An Unnecessarily Detailed Strategic Analysis of Valefisk's Diplomacy Game 

Wow - genuinely really cool to have such a high-level, detailed analysis...of an absolute catastrophe ;) Thank you guys so much for doing this. This is maybe the tenth game of diplomacy we've played as a group. We try to do everything in one night (with people hopefully sleeping at a decent hour), so the turn timer is limited to just 10 minutes. Not just 10 minutes for negotiating, ten minutes total. It doesn't always work out to ten, but keeping it like that keeps what can be a very long game moving (this one ended up being about 5 hours total). While this certainly works, it creates its own chaos...with so many units and negotations everyone ends up messing up a ton and the suboptimal moves always throw a wrench into every plan. The ChatGPT angle certainly did not go as I was expecting it to. I was imagining it would make terrible decisions and have me throw the game almost immediately. In reality, it meant I couldn't commit fully to doing anything at all and had to flip-flop every other turn. I was trying to work around the AI while still keeping myself within its limits...but all this really did was result in turns like Spring 1905 where I'm forced to abandon a good position against France because it goes "yeah, go attack Germany now, loser" and I had to listen to it. Normally when playing diplomacy I'm one of the people you can trust more often than others, but I think me not being at all like that this game really screwed with how France/Germany/Russia were interacting with me. Thanks again for making this, it was a really fun watch and makes me want to play more Diplomacy...although, probably not another big video like that for at least a while. This one took me over a month to edit with all the animations involved ( ;-; ). I try really hard with games like this to make it completely digestible for someone who doesn't even know what Diplomacy is, so it's really nice to take a step back from that and actually see Diplomacy as the complex game that I love. It was definitely the most fun I've had playing Diplomacy. I should play like a total rat more often :)

The fact that Vale's torture has escaped from his own video and begun to frustrate the hosts of an entirely different channel.

I like how in vales video in the first round he went "pretty standard round" and in this you guys immediately go "a whole non-standard openings" off to a great start😭

Strategically analyzing Teddy 💀

1:34:20 i can confirm that the backstabbing is not just for the video. This is just how every diplomacy game is for us, as we you could say we play this game for as a social deduction game of who is going to actually play the game, and who is just feeling like watching the world burn on any given day.

"A common beginner mistake for Austria is assuming they can take Serbia without issues" Historically accurate

Just watching these professionals scratch their heads trying to decipher the rats with one being led by a machine overlord and one drunk as hell is absolutely hilarious.

This is so ridiculous, getting absolutely disected while totally agreeing with everything is a slightly odd feeling. Btw our house rule is 10min negotiations so you aint got much time to get everything in order as it was a one session thing It's super enjoyable to watch all the chaos and seeing so little real difference, we all said multiple times during the game that the mental fatigue was real. The writing was on the wall, not much to do against mega turkey at that point

It's so funny to see all the strategic things, i could have done and did as turkey, analysed. Whilst it was in reality a iam stressed/my brain is off/whats an convoy moment for me. :D But i guess that's to be expected as i think this was my third time ever playing diplomacy. I enjoyed the watch tho, super interesting to see what kinda thought could be behind moves. I just kinda got lucky with Russia throwing the game. :)

I love how everyone in the session made fun of Maivi for building fleets instead of armies, only it to be a GOOD move

As someone who was spectating for all of the game it's still pretty funny to see how many blunders happened that i diden't see at the time. For vale (england) going into warsaw and belgium in S04, i'm pretty sure those were infact mistakes and not him lying to people he kinda just forgot, and the reason for him not killing russia was because he wanted to keep him alive to fight germany, and the move into st.petersberg was done becuase i said it in the public voice chat as an off hand funny move he could do.

"i dont want to play Italy in this scenario" I don't think Teddy wanted to play Italy either, which is why all he did was attack everyone the turn after telling them he was going to help them lol.

Maivi making the right call in terms of builds for Turkey but getting roasted by her friends for it has to be one of the funniest moments for me.

I forgot to mention during the commentary - there was a misadjudication in the actual game in S07, with ENG-MAO being counted as successful despite being bounce. Honestly pretty damn impressive there was only one misadjudication in the whole video though, that's less than we see in some professional games :p EDIT: Vale found us 👀 Thanks for bringing Diplomacy to the masses Mr Fisk

I wont Lie. Im about to watch the whole thing. This is awsome

I love how seriously this game is taken. Its like having a sport commentator commentate a game of soccer between 4 year olds 😂😂

"THAT'S WHY YOU BETRAYED ME OVER BELGIUM?!" -Lynx, just after swearing fealty to Vale, finding out that Vale's been using Chat GPT to dictate basically all his moves.

I live how Maivi had no idea how to play the game and everyone shit on her for building 2 more fleets and these guys were like "thats a really good move"

To anyone in the comments who hasn’t watched the original video by Valefisk, I highly recommend it! A bunch of drunk content creators who genuinely care about winning the game, it’s great

Feels like a lot of the problems would have been solved for England if Vale didn’t need to type instructions to ChatGPT or there were 12 instead of 10 minutes on the turn timer

vale just linked your vid to everyone on his discord btw

I was literally sitting in the shower, thinking 'Man I wonder what it would be like if this channel analyzed Valefisk's latest diplomacy game', but thought this channel would never do something like that for a amuetur game. Then I checked my phone and saw this video in my subscription feed.

i'd love to see a splice of this where its the valefisk video and after each turn we jump to you guys who just have the orders being confused and thing over what there doing.

I showed this to the current world champion Jamal Blakkarly today. He's gonna look at it. (We play once a month at local club)

The way they start giggling the moment the next turn appears is hilarious

The crossover no one expected but everyone needed

I love seeing professionals analyze amateur gaming, this has strong energy of Pokemon Challenges reacting to JaidenAnimation's first nuzlocke video. Down to the pro being able to clock who was going to win or die after like fifteen minutes or so. It's a fascinating new strategic layer that casuals like me wouldn't have seen. Lots of great lines and analysis here. "If you *needed* me alive, if you needed me to win, you should have thought about that before you killed me."

So when Vale drops his Campaign for North Africa video can we expect a detailed analysis of it?

I love how much of the video is focused on turkey since the valkefisk video is most focused on britians perspective. We can get a view on how maivi won

I have an audio suggestion: get Ezio to record their audio locally with Audacity and send it to you as a backup (assuming it syncs up properly, which isn't guaranteed)

Valefisk got me into Diplomacy ive come full circle

22:46 Spa into LYD was made because he forgot that his unit wasn't a fleet, and thought that it was one.

PLEASE do his hurricane video as well. Would be so fun to see the full game!

Not even five minutes in and I’m A: confused because I *barely* know how diplomacy works, and B: laughing at the fact that vale & the gang are apparently playing like middle schoolers

The conversation about the Italian army moving back from Tyrol in 1903 (where they both agree that you'd want to commit to it and send it to Bohemia and beyond) is so funny to me because you can hear the accumulated desperation behind it, like you might as well play scatter theory with that army because Italy is just that dreadfully short of constructive moves to make (especially in this scenario), anything is better than it languishing in Venice for no reason xD

The turn around on this is amazing.

This is super cool! An important note is how absolutely hammered Germany was by the end. Would love to get into the game myself but I i doubt many of my friends would want to commit!

My goodness, this is great lol

This is actually great. By watching regular people play and analysing them, you are truly showcasing how impressive the Pros are. This kind of video helps people who are unfamiliar with Diplomacy or only at a casual level to get into the more complex side of the game, helps bring new blood into the fold.

Finally, Vale peaked. You know you are good when other people are making content about your content. Good video!

Now we just need a professional breakdown of the blindfolded 1v1 csgo competition

I've been watching both you guys and vale since before his teddy hurricane video and my god was this a surprise to see on my timeline. I know that vale was bound to post diplo videos and that you two had a content overlap at that point, but seeing vale's silly antics show up on a serious diplo channel is amazing to me.

Having this analysis after watching chaos that was this game brings a smile to my face :)

Ngl that part were Maivi went on a full on offensive and blitzed the balkans caugth me so off guard in the original video Maivi came in like the goddam Mongol invasion, wrecking anything in her path

Extremely funny hearing the sound of defeat as all strategy breaks down in the endgame

I stayed up till 5am watching the valefisk video... Then vale posts a community post linking this and i jump on board. Makes me want to know what pro diplomacy games look like, since I think the way this group describes themselves is a bunch of "backstabbing rats", which causes beautiful chaos

I have never played Diplo. I am very hype and ready to watch regardless.

Diplo analysing this game: hmmm very interesting strats Vales commentary: THUNDER DOOOME!

I hope this take into consideration Lynx's drunken ramblings and plans to win for his ai overlord

IIRC in the video, during 1903 Fall, Vale(UK) is purposefully trying to keep Pedejo(Russia) barely alive so that he can keep the pressure on Lynx(Germany). Otherwise the collapse of Russia means Germany and Maivi(The Ottomans) can get centers while leaving UK in a vulnerable spot because of it's over extension.

29:00 tbh I think the army build makes sense if you want to convince Italy you’re not going for them, by keeping the western med free of fleets neither France or Italy can actually push the other

You guys are too kind, two full games in quick secession and a bonus discussion video

This appeared in my recommended. Had been wondering, watching the Vale's video when Turkey got so strong. Vales' perspective very focused on France, Germany and Scandinavia. So for the first two years it just looks like Turkey is locked in a fight for the Balkans, then suddenly Russia is Dying and Austria is Dying. And Turkey is on 8. I also feel vindicated as I thought Russia + Turkey would be a strong alliance with their map borders

Just watch Valefisk video on it and it was awesome and funny, now I get to watch pros analysis this meme of a game!

I was both really surprised and really glad to see this pop up in my feed

I am so happy that this exists.

I like the general theme of “Yeah, they could do this, but it would be strange/suboptimal/stupid” … “so anyway, they all did exactly that”

came here from the Valefisk shout out. Great commentary! Very funny to see this analysed properly after coming from the video and hilarious that the 2nd host didn't watch it and was trying to treat this as an actual game haha.

The fact that you strategically analyzed the chaotic drunk Valefisk cadre is incredible. I didn't know you guys existed, but I'll certainly stick around!

Do a game where each player has a wacky secret win condition like England gets an army in Syria on any given turn, they win automatically. Everyone has a wacky obj and no one else knows what it is.

I am actually not surprised but also surprised at fhe same time that a "niche" board game has a competitive game scene I mean I know board game can have competitive scenes (I play chess, like with in person tournaments and all) But i could probably never bring myself to play diplomacy, because i would feel terrible backstabbing anyone xD

It's hilarious watching a serious analysis of that game

Dropping a comment for the algorithm-gotta spread the Valefisk love around !!! Awesome video guys

This makes me want to see you do one on Valefisk's other diplomacy video.

This is a Match in Heaven 🙏

YES! This is great, I was having a great time doing my own while he was going through it, it was such an interesting game!

Chapters are absolutely lovely, thank you

While you're considering challenge runs, what about having a full press game where one person does the diplomacy, another does the actual moves, and neither can talk to the other?

Vale brought me here but the analysis will keep me here. Great to see!

Got recommended this from Valefisk’s Discord, good video

I would LOVE to see analysis on the other Valefisk video! Keep up the great work :)

It's nice to see you guys again! I got burned out after finishing "The Longest Diplomacy Game" series, but this seems like a perfect video to restart with ^^

After watching the whole game, I see this video, never heard of this channel. I sigh; as I must watch the commentary on the movie I just saw

Found this because im a valefisk sub, this is great and im just going to binge your content now.

Good to see you both back at it

I love how literally everyone who played this game that you are talking about has commented on this video

Loved this video - greatly enjoyed

This is genuinely cool that you analyzed such a fun yet trainwreck of Valefisk. Just watched the AI one and oh my god it was even more chaotic

Was not expecting this in my recommended feed, but can't say it wasn't great to watch!

If you guys ever do Cursed Diplomacy... Id love to see a match where the map is wrap-around. IE the Russian capital's connected to the Atlantic Sea, NAF connects to NAO, etc.

This gonna be great video to watch in small size while farming in games

I am stuck in traffic for the past 3 hours and it will still take me 3 more to get home. So I'll just watch this enitre video. Why not.

love to see it!

The comunity around diplomacy never stops being funny to me. There really is nothing like it

about the idea with the lying, what you could is 1. Have (secretly) a single player designated to always lie (bonus: adding a player who always has to tell the truth)

I did not know this was what i needed, but it was

Love it, thanks!

Yeah that was a lot of fun! I'd like to give this game a go one day, preferably with friends but mine don't have the temperament for it.

I don't know what it says about my recommendations that I got this before I ever saw the Valefisk video, without having watched videos by either channel before...

I've literallly never heard of the game. This ought to be an interesting watch

apart from the fact that I wanted to jump of a bridge every time you pronounced Silesia (The Prussian Province) like Cilicia (The Roman province in Anatolia), good video!

This is incredible

It's interesting getting an analysis of the game as someone who has never played Diplomacy. I feel like a map key might be helpful at the start, just to help explain things to newbies? Something to leave up for a couple minutes while you do your intro maybe? But overall, very interesting.

Heyo! Great video, and definitely fascinating to watch from this perspective. I have a small bit of criticism that might help improve the quality of your videos. It would be a lot better if everyone records their own audio instead of one person recording their microphone and a voice call. It helps alleviate those moments where one person cuts out or temporarily loses connection, and removes the compression of a voice being transmitted through that voice call. Just a small thing that I think would help make the video a little stronger.

Ooh, can't wait to watch this

This is insane and I love it

Have you guys heard about/played Neptune's Pride? It's basically Diplomacy in space with a lot of similar concepts and mechanics, I used to play it way back when, this video is getting me back interested in that and diplomacy. Great analysis!

Oh boy, this is gonna be fun.

I feel like they weren't playing Diplomacy as much as "trust no one"~

beautiful video