Re: Best way to learn stalemate lines?

[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Jeff Bello) writes:

There are lots of information on Stalemate lines, for the depth
and breadth of balance I prefer sending people to:

http://www.diplomacy-archive.com/resources/strategy/stalemate.htm

which gives you a lot of good practical advice on the dilemmas
involved.

I have three pieces of advice for you in addition to that:

1) It is best to try to play to AVOID stalemate lines, than
to get caught up in the drive to learn and achieve them.
The goal is to win after all.  In this piece of advice, memory
has nothing to do with it, you just need to have a general
idea of where the lines are and the need to get your units
defensably PAST those of your opponent.

2) It is even more important to recognize when your opponents
are playing TO stalemate lines -- quickly.  You want to know
about it as they are trying to set them up.  Signs include
maneuvering units around in the backfield without making 
strong attacking efforts, and more importantly in what they
say in the Diplomacy.  And when you see it, THEN strike 
diplomatically, strategically, and tactically to thwart those
plans.  Here you usually don't need to "study" the line, you
just need to study the board and find the lines for that situation.

3) Recognize that memorization is not the idea, you want to 
study the principals of defense that generate stalemate lines.
These tactical moves will improve your game much more than a 
focus on stalemate lines alone.  These include, but are not 
limited to, understanding the beleaguered garrison as a planned
defense of a unit (i.e. doing a supported attack on your own
unit which you know you can't dislodge) so that unit can cut
an opposing player's vital support in another attack and
understanding the location of uncuttable supports to garrison
a unit.

That's what I'd do,
Jim-Bob

>I would like to learn stalemate lines to get better at Diplomacy. 
>However,I don't have a good sense about how to go about learning them.
> There seem to be a large number of potential lines and there is no
>way I am going to memorize them.

>Are there just a few stalemate lines that come up very often that
>could be memorized?

>Are there basic principles that would allow one to recognize stalemate
>lines on the fly?

>In e-mail Dip I suppose you could just reference the lines.  In
>competitive FtF Dip is it acceptable to reference stalemate lines if
>you have them printed up?