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Interview with David E. Cohen

Interview with David E. Cohen

FromDiplomacy Games


Interview with David E. Cohen

FromDiplomacy Games

ratings:
Length:
183 minutes
Released:
Sep 27, 2020
Format:
Podcast episode

Description

The guys interview renown Diplomacy variant creator David E. Cohen before they test out an alliance for the ages: The Juggernaut.
Intro
The guys discuss their drinks and venue (0 mins 10 secs)
They introduce the interview with David E. Cohen (3 mins 40 secs)

Interview with David E. Cohen
The interview starts badly with lots of technical issues - both in the initial connection and also the quality of the recording. Bear with us listeners, slightly normal service soon returns. That said there are chair squeaks and other background noise throughout the interview at our end (4 mins)
Eventually their perseverance pays off as David explains his process for creating variants (7 mins 30 secs)
Kaner asks where the idea for Known World 901 came from. David explains where it came from and how it fitted in with Western World 901  (8 mins 20 secs)
Amby asks about the process of bringing together multiple maps into a single new game eg Maharaja coming together with Spice Islands to create an East Indies variant (9 mins 45 secs)
Kaner brings up the Mandate of Heaven variant and how to port it across (11 mins)
Kaner asks David about his first variant he created (16 mins 20 secs)
He goes onto ask about his latest project, Dawn of the Enlightenment (17 mins 30 secs)
David discusses his approach to breaking sea stalemate lines: High Seas provinces. They are similar to sealanes but allow multiple units in the same geographic space (19 mins)
Amby asks about what feedback David has received during play testing (26 mins)
David talks about the differing victory criteria for players and the timing of the variant (27 mins)
Kaner asks about whether anyone is planning on porting Dawn of the Enlightenment to an online Diplomacy platform (29 mins 45 secs)
He asks whether David has a rule of thumb for variant creators (30 mins 40 secs)
David touches on his new variant he's started working on, Unconstitutional (33 mins 20 secs)
Amby asks an Australia based question for Dawn of the Enlightenment (36 mins 50 secs)
David covers off what variant developers need to avoid (38 mins 30 secs)
Amby asks what pitch would David give to a classic player on why they should try playing a variant occasionally (40 mins 45 secs)
Amby double checks about adjacency between the North and South Atlantic High Sea provinces (44 mins 20 secs)
Kaner discusses how he'd approach porting the map across to vDiplomacy (46 mins)
Amby asks about whether Kaner should put his effort into Dawn of the Enlightenment or Squirrel Wars (48 mins)
Amby asks David who else's maps does he like when it comes to variants (49 mins 20 secs)
They discuss the backing up of variants over at vDip (51 mins 30 secs)
David discusses how much would be needed to buy the rights to Diplomacy (52 mins 30 secs)
The guys start wrapping up the interview (53 mins 30 secs)
After the interview they give their thoughts & Kaner announces he really has started working on Dawn of the Enlightenment. They discuss how maps are constructed and displayed in the online Diplomacy environment (54 mins 45 secs)
They discuss trying to get access to the variant Lab with Flame. They talk about thoughts on the winning conditions, the High Seas provinces, the spread of SCs on the map and avoiding determined moves (58 mins 45 secs)

Alliances that work: a Juggernaut case study
The guys get some more beers while Kaner sets out the Diplomacy map on the table (1 hr 11 mins)
They talk about a recent Patreon episode where they tested what happens when you have an unbreakable alliance and which are alliances that work. The guys are testing this by playing against the Bots at webDip (1 hr 12 mins)
The discuss the random games they created and their thinking on why they chose to test the Juggernaut (1 hr 15 mins)
They discuss Kaner wanting to do a slingshot, trying to trick the Bot players to thinking an RT is not happening (1 hr 18 mins)
They discuss their potential moves (1 hr 21 mins 30 secs)

Spring 1901

 
The guys discuss Spring 1901 (1 hr 25
Released:
Sep 27, 2020
Format:
Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

The podcast about playing the strategy game Diplomacy face to face and online. Visit DiplomacyGames.com for more info and shownotes.