Ballistic Diplomacy lives up to its name: the player participates in diplomatic action with other castle lords which is performed with cannons. Similar to Rampart, each round is divided into three phases: first there is the matter of building castle walls. This plays out like a falling block puzzle: different castle parts fall drown from the top of the screen - the game is played from a top-down perspective - and need to be placed around the castle. In this phase it is important to be fast (there is a time limit), complete (an unfinished wall gives a huge advantage to the enemy) but still courageous, because every walled in field and cannon gives points in the end. After that there follows a phase in which cannons are placed inside the walls and the fighting phase in which the players try to break down the opponent's walls by shooting the cannons. Every match consists of five rounds and in the end the player with the highest amount of points wins.

Besides the single player mode, consisting of a number of levels which increase in difficulty, there are some multiplayer modes. While free-for-all and king of the hill can be played with up to four simultaneous players, a tournament mode is available for eight participants over modem.

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