Time to open the Diplomacy Christmas crackers! The guys discuss game etiquette and look at the variants "Atlantic Colonies" and the Australian "Mate Against Mate". Enjoy!
Kaner starts by discussing his drinking Christmas tradition (1 min 30 secs)
Amby talks about his recent cruise ship holiday and why his mental age is younger than his physical age (3 mins 10 secs)

Diplomacy game etiquette 
Being away for his holidays Amby discusses how being on holidays with no internet on the ship (well there was but it was expensive and from talking to others onboard it was pretty crappy), Amby put in place various measures for his games. So the guys start discussing etiquette relating to when you're away on holidays and can't play Dip (7 mins 20 secs)
The guys talk about using a sitter with the practical example of Amby calling on Kaner to sit for him in the American Conflict game "2017 The Trump Wars". Amby discusses his approach on using entertainment as gameplay by taking on the persona as Donald Trump as the USA. If you've got some spare time read the public press history posts  (11 mins)
Amby talks about the importance of riding instructions for handing a game over to a sitter. Then the guys talk about how to deal with riding instructions if the dynamics in the game changes (15 mins 45 secs)Kaner discusses etiquette issues he's having in one of his games where a player has stopped putting in proactive orders, just submitting Hold orders for all units. And then another player dropped out after being stabbed (19 mins 30 secs)

General chit chat
The guys flag that the Known World Tournament has its games 3 and 4 now commenced (25 mins)
They briefly talk Bourse but give it a break this episode (25 mins 45 secs)

Atlantic Colonies variant
After refilling their drinks Kaner and Amby discuss the Atlantic Colonies variant, a 4 player game (England, France, Spain and Portugal) set during the time of colonisation (28 mins 45 secs)
The map is well crafted to provide good balance in gameplay, plus its a beautifully elegant map you'd expect a 17th century cartographer to draw  (30 mins 30 secs)
The guys give a shout out to Safari for creating the game. Amby discusses the variant is well balanced, although in achieving this it loses historical accuracy eg France not having Detroit and New Orleans. The guys also discuss how some places they'd expect as SCs but are not eg Paris and Buenos Aires (33 mins 20 secs)
The map has neutral territories to limit some movement eg Sahara, Amazon, Rockies and Europe east of France (38 mins 35 secs)
Kaner discusses how it'd been good for Holland to also be included, including its Boer African possessions. If the map was set before 1664 the Dutch could also have New Amsterdam (modern day New York) (39 mins 25 secs)
This variant is given the guys thumbs up with such a beautiful and well balanced map (43 mins 20 secs)

What the Doctor Recommended
Continuing our series, the guys go through the vDip hall of fame from the 45th ranked player to the 80th (44 mins 30 secs)

The guys celebrate Christmas 
Spontaneously the guys exchange Diplomacy themed Christmas gifts to each other (47 mins 40 secs)
They then make their suggestions on ideal Christmas gifts the Diplomacy player in your life. Kaner discusses a beautiful book called "Maps that Changed the World" and Amby recommends the book "Rites of Peace: The Fall of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna" by Adam Zamoyski. It covers the diplomatic realpolitik between the great powers of the time swapping coalition alliances during the Napoleonic wars and afterwards when they jockey for power over Europe. Amby discusses how well the French foreign minister Talleyrand is portayed in the book as the ultimate Diplomacy player (50 mins)
The guys discuss how they'd love to find a good book on Bismark and the Thirty Years War. PM us your recommendations! (55 mins)

Mate Against Mate variant
This Australian based 8 player variant has 6 Australian players, New Zealand and Indonesia. T