Background:

Italia, Rinascimento: Italy is fragmented in dozens of different states, divided by ancient hatreds and by unstable boundaries. Shall one power emerge from the chaos and join together the Italian nation? The Dukes of Savoia, based in Torino, have to decide where to focus their interests: either in the French or Italian slope of the Alps. The Dukedom of Milano is ready to extend his power beyond his habitual borders. The Republic of Venezia, a traditionally maritime power, while sending fleets towards the eastern Mediterranean Sea, tries to find his way throughout the inland. Her traditional rival, the Republic of Genova, establishes a strong position at the opposite side of the peninsula. In Tuscany, the free cities of Pisa and Siena fiercely fight against the Republic of Firenze, which desires to rule the entire region. Sitting in the ancient city of Roma, the Pope governs the Stato della Chiesa, the large Papal State comprising the whole central Italy, and spreads his influence even in the hearth of the Kingdom of Napoli. The small free Dukedom of Ferrara, tight between the Venetian territories and the papal city of Bologna, shall use every diplomatic skill to gain the sympathy of both sides. The vast Kingdom of Napoli needs to consolidate its actual possessions before launching a powerful strike to the northern Italy. While the Italian powers are struggling each other, menacing enemies hanker after the prosperous cities and plan a full-scale offensive. The French press on the natural boundary of the Alps, eager to swarm around the rich plains. The Turkish wish to take possession of the Italian coasts in order to start a massif invasion and extend their dominion to the other side of the Mediterranean Sea.

This map is the best compromise we have found between historical consistency and playability; there are indeed several geographical inaccuracies, but we do hope they are exceeded by the desire of a better game.

Rules:

1. Except as noted below, the standard rules of play for Diplomacy apply.
2. Home supply centers: Units may be built on any vacant supply center that has been held for a fall. (i.e. all supply centers controlled by players are considered their "home supply centers" for the purpose of building units)
3. The colors on the map reflect the theoretical influence zones of the different powers at the beginning of the game; some neutral centers are situated on colored territories, but they count as any other supply center.
4. Neutral forces: There are three centers which are defended by a neutral army: Genève, Trieste and Trento. These armies do nothing but holding every turn; nevertheless, they can be supported by other players. Once they are dislodged, they are automatically disbanded.
5. French and Turkish: those two powers start the game with a certain amount of armies or fleets, but no supply centers; during the first winter turn of the game (building phase), if they do not own as many supply centers as the number of their units, they have to destroy some of them. They are thus forced to capture centers during the first year, or their game is over.
6. Appenini Mountains: In the middle of the Italian territory, runs a mountain chain named Appennini, represented on the map as a thicker black border. Troops can move from one slope of the Appennini to the other only throughout some passes, marked by two parallel lines with a lighter border between them.
7. Benevento: This city belongs to the Stato della Chiesa (Papal State), but it is completely circled by possessions of the Kingdom of Napoli. The army starting the game in Benevento cannot move during the whole game; nevertheless, it can support holds and support moves, and it can be supported by other armies. If another player successfully captures Benevento, this rule decays both for Papal and non-Papal armies.
8. Roma capital city (credit for this rule to Davide Ravaioli): The Italian nation can be considered reunited only if the major power owns the capital city, Roma. In order to win the game, one power needs to own 33 supply centers after a fall retreat phase, and one of them must be Roma.

Notes on Geography

1. The vast grey non-named area on the top of the board is not passable, and it cannot be occupied by any unit.
2. The are three points in which 4 different territories meet each other: armies present in one of the areas are allowed to move only to one of the two adjacent territories, and not to the exactly opposite one. The three crossing points are: Bol-Fer-Com-Rav ; Fir-Pra-Pis-Liv ; Fir-Are-Sie-Pio .
3. The islands of Elba, Pantelleria and Malta are supply centers. For graphical reasons, the centers of Pantelleria and Malta consist of the islands and the water around them; for this reason, only one unit at time can occupy one of those centers. On the contrary, the island of Elba is a center composed only of the island itself: thus a unit can occupy Island of Elba while a fleet occupies an adjacent sea zone (for example Eastern Ligurian Sea).
4. Any non-named island on the map is considered just a graphical trick, and cannot be occupied by any unit.

New pot distribution system

Since the different powers start from very different positions, it seemed fair to develop a new pot-distribution system for the PPC (Points Per Centers) games. While the standard system assigns the pot proportionally to the centers owned by the different powers, the new system focuses on the difference between the present percentage of owned centers and units and the same percentage at the beginning of the game.

Example: Napoli starts the game with 4 units + 4 centers, equal more or less to 15% of the total number of units + centers in play (54); if at a certain point there are 45 units + 45 centers into play (i.e. owned by active players) Napoli needs 6 units + 6 centers (again 15% of the total) to keep his initial bet: if he owns more than that, he will gain points, if he owns less he will lose point.

It is important to note that the neutral centers and the centers of the players who left the game are not counted in the total of the owned centers, and thus they have no influence on the pot distribution. This can be a good advantage for small powers who keep on playing the game right to the end, since their portion of units + centers could increase rapidly due to abandon of other players.

For the ones interested in the quite complicated function that calculates the exact amount of each player, please do not hesitate to contact me or Oli.

vPoint rating

Since the algorithm for the pot distribution is difficult to adapt to the vPoint rating system, Rinascimento games are always considered unrated in vPoint rating