No one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century that human affairs were being watched keenly and closely by inteligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their affairs they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the Infusoria under the microscope do the same ....
.... Yet, across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast & cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.
All standard rules of Diplomacy apply except as amended below.
At the start of the game there are eight players. The seven standard powers plus the Martian. The object of the game is for the Martian player to destroy all 34 supply centres, whilst the objective for the standard powers is to control a simple majority of the remaining supply centres once the last Martian unit is destroyed. Until the Martian player is eliminated no standard player can win the game.
The normal rules concerning game end proposals are suspended unless the Martian player has been eliminated.
Exception: A unanimous concession may be made to the Martian player at any time until the Martian is eliminated.
The Martian player starts the game with no units and no supply centres. During each of the six movement seasons of the game (Spring 1901 - Fall 1903) they will land a cylinder containing a single triple strength unit.
The landing sites for the six cylinders must be notified to the GM with the Spring 1901 orders. They cannot be changed and the landings after Spring 1901 cannot be made conditional on any event.
Should a cylinder land on any unit, including another Martian unit, that unit is eliminated. Should a cylinder land on a supply centre, that supply centre is destroyed and plays no further part in the game.
Any attempt by an Earth unit to move into a province where a cylinder lands will be adjudicated as a bounce for the Earth unit regardless of how many supports the Earth unit has.
The Martian cylinders must land on land areas and they may not land in Switzerland. Martian units do not move in the season they land.
Example: The Martian orders for Spring 1901 may read: Spring 1901 land Mar, Fall 1901 land Gal, Spring 1902 land Pic, Fall 1902 land Fin, Spring 1903 land Ser, Fall 1903 land Edi.
Martian units can move freely on land and sea and do not need to specify the coast of a multi-coasted province when they move there.
Martian units may never convoy nor be convoyed. Standard convoy rules apply for all standard powers.
The Martian triple strength units are designated as 3A in the game reports. These units can split and merge again during the game but may never exceed triple strength. A double strength unit would be designated 2A and a single strength unit will be designated A.
Only the Martian player may split or merge units.
To split a Martian unit the player need only order the appropriate sized parts to the desired locations
Example: If the Martian player has a triple strength unit in Con they could order 3A Con - 2A Bul - BLA. This would result in a strength 2 attack on Bul and a single strength move to BLA.
To merge units the Martian player must specify the merge command in the orders of all units that wish to merge.
Example: The Martian player has 2A Par and A Pic and wishes to merge
them in Bur. He would order
2A Par merge Bur, A Pic merge Bur. This would equate to a triple strength attack on
Bur for the purpose of dislodging or standing off another powers units and if successful
would result in the formation of 3A Bur. An attack on either 2A Par or A Pic would
not reduce the attack strength of 3
Units can merge in the existing location of one of the participating units.
Example: 2A NAO merge NAO, A NWG merge NAO would result in the formation of 3A NAO
If the merge command is not included in the orders off all participating units then the orders will be taken as orders to move and may result in a bounce.
Example: A ENG - Bre, A Gas - Bre or A ENG - Bre, A Gas merge Bre would result in a bounce in Bre not a merger.
If one of the units is stronger than the other then the stronger order will succeed
Example: 2A Pie - Ven, A Tyr merge Ven would result in 2A Pie - Ven succeeding and A Tyr - Ven failing.
An automatic merger will occur if two or more of a multiple units moves fail.
Example: The Martian player orders 3A Bud - Vie - Ser - Tri. If the moves to Ser and Tri fail then at the end of the season the Martian player will now have 2A Bud & A Vie.
Exception: In the previous example had another Martian unit been ordered to Bud, that move would have bounced and it would not have been merged with the other units.
The maximum size of Martian units is 3. Merge orders will fail if other failed orders would result in a unit with a strength greater than 3.
Example: The Martian has A Par, 2A Bur & A Gas and orders A Par - Bre, 2A Bur merge Par, A Gas merge Par. If A Par - Bre fails for any reason then the other moves also fail because any merge in Paris would now include the bounced unit and would thus exceed three.
Support, Retreats and Supply Centres
A multiple strength unit order to support another unit or the move of another unit does so with it's full strength. However a single attack on that unit will cut all support.
Martian units never retreat. A single strength unit forced to retreat is disbanded instead. A multiple strength unit has it's strength reduced by 1 and remains where it is.
When the Martians occupy a supply centre at the end of any season then that supply centre is destroyed and plays no further part in the game for supply purposes although of course units can still move into the area.
The standard powers may build in any non-destroyed home supply centre or any non-destroyed neutral centre controlled by that player.
At the end of any season after Fall 1903 (i.e. after all Martian units have landed) the Martians will contract a fatal virus if they have destroyed at least 12 supply centres and the number of centres destroyed is at least double the number of centres held by the largest Earth power. Once the VIRUS becomes active, the players will be notified. Once active the Martian player must order the removal of two strength points per adjustment season (i.e. Summer and Winter).
If the Martian player fails to order sufficient removals, the GM will disband sufficient strength points alphabetically by province.
Disbands cannot be made conditional on any retreats/adjustments ordered by the standard powers.
Thanks to H G Wells for writing the original book and to Mark Wightman for coming up with the variant rules. To visit Mark's own website - Sproutworld - click here