Which one? The Roman one or Colonization one? Well I guess it doesn't matter because they are both inbalanced

The new one, Imperial Diplomacy II. England starts with 14 scs, while mexico only has 3

All those countries, like Prussia and Austria, are stuck between everyone in Europe with nowhere to expand, while Britain can expand freely without fear of getting flanked

Balance is speculative. You people can only count supply centers. That's all well and good at the end of the game but the philosophy here is the same as the one that gives Russia four centers in the standard game. England starts with 14 centers but in effect is playing 7 fairly weak positions. England must ally or die. Mexico on the other hand starts with three, but is extremely difficult to kill. This game has been played hundreds of times before it's arrival at VDiplomacy. I suggest that the peanut gallery experts above try it out before asserting it as imbalanced.

I'm playing it now and I feel it is pretty unfair. England is insanely far in the lead. Even if only half of your "fairly weak positions" manage to secure a build you still have so many units and supply centers you might as well be playing all the countries that start with less than 10 scs at the same time.

I play as Mexico...could have been a better starting postion, but its not bad at all :))

How about playing the game for more than a year or two before making a general knee-jerk assessment? It's quite possible that whomever is playing England is simply doing a very good job and actively diplomatically. Stop counting supply centersfor one second, and analyze the game a little bit beyond that basic point. It's amazing what you might learn. The fact is that all of you above have never seen this game played to it's conclusion. I have. I have GMd and played this map over 50 times, and Britain is not the powerhouse that you people are making it out to be. It's got a big target on it's back fromt he word go, and is far more likely to be eliminated or completely marginalized than to survie. And as some (Britian) players are finding out already this position requires maintaining relationships on seven to eight fronts at all times just to stay alive there. It's a lot of work, and you're constantly a stab target. And that on a site with a bunch of dot grabbers is a very scarey place to be.

The fact is that if England only gets' 7 builds in the first year, it is absolutely screwed. England has the need to constantly build ever season because the colonial outposts it owns are extremely difficult to hold. But hey, you're the experts because you've played all off two turns on this map.

how about stop bitching about imbalance and if you don't like the map, don't play it. Thats what I like about this site, There are 84 different variants, if you don;t like a variant just don't play it

that wasn't directed at Ruffhaus since I actually agree with him, but to people in general