Information about turns and phases in PBEM Diplomacy

Some of this information will be of no surprise to experienced Diplomacy players. I would advise you to look it over, but not let it confuse you—I think the way I’m managing things is pretty intuitive. For those of you who are new to the game and are really learning this straight from the manual, this might be helpful

Those of you who are particularly attentive to the manual will notice that a game of Diplomacy is officially broken down into turns, and subdivided into phases:

Spring four-phase turn:

1. Diplomatic phase
2. Order Writing phase
3. Order Resolution phase
4. Retreat and Disbanding phase

Fall five-phase turn:

1. Diplomatic phase
2. Order Writing phase
3. Order Resolution phase
4. Retreat and Disbanding phase
5. Gaining and Losing Units phase

For the purposes of our game, we are collapsing the first two phases of each turn into one. Also, I have a habit of referring to the Gaining and Losing Units phase as either the Build Turn or the Winter Turn. So, it might be helpful if you think about it like this:

Spring and Fall turns:

1. Order Writing phase, during which you should write and submit orders to me.
2. Order Resolution phase, during which I’ll read and post your orders and get information back to you about how the turn went.
3. Retreat and Disbanding Order Writing phase, during which you should send me your retreat orders.
4. Retreat Resolution phase, during which I’ll read and post the retreat orders and their results.

Winter turn (occurs once after each fall turn):

1. Building and Disbanding Units Order Writing phase, during which you should write you build, disband, assimilate, abandon orders.
2. Building and Disbanding Resolution phase, during which I read those orders and post the results.