Podcast appearances and mentions of andrew goff

The guys talk about the 2024 Asia Pacific Diplomacy Championship and the creation of the Asia Pacific Diplomacy Association. And of course have a few drinks! Intro The guys introduce their drinks (0 mins 15 secs) The 2024 Asia Pacific Diplomacy Championship They begin talking about their attendance at the Asia Pacific Diplomacy Championship and Ken winning the Shane Cubis Award (1 min 30 secs) Gavin corrects the audio levels and talks about their venue (3 mins 45 secs) They get back to talking about the tournament and their games (5 mins 30 secs) Gavin shares some Diplomacy advice he got earlier (15 mins 30 secs) They talk about the Australian scene currently and how it is growing in quality and quantity (17 mins 30 secs) Catch up with Max Row Banks, Asia Pacific Diplomacy Champion The guys set the scene for the chat, recorded immediately after Max found out he was the 2024 Champion (18 mins 30 secs) The interview begins with Max talking through his game (19 mins) Max talks about playing as Russia, Germany and France (20 mins 15 secs) They talk about Max winning the championship by one SC (22 mins) Ken asks about Max's favourite moment in the event (22 mins 45 secs) They talk about the competiting players (23 mins 30 secs) Ken asks where to next (24 mins 20 secs) Max also won Best Strategist in the tournament (25 mins 10 secs) They begin wrapping up the chat (26 mins 30 secs) Gavin hadn't relistened to the interview when he and Ken caught up and incorrectly says he hasn't played against Max, even though Max touched on it at the Cane Toad Classic when Gavin had to make numbers for a board (27 mins 45 secs) Round table discussion on the new Asia Pacific Diplomacy Association They move onto a post-championship discussion around the earlier agreement to establish the Asia Pacific Diplomacy Association, a regional equivalent to what North America and Europe already has (28 mins 30 secs) Andrew Goff gives a brief overview of what's happening (31 mins 15 secs) Jamal Blakkarly provides his input into the discussion (33 mins 15 secs) Dominick Stephens reflects on how the New Zealand hobby could build from the association's approach (35 mins 15 secs) Shane Armstrong talks about where the hobby is at in Sydney and how the association can help (36 mins 50 secs) Andrew gives a hat tip to Lei Saarlainin in setting an original vision (38 mins) Ken suggests moving to a quiter location (39 mins) Diplomacy chat The guys have moved to Gather for a quieter atmosphere. Gavin reflects on regular feedback - positive and negative - from listeners about recording in a bar. And other related reflections (39 mins 30 secs) They discuss some of his thoughts on the association and some of the benefits from it (43 mins 20 secs) Ken talks about the new Renegade Studios variant, "Era of Empire" (49 mins 30 secs) Gavin reflects on his repeated efforts to reach out to Renegade's media team about an interview on how they're taking the game forward - but unfortunately with no response (56 min) The guys ask if anyone has a connection into the people from Renegade Studios, please get in touch as we'd love to know the strategy they're taking the game (58 mins 45 secs) FYI - don't message us on X, as we don't go there anymore (1 hr 1 mins) Gavin is now on a Tscharke Shiraz from the Barossa and Ken is on a Balter XPA. Gavin gives his limited insights of the Russian language (1 hr 2mins) Around the grounds Gavin's joined an unranked Divided States game and has actively encouraged the one guy who didn't stab him to walk into his SC's (1 hr 3 mins 30 secs) Ken moves onto his Imperial Diplomacy game where he's doing pretty good as Prussia (1 hr 5mins) They move onto Gavin's anonymous World War IV game where he's still doing well (1 hr 7 mins) Gavin asks Ken on tactics when it comes to convoys and movements to keep it legal (1 hr 11 mins) They start wrapping up (1 hr 16 mins) Venue: Little Miss Sunshine and Gather, Brisbane Drinks of choice: Ken - Young Henry's Cloudy Cider and Balter XPA Gavin - Little Miss Sunshine Breezy Pale Ale and Tscharke Shiraz Just a reminder you can support the show by giving it 5 stars on iTunes or Stitcher. And don't forget if you want to help pay off the audio equipment... or buy the guys a drink, you can also donate at Patreon, plus you get extra podcast episodes! Lastly, don't forget to subscribe so you get the latest Diplomacy Games episodes straight to your phone. Thanks as always to Dr Dan aka "The General" for his rockin' intro tune.

Most of the country is off and running into another school year, and it's a great time to reflect on where we can improve and how we can be more knowledgeable in supporting students and addressing their needs. This episode focuses on training for school staff, district staff, and parents. Today, we share part two of our interview with Andrew Goff. Part one aired at the end of the last school year and share his perspective as an early childhood teacher advocating for students at IEP meetings. If you missed part one, listen to Episode 311 here. Join us to learn more about ongoing trends in teacher training. Andrew Goff taught early childhood special education in five different least restrictive environments spanning 12 years. He is currently the lead instructor at Colorado Northwestern Community College, not far from Steamboat Springs. He wrote a memoir, Love is a Classroom, and is a fierce advocate for “inclusion–early, everywhere, and always.”Show Highlights:Andrew's role at community colleges training in the virtual spaceThe importance of collaboration in developing and implementing accommodationsTeacher experiences and three components of curricula: indirect, direct, and temporalThoughts about co-teachingA big root of the problem is that we aren't educating all teachers on all the varieties of ways kids learn.All children deserve to learn equally and have their needs met.Barriers to learning—and how they show upRelationships and connections allow students to learn better!Teaching teachers to create cultures in a classroomTeachers with biases find it difficult to show up and give a child what they need.Links/Resources:Connect with Andrew Goff: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Love is a Classroom Podcast, and Love is a Classroom bookContact us on social media or through our website for more information on the IEP Learning Center: www.inclusiveeducationproject.org Thank you for listening! Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to the show to receive every new episode delivered straight to your podcast player every Tuesday.If you enjoyed this episode and believe in our message, please help us get the word out about this podcast. Rate and Review this show on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, or Google Play. It helps other listeners find this show.Be sure to connect with us and reach out with any questions/concerns:

It's a very busy time of year for everyone involved in IEP meetings, for sure! In today's episode, we are discussing IEP meetings and the roles of compassionate educators who want to look beyond strict compliance to genuinely meet the needs of students with disabilities and special needs. Join us for the conversation!Andrew Goff taught early childhood special education in five different least restrictive environments for 12 years. He took this unique insight into his doctoral program, from which he graduated in 2017. As he moved into the community college system in Colorado, he is currently the lead instructor at Colorado Northwestern Community College, not far from Steamboat Springs. Based on his life as an educator, he has written the memoir, Love Is a Classroom and is a fierce advocate for “inclusion–early, everywhere, and always.”Show Highlights:Andrew's unique perspective on IEP meetings after teaching across early grade levels and into the college systemThe key to effective IEP services is to start early and not wait until the teenage years.Andrew's book—and the emotions it stirred up in himThe need for more training for educators in compassion and creativityThe value of teaching assistants in creating a compassionate community in the classroomA focus on compliance puts special education in a restrictive box.What Andrew wishes teachers and parents knew before going into IEP meetingsLinks/Resources:Connect with Andrew Goff and his work: Website, Love Is a Classroom book, Love Is a Classroom podcast, podcast on Spotify, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTubeContact us on social media or through our website for more information on the IEP Learning Center: www.inclusiveeducationproject.org Thank you for listening! Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to the show to receive every new episode delivered straight to your podcast player every Tuesday.If you enjoyed this episode and believe in our message, then please help us get the word out about this podcast. Rate and Review this show on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, or Google Play. It helps other listeners find this show.Be sure to connect with us and reach out with any questions/concerns:FacebookInstagram–We are doing videos on Instagram, so connect with...

The guys discuss their latest face to face tournament, the Melbourne Open and have an around the card table discussion with many great players. Plus Ken's shoe story. Enjoy! Intro The guys open the show discussing their drinks, Gavin's incredible rustiness and a little about the tournament (0 mins 15 secs) They mention DBN is having a chat also coming up blow by blow about the tournament  (9 mins secs) Card table chat around Melbourne Open and player experiences The guys introduce the card table chat with various players from the Melbourne Open and Ken teases the tale of two shoes. Bear in mind that occassionally with so many people speaking it can be confusing briefly (9 mins 30 secs) The chat begins with Karthik Konath (USA), Craig Percell (New Zealand), Ken, Steve (Melboune), Peter (Melbourne), Jamal (Canberra), Goffy (Melbourne) and Robert (Melbourne via London), meanwhile Gavin discusses a skit in Aunty Donna and his poor consistent games at the end of day one (10 mins) They begin a debrief on their round 1 and 2 games and observations from the first day (14 mins) Sascha (Thailand via Germany) joins the chat and they discuss the international player's views on why they came to an Australian tournament and what they like about Australia from their visit so far (19 mins) They talk about the prospects of a WDC in Australia is a few years (26 mins 30 secs) Australian stereotypes (32 mins 35 secs) They eventually move on to each discuss their first day at the tournament (38 mins 45 secs) They move onto how things will change in their gameplay for day two and the additional role to the TD in supporting wellbeing (1 hr 23 mins 45 secs) The discussion wraps up (1 hr 53 mins) Airport Tournament wrap-up (BONUS shoe story) The guys give their recollections of the chat (1 hr 53 mins 30 secs) They discuss their trip back from Andrew Goff's to their apartment and Ken's Ned the "Shoe Man" Kelly story (1 hr 57 mins) Ken announces he came third in the tournament (2 hrs 3 mins) Ken flags to watch his second round Turkey game when it airs on DBN (2 hrs 7 mins 30 secs) Gavin talks about his first round Italy getting an Italian army in Sevastapol in fall 1902 (2 hrs 9 mins) They discuss upcoming tournaments including the Hung Parliament Handicap in Canberra, getting a Canetoad Classic in Brisbane happening in August and another Melbourne tournament in October (2 hrs 14 mins) Gavin flags that our scheduling has been thrown out a bit before wrapping up (2 hours 16 mins) Venue: The Taphouse (Melbourne Airport) and Andrew Goff's place, Melbourne Drinks of choice: Ken:  Stomping Ground red ale by the Taphouse and so, so many Gavin: Stomping Ground pale ale zero alcohol and many, many more Just a reminder you can support the show by giving it 5 stars on iTunes or Stitcher. And don't forget if you want to help pay off the audio equipment... or buy the guys a drink, you can also donate at Patreon, plus you get extra podcast episodes! Lastly, don't forget to subscribe so you get the latest Diplomacy Games episodes straight to your phone. Thanks as always to Dr Dan aka "The General" for his rockin' intro tune.  

About the Guest(s):Dr. Andrew Goff was an educator of children with and without disabilities for twelve years before transferring the knowledge and skills he developed as a teacher to his work as a researcher, author, and college professor. He holds a Bachelor's in child psychology and a Master's in early childhood education/special education from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He earned his doctorate in leadership for educational equity with an emphasis in early childhood special education from the University of Colorado Denver. Episode Summary:In this enriching episode of the Think Inclusive podcast, host Tim Villegas welcomes Andrew Goff, an advocate for inclusive education and an author who reflects deeply on his transformative experiences in the classroom. Goff reveals his insights on why the classroom should be a place of love and growth for all children, regardless of their abilities. He shares a powerful narrative centered around his experience with a student named Javon, illuminating the challenges and triumphs of creating a nurturing learning environment. The discussion delves into the complexities of advocacy within an often rigid education system and the transition to leadership roles that can influence change. The episode is a testament to the profound impact that educators like Goff have on shaping inclusive schools, delivering poignant reflections that will resonate with teachers, administrators, and advocates alike.Transcript: https://otter.ai/u/Y5Z0hE2eYJvHfuoSoUEGn5UZHg8Key Takeaways:Inclusive education benefits all children, those with and without disabilities. Goff underscores the importance of creating a classroom environment where each child is given the opportunity to thrive.Goff's journey to inclusion involved a shift from viewing specialized support as necessary for some students to seeing inclusion as beneficial for everyone. This was particularly evident in the growth and kindness exhibited by children without disabilities.Leadership plays a crucial role in educational advocacy. Goff discusses his move from classroom teaching to instructing future teachers, emphasizing the value of leadership in fostering inclusion.Goff also talks about the tensions between being an educator and an advocate within a system resistant to change, sharing strategies for advocating for inclusion while navigating professional survival.The episode also highlights the importance of compassion and humanity, advocating for a future where all individuals, particularly children, see each other as equals deserving of respect and friendship.Resources:Love is a Classroom (Book by Andrew Goff): https://amzn.to/48fpZJLInclusive Schooling (Website): https://www.inclusiveschooling.com/MCIE: https://mcie.org/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The guys interview Chris Brand about the upcoming 2024 DipCon/Cascadia Open in Vancouver. Plus we talk upcoming tournaments and our online games. Intro The guys open the show about Gavin's wife's recent interest in Ticket to Ride and talk about a number of other board games (0 mins 15 secs) They discuss their drinks and initial venue which they last visited in episode 2 (4 mins 20 secs) Ken's been brewing beer (6 mins 20 secs) Interview with Chris Brand The guys start introducing their interview with Chris Brand, WDC winner and tournament organiser for this year's DipCon/Cascadia Open in Vancouver (10 mins 15 secs) Gavin asks about the tournament from 3rd to 4th February 2024 and how it'll be different being run as a DipCon (12 mins 30 secs) They talk about the scoring system and player's from different locations' playing style versus the West Coast style (15 mins 30 secs) They go onto discuss responsibilities in organising the tournament (20 mins 40 secs) Chris talks about the rounds and the impact of online players increasingly attending face to face tournaments (23 mins) Gavin asks about Chris' drink (26 mins) Ken asks about how did the idea of combining DipCon and Cascadia come about (27 mins 40 secs) He then asks about the logistics of getting to the tournament (30 mins 30 secs) They talk about the social aspect of the tournament (32 mins 15 secs) Gavin asks Chris about whether he'll attend WDC in Milan (34 mins) Ken asks about how to register and get advice on getting to the tournament (35 mins 40 secs) They start wrapping up the interview before moving onto discussing the interview (38 mins) Ken gets up to some maple syrup smuggling (47 mins 30 secs) Diplomacy chat The guys discuss the two upcoming tournaments in Australia: the Melbourne Open hosted by Andrew Goff in the first weekend of March and the Hung Parliament Handicap in Canberra hosted by Jamal Blakkarly on 12-14 April (48 mins 30 secs) The guys give their take on Renaissance Italy (57 mins) They discuss having a tournament in Brisbane during August called the "Canetoad Classic" and get into the trophy (1 hr 1 min) The guys move onto a new venue, moving to Rothwells and discuss their mid-game drinks (1 hr 7 mins) Around the grounds Gavin talks about the last episode where the guys agreed to play the new South of Sahara variant, but Ken then CD'ed and left the game (1 hr 14 mins) They move onto Gavin's Europa Renovatio game as Portugal (1 hr 18 mins) Ken flags he hasn't got around to any Big Stick Diplomacy variant updates. They then talk about a few games broadly (1 hr 26 mins) Ken talks about how to flag in a gunboat how to flag to get on with it and draw (1 hr 29 mins 30 secs) The guys start wrapping up the episode (1 hr 32 mins 45 secs) Venue: The Gresham & Rothwell's, Brisbane Drinks of choice: Ken:  Cooper's Sparkling Ale from South Australia and Wilder gluten free pale ale Gavin: Capa Sigle Tempranillo from Castilla la Mancha in Spain and a 2018 Bordeaux Just a reminder you can support the show by giving it 5 stars on iTunes or Stitcher. And don't forget if you want to help pay off the audio equipment... or buy the guys a drink, you can also donate at Patreon, plus you get extra podcast episodes! Lastly, don't forget to subscribe so you get the latest Diplomacy Games episodes straight to your phone. Thanks as always to Dr Dan aka "The General" for his rockin' intro tune.

With just a month until the first World Diplomacy Championship in Asia we catchup with organisers Andrew Goff and Lei Saarlainen about WDC Bangkok 2023, plus lots more. Intro The guys introduce their drinks and tonight's venue (0 mins 10 secs) They discuss why Italy doesn't open more often to the west and some crazy openings (5 mins 35 secs) Interview about WDC Bangkok with Andrew Goff and Lei Saarlainen They introduce the interview today with Lei Saarlainen and Andrew Goff about WDC 2023 in Bangkok (14 mins) We discuss what's planned (16 mins 40 sec) They discuss how language is approached at the tournament (20 mins) Andrew and Lei discusses what makes this WDC different to previous tournaments (25 mins 10 secs) Kaner asks about what Bangkok is like for visitors flying in and what to do. Andrew gives some tricks to remember for visitors (29 mins 45 secs) Lei also mentions there is a side tournament being held a week later in Siem Reap in Cambodia including visits to the Angkor Wat temple complex. Andrew also gives context for scheduling during the tournament and a WhatsApp group (33 mins 50 secs) They discuss time limit plans for the games (38 mins 20 secs) Kaner asks about the tournament scoring system (41 mins 20 secs) Amby goes onto discuss which official version of the rules will be used - the new board or rules played for many years (44 mins 10 secs) Amby asks about the cultural style of the tournament gameplay (48 mins 20 secs) He goes onto ask about the local climate and how should people be packing (52 mins 30 secs) They discuss some of the challenges maintaining momentum for the tournament during the pandemic (56 mins) They begin wrapping up the interview (1 hr 1 min) They goes give their thoughts on the interview (1 hr 2 mins 30 secs) Amby incorrectly says the Siem Reap tournament will be in a temple - he misheard Lei - ignore this bit folks! (1 hr 7 mins) Diplomacy chat Kaner asks about getting a face to face game in Brisbane (1 hr 13 mins) Amby discusses the Curious Western Triple  (1 hr 14 mins) The guys talk houses and the Kaner & Amby Gardening Show (1 hr 28 mins)  Around the grounds The guys discuss their Nine Dash Line game (https://www.vdiplomacy.com/board.php?gameID=55953) which they're playing with podcast listeners (1 hr 33 mins 40 secs) vDip has new variants again thanks to tobi1 and Enriador. Kaner talks about his anonymous East Indies game where he's getting screwed over (https://www.vdiplomacy.com/board.php?gameID=55953) (1 hr 41 mins 50 secs) Amby touches on some of his games. First up is an email only game run by David E Cohen for the Mandate of Heaven variant. He discusses his interesting gameplay strategy - big shout out to his ally Rob (1 hr 46 mins 20 secs) Amby talks about his American Conflict game - a Civil War variant with the European powers joining in at the same time (https://www.vdiplomacy.com/board.php?gameID=56035#gamePanel) (1 hr 51 mins 15 secs) Next is his Imperial game as Britain (https://www.vdiplomacy.com/board.php?gameID=55996) (1 hr 54 mins 30 secs) The guys wrap up the show (2 hrs 2 mins 30 secs) Venue: Babylon, Brisbane Drinks of choice: Kaner: 150 Lashes pale ale Amby: Kaesler shiraz from the Barossa Valley Just a reminder you can support the show by giving it 5 stars on iTunes or Stitcher. And don't forget if you want to help pay off the audio equipment... or get the guys more drunk, you can also donate at Patreon, plus you get extra podcast episodes! Lastly, don't forget to subscribe so you get the latest Diplomacy Games episodes straight to your phone. Thanks as always to Dr Dan aka "The General" for his rockin' intro tune.

#ai #cicero #diplomacy A team from Meta AI has developed Cicero, an agent that can play the game Diplomacy, in which players have to communicate via chat messages to coordinate and plan into the future. Paper Title: Human-level play in the game of Diplomacy by combining language models with strategic reasoning Commented game by human expert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5192bvUS7k OUTLINE: 0:00 - Introduction 9:50 - AI in cooperation games 13:50 - Cicero agent overview 25:00 - A controllable dialogue model 36:50 - Dialogue-conditional strategic planning 49:00 - Message filtering 53:45 - Cicero's play against humans 55:15 - More examples & discussion Homepage: https://ai.facebook.com/research/cicero/ Code: https://github.com/facebookresearch/diplomacy_cicero Blog: https://ai.facebook.com/blog/cicero-ai-negotiates-persuades-and-cooperates-with-people/ Paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ade9097 Abstract: Despite much progress in training AI systems to imitate human language, building agents that use language to communicate intentionally with humans in interactive environments remains a major challenge. We introduce Cicero, the first AI agent to achieve human-level performance in Diplomacy, a strategy game involving both cooperation and competition that emphasizes natural language negotiation and tactical coordination between seven players. Cicero integrates a language model with planning and reinforcement learning algorithms by inferring players' beliefs and intentions from its conversations and generating dialogue in pursuit of its plans. Across 40 games of an anonymous online Diplomacy league, Cicero achieved more than double the average score of the human players and ranked in the top 10% of participants who played more than one game. Authors: Anton Bakhtin, Noam Brown, Emily Dinan, Gabriele Farina, Colin Flaherty, Daniel Fried, Andrew Goff, Jonathan Gray, Hengyuan Hu, Athul Paul Jacob, Mojtaba Komeili, Karthik Konath, Minae Kwon, Adam Lerer, Mike Lewis, Alexander H. Miller, Sasha Mitts, Adithya Renduchintala, Stephen Roller, Dirk Rowe, Weiyan Shi, Joe Spisak, Alexander Wei, David Wu, Hugh Zhang, Markus Zijlstra Links: Homepage: https://ykilcher.com Merch: https://ykilcher.com/merch YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/yannickilcher Twitter: https://twitter.com/ykilcher Discord: https://ykilcher.com/discord LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ykilcher If you want to support me, the best thing to do is to share out the content :) If you want to support me financially (completely optional and voluntary, but a lot of people have asked for this): SubscribeStar: https://www.subscribestar.com/yannickilcher Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/yannickilcher Bitcoin (BTC): bc1q49lsw3q325tr58ygf8sudx2dqfguclvngvy2cq Ethereum (ETH): 0x7ad3513E3B8f66799f507Aa7874b1B0eBC7F85e2 Litecoin (LTC): LQW2TRyKYetVC8WjFkhpPhtpbDM4Vw7r9m Monero (XMR): 4ACL8AGrEo5hAir8A9CeVrW8pEauWvnp1WnSDZxW7tziCDLhZAGsgzhRQABDnFy8yuM9fWJDviJPHKRjV4FWt19CJZN9D4n

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Human-level Full-Press Diplomacy (some bare facts)., published by strawberry calm on November 22, 2022 on LessWrong. Key links? Here's the paper: Here's the blog post:/ Here's the website:/ What is Diplomacy? Diplomacy is a negotiation-based board game. There are 7 players corresponding to the 7 major European powers during WW1. In each round, the players write down their moves, which are then executed simultaneously. The moves might be attacking/defending territory, supporting/opposing another player's action, etc. Unlike Risk, there are no dice or other random mechanism. In "Full Press Diplomacy", players can also hold private conversations between rounds. The dialogue is used to establish trust and coordinate actions with other players. Players can make agreements, but all these agreements are non-binding. In "No Press Diplomacy", players can't communicate. Because the moves are simultaneous, game-play requires recursive theory of mind. The players must reason about the other players, and reason about what others are reasoning about them, and so on. Diplomacy is notorious for ending friendships, probably because it erodes trust. Anecdotally, I've played Diplomacy twice in my life. Each game lasted at least 6 hours. The first game was played with slightly LessWrong-ish friends and wasn't friendship-destroying. The second was played with un-LessWrong-ish friends and it did cause outside-the-game distrust. Diplomacy was the favourite game of John F. Kennedy and Henry Kissinger. How well did CICERO perform? On Nov 22 (today!) Meta AI presented an AI which achieved human-level performance at Full Press Diplomacy. CICERO achieved more than double the average score of the other players and ranked in the top 10% of players. The evaluation consisted of anonymous blitz Diplomacy games against humans on webDiplomacy.net 40 games 82 human players 5,277 messages 72 hours of gameplay Here is commentary by a Diplomacy expert playing against six CICEROs: "CICERO is so effective at using natural language to negotiate with people in Diplomacy that they often favoured working with CICERO over other human participants." (blog) They are open-sourcing the code and models, and "interested researchers can submit a proposal to the CICERO RFP to gain access to the data." (?!!) How does CICERO behave? In each game, the other players were convinced this was a human player. "What impresses me most about CICERO is its ability to communicate with empathy and build rapport while also tying that back to its strategic objectives." — Andrew Goff (3x Diplomacy World Champion) "CICERO is ruthless. It's resilient. And it's patient. [...] CICERO's dialogue is direct, but it has some empathy. It's surprisingly human." — Andrew Goff Apparently, CICERO is more honest than most human players. Andrew Goff also suggests that CICERO learned to become more honest over time, which is the same learning curve for high-level human players. CICERO (in green) de-escalates with another player by reassuring them it will not attack them. CICERO (in blue) suggests mutually beneficial moves a human missed. CICERO can both coordinate and negotiate. Sometimes CICERO generates inconsistent dialogue and makes mistakes. For example, CICERO (below) contradicts its first message asking Italy to move to Venice. How does CICERO work? CICERO has two components: a strategy engine and a dialogue engine. The strategy engine constructs a plan which works for itself and the other players and then the dialogue engine persuades the other players of the plan. "To build a controllable dialogue model, we started with a 2.7 billion parameter BART-like language model pre-trained on text from the internet and fine-tuned on over 40,000 human games on webDiplomacy.net." (blog) They automatically labelled the messages in this training set with th...

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Human-level Full-Press Diplomacy (some bare facts)., published by strawberry calm on November 22, 2022 on LessWrong. Key links? Here's the paper: Here's the blog post:/ Here's the website:/ What is Diplomacy? Diplomacy is a negotiation-based board game. There are 7 players corresponding to the 7 major European powers during WW1. In each round, the players write down their moves, which are then executed simultaneously. The moves might be attacking/defending territory, supporting/opposing another player's action, etc. Unlike Risk, there are no dice or other random mechanism. In "Full Press Diplomacy", players can also hold private conversations between rounds. The dialogue is used to establish trust and coordinate actions with other players. Players can make agreements, but all these agreements are non-binding. In "No Press Diplomacy", players can't communicate. Because the moves are simultaneous, game-play requires recursive theory of mind. The players must reason about the other players, and reason about what others are reasoning about them, and so on. Diplomacy is notorious for ending friendships, probably because it erodes trust. Anecdotally, I've played Diplomacy twice in my life. Each game lasted at least 6 hours. The first game was played with slightly LessWrong-ish friends and wasn't friendship-destroying. The second was played with un-LessWrong-ish friends and it did cause outside-the-game distrust. Diplomacy was the favourite game of John F. Kennedy and Henry Kissinger. How well did CICERO perform? On Nov 22 (today!) Meta AI presented an AI which achieved human-level performance at Full Press Diplomacy. CICERO achieved more than double the average score of the other players and ranked in the top 10% of players. The evaluation consisted of anonymous blitz Diplomacy games against humans on webDiplomacy.net 40 games 82 human players 5,277 messages 72 hours of gameplay Here is commentary by a Diplomacy expert playing against six CICEROs: "CICERO is so effective at using natural language to negotiate with people in Diplomacy that they often favoured working with CICERO over other human participants." (blog) They are open-sourcing the code and models, and "interested researchers can submit a proposal to the CICERO RFP to gain access to the data." (?!!) How does CICERO behave? In each game, the other players were convinced this was a human player. "What impresses me most about CICERO is its ability to communicate with empathy and build rapport while also tying that back to its strategic objectives." — Andrew Goff (3x Diplomacy World Champion) "CICERO is ruthless. It's resilient. And it's patient. [...] CICERO's dialogue is direct, but it has some empathy. It's surprisingly human." — Andrew Goff Apparently, CICERO is more honest than most human players. Andrew Goff also suggests that CICERO learned to become more honest over time, which is the same learning curve for high-level human players. CICERO (in green) de-escalates with another player by reassuring them it will not attack them. CICERO (in blue) suggests mutually beneficial moves a human missed. CICERO can both coordinate and negotiate. Sometimes CICERO generates inconsistent dialogue and makes mistakes. For example, CICERO (below) contradicts its first message asking Italy to move to Venice. How does CICERO work? CICERO has two components: a strategy engine and a dialogue engine. The strategy engine constructs a plan which works for itself and the other players and then the dialogue engine persuades the other players of the plan. "To build a controllable dialogue model, we started with a 2.7 billion parameter BART-like language model pre-trained on text from the internet and fine-tuned on over 40,000 human games on webDiplomacy.net." (blog) They automatically labelled the messages in this training set with th...

The guys discuss Amby's attendance at PoppyCon in Melbourne with round the table interviews, tournament results and a live Wilsonian game of Diplomacy. Intro & Diplomacy talk The guys introduce the show, the venue and their drinks (0 mins 15 secs) They give a quick run down of how today's episode is going to work this episode, and Kaner provides a pronunciation correction for the Mayans. Amby shares a partial Arkansas update, with the Twitter pic he shares from @TerribleMaps with Kaner  (4 mins 30 secs) They start to introduce Amby's experience at PoppyCon this year (10 mins) PoppyCon The round table begins, with a brief discussion on scoring systems and Jamal Blakkarly's board solo (14 mins) They talk about playing on multiple boards at once (18 mins 30 secs) Allan discusses what's changed in the way players approach the game compared to 30 years ago and a discussion on draws (22 mins) Amby asks about people's thoughts on the new players to the game (27 mins 30 secs) The conversation merges into a general conversation around games on Day 1 (30 mins) Amby asks about the overall tournament metagame after Jamal's solo and Shane weighs in on his first game (35 mins) Amby asks Melissa about PoppyCon and venue hosting for a tournament. The round table discusses the challenges for tournament directors and SC based tournament scoring systems (39 mins) They discuss how players approach tournaments now (45 mins) The round table discusses the anonymous gunboat game played in the evening (not part of the formal tournament) where the scoring was how many SCs you ended with when the pizzas arrived and correctly identifying which player was which country (48 mins) Amby wraps up the round table discussion (52 mins) The guys get some more drinks and talk about the round table discussions (52 mins 30 secs) They throw to Andrew Goff as tournament director giving the final results for the weekend (59 mins) As part of local tradition, after the tournament results, Goffy awards the Best Shane Cubis Award (1 hr 4 mins 30 secs) He goes onto discuss the next tournament in Melbourne for November/December (1 hr 6 mins) The guys come back and Amby gives a further update on his games in the tournament. Here's the maps from towards the end of his games: (1 hr 7 mins) Amby as Germany in game 1   Amby's second game as France   The guys go onto discuss attending the next Melbourne tournament and trying to get some face to face games happening in Brisbane (1 hr 18 mins) Next up they introduce the final part of the PoppyCon recordings, a live Wilsonian/United Nations game where players competed over the table in an open forum for all negotiations on a very tight phase turn (1 hr 19 mins) Kaner gives a forewarning that with a heap of people talking all at once it can be a little difficult to follow what's being suggested around the board. Amby says he'll add some Backstabbr maps to show each turn's orders (1 hr 22 mins 45 secs) The game begins in Spring 1901 with: Melissa - Italy Casey - Turkey Shane (Peter writing orders) - Germany Goffy - England Jamal - Austria Rob - France Allan - Russia (1 hr 25 mins) Negotiations begin for Fall 1901 (1 hr 32 mins 40 secs) Winter 1901 builds are added (1 hr 38 mins 30 secs) Spring 1902 negotiations begin (1 hr 39 mins 40 secs) Fall 1902 kicks off (1 hr  45 mins) Winter 1902 builds (1 hr 50 mins 40 secs) Spring 1903 opens to negotiations (1 hr  51 mins 45  secs) Fall 1903 rolls around (1 hr  57 mins 20 secs) And with Shane Cubis/Peter McNamara as Germany are eliminated a draw is proposed, followed by build orders (2 hrs  4 mins) With the draw not proceeding Spring 1904 begins (2 hrs  mins  secs) Fall 1904 rocks around (2 hrs 9 mins 40 secs) Winter 1904's centre adjustments occur (2 hrs 15 mins 30 secs) Spring 1905 begins before a 5 way draw is proposed and passed (2 hrs 17 mins) They discuss the game from the players' perspective (2 hrs 19 mins) The game ends and Kaner & Amby return with some further observations on the bar (2 hrs 22 mins 45 secs) They get onto talking about the Wilsonian game and their thoughts about recording people playing Diplomacy (2 hrs 25 mins 40 secs) The guys start wrapping up the show (2 hrs 30 mins 40 secs) Venue: Frog's Hollow Saloon, Brisbane Drinks of choice: Kaner: Gage Road Atomic hazy pale ale and Kosciuszko pale ale Amby: Coriole Sparta shiraz from the Barossa, South Australia Just a reminder you can support the show by giving it 5 stars on iTunes or Stitcher. And don't forget if you want to help pay off the audio equipment... or get the guys more drunk, you can also donate at Patreon, plus you get extra podcast episodes! Lastly, don't forget to subscribe so you get the latest Diplomacy Games episodes straight to your phone. Thanks as always to Dr Dan aka "The General" for his rockin' intro tune.  

The guys celebrate their 100th podcast by inviting Andrew Goff, Brandon Fogel, Brother Board and CaptainMeme on to play their Diplomacy Trivia Extravaganza. Intro The guys introduce their 100th show, their drinks and tonight's venue, including a story or two (0 mins 15 secs) They start introducing the Diplomacy Trivia Extravaganza with Andrew Goff, Brandon Fogel, Brother Bored and CaptainMeme as contestants. They also mention if you join the Patreon feed, next week's bonus episode is the guys coming up with the questions (6 mins 40 secs) The Diplomacy Trivia Extravaganza Amby is acting as the game show host and begins by introducing the players and some of their Diplomacy background. Kaner is the adjudicator (7 mins 50 secs) They begin the questions (11 mins 50 secs) After a score update, the game moves onto the lightening round (34 mins 15 secs) The lightening round concludes and we move back onto the normal set of questions, followed by another score update (47 mins 45 secs) Goffy does a promo for PoppyCon in Melbourne in April 2022 before questions continue (1 hr 3 mins 15 secs) The trivia contest starts wrapping up with the results (1 hr 8 mins) Diplomacy chat The guys announce a new Patreon supporter of the show, thanks Dr Recommended! (1 hr 13 mins 30 secs) They discuss vDiplomacy currently being down (1 hr 17 mins 20 secs) Kaner & Amby grab another drink before coming back to discuss their Dawn of the Enlightenment game organised by David E. Cohen. Surprise surprise, Amby's been stabbed already (1 hr 19 mins 45 secs) Kaner describes his first game year for this variant (1 hr 35 mins) Amby suggests a face to face game in Brisbane for the weekend of 10 or 11 December and give a Covid update(1 hr 41 mins 45 secs) They discuss some of the duplicitous conversations a little more in Dawn of the Enlightenment (1 hr 49 mins) Kaner talks about why he likes big maps and how it breaks common thinking on a normal Diplomacy board (1 hr 53 mins) The guys wrap up the 100th show (2 hrs 0 mins) Venues: The Down Under bar & grill, Brisbane Drinks of choice: Kaner: Four Pines draught and Four Pines milk stout Amby: Four Pines pale ale and a cabernet sauvignon from somewhere Just a reminder you can support the show by giving it 5 stars on iTunes or Stitcher. And don't forget if you want to help pay off the audio equipment... or get the guys more drunk, you can also donate at Patreon, plus you get extra podcast episodes! Lastly, don't forget to subscribe so you get the latest Diplomacy Games episodes straight to your phone. Thanks as always to Dr Dan aka "The General" for his rockin' intro tune.

Our Worship Pastor expert Andrew Goff is on the hot seat! In this episode, we ask him the difference between Sunday morning worship & lifestyle worship. Heads up-this episode is LOADED with sarcasm. Want to connect with us? Message us through the anchor app or email the guys at mikeweiss.mke@gmail.com

As Humboldt beer drinkers will recall, back in late 2019 it was announced that the Yurok Agricultural Corporation was purchasing Mad River Brewing Company and its destination Blue Lake taproom, in the process making the three-decades-old business and beloved local institution one of only a handful of tribally owned breweries in North America.For Linda Cooley, Yurok tribal member and Mad River’s new COO, the acquisition has been a dream, as its led to her seeing her people represented in spaces where they’ve historically been invisible.“I got to walk into Safeway the other day and I saw the word ‘Yurok,’” Cooley noted to LoCO. “I never thought in my whole entire life that that would be possible … but here we are as Native people seeing our tribe’s name in these big chain stores and it’s unbelievable.”On this week’s episode of Humboldt Holding Up, Cooley chats with LoCO’s Andrew Goff and Stephanie McGeary about the new role she unknowingly spent much of her professional life preparing for while also sharing some of the tribe's plans for MRB going forward. Topics include:Growing up in Humboldt and getting her start in beer with Anheuser Busch and Eel River Brewery  The Yurok Tribe’s decision to become one of only a handful of tribes to own a brewery and battling stigmas surrounding Native Americans and alcohol Carrying on the established Mad River Brewery traditions Sharing the Yurok story with the world via new labels and products like their hard seltzer "Undammed"The headache of buying a business just before a global pandemic  g

For the past 20 years, Anne Holcomb has served as executive director of nonprofit Food For People helping the Humboldt food bank see to it that community members always have enough to eat. “If you come in and tell us that you need food then you’re going to get some food,” said Holcomb on this week’s episode of Humboldt Holding Up. That sentiment has held true even during this past pandemic year, surely one of the most challenging in the organization’s history.  Click the audio player above to hear Holcomb chat with LoCO’s Andrew Goff and Stephanie McGeary on a number of topics, including: How she found her way from Maine to her Humboldt homeThe history of Food for People and how she sees its current role How COVID has forced her team to redesign their distribution model“The Great Poop Storm of 2020” that forced Food For People out of their main facility in EurekaFood for People’s current programsWays Humboldt residents can get involved and volunteer

After spending the past few years establishing the Inn at 2nd and C Streets and Phatsy Kline’s Parlor Lounge as some of Eureka’s most chic destinations, 2020 was the year Eagle House owner Jennifer Metz had designated for “less stress and more success.” Well, you know how that went. On the first episode of Humboldt Holding Up of 2021, Metz shares with LoCO how she and her staff switched up their game to try and make the most of the past pandemic-plagued year and assures us that Humboldt will party again (as soon as it’s safe to do so). Plus, we learn about her efforts to help reinvigorate Old Town by reimagining the historic Eagle House and she tells us about that time she ended up hiking through the redwoods with Bill Murray while he was a guest at the inn. Be jealous. Click the player above to hear Metz’s chat with LoCO’s Stephanie McGeary and Andrew Goff and/or scroll our past guests below.

Though most of our alcohol consumption happens at home these days, it turns out that people do still drink during a pandemic (who knew?) and Alchemy Distillery — producer of Boldt whiskey, bourbon and gin — has been as busy as ever distributing its products to help make pandemic life a little more bearable. It also turns out that during a pandemic alcohol serves an even greater purpose than getting us sauced! Which is why earlier this year Alchemy temporarily shifted all its efforts to producing thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer to donate to local medical staff and other essential workers. On this week’s episode of Humboldt Holding Up, co-owner of Alchemy Distiller Amy Bohner shares the story of how the business stepped up when sanitizer was in low supply and what else Alchemy has been up to during COVID. Other topics discussed with Bohner include: Genever style gin? What’s that? The other family business, Alchemy Construction What’s the story with this whiskey made out of bagels? Bohner’s latest crazy whiskey project Her great relationship with husband and business partner Steve and how his beard brought them together So pour yourself a glass of your favorite spirit, and click the audio player above to hear Bohner’s chat with LoCO’s Andrew Goff and Stephanie McGeary and/ or scroll through past guests below. Please listen responsibly!

Your lonely turkey dinner has digested. Time to get your ears back into Humboldt's goings-on with another edition of Humboldt Holding Up, the Lost Coast Outpost's good-enough podcast thingy.This week: The second half of our attempt to get to know Eureka's newly elected council members. For more than a decade, Kati Moulton has worked with arts-related organizations in Humboldt (The Ink People Center for the Arts, Kinetic Universe, SCRAP Humboldt, etc.) and earlier this month she bested three other competitors to claim the Second Ward seat on the Eureka City Council. Click the audio player above to hear Moulton chat with LoCO's Stephanie McGeary and Andrew Goff on numerous topics, including:The factors that fueled her last-minute decision to run for councilKati Moulton? We thought you were Kati Texas!How her artist’s journey landed her to HumboldtHow she reached out to Eureka’s next generation of votersA discussion of potential uses for the decaying Jacobs Junior High School campus in her wardEureka’s push to become a hub for artistsWill there be a 2021 Kinetic Grand Championship?

We heard a rumor that you might be spending a lot more time cooped up in your home recently, you good li'l shelterer. Are you running out of things to occupy your attention? A suggestion: Perhaps this is a great opportunity to stage your own at-home film festival consisting solely of screenings of movies that have been shot up here in our neck of the woods?! Hey hey! We've had worse ideas.  We submit this fabulous movie marathon plan in conjunction with the release of the latest edition of Humboldt Holding Up, the Lost Coast Outpost's perfectly adequate pandemic-era podcast attempt. For this week's episode, we gave the Humboldt-Del Norte Film Commission's Cassandra Hesseltine and Nate Adams a little homework: Come up with a list of the Top Ten Movies Made in Humboldt of All-Time. And, what do you know, they did it! (They snuck some Del Norte County movies in there, sure, but they serve many masters and are thus forgiven.)Click the audio player above to hear Cassandra and Nate gab it up with LoCO's Stephanie McGeary and Andrew Goff about their questionable list of great Humboldt films, bonus lists of not-so-great local films, stories from some of the larger locally produced projects they've worked on and plenty else. Names shamelessly dropped include: Kirsten Dunst! Will Smith! Daniel Radcliffe! Brad Pitt! And more! It's a very long podcast!

The guys catch up with Dave Maletsky about eCarnage and what's happening with the World Diplomacy Championship. Plus talk about Diplomacy news and discuss variant development. Intro The guys discuss their drinks and venue. Amby mentions how he met well known Diplomacy player, Peter McNamara at the Fox very early on in the podcast (0 mins 10 secs) Amby introduces an interview with Dave Maletsky about November's Carnage - now eCarnage - and the roadmap ahead for the World Diplomacy Championships (4 mins) Interview with Dave Maletsky about eCarnage and the WDC Amby asks about what's happening with this year's Carnage (6-8 November 2020) due to Covid (5 mins 20 secs) Dave discusses how this year's Carnage - being all online so called eCarnage - is running two rounds in the US and two rounds in the Asia-Pacific using different scoring systems, and how player' rankings determine a final ranking for the Top Board (6 mins 50 secs) Dave flags the need to formally register and the need for a small entrance fee (9 mins 10 secs) Amby clarifies the tournament play process (10 mins 50 secs) He asks what's happening with the World Diplomacy Championships (WDC) and Dave outlines (12 mins) Kaner asks about the logistics in the games (14 mins) He goes onto ask how the broader tournament organisers are managing Carnage (16 mins) Amby asks about the normal physical Carnage whether players walking around take an interest in Diplomacy. Amby asks about the relationship with Dungeons and Dragons (18 mins 30 secs) Amby asks about the round timings (22 mins 45 secs) Dave discussing the seeding aspects of the games (25 mins 20 secs) Amby asks about how participation in eCarnage is reflected in a broader rating system (27 mins) He goes on to ask about player numbers (29 mins 30 secs) Dave talks about the cross over being successfully achieved from online players being increasingly involved in F2F/virtual events (31 min) Amby asks about the cultural change happening in the game (32 mins 40 secs) He goes onto ask about the resolution process for adverse behavior (35 mins) Amby asks how many Carnages Dave has been director for (37 mins) Dave talks about some of the awards at Carnage (39 mins 50 secs) Amby asks about where players can find all the up to date info about eCarnage (44 mins) Dave talks about confidence and attitude in games (46 mins) The guys wrap up the interview (46 mins 30 secs) After the interview, Kaner mentions a Bourse is being run on the Top Board for eCarnage (47 mins 10 secs) Kaner & Amby quickly gives an overview about what a Bourse game is (48 mins 40 secs) They talk about the two different time zone competitions and what's happening with WDC (53 mins) Latest news & shit The guys talk about the article in Popular Mechanics about Diplomacy and Andrew Goff (56 mins) Kaner asks Amby if he's going to play in Carnage before discussing Gary Gygax (58 mins) Amby brings up Legendary Tactics post about Twilight Struggle (1 hr) They talk about Trump being in hospital at the time of recording (1 hr 2 mins) Amby discusses how the Brother Bored interview on the show has been remastered to be in the Brother Board robotic voice (1 hr 5 mins 15 secs) Kaner discusses GoHornsGo's recent post about his Diplomacy collection (1 hr 8 mins) Around the grounds Amby runs through the Media Wars game which has now drawn. Players in the Spring 1912 draw were: Brother Bored (Germany 14 SC's), Legendary Tactics (Austria 11 SC's), CaptainMeme/DiploStrats (Russia 8 SCs's) and Village Idiot (Italy 2 SC's) (1 hr 11 mins 20 secs) The guys talk about the Winning game that Amby's in. This is a cross over Classic game with a forum thread at vDip. If you win the forum thread that turn, as a Diplomacy player you get the GM to request another player to make a specific move that they must do. They discuss some of the duplicity in the game (1 hr 16 mins) Amby is also having a little opening joy in his Italian Stallions Machiavelli game. Kaner asks about the map (1 hr 25 mins) Last up is his Declaration of War Fall of the American Empire IV game (1 hr 28 mins) Kaner's Europa Renovatio game Lockdown Renovatio has just finished with him doing well, being part of the draw as Naples (1 hr 30 mins 30 secs) Amby reflects in the Winning game that another one of the players - Macca - is also based in Brisbane. They discuss about getting a face-to-face game happening (1 hr 36 mins) Variant development update After some more drinks, Kaner discusses a message we received from Amuzet about drawing maps (1 hr 38 mins) Amby gives an update from Flame about whether his Lab would be available for variant development (1 hr 41 mins) They discuss what you need to do to set up a server, or whether its better to just sit on it until Kaner's next lot of holidays. They go onto discuss getting Kaner prepared to play a virtual game: Tempest in a Teapot (1 hr 43 mins 20 secs) Amby get a message from David E. Cohen about a Classic variant but where some of the water is frozen. Kaner talks about it. Amby reflects on the Ice Age variant he started creating. He has the territory map and names/SCs maps done, but can't remember who the players are meant to be and whether there are any additional rules - pretty sure there aren't any beyond the additional impassable areas due to glaciers (1 hr 46 mins) Amby discusses Fake Al's Tiglath-Pileser variant set at the time of Solomon in the bible (1 hr 50 mins 40 secs) Kaner got a message from Major Mitchell at webDip and does a shout out before they wrap up the show  (1 h 56 mins 30 secs)   Venue: The Fox, Brisbane Drinks of choice: Kaner:  Two Suns Pale Ale and Grappler lager by Green Beacon Amby: Marty's Block shiraz cabernet   Just a reminder you can support the show by giving it 5 stars on iTunes or Stitcher. And don't forget if you want to help improve the audio equipment... or get the guys more drunk, you can also donate at Patreon, plus you get extra podcast episodes! Lastly, don't forget to subscribe so you get the latest Diplomacy Games episodes straight to your phone. Thanks as always to Dr Dan aka "The General" for his rockin' intro tune.

(AUDIO) Estelle Fennell is Holding UpIn a year full of them, this week would have to rank near the top of Humboldt's weirdest-ever weeks. We made it through the orange crush, but fire to the east still sits right at the county's doorstep and some residents remain under mandatory evacuation orders.  Supervisor Fennell is no stranger to the ZoomAt this point, the portion of the Humboldt most-affected by the blazes is overseen by Second District Supervisor Estelle Fennell, who was kind enough to catch us up on the local fire response in the latest episode of Humboldt Holding Up -- LoCO's good-enough podcast. Click the audio player above to hear Estelle chat with Stephanie McGeary and Andrew Goff about current fire operations, how COVID-19 is impacting her district, the blessings/curses bestowed upon us by social media during disastrous times, and her reelection campaign.

(AUDIO) Jada Calypso Brotman is Holding UpWith a lot of our usual Humboldt fun canceled this year, summer hasn’t looked the way we planned. But it hasn’t been all bad, right? For local writer Jada Calypso Brotman -- best known for her food columns in various publications, including LoCO -- not having Crabs baseball or Oyster Festival has been a big bummer. But going to the river and eating kick-ass local produce has helped make the summer a little less crappy. The masked mouth of BrotmanBrotman was kind enough to share her (only sometimes cynical ) take on life amid the pandemic on this week’s episode of Humboldt Holding Up, the Lost Coast Outpost’s weekly Zoom audio chat with local folks in the COVID era. Warning: it might get spicy! Topics discussed with Brotman include:The struggles of mothering a toddler during the pandemic Her favorite take-out spots in ArcataThe importance of Northtown BooksWhy salads are good (sort of)More! Click the audio player above to hear Brotman get chatty with the Outpost’s Andrew Goff and Stephanie McGeary and/ or scroll through past episodes below. 

(AUDIO) Levia LoveThe Lost Coast Outpost continues its adventures in social distancing and Zoom-enabled conversations with the latest edition of Humboldt Holding Up, our attempt at maintaining connection with actual humans during the COVID era.   Levia, cozy in her "cloud"This week we talk with Levia Love, multicultural skincare therapist and owner of Old Town's Bling Brow Bar (website, Facebook), about ways she's adapted to be able to continue providing care to her clients while sheltering in place. We also discuss her involvement with Black Humboldt, a nonprofit that empowers and makes space for local people of color and is one of the organizations helping to produce this year's virtual Juneteenth celebration in Humboldt. Other topics include: Levia's passion for self care and the work of the North Coast Association of Mental Health Practitioners (NCAMHP); Her take on recent local Black Lives Matter-affirming demonstrations; and her experience growing up in Humboldt and why she's chosen to continue to make it home.Click the audio player above to hear Levia's chat with LoCO's Stephanie McGeary and Andrew Goff.  PREVIOUS TALKING HUMBOLDT HUMANS:Annie's Cambodian Server and Social Worker Joshua CoppockEureka City Councilmember Austin Allison HSU Professor Deidre Pike Pastor Bethany CsehSinger/Songwriter Chris ParreiraEureka City Councilmember Leslie CastellanoArcata City Councilmember Paul Pitino

(AUDIO)If you're feeling lonely or bored in these isolating times -- and we at LoCO sure are sometimes -- we invite your ears to enjoy the latest edition of "Humboldt Holding Up," where we zoom chat with other humans in our beautiful county to find out how they're keeping sane in the times of COVID. Coppock and his 'stacheThis week the Outpost's Andrew Goff and Stephanie McGeary are joined by Joshua Coppock -- a man who wears two hats and one glorious mustache. Back when dining in restaurants was the norm, Coppock may have been your friendly server at Annie's Cambodian Cuisine in Eureka. When he isn't busy waiting tables, Coppock does social work with the homeless population through the county's Housing and Disability Advocacy Program (HDAP).Listen to Coppock discuss topics including working with the homeless during the pandemic, how he's managed to keep his upbeat attitude working in the service industry for so many years and the story behind his trademark 'stache. Plus he shares his favorite flavor combo from Annie's. Click on the audio player above to hear the Outpost and Coppock zoom it up. PREVIOUS TALKING HUMBOLDT HUMANS:Eureka City Councilmember Austin AllisonHSU Professor Deidre Pike Pastor Bethany CsehSinger/Songwriter Chris ParreiraEureka City Councilmember Leslie CastellanoArcata City Councilmember Paul Pitino

(AUDIO)If you don't mind sometimes-glitchy Zoom audio -- and who has that luxury these days, anyway? -- the Lost Coast Outpost invites you to join us for the latest edition of Humboldt Holding Up, our attempt at maintaining useful people skills during COVID times.  This week's guest is Eureka City Councilmember Austin Allison. In addition to his council duties, Austin also works full time at St. Joseph Hospital and spoke with LoCO's Stephanie McGeary and Andrew Goff about how he and his co-workers are dealing with working in health care during a pandemic. Other topics touched on: Austin can't really say much about the recent resignation of Eureka City Manager Dean Lotter, but he does offer praise for A Taste of Bim takeout and also shares which street in Eureka is his favorite. Oh, and he was able to raise $3,000 for a local nonprofit by shaping his hair into what he has deemed a mullet. (Debatable.)Listen in to the socially distanced discussion by clicking the link above.PREVIOUS TALKING HUMBOLDT HUMANS:HSU Professor Deidre Pike Pastor Bethany CsehSinger/Songwriter Chris ParreiraEureka City Councilmember Leslie CastellanoArcata City Councilmember Paul Pitino 

(AUDIO) For the last few weeks, your human interaction-starved Lost Coast Outpost has been Zoom-tracking down local humans because a) we are lonely, and b) we want to know how our neighbors are dealing with quasi-existence under COVID-19.  Professor Deidre misses her studentsThis week, we convince Humboldt State University journalism professor Deidre Pike to spend some socially distanced time in front of her computer with us to share how life not on campus has been for her and her students. Other topics discussed with LoCO's Stephanie McGeary and Andrew Goff include: Her critique of HSU President Tom Jackson's availability during the pandemic; how Fox News has allowed her to bond with her 90-year-old father; and the somewhat concerning close relationship she maintains with her beloved sourdough goo.Tune in by clicking the audio player above.PREVIOUS TALKING HUMBOLDT HUMANS:Pastor Bethany CsehSinger/Songwriter Chris ParreiraEureka City Councilmember Leslie CastellanoArcata City Councilmember Paul Pitino 

(AUDIO) Pastor Bethany as she appears to her congregation these daysThe Lost Coast Outpost is continuing its adventures in Zoom-quality audio and checking in with Humboldters to get a better grasp of how pandemic life is treating them. This week, Arcata United Methodist Church and Catalyst co-pastor Bethany Cseh was kind enough to e-chat with us about her experience sheltering in place while juggling three kids, two churches and endless homemade cookies. Spend a portion of your Sunday hanging out with her and LoCO's Andrew Goff by clicking the audio player above.PREVIOUS TALKING HUMBOLDT HUMANS:Singer/Songwriter Chris ParreiraEureka City Councilmember Leslie CastellanoArcata City Councilmember Paul Pitino 

(AUDIO)When will Humboldt get to experience live music again? The answer, you could say, is blowing in the wind. Chris "Bob" ParreiraUntil then, we'll have to improvise. For ten years now, local singer/songwriter and sound engineer Chris Parreira has helped organize the Bob Dylan Birthday Bash, an annual gathering at Mad River Brewery on/or around May 24 featuring Humboldt musicians' renditions of songs from Mr. Zimmerman's catalog. For obvious reasons, the event as it has existed is not happening this year. How does it feel, Humboldt?But the show, in some form, will go on. Parreira is seeing to it that Dylan's birthday is honored by inviting the community to record themselves singing a song(s) of their choice. For more on how to participate and prove your Dylan devotion to you neighbors, listen to Parreira's chat with LoCO's Stephanie McGeary and Andrew Goff, above, or head on over to the e-event's corresponding Facebook page. 

(AUDIO)Like most of y'all, LoCO is going a bit stir crazy in our new shelter-in-place reality and one thing we miss most is talking. Nothing fancy. We just long for a time when we would regularly make words with our mouths and then other humans would respond to them. Just talking. Simple joys.  Paul Pitino is hangin' toughFollowing our urges, we thought we'd Zoom-check in on some local folks and see how they're dealing with all the current weird. Unsurprisingly, Arcata City Councilmember Paul Pitino was kind enough to play along. In the clip above, hear him chat with LoCO's Stephanie McGeary and Andrew Goff about which home projects he's tackling, how his lawn mowing experience has changed and where local people facing food shortages can turn for help.

The guys make it to Melbourne for PoppyCon and discuss their plans for the tournament, an interview with host Melissa Call, and follow up interview with multi-WDC winner Andrew Goff and Melissa, before a wrap up of Amby's Divided States game and more. Intro, news & their thoughts on what to do at the tournament The guys introduce the show, making it to Melbourne before the Coronavirus really started impacting. They introduce their drinks, venue and Kaner asks Amby what is game plans are for the PoppyCon tournament. Kaner goes onto give some history lessons about Victoria  (0 mins 10 secs) They give some local history (4 mins) They talk a little Coronavirus (6 mins 30 secs) Kaner discusses his three build England plan for the tournament. Amby asks about the prospects of a four build Russia and getting a bluewater Russian fleet in the Med to take Tunis in 1903. They go on to talk about how face to face games lend themselves more to crazy alliances happening compared to online (8 mins 55 secs) Interview with Melissa Call The interview starts with Melissa (Mel) Call, the host of the PoppyCon tournament. Before recording Kaner asked Mel what her favourite country to play is. Her average SC count playing as Russia in Australia is 11 and hasn't been eliminated locally. Amby asks about what strategy do you need to follow to play a good Russia (18 mins) Kaner reflects on his Russian gameplay, which Mel advises on. Mel talks about not being the first person to 10 SC's (22 mins 45 secs) Kaner discusses Mel's tactic of getting bickering happening in the centre of the board (24 mins 50 secs) She discusses the value of a Russian-German alliance (26 mins 30 secs) Kaner asks about which alliance on the board gets her worried as Russia (28 mins 15 secs) Amby asks if Mel has any particular plans for this tournament. Kaner asks why France is her least favourite country. Mel also gives her thoughts as England and the English Channel (30 mins) Amby asks what the PoppyCon tournament is all about (33 mins 25 secs) Amby discusses how there is a certain thrill to a face to face tournament and his one time he's replicated it in the online environment (40 mins) Amby asks Mel how she feels when she's been betrayed (42 mins 30 secs) Kaner reflects how experienced players and relatively new players react very differently to a well orchestrated stab (43 mins 45 secs) Amby asks Mel as a female Diplomacy player, how she feels she's been treated and how to get more women into the game (45 mins 15 secs) They discuss choice of words and deception (52 mins) Mel talks about playing people, not countries (54 mins) Amby asks about how Mel's strategy may change if she's up against a great player (54 mins 45 secs) Amby asks how to approach things if your ally is showing tell-signs, impacting your alliance (57 mins 30 secs) Interview with Andrew Goff and Melissa Call Andrew Goff (Goffy) joins the interview, as well as Mel's husband Matt and Goffy's partner Albert (59 mins) They return to the earlier topic of dealing with good players (60 mins) Amby asks Goffy and Mel what new players should do when it comes to trusting players (1 hr 1 min 15 secs) Goffy talks about new players learning from their mistake and finding someone you can trust and learn from them (1 hr 5 mins) Amby asks Mel about the bullshit detector and trust (1 hr 6 mins 15 secs) They discuss Goffy's "little drops of poison" and how other players view his gameplay. He gives his perspective on that (1 hr 10 mins 30 secs) Goffy talks about not worrying how many builds he gets in 1901, but then goes onto discuss a massive opening (1 hr 15 mins) He recommends online players coming to face to face and doing things they've never done before and watching the tight timeframes (1 hr 18 mins) Mel reflects that you can read a lot about the culture of the tournament by reading the rules. Goffy stresses not pissing off the tournament director (1 hr 20 mins 30 sec) Goffy gives his thoughts on tournaments with and without top boards (1 hr 27 mins 30 secs) Amby asks what a newbie player should worry about (1 hr 28 mins 30 secs) They start discussing intermediate player strategy (1 hr 34 mins) Goffy announces the 2021 WDC will be held Battlefield Bangkok at the end of July 2021. He outlines how accommodation is great value in the area and its a fantastic venue (1 hr 35 mins 40 secs) Kaner gives a big wrap about Bangkok (1 hr 37 mins 50 secs) Goffy discusses a number of events for players at WDC 2021 (1 hr 39 mins) Goffy says he won't be playing as he'll the tournament director (1 hr 40 mins) Kaner asks Goffy about the culture of Australians spying on players' writing orders. They expand on gamesmanship, culture and rules (1 hr 43 mins) Goffy discusses you're only really new in tournaments for 3 or 4 games and how to do well in a tournament, although maybe not necessarily win (1 hr 48 mins 30 secs) Goffy mentions how some US players can hold a grudge. He then discusses how European games often end (1 hr 55 mins 30 secs) He talks about fake orders and unguarding your orders (2 hrs) His next intermediate tip is to not have favourite countries, alliances and players (2 hrs 30 mins 50 secs) Amby asks if when the countries are assigned in a tournament, does Goffy have a predetermined plan in mind (2 hrs 4 mins 30 secs) They discuss the Flying Dutchman (illegally having an extra unit on the board) and why tricks are for kids (2 hrs 9 mins 30 secs) They wrap up the interview (2 hrs 13 mins) Post interview chat Kaner suggests the idea of recording discussions at the tournament (2 hrs 14 mins) The guys discuss hats (2 hrs 16 mins) They return to the conversation about recording discussions (2 hrs 18 mins 30 secs) Amby suggests that listeners give us a Shit Sandwich: something complementary, something you don't like and then end on something complementary again (2 hrs 19 mins 50 secs) Amby solos his 50 player Divided States game Amby has won the Undivided States game that they've been talking about for almost two years. Amby starts discussing what worked in his favor (2 hrs 20 mins 45 secs)   Kaner asks what its like ordering 127 units to order. In answering Amby talks about the holding vs attacking (2 hrs 23 mins 10 secs) Kaner asks Amby how it approached discussions on the game in the podcast and whether listeners at some point worked out who Amby was despite it being an anonymous game (2 hrs 24 mins 50 secs) Kaner then goes onto discuss Amby's hopes on rankings and how that went (2 hrs 28 mins 40 secs) Future game plans & Diplomacy projects Amby discusses his Discord game and how he's interested in one or two of nopunin10did's upcoming Discord games: Saga of the Nine and Order of the Dragon. He also discusses getting more involved in the Nexus tournament (2 hrs 30 mins 45 secs) Kaner asks Amby, aside from this, whether he's going to take a break from variants (2 hrs 32 mins 40 secs) Amby mentions how the Minnesota Diplomacy Club and Windy City Weasles found Meetup brought in a lot of extra face to face players (2 hrs 33 mins 30 secs) [Amby post-episode: we obviously WON'T be doing this until the whole Coronavirus thing is under control] Kaner asks whether Amby might jump back into variant creation. Amby gives his thoughts on what he'd tackle, first up is a Classic map with standing neutrals. Kaner suggests maybe changing the opening unit types to a build start so Italy isn't totally hamstrung (2 hrs 36 mins) Amby discusses his next cab off the rank, a Roman Empire Crisis of the Third Century  variant (see previous discussion on this idea in episode 22) (2 hrs 41 mins 30 secs) Amby briefly touches on a "true" Cold War map (but forgets about detail) and then discusses a proto-historical Colonial map of the American east coast and how to approach gunpowder European powers against Native Americans (2 hrs 45 mins 20 secs) After another drink Kaner proposes a Khmer Empire map in southeast Asia. He goes onto discuss gopher's idea of a White Russia vs Red Russia variant. Then he gives his thoughts of the colonisation of the East Indies (2 hrs 48 mins 45 secs) They talk Melbourne shopping before announcing the show is no longer an Amazon affiliate (2 hrs 52 mins 30 secs) Kaner talks about being a Victorian with mix-allegiances and Australian namesays (2 hrs 55 mins) The guys start wrapping up the episode (3 hrs 0 mins 45 secs) Venue: Saint and Rogue, Melbourne Drinks of choice: Kaner - White Rabbit dark ale from Healesville, Victoria Amby - Tooborak American Gunslinger's pale ale from the Tooborak, Victoria Just a reminder you can support the show by giving it 5 stars on iTunes or Stitcher. And don't forget if you want to help improve the audio equipment... or get the guys more drunk, you can also donate at Patreon Lastly, don't forget to subscribe so you get the latest Diplomacy Games episodes straight to your phone. Thanks as always to Dr Dan aka "The General" for his rockin' intro tune.

Kaner & Amby fly to play in the Melbourne Open Diplomacy tournament. They get schooled but can they come good in the end? Intro in the airport Venue: Brisbane Airport Drinks of choice: Kaner & Amby - 150 Lashes Australian pale ale by James Squire Brewery The guys are recording initially at the Brisbane domestic airport waiting for their flight to the Melbourne Open face-to-face tournament (0 mins 10 secs) They discuss their hopes to catch up with players outside of the games (4 mins 20 secs) Kaner talks about his return to the Melbourne “big smoke” talking about growing up in rural Victoria (6 mins 15 secs) Kaner discusses the recently completed Divided States game drawn 3 way’s between Technostar (Kansas - 128 units), EmpireStrikesBack (Vermont - 78 units) and Tobi1 (New Hampshire - 73 units). It’s generally considered this particular game probably had the most SCs/units controlled by a player in any Diplomacy game (7 mins 50 secs - if edited out the bing bing) They introduce their beers - more One Fifty Lashes from James Squire (11 mins 15 secs) Kaner discussed the player positioning on the board (11 mins 30 secs) By drawing the three players all got massive boosts to their rankings on vDip (13 mins 30 secs) They then move onto Amby’s Divided States game and provide a brief update (15 mins) Amby then goes onto discuss an anonymous game he’s in at vDip where he was doing well but has been massively stabbed (16 mins) He then discusses his games at PlayDip including his 1900 game and some of the differences for this variant (18 mins) Finally Amby moves onto his Fog of War game at vDip (25 mins 45 secs) Kaner brings up discussions at vDip about points and suggestions (28 mins) They touch on the Russian Diplomacy site moving web address (29 mins) Kaner gives a long interesting story about him and ferrets (30 mins 30 secs) They grab another beer and Kaner discusses how he hates plane flights (38 mins) Kaner flags the search facility at vDip has recently changed (41 mins 30 secs) Kaner is waiting on a Newspaper game to get going (44 mins) The guys’ flight gets called but its so quiet they can’t hear the details. They wrap up this part of the show (45 mins 30 secs) End of Day one at the Melbourne Open Venue: Hop Sing, Melbourne Drinks of choice: Melissa Call - Cockfighters Ghost Pinot Gris Everyone else - Furphy’s ale Amby introduces the after-party - a table of 9 people at Hop Sing, Melbourne. 8 were players on Day 1 of the Melbourne Open tournament. Due to the size of the table the audio is  (48 mins) People at the table are: Kaner, Melissa Call, Shane Cubas, Peter McNamara, Peter Novacco, Amby, Amelia, Tim Jones (ATinCan) and Brett Chatterton. Everyone is having Furphy’s ale and Melissa is having a Cockfighters Ghost Pinot Gris  (49 mins) Peter is topping the board for Day 1 at 30 points, while Amby is a distant 2nd. Amby discusses the experience of playing face to face (51 mins) Melissa flags how new face to face players who normally play online usually have a lot of trouble with the deadline (52 mins) Amby raises the issue of misorders in face to face and spelling mistakes in orders (53 mins 30 secs) They discuss how the order pace was much faster than any other tournament players had attended (54 mins 30 secs) Amby learns about the importance of drafting your orders at the start of the turn rather than waiting to the end (55 mins) Brett brings up Andrew Goff’s previous Flying Dutchman move in an earlier game (56 mins) Amby asks about people’s learnings from the day (57 mins) Kaner discusses how he managed to pull off a Key Lepanto (58 mins 30 secs) Shane discusses Beer Diplomacy and its impact on the game (1 hr 0 mins) Kaner talks about the stress factor of retreats and builds eating into the normal turn’s discussion time (1 hr 1 min) Shane asks Amby and Kaner about their prior involvement in face to face (1 hr 2 mins) They discuss who got stabbed and who stabbed well (1 hr 4 mins) Tim outlines the Cricket scoring system for the tournament (1 hr 6 mins) Amby and Kaner are asked what they’ll do differently and the prospect of a top board on the final day (1 hr 7 mins) The group discuss the rules and what is ok and what’s pushing it too far (1 hr 8 mins) Amby flags the difference in the two boards he was on with openings and alliances in the games (1 hr 11 mins) Amby’s observations on the dynamics of Tim and Jamal and how they coordinated their gameplay with discussions (1 hr 17 mins) The group discuss Italy’s eventually placement in Denmark (1 hr 20 mins) Amby explains how the gameplay in face-to-face is often totally different to online where the communication lends itself to more dynamic moves. Kaner discusses how relationships in face-to-face games seem faster to form than online (1 hr 22 mins 30 secs) The table talks about stabbing (1 hr 26 mins 30 secs) Amby asks Amelia - as a non player - on what she’s expecting if she plays a game (1 hr 30 mins) The table shares their recommendations to Amelia if she’s to play. Tim shares the best Diplomacy advice he ever received from Andrew Goff (1 hr 32 mins) Mel suggests to Amelia that if she likes the game, to play some gunboat games with a 24 hour phase, to develop her skills and anticipating player moves (1 hr 35 mins) Apologies as for about five minutes there are two conversations going on at the table which may sound a little confusing (1 hr 37 mins) They talk about manipulation of players with Tim being asked his views (1 hr 42 mins) The table wraps up its conversation, only to be followed by a brief addendum from Tim about when he realised mid-game that Amby was one of those podcast guys (1 hr 45 mins) Post-tournament wrap up at the airport Venue: Two Johns Taphouse, Melbourne Airport Drinks of choice: Kaner - Pirate’s Life IPA Amby - atnook Founders Block cabernet sauvignon from the Coonawarra   The final part of the show sees Kaner and Amby catching up in Melbourne Airport’s Two Johns Taphouse post-tournament. Kaner is drinking a Pirate’s Life IPA and Amby has a Katnook Founders Block cabernet sauvignon from the Coonawarra which he describes as “doesn’t taste like victory but it tastes pretty sweet”  (1 hr 47 mins 30 secs) Amby announces he came 3rd in the tournament out of 18 players. Kaner came in 5th. And they both far exceeded their expectations. They guys talk about what a great time they had and how much of a buzz translating online experience into face to face (1 hr 48 mins 30 secs) They talk about how online players who’ve played for a while know the rules and the game dynamics and makes it so much easier to come into the face-to-face scene (1 hr 50 mins 30 secs) Amby describes the journey towards face-to-face he’s had over the past six months. Both of the guys talk about the lessons they learnt from the open mike table conversation that they implemented (1 hr 51 mins 30 secs) Kaner also discusses how Amby won the tournament’s “best novice” award and how face-to-face DAANZ player scoring systems work and Master points. Due to the guy’s strong performance they’ve leap-frogged straight into Intermediate ranks (1 hr 52 mins 30 secs) Kaner discusses the face-to-face tactics used - including “sneaky peeks” which he’d never consider previously as an online player (1 hr 55 mins) Amby talks about how he worked up an alliance which knocked Andrew Goff off the board - although he was playing two boards at once, and running the tournament and wasn’t officially in the tournament so he wasn’t playing his normal game - so Amby didn’t get him at his best (1 hr 56 mins) Peter McNamara came first and Melissa Call second - you can read the results online. Kaner talks about the face-to-face tactic of tying up other players’ negotiation time (1 hr 58 mins) Amby talks about how he followed a tactic of supporting his allies to grab SCs to get them onboard and committed into an alliance (1 hr 59 mins 30 secs) Kaner discusses the speed of the games and the speed of player’s adjudication on the board (2 hrs 1 min) The guys thank Andrew for organising the tournament and those like Peter who helped (2 hrs 2 mins 30 secs) They talk about attending future tournaments and discuss attending WDC 2020 in Vermont (2 hrs 3 mins) They finally wrap up with a story from Amby about vivid dreaming of playing Diplomacy (2 hrs 5 mins) Drinks & locations: Venue: Brisbane AirportKaner & Amby - 150 Lashes Australian pale ale by James Squire Brewery Venue: Hop Sing, MelbourneMelissa Call - Cockfighters Ghost Pinot GrisEveryone else - Furphy’s ale Venue: Two Johns Taphouse, Melbourne AirportKaner - Pirate’s Life IPAAmby - Katnook Founders Block cabernet sauvignon from the Coonawarra Just a reminder you can support the show by giving it 5 stars on iTunes or Stitcher. And don't forget if you want to help improve the audio equipment... or get the guys more drunk,  you can also donate at Patreon. Lastly, don't forget to subscribe so you get the latest Diplomacy Games episodes straight to your phone! Thanks as always to Dr Dan for his rockin' intro tune. Used it as a segment segue this time around for something different.

Amby visits Seattle and interviews the hosts of the podcast DiplomacyCast, Eric Mead & Nathan Barnes in Seattle. They talk about what happened to their show, their thoughts on why face-to-face Diplomacy rocks and their variant suggestions. Plus Kaner discusses his efforts to get a face-to-face community started in Brisbane and Dip news. Intro The guys introduce the show, their drinks and the venue (0 mins 10 secs) Interview with Nathan Barnes & Eric Mead from DiplomacyCast Amby introduces Nathan and Eric in what is planned to be a joint podcast (5 mins 30 secs) Eric explains what happened technically to the site for a little while (6 mins 10 secs) Nathan talks about the Seattle Diplomacy scene. Amby reflects how the size of Seattle & Brisbane are about the same, but the community of players' size is radically different. They talk about what you need to do to create a strong community in a local area  (9 mins 20 secs) They discuss how the 50th DipCon (the North American championship) is scheduled in Seattle for 2019 (11 mins 20 secs) They go onto a bit more detail about the hard work needed to create a local community (13 mins) Nathan reflects on his first games with Diplomacy, his initial online play before moved back to face-to-face with tournaments (18 mins) Eric then discusses his first Diplomacy experiences (19 mins 55 secs) They talk about why they no longer player online. Nathan says its due to the core nugget of interpersonal relationships being only achievable in face-to-face games. Eric says he no longer plays online as he found it sucked up too much of his time (22 mins 20 secs) Nathan says he did enjoy the challenge of "pick up" games (taking over a CD'ed position) (26 mins 20 secs) They talk about the high you get playing face-to-face (28 mins 20 secs) They discuss "tells" in face-to-face and how the dynamics are different to online (29 mins 30 sec) Eric talks about how a competitive face-to-face game forces more decisive decision making and considerate of longer-term strategy (34 mins) Nathan discusses how its worth playing a tournament at least once (35 mins 45 secs) They do recognize though that some of the best Dip players are online players (37 mins 30 secs) Nathan puts forward the importance of having a nimble plan, Eric talks about listening to your gut on unit placement (39 mins 30 secs) Nathan also discusses how face-to-face uses far more means to work out what is going on in the game with both body language and who is talking to who (41 mins 15 secs) Amby asks how the guys use their Diplomacy skills in their careers and day-to-day dealings (43 mins 30 secs) Nathan explains the key thing Diplomacy teaches you, which Eric describes as a "super power" (47 mins) Eric explains what happens when players only think about their own agenda & the importance of empathy (51 mins) Amby asks about what happened to the DiplomacyCast podcast while Eric & Nathan explain why they wanted a second Diplomacy podcast to happen. Eric goes into the detail for why the show is having a break (52 mins 45 secs) Eric and Nathan discuss what they enjoyed most from their podcast... their April Fools shows (1 hr 7 mins) They then discuss the shows they are most proud of (1 hr 15 mins 15 secs) Amby learns all about how America is different to Australia when it comes to shift changes, tipping and voting (1 hr 18 mins 40 secs) Amby asks what impact did running the podcast have on how other players treated them (1 hr 19 mins 45 secs) Nathan discusses Seattle street life during a smoke break (1 hr 23 mins 30 secs) Nathan asks Amby what he gets out of playing Diplomacy online (1 hr 25 mins 30 secs) They discuss the dichotomy of players introduced to the game either love it or hate it (1 hr 27 mins) Amby discusses how he likes the challenge and deciding when to stab (1 hr 28 mins) Amby introduces the Divided States variant to the guys - a game with 50 players (1 hr 30 mins) Eric discusses his life long dream - a life size real-time Chaos game... on a basketball court (1 hr 31 mins 40 secs) Eric & Nathan ask Amby why he plays variants (1 hr 38 mins 15 secs) They ask about whether Amby has ever played 1900 - Amby answers by discussing the PlayDip Tournament of Time and the games 1812 Overture and Dissolution (a variant based on the breakup of the Soviet Union (1 hr 40 mins) Eric and Nathan talk about their own variant they created: Diplomacy Winks (1 hr 42 mins 20 secs) Nathan discusses his Roulette variant (1 hr 48 mins) After listening to the way Roulette works, Amby discusses the Versailles variant where you control one main known country and one smaller secret country (1 hr 51 mins) Eric introduces his other variant concept: God Diplomacy (1 hr 54 mins) Nathan explains face-to-face players don't really care too much about variants, as fundamentally they don't care about the board (2 hrs 0 mins) They discuss how much better it is for online players turning up to face-to-face games with a plan are so much better than non-committal players, which tends to occur in online games. (2 hrs 0 mins) Nathan and Eric give their final pitch to give a tournament a chance, if for nothing else but the chance of an intense “high” (2 hrs 6 mins) Eric recommends their Jim O’Kelly episode that outlines what you need to do to build a local community (2 hrs  9 mins 20 secs) Amby gives his thoughts on using digital marketing to target people interested in Diplomacy (2 hrs 10 mins 30 secs) They talk about teachers who introduce Diplomacy to students and how they can create slow-burn players for the future (2 hrs 12 mins 30 secs) They discuss how the game better suits non-gamers, and how it is less about winning and more about playing. Nathan suggests getting psychologists into the hobby before discussing how the game develops your skills for the office (2 hrs 15 mins) They wrap things up, with Nathan and Eric calling for new podcast ideas… beyond Diplomacy (2 hrs 20 mins) Discussion about the interview Kaner and Amby return to talk about the interview (2 hrs 21 mins 20 secs) They discuss Nathan and Eric’s variant ideas - focusing on the Chaos concept (2 hrs 22 mins 30 secs) Kaner is trying to create a face-to-face community in Brisbane Kaner brought together some Warhammer games & Mrs Kaner to play a face-to-face game… and they had a blast! (2 hrs 23 mins 40 secs) The guys discuss their thoughts further on getting a local community going (2 hrs 26 mins) Amby asks Kaner how he explained how the game works (2 hrs 28 mins) Amby and Kaner are going to a tournament Amby and Kaner plan to go to the Melbourne Open, a face-to-face tournament planned for mid March (2 hrs 33 mins 20 secs) Online Diplomacy news DemonOverlord is organising the 2019 championship and is calling for players across the different Diplomacy sites (2 hrs 34 mins 45 secs) Interactive maps have now been coded by Tobi for all variants at vDip to make it easier to submit orders (2 hrs 36 mins 20 secs) New ezine editions are now out for Diplomacy World and Diplomacy Pouch - which includes our interview with Andrew Goff (2 hrs 38 mins 20 secs) Amby gives a belated apology for the gap in episodes, and congratulates Murcanic for winning the 1066 Tournament (2 hrs 40 mins) The guys wrap up the episode (2 hrs 42 mins)   Venue: T.S. McHugh's, Seattle & Little Big House, Brisbane. Drinks of choice: Seattle: Nathan - Gin soda with a splash of tonic Eric - Pinot Noir from Oregon; Bushmills whiskey and soda on the rocks Amby - Charles & Charles, cabineret syrah; Washington Hills cabernet; tequila, soda water & lime Brisbane: Kaner - Balter XPA from Balter Brewing Company, Queensland Amby - Rightbank shiraz from Margaret River, Western Australia   Just a reminder you can support the show by giving it 5 stars on iTunes or Stitcher. Or if you want to help improve the audio equipment you can donate at Patreon. Lastly, don't forget to subscribe so you get the latest Diplomacy Games episodes straight to your phone!

  Amby interviews Andrew Goff, winner of the 2018 World Diplomacy Championship in Washington DC. The guys then discuss Andrew's advice before talking about current games and playing small variant maps. Intro The guys introduce the show, their drinks and the venue (0 mins 10 secs) Interview with Andrew Goff Warning it sounds like the audio dropped off in a couple of spots in the recording for a few seconds. Amby went back to the original audio and it sounds like it was when recorded. No idea why. Sorry folks!!! Kaner and Amby start discussing the prelude to the interview with Andrew Goff, World Diplomacy Champion for 2018 (5 mins) The interview begins with Andrew setting the scene for where he currently is (6 mins) Andrew talks about the tournament, the experience and how it compared with previous tournaments (6 mins 45 secs) He discusses the benefit of having a round off during the tournament (9 mins 30 secs) Amby asks about the greatest challenge Andrew had during the tournament - Doug Moore's gameplay during the rounds (10 mins) Andrew discusses surprises through the tournament - especially the online players turning up to face-to-face tournaments, and how face-to-face players are increasingly changing their styles (14 mins) Amby asks about the evolution of gameplay in the last few years (16 mins 15 secs) Andrew talks about game theory and broader strategy in the game (17 mins 45 secs) Andrew discusses diversity in the game - with more younger players and women coming into Diplomacy (19 mins 45 secs) Amby asks about other's game play when it comes to excellent stabs (21 mins) They discuss the top board and how things were different on that board compared to the preliminary rounds (22 mins 45 secs) Andrew talks about the process for selecting the countries to play on the top board (the Paris Method) and his experience playing England - his least favorite country to play (25 mins) You can view the top board for WDC on Backstabbr. Andrew discusses the thinking behind Liverpool holding, and why he wanted to be the first player stabbed in the west (26 mins 45 secs) At this top level Andrew discusses the nature of avoiding being the top target, and cultural differences if you present yourself strong (30 mins) The time limit and its impact on gameplay (31 mins 30 secs) They talk about the end of the game (35 mins) Amby asks about Andrew's plans to defend his championship in 2019 in Marseilles (39 mins) Amby asks about plans for an Australian based tournament in the future. Andrew challenges Amby to get things happening in Brisbane (40 mins 20 secs) They wrap up the interview (43 mins)   Kaner and Amby return and talk about the interview. Amby asks Kaner about his thoughts on Andrew's insights (43 mins 30 secs) They talk about a more strategic style of gameplay (44 mins) Kaner loves the generalisation from Andrew about what works on Americans and wonders if its true (46 mins) Amby brings up how online players are increasingly getting into face-to-face (47 mins 20 secs) They talk about both going to the March 2019 Australian championships (48 mins 15 secs) Next they talk about putting on a Brisbane based game in the Australian winter of 2019.. Amby discusses the WebDiplomacy Forum thread about some Australian-New Zealand online players playing together (49 mins) Kaner reflects how the time limit impacts the gameplay. Amby suggests a cheeky way Kaner can boost his ranking (51 mins 20 secs) Around the grounds Kaner starts discussing his Heptarchy IV game Hep Bros (54 mins) Amby references the History of England podcast he's listening to, where he's currently up to the War of the Roses, and how it could be applied to the HeptarchyIV board (56 mins) They look at the stats for the variant and find its not very balanced at all (58 mins) Amby starts discussing one of his recent games (Salt air and Blood) that he won on the North Sea Wars variant designed by sqrg - a four player variant with some weird whacky rules around the North Sea which connect to economic supply centres. He then goes onto discuss the funny rule where once your unit takes an economic SC, you can't move it back into the Central North Sea (60 mins) He then goes onto discuss his gameplay needed to win the game (1 hr 4 mins 30 secs) Amby then talks about the normal Dip gameplay that also happened on the board (1 hr 7 mins 20 secs) They then look at the stats for the variant (1 hr 9 mins) After some more drinks, the guys go onto discuss their game they played together: Ver-Dunny, using the variant 843: Treaty of Verdun created by Milan Mach. Kaner makes an initial incorrect guess on which player Amby was, although Amby picked Kaner correctly (the game was anonymous.) Respect to the 3rd player in the game, lydiia. This was an anonymous, gunboat game (1 hr 10 mins 15 secs) Kaner-Amby argy-bargy aside, they both agree this was a great map and variant and offered a lot of opportunity as a 3 player map (1 hr 15 mins) They check the stats for the variant finding solos are frequent but the split between all three players is incredibly close, showing a highly balanced map, which would be great for a tournament map (1 hr 16 mins) Amby talks about he's on a roll with 3 solos, bouncing up from 100 in the vDip Top 100 up to the 50's (1 hr 19 mins) Kaner asks Amby's thoughts on the 4 player South America map (1 hr 19 mins 30 secs) Amby brings up another game he's involved in, the 5 player variant Manifest Destiny, created by Morg and coded by Enriador. Kaner doesn't some aesthetics like the covered wagon icons and the blue used for the USA. Amby discusses the gameplay and map (while maintaining the anonymity of the game). Amby gives Kaner a history lesson about the Republic of Texas. Amby asks our Texan diplomacy players to get in touch to correct anything we got wrong - NOTE: since this podcast was recorded the game has actually ended - Amby was playing Mexico if you care to check the result (1 hr 20 mins) Kaner says the map reminds him a bit of the variant Imperium (based on the German invasions of Rome) (1 hr 27 mins) In preparation for his trip to Italy, Amby has been relistening to the History of Rome podcast and has got all excited again about his variant creation idea based around the Crisis of the Third Century (scroll down half way down for previous discussion about this in episode 22). The variant has Roman civil wars, barbarians and the Antonine plague - Amby later checked at it was actually the Cyprian plague. He goes onto discuss maybe having it based around the Fall of the Tetrarchy when there were four competing Roman emperors (1 hr 28 mins) Kaner starts talking jibberish about the variant Fubar with the main player - and totally overpowered - Fatflap. They look into the variant which is totally WTF. Amby curses sqrg - making a great variant with North Sea Wars and then making something as bizarre as Fubar (1 hr 30 mins) Kaner brings up the South America four player variant by Joe Janbu, and ported across to online Dip by Oliver Auth (1 hr 35 mins 45 secs) More drinks arrive and the guys talk about the bank vaults and bathroom in the Boom Boom Room. Amby says he'll put up photos of them, but then when the guys left they forgot! Hopefully a couple of days after the podcast goes live he'll get some photos (1 hr 39 mins) They get back to Diplomacy and talk about Amby's non-rated 5 day constant NMRing Imperial game. He talks about his current gameplay as Russia and his thinking when he decided to stab China - a further NOTE: due to the number of people in the Boom Boom Room the guys started talking really loud to make sure they were recorded. So unlike previous Amby advice to turn the podcast up, this time you might need to turn it down! (1 hr 42 mins 30 secs) Amby then gives an anonymous update for his Divided States game (1 hr 49 mins) Kaner brings up the discussion about having a Newspaper game - a grey press public posting. In this variant you can pretend to be another country without anyone knowing who it really is. Check out the grey press fog of war Classic Newspaper game thread on vDip to learn more  (1 hr 51 mins 30 secs) Amby mentions the previous By Jingo game as an example of how it works (1 hr 55 mins) Amby talks about his world tour with the bank's money. He mentions there will hopefully one more podcast in mid-November, but then radio silence until January when Amby gets back. While he's away Amby is planning to organise a few interviews while he's away (1 hr 58 mins 15 secs) The guys wrap up (2 hrs 2 mins 30 secs)   Venue: Boom Boom Room, Brisbane. Drinks of choice: Kaner - 150 Lashes Pale Ale from James Squire, New South Wales Amby - Terrazas de los Andes, Malbec from Argentina Just a reminder you can support the show by giving it 5 stars on iTunes or Stitcher. Or if you want to help improve the audio equipment you can donate at Patreon. Lastly, don't forget to subscribe so you get the latest Diplomacy Games episodes straight to your phone!

New Life Community Church Sunday, September 11, 2016 Rev. Andrew Goff, New Orleans District Superintendent Scripture Reference: Luke 15: 1-10 Intro music by audionautix.com

Andrew Goff takes Duke's place as Duke goes off to Hawaii!Durant, Godlin and Daniel all drink beers with Andrew Goff and we interview him and we have fun! And Goff does missed connections.www.savagehenrymagazine.comeditor@savagehenrymagazine.com791 8th St. Suite NArcata, CA 95521

Debut Episode of the Savage Henry Magazine Radio Program. Josh, Sarah and Chris welcome studio guests Andrew Goff and Dutch Savage. We drink some beer, play some games and listen to the news. Music for Episode 1: Tweak Bird - "Shivers" Slayer - "Kill Again" Meat Puppets - "Up On The Sun" Guttermouth - "A Perfect World" Quicksand - "Faser" Sleep - "Dragonaught" NOFX - "Linoleum" No Means No - "The Tower" Comments questions or concerns can be directed to editor@savagehenrymagazine.com or by sending something to PO Box 1196, Arcata, CA. 95518. Theme Song by DJ Rob Musician. This episode sponsored by Big Pete's Pizzeria - www.bigpetespizzeria.com