Babylon 5
RealWorld file
The Starting Units
Each power starts the game in Spring 2260 with the following units:
Earth Alliances Earth (Fleet) Mars (Army) Titan (Fleet) Babylon 5 (Army)
Minbari Federation Minbari (Fleet) Chudomo (Army) Norsai (Fleet)
Centauri Republic Centauri Prime (Fleet) Brakesh 9 (Army) Davo (Fleet)
Narn Regime Narn (Fleet) D Grn (Army) Dross (Fleet)
Shadow Realm Z Ha Dum (Fleet) Outer Rim (Army) Kepti (Fleet)
[b]Drazi Freehold[/b] Drazi (Fleet) Draxis (Army) Zagro 7 (Fleet)
Vorlon Empire Vorlon Home World (Fleet), Berdina (Army), Virana (Fleet)
The listed worlds are the respective locations where new units are built in the build phase.
The Rules
The standard rules of Diplomacy® apply except any power that is in control of Babylon 5 may use it for builds.
Note: All games years and seasons are in accordance with Earth Standard Time.
The Map
The total number of supply worlds is 74.
Some worlds permit armies to move between them without the need of a fleet convoy. These worlds are adjacent on the map.
There is only one no-go zones where units are not permitted to move. This area is called the Galactic Bulge.
Victory Conditions
To win, a single power must control 38 supply worlds one of which must be Babylon 5. Any declared draws must include the power that controls Babylon 5, even if that's the only center he holds.
Regions
Below is an alphabetical list of all the regions on the map and their respective three lettered name. Abbai 4 Abb Akdor Akd Antares Sector Ant Aris Colony ACo Arisia Colony Ari Babylon 5 Bab Berdina Ber Beta Durani Bet Brakesh 9 Bra Brakiri Bri Caliban Sector Cal Centauri Prime Cen Centauri Triangle CTR Ceti 4 Cet Chudomo Chu Coriana 6 Cor Daltron 7 Dal Davo Dav Deneb 4 Den D Grn Grn Dilgar Dil Drakh Dkh Draxis Drx Drazi Home World Dra Dross Dro D Tira Tir Dura 7 Dur Earth Ear Enfili Enf Gaim Gai Gorash 7 Gor Grid Epsilon GEp Hilak 7 Hil Ikarra 7 Ika Inner Centauri Space ICS Inner Drazu IDz Inner Sol ISo Ipsha Ips Janos 7 Jan Kazami III Kaz Kepti Kep Latig 4 Lat L Gidor Gid L Gn Daort Dao Lorka 7 Lor Lukantha Luk Malax Mal Markab Mab Mars Mar Minbar Inner Realm MIR Minbar Min Minbar Outer Realm MOR Mirata 7 Mit Narn Home World Nar Narn Inner Space NIS Narn Outer Space NOS Nether Rim Net Norsai Nor Omega 7 Omg Orion Ori Outer Centauri Space OCS Outer Drazu ODz Outer Rim OuR Outer Sol OSo Pakmara Pak Praxis 9 Pra Proxima 3 Pro Quadrant 13 Q13 Quadrant 14 Q14 Quadrant 20 Q20 Quadrant 31 Q31 Quadrant 32 Q32 Quadrant 45 Q45 Quadrant 46 Q46 Quadrant 48 Q48 Quadrant 54 Q54 Quadrant 55 Q55 Quadrant 68 Q68 Quadrant 72 Q72 Quadrant 73 Q73 Quadrant 90 Q90 Quadrant 91 Q91 Ragesh 3 Rag Ralga Ral Regula 4 Reg Rim Space Rim Sector 1 S1 Sector 2 S2 Sector 3 S3 Sector 4 S4 Sector 8 S8 Sector 9 S9 Sector 11 S11 Sector 14 S14 Sector 17 S17 Sector 18 S18 Sector 20 S20 Sector 21 S21 Sector 27 S27 Sector 35 S35 Sector 38 S38 Sector 51 S51 Sector 58 S58 Sector 59 S59 Sector 67 S67 Sector 70 S70 Sector 71 S71 Sector 81 S81 Sector 84 S84 Sector 86 S86 Sector 88 S88 Sector 92 S92 Shi Shi Sigma 957 Sig Thalitene Tha Theta 49 The Tikar Tik Titan Tit Tizino Prime TPr Tokati Tok Tripani 7 Tri Vega Veg Ventari 3 Ven Virana Vir Volron Outer Space VOS Vorlon Vor Vorlon Inner Space VIS Vree Vre Yolu Yol Zafran 7 Zaf Zagro 7 Zag Zander Prime Zan Z Ha Dum ZhD
Theo Kermanidis' Design Notes
In a word, this variant was designed to capture the rich tapestry of the Babylon 5 series. Yes I am a fan of the TV show that had spanned for 5 series each with around 22 well crafted episodes. In an attempt to capture the spirit of the Babylon 5 universe, I designed this variant to include the myriad of worlds and general place names mentioned in the series. It is anyone's guess as to what the intended Babylon 5 universe was ment to look like, but knowing the series and something about the sequence of events I placed my best foot forward in designing the map. For example, it is known that the Shadow Realm did use Narn as a base for their expansion so that I could only conclude that the Narn Home World is strategically located close to Z'Ha Dum and the domain of the Shadows. The Vorlons and the Minbari once worked together to stop Shadow aggression, and it was concluded that they were co-located on the map. The Drazi Freehold and other members of the League of Non-Aligned worlds were once cannon fodder for the Centauri Republic hence most of those worlds would share a corner of the map. And so on. It was tough going to get a map that looks playable with a general balance. It remains to be seen how successful those decisions were. There will always be an argument against the use of armies in a fleet dominated game, so why do the powers begin with one useless army? A good question. The answer is that there are an abundance of connected worlds where armies may roam between without the use of fleets. It adds a dimension to the tactical question that requires consideration for the would be Napoleons amongst you. How can you use that army unit to a great effect? Naturally the winners would have an answer to that question. There are many worlds, and probably there will be many a stalemate line. In time those will be discovered and an assessment will be made to the general playability of the variant. Hopefully it will not require too many revisions to get the overall balance right between offensive and defensive play. Time is infinite, but we are finite. So get playing!
Gerald Todd's notes
While researching a Star Trek Diplomacy variant, everywhere I went I also found Babylon 5 and Star Wars. The Variant Bank had a Babylon 5 variant, which looked pretty good, so I basically just ported it into RealWorld. My changes, besides the text files RealWorld requires, were basically asthetic; icons, moving the planet images and the space names so the icons wouldn't cover them, and adding a key on the left side of the map were pretty much it. 6/14/2008
