Re: Best way to learn stalemate lines?

Jim Burgess wrote [edited]:

> 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.  

"Achieve a stalemate"  One of the most oxymoronic statements in all of 
Diplomacy.



> 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.

Better still is to try to steer the play of the game in a direction that 
makes stalemate lines irrelevant, thereby avoiding the problem.