As is standard at ManorCon, the Diplomacy tournament will consist of three rounds :
| Friday | 6pm to Midnight | Play to 1909 |
| Saturday (team round) | 9am to 5.30pm | Play to 1911 |
| Sunday | 9.30am to 6pm | Play to 1911 |
Signup for each round closes 30 minutes before the round starts. Unlike many tournaments, ManorCon has a tradition of rounds starting on time, so please do not turn up 15 or 30 minutes after the round is scheduled to start, and still expect to be included. If people let us know that they are running slightly late then we might wait for them, but only if their presence will increase the numbers sufficiently to add an extra board to the round.
Saturday is the team round. Teams of seven players compete for the ManorCon Team Trophy, and the World Team Trophy. Each team will have one player playing each power - the team selects which member will play which power. Being a member of a team is compulsory if you wish to play in the Saturday round. However, many teams form on Friday evening, and often a scratch team is formed on Saturday morning. So don't worry if you are not in a team before you arrive for WDC, we will do everything we can to ensure that every foreign player who wishes to play on Saturday is in a team.
For the Friday and Sunday rounds, if there is not an exact multiple of seven players, then foreign players who signed up before the 30 minute deadline will be guaranteed a game. All other players will be considered in order of signing up. Players who sign up less than 30 minutes before the start of the round may get a game if they complete a board. If you are running late for a round, then phone the ManorCon Mobile (Cellphone), and ask for your name to be added to the signup list (but please make sure you then arrive by the start of the round). The phone number will be included in our final progress report, sent out in early July.
The ManorCon scoring system will be used. For full details, click here. However, all you really need to know is that to increase your score you need to do two things : get more centres, and balance the opposition. Taking a centre will increase your score, as will taking a centre from a large power and giving it to a small power. The opposites will reduce your score.
Each players total score for the tournament will be the sum of their two best scores and half their third score. Players who don't play in a round will score zero for that round. The highest tournament score will be the new World Diplomacy Champion.
A teams score is the total score of the seven team member's score in the team round. The highest team total score will be the new World Diplomacy Champion Team.
Recent WorldDipCons have tried to predict the huge number of players they expect to attend, and every one of them has fallen short of its target. ManorCon does not have a target number of attendees for WDC XIV, we'd just like to have as many as can make it. But more important than that, we'd like to ensure that every single player who does attend feels welcome, enjoys the tournament, and goes home to tell their friends that they should have been there too. So we hope you will be at WDC XIV in July 2004, and not be at home afterwards hearing what you missed.