Standoffs

The following common situations involve forces of equals strength trying to occupy the same province at the same time. These situations are called “standoffs”. These rules apply when one or more countries are involved. There are a few exceptions to these rules, which are described later.

  • Units of equal strength trying to occupy the same province cause all those units to remain in their original province. If two or more units are ordered to the same province, none of them can move (This is also true of equally supported units, which will be explained in the next section). In next example, if the German army in Berlin (ber) is ordered to Silesia (sil) and the Russian army in Warsaw (war) is ordered to Silesia, neither unit will move and Silesia will remain vacant.

  • A standoff does not dislodge a unit already in the province where the standoff took place. If two units (or forces of equal strength) attack the same province, thus standing each other off, a unit already in that province is not dislodged. So, in the previous example, if there had been a unit holding in Silesia, the results would be the same and the unit in Silesia would remain.
  • One unit not moving can stop a unit or a series of units from moving. If a unit is ordered to hold, or is prevented from moving, and other units are ordered into its province, those other units cannot move. (It’s like a traffic backup!) In example below, there is a Russian army in Prussia (pru). The Russian player told Germany that he would move out of Prussia (but he lied and ordered the army to hold instead). The German player ordered his army from Berlin (ber) to Prussia and his fleet from Kiel (kie) to Berlin. The result is that nothing moves.

  • Units cannot trade places without the use of a convoy. If two units are each ordered to the province that the other occupies, neither can move. For example, the next diagram shows that neither unit would move (There is a way around this through the use of convoys, explained later in the rules).

  • Three or more units can rotate provinces during a turn provided none directly trade places. In next diagram, all orders would succeed as no one unit directly trades places with another.