Diplomacy Expansion Rule Clarification

[Broken Mortar]

In section 1.2 the rules say, “Nations at position 3 are no longer able to be influenced and guaranteed support if attacked”

My question is, what does “guaranteed support” mean? Does it mean that the nation who is on position 3 but is not at war with a Major Power (making the minor power controlled but not aligned) is then forced to declare war on the attacker of the controlled minor power?

[Linkler]

@broken-mortar we ran into this too. We ended up going with if someone attacks your aligned minor they must declare war on the controlling power. At first we did it the opposite way but it made a huge negative for Germany/ axis to influence any minors. Would be nice to know for sure what the designer had in mind

[Noneshallpass]

I think this wording is mainly in contrast with the effect of positions 1 and 2 :

(1-2) “Any Minor Power attacked at this position will automatically align with the Major Power reflected.” (i.e. on the Diplomacy Chart a the time of this attack) vs (3) “Nations at position 3 are no longer able to be influenced and are guaranteed support if attacked.”

The important difference with position 3 is that their status is « locked in » and will no longer change during the course of the game once reached. I do not think that « guarateed support » changes the meaning of the rules except to say that you do not need to worry about another Major Power influencing them back.

For the consequences of control/alignment, Section 4 (National Relations) in the core rulebook still applies.

[Linkler]

@noneshallpass interesting take it’s hard to pass over the “guaranteed support” just the wording of it maybe? Seems like a bit of a loaded phrase though

[TheVeteran]

@broken-mortar if a nation is at position 3 and is attacked it will align to the major power that controls it.

[Linkler]

@bretters after the combat phase of the power that attacks it then right?

[TheVeteran]

@linkler correct