Maharajah's Diplomacy is set in the Indian subcontinent and surrounding regions in the time shortly before the conquest of much of the region by the Mughals and the beginning of European colonization.
Please note that the specialized River Convoy rules and modified "chaos build" Home Center rules stated below are not implemented in Realpolitik. GMs will need to monitor the adjudications, and make changes where necessary.
Variant Rules:
All rules are as in Standard, except as follows:
(1) The victory criterion is ownership of a majority of the Supply Centers (19
out of 37).
(2) Navigable Rivers/River Convoys. The rivers on the map, representing the
Indus, the Ganges/ Brahmaputra/ Patna/ Hooghly, and the Irrawaddy are available
for fleets to travel up to the interior, and they can be used to convoy. The
fleets will be on the provinces, as the rivers are not spaces themselves, but
merely indicators. If a fleet attacks a convoying fleet in a river province,
the river convoy is disrupted whether or not the attack is successful, except
that a fleet located in the destination province of a river convoy which attacks
one of the fleets convoying an army to the destination province must dislodge
the convoying fleet for a river convoy to be disrupted. An attacking army must
dislodge the convoying fleet for a river convoy to be disrupted.
(3) Additional Home Centers. If a power leaves a specific unit on a Supply Center
whether owned by that power or not) for an entire game calendar year (consecutive
Spring, Fall and Winter turns), then that Supply Center becomes a new Home Supply
Center for that power. Moving a different unit onto the Supply Center in the
fall is not effective for this purpose. In that case, just as in Standard Diplomacy,
the Supply Center is a Home Supply Center for the original owner, but presently
belongs to a different power. A Supply Center can only be a Home Supply Center
for one power at a time, so if power A converts power B's Home Supply Center
to a Home Supply Center for power A, then power B must recapture and reconvert
the Supply Center in order for it to once more be a Home Supply Center for power
B.
(4) The starting year of the variant is 1501.
(5) The adjustment phase or turn, commonly known as "Winter", may
be called “Monsoon".
© David E. Cohen, adapted for Realpolitik by F. Bacher, G. Alexopolous, E. Janbu und D. E. Cohen