Hi guys,

I've been playing this game for a while now, but in the last few weeks I've played with new players that really got addicted to this game. But there's a problem with this new players: their alliances.

There's a couple playing with us, and one tells the other what to do and this kind of thing.. It gets ridiculous to the point that one of them actually gave an assist for the other one to win the game (we were at turn 6 in the occasion). Do you guys have any suggestions on what to do? Because this is starting to break the spirit of the game. I've told them that only one player wins the game, but they really don't seem to care, as long as the victory is with one of the two from this alliance.

PS: And this is making the game to last infinite hours, as they ALWAYS consult one with the other for each step they plan to make. The mustering card basically takes 1h to be solved because of this.

An alliance to break an alliance maybe?

Make them play as one faction together, if they insist on playing that way.

In general you can use a timer to speed up play if players are taking too long but the playing 2 houses at the same time is what is really slowing them down here.

put them on the opposite sides of the map

The other players should just start off with an alliance of 4 knowing that they will ally w/ each other from the get go. A few games of a 4 on 2 alliance should do the trick to let them know they need to start playing ball with other people.

In Diplomacy, people who play for second are called 'placers', while people who would sooner draw than take second are called 'drawers'. Most strategists (afaik) consider placers to hurt the integrity of the game.

One solution is to put up $0.25 each. Winner takes all the quarters! Any attempt to share the prise would be correctly seen as a bribe external to the game.

If you play frequently with the same group, set it up as a league where you tally wins. Only the actual winner gets a point,

Of course some players are simply bad! If player A is helping player B win without improving their own rank, they are not a "placer" - they are just weak. Weak players hurt the integrity of most multi-player war games. The only recourse is to not play such games unless everybody is competent (or to suck it up and treat the game with different expectations).

Being intrigue and alliances the center of the game, i think that it is perfectly normal for such a situation to develop. You should just get good enough to beat them or form other alliances.