THE DIPLOMATICON

• Power: England
• Group: Southern openings
• When: Spring 1901
• Target SC: Norway, Brest, Belgium
• Aggressive towards: France, Russia
• Orders: F Edi-NTH, F Lon-ENG, A Lpl-Edi

The Leith Opening is one of three Southern openings. This group of openings is characterised by England’s fleets moving south, shockingly: F Edi-NTH, F Lon-ENG. The three are differentiated by the movement of England’s army. In the Leith Opening, the army moves to Edinburgh. It could also move, of course, to Yorkshire (the Ouse Opening) or Wales (the Severn Opening).

I’ve named the Southern openings after rivers in the spaces to which the army could move. The River Leith flows through Edinburgh; this post is just chock full of shocks, isn’t it? From Edinburgh the army can be convoyed through the North Sea to Norway, Denmark, Holland or Belgium. Given that you have a fleet in the Channel (don’t you?) Belgium should be the SC of choice: F NTH C Edi-Bel, F ENG S Edi-Bel.

The problem with this set of orders is that France, who must have ordered their fleet to the Mid-Atlantic Ocean or (less likely by far) Picardy, may well decide to order F MAO/Pic-ENG. This doesn’t succeed, of course, bouncing with F(ENG), but it cuts the English fleet’s support.

The above example shows a reason France might do this: they’re trying to take Belgium themselves: A Bur S Pic-Bel. To achieve this they’ve ordered F MAO-ENG, cutting F(ENG)’s support and therefore F NTH C Edi-Bel fails and France does, indeed, take Belgium. This is an unlikely scenario: France is much more likely to use their fleet to capture Spain or Portugal, or defend Brest. They can prevent England taking Belgium by simply ordering their armies as they have, bouncing A Edi-Bel. Actually, it’s rare for France to throw even their armies at Belgium this way – Iberia is the easier target.

Actually, with the Leith Opening, England is probably trying for Norway, and usually trying F NTH C Edi-Nwy, which works unless Russia has opened with A Mos-Stp and, in Fall 01, orders A Stp-Nwy… and, if Russia has opened with this order, they’re likely to order A Stp-Nwy.

I have seen the Leith Opening where A(Edi) is ordered to Hold and F NTH S ENG-Bel is used. There are, perhaps, two reasons to do this. (1) You’ve pissed France off so much with F Lon-ENG that you don’t want to do anything sneaky with F(ENG) (such as take Brest). (2) You want France to order F MAO-Bre to have Brest occupied in Winter 1901 and thereby prevent France from building a fleet there. Why would you try this second option? Because it’s a damn good way to keep yourself safe from France building a second fleet in Brest. But, well, why move A Lpl-Edi if you’re not going to convoy it via the North Sea?

Fail Fleet

A lot of players believe that England should always try to move F Lon-ENG in Spring 1901. There are usually two – or one of two – reasons given. Either they believe England should be attacking France at the start of the game, because France is going to be the biggest danger to England, or they want to protect London from F Bre-ENG in S01 and F ENG-Lon of F01.

If you want to do this, then any Southern opening or, indeed any Splits opening or even the Western Opening, are good ways to go. It isn’t the only way to protect London from these threatening French orders, of course, as the Jorvik Opening proves: ordering A Lpl-Yor gives you the chance to protect London with A Yor-Lon in F01. Defensively, F Lon-ENG isn’t the best choice.

If you want to attack France, then certainly any of these openings will give you that option. Having said that, the Leith Opening is the least effective unless you’re trying for F NTH C Edi-Bel in F01. Assuming F Lon-ENG works, of course, in which case you can try F ENG-Bre. Don’t expect an alliance with France, though.

There is a big but (one ‘t’, sorry starfish) involved, though. If France thinks you’re ordering F Lon-ENG, and they don’t want that, they could well order F Bre-ENG. They won’t necessarily do that: moving A Par-Pic/Gas/Bre will let them defend Brest. Frankly, they shouldn’t be ordering A Par-Bre; either of the other two options allows them to defend Brest if they want (Gascony is France’s Yorkshire: an army in Gascony can defend all of France’s home SCs in the same way that an army in Yorkshire defend’s England’s home SCs).

What you absolutely don’t want as England is F Lon-ENG to bounce. There is nothing worse for England in Spring 1901 for you to not get your fleets at sea. What use is your F(Lon) still being in London in F01?

Richard Sharp in his book “The Game of Diplomacy” put it best:

“It must be more promising to move F(Lon)-ENG… if we can get away with it. But I am convinced it is better to let France into the Channel than to risk a stand-off there. … I do not play to the Channel as England unless I am convinced France will let me in – either by arrangement or by accident.”

“The Game of Diplomacy” Ch 4 “England”. Sharp, R. Arthur Barker, 25 Jan 1979. Accessed from https://diplomacyzines.co.uk/home/contents/the-game-of-diplomacy/4-england/ 6 July 2024.

“The only justification for this odd opening is to keep England out of the Channel, possibly with an arranged stand-off; in my opinion, it is entirely absurd, since if England wants to to go to the Channel you do far better to let him in! If you stand him off, what happens? Either you have to do it again in the [Fall], thus preventing yourself building in Brest, or you let him in … in which case, why bother in the first place?” 

“The Game of Diplomacy” Ch 10 “France”. Sharp, R. Arthur Barker, 25 Jan 1979. Accessed from https://diplomacyzines.co.uk/home/contents/the-game-of-diplomacy/10-france/ 6 July 2024.

For me, it isn’t so much that you’re faced with repeating the order in F01 because, if the reason to move to the Channel (for England too, although Sharp mentions it when discussing France) is to defend it, this isn’t an issue in F01 – you’ve achieved this in the Spring. For me, the problem is that your F(Lon) is stuck there.

I agree that, if you do want to attack France, if you think you can succeed with F Lon-ENG, then do it. You’re running a risk, though, and not just that you’ll bounce with France; only with a Northern opening can you guarantee an SC in 1901.

The Problems with the Leith Opening

We’ve already discussed the main problem with the Leith Opening (and the other Southern openings, Splits openings and the Western opening) – a possible bounce in the Channel.

I’ve also mentioned another problem above: no guaranteed build. The set of orders illustrated above show a scenario that is eminently possible. France has ordered F Bre-MAO, A Par-Bur, A Mar-Gas. Germany has ordered F Kie-Hol, A Mun-Bel, A Ber-Kie. Russia has ordered F Stp(sc)-GOB and A Mos-Stp (it doesn’t matter what they ordered for A(War) but let’s assume they ordered A War-Gal and it bounced with Austria’s A Vie-Gal).

What are England’s options?

• F ENG-Bre. Brest is easily defended. F MAO-Bre is possible, if unlikely (as mentioned above). A Gas-Bre is probably the better option, hoping to bounce your fleet. It’s probably better for France to protect Brest than use A Gas-Spa in this scenario.
• F ENG-Bel or F NTH-Bel or F NTH C Edi-Bel. Taking Belgium with one unit is unlikely to succeed. France can order A Bur-Bel to bounce it, although A Bur-Mun is possibly the more likely order. Germany can order A Ruh-Bel to bounce it, although they could well order A Ruh-Mun to protect Munich. Germany is more likely, if they want to bounce England, to use F Hol-Bel because they still hold Holland in this case and, if they successfully move to Belgium they could use A Kie-Hol… or just move out of Holland, taking it next year.
• F NTH S ENG-BEl or F ENG S NTH-BEL or F ENG S Edi-Bel, F NTH C Edi-Bel. These moves have a better chance of taking Belgium. However, support from F(ENG) can be cut by F MAO-ENG. This is not very likely, though. Still, Germany can order F Hol S Ruh-Bel and bounce you. Perhaps, even, France and Germany cooperate: A Bur S Ruh-Bel or A Ruh S Bur-Bel.
• F NTH-Hol or F NTH C Edi-Hol. Holland is already occupied; if it isn’t, if Germany ordered F Kie-Den, they would have ordered A Ber-Kie… and they have two armies ordering Holland. Taking Holland is highly unlikely to succeed.
• F NTH-Den or F NTH C Edi-Den. Especially in this scenario, taking Denmark is unlikely. Germany can order A Kie-Den, bouncing with England. England actually has a better chance if Germany ordered F Kie-Den in S01: in this situation, Germany is likely to try F Den-Swe stopping Russia taking Sweden or taking Sweden themselves. In this case, you could persuade Russia to order F GOB-BAL instead of wasting a move on bouncing with Germany in Sweden. If England tries for Denmark then, there’s a decent chance it will succeed: Germany is likely to gamble on the bounce in Sweden, protecting Denmark and therefore try A Kie-Hol.
• F NTH-Nwy or F NTH C Edi-Nwy. If you can persuade Russia to let you into Norway, great; but why has Russia ordered A Mos-Stp if they’re not planning A Stp-Nwy?

Of course, we’re ignoring the diplomacy side of the game, here. If you’ve opened to the Channel, you believe you have an alliance with Germany, or France has agreed to it meaning that you’ve probably got an alliance with them. But, if you use the Leith Opening, you’ve a much worse chance of getting a build than with either the Jorvik or Churchill Opening.

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POSTS IN THIS SERIES

• England’s Opening Moves – Introduction
• Churchill Opening
• Jorvik Opening
• Leith Opening
• Ouse Opening
• Severn Opening
• Grampian Opening
• Pennine Opening
• Snowdonia Opening
• Western Opening
• Yorkshire Pudding Opening