There is something different about the Nurse shark. They have teeth but they also use a sucking technique – they suck their food up. Hence the name: they sound like a baby suckling, or ‘nursing’.
I wouldn’t get one stuck on your nipple, though – like other sharks, because they lack incisors, they tend to shake their heads violently to rip their food apart.
They have small mouths, and the prey they hunt is therefore small.
The Diplomacy ‘Nurse Shark’
The same goes for Diplomacy’s version of the ‘Nurse Shark’.
In Diplomacy, Nurse Sharks are those players who seek to attract novices to them. They’re not worried about ‘Barnacles‘ at all; in fact, they encourage them!
A Nurse Shark is related to Diplomacy’s ‘Shark‘, too. They’re dangerous, skilled and a killer. However, they don’t have to be quite as skilled as a Shark, as their prey is the small fry, the Novice.
You’ll have come across these players no matter how you play the game. They sniff out a novice and make them an offer they can’t refuse. “Stick with me,” they say, “and I’ll make sure we win together.”
The novice, being unaware of the nuances of Dip, is happy for the help. “Ooh,” they think, “aren’t they a lovely person. I’ll work with them and we’ll share the win.”
Little do they know that this is the Nurse Shark’s practice. Hunt the newby down, take them under their fin, nurture them. When the novice is feeling most secure, and when the Nurse Shark is ready, they’ll suck them in so far that they can’t escape and be shaken to pieces. Suddenly, the Nurse Shark has had its meal and is moving on.
THE DIPLOMATICON 
Leave a comment