All three had great scores, but the creme de la creme was the two-way draw shared with the aforementioned Mikalis Kamaritis in the Richard Petty game, 2D. Their ET convinced the remaining two players, Hudson Defoe and Ben Durfee, that their fates were sealed and thus voted themselves out of the draw. That result, as it turned out, would be the best score of the tournament and thus would catapult Doc and Mikalis to the top two spots on the leaderboard Sunday afternoon. The question would be, though, in which order?
Other gaming during the day on Saturday included Great Western Trail Argentina, Caverna, Ark Nova, and yet more TMars, along with a spirited board of Monsters Menace America in which the four participants took the game’s rules to heart - which REQUIRE the players to make their creature’s noises while stomping over historical sites in the US and destroying the military units sent to stop them! I believe the winning creature was Toxicor, the monster born of nuclear sludge…but honestly, weren’t the winners actually everyone who played or SAW the game being played? I thought so too.
After the traditional southern dinner of BBQ pork, fried chicken and all the fixin’s, the Congoers settled down to more games as well as other social activities on the busy college-town strip on nearby Franklin Street. Non-Dip games included Castles of Burgundy, 1775, Terraforming, Dairyman, Ark Nova, Splendor, Mosaic, Cascadia, Magic, and 1830. Saturday night also saw the return to Dixiecon of a variant event, this year using the 5-player map Ancient Mediterranean. Unfortunately, although 20 had signed up to play, most had to drop out because their Round One games were not yet complete or were just worn out from Round Two, so we settled for one board including Nicholas Spencer as Carthage, Steve Hogue as Egypt, Ian Rudnick as Greece, Alex Maslow as Persia, Kamartis as Rome, and Alex Ronke as GM. After playing until 1909, the game was finally called as a three-way tie at 11 centers between Spencer, Maslow and Kamartis, with Hogue still alive on one center. A good time was had by all, though.
Going into Round Three on Sunday morning, it was clear that the two-way participants from Round Two were in strong contention, but several other players would be in good position as well if they could get a two-way or solo themselves. The issue, of course, was the time limit on the Sunday game, although we did start the games an hour earlier - and all five boards ended WELL before the time limit was called, so the opportunity existed. As I pointed out before, the important distinction between Doc and Mikalis was that the former had the elimination while the latter already had two good scores. Doc had to get a better three way than Mikalis to overtake him. Drawing Austria in 3A, named for Ava Gardner, Doc tried his darndest, achieving that three way in 1906 - but with only 7 centers. No one else was able to bag a two-way, although Steve Cooley’s 13 center Germany in the Dean Smith game, 3D, secured the third place Dixiecon spot for him as his center count was higher than the others whose best two scores were three way draws (at Dixiecon you drop your lowest score of the three.)
So Mikalis Kamaritis became the fifth British player in history to win the North American Championship, kudos to him. All the other results are listed nearby to this report. As far as the Iron Man goes, that gaming also continued on Sunday until the 2pm cutoff time - with Kevin Brown besting his long-time Iron Man competitor Bruce Duewer to take the crown. Games played on Sunday included Terraforming Mars, Pan Am, Nations, Western Empires, Conquest of the Empire, Space Base, and even more of the classic 1830. After the awards ceremony, those staying the night decamped to supper but the gaming continued long into that night. More importantly, the fellowship and camaraderie continued long into the night as well. Hopefully those new and rekindled friendships will last longer than any memories of flubs or stabs on the board.
Thanks to Michael Lowrey for his tireless work as assistant TD and scorer, and thanks to Sabi Ahuja for joining the assistant TD staff this year. Also thanks to the many folk who did airport runs and helped us in other ways to run this 37th annual Dixiecon - facilitating the fun for seventy-six gamers all weekend really does take a village. And congratulations to all the winners and losers alike!