Ted McClelland topped Game No. 118, played Dec. 11 at Pete McNamara’s home in Evanston, with a 13-center France. Mark Weiskircher, playing in his second Weasels game, finished with a 12-center England. The game ended after the Fall 1907 turn with the following center counts:
Austria (Aash Anand): 0; 0.000 points.
England (Mark Weiskircher): 12; 38.095 points.
France (Ted McClelland): 13; 44.709 points.
Germany (Pete McNamara): 0; 0.000 points.
Italy (John Gramila): 0; 0.000 points.
Russia (Mike Morrison): 1; 0.265 points.
Turkey (Peter Yeargin): 8; 16.931 points.
The supply center chart is here. Now, let’s hear from the players.
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In this weekend’s game at Pete McNamara’s house, I employed one of my weaknesses as a player — my obdurate loyalty as an ally — to achieve my best result yet: a 13-center board top as France.
Pete had a new system for assigning countries. You listed which player you wanted in which country, ranked from 1 to 7. Since I rarely get to play Western countries, I gave myself France and 7 points. This was only the second time I’ve played France in a club game.
There’s usually an odd man out in the England-France-Germany triangle. I didn’t want to be that man, so I proposed an alliance to Mark, who was playing England. When he agreed, I told Pete I wanted to bounce in Burgundy. That would have protected Marseilles from an Italian move to Piedmont, and made it impossible for Germany to keep England out of Belgium. Pete didn’t like the idea of a bounce, so I told him I was going to Burgundy no matter what I did. I supported A Par in with A Mar.
In the fall, Mark and I agreed that he would go for Belgium while I went for Munich. One of us was bound to succeed. We both got in. Pete conceded Belgium, and failed to defend Munich, figuring I would use Burgundy to support an English unit into Belgium. That solidified the France-England alliance, and doomed Germany. I had never played with Mark before, but as a newbie, he struck me as less devious and agressive that some veteran Weasels, which made me comfortable working with him. (Now he’ll probably stab me the next time we play.) Our alliance never broke down. Mark was conscientious about keeping the center counts equal, even allowing me to walk into Belgium. We kept our units far away from each other, so a stab would have taken several turns.
As Mark and I watched the action on the other end of the board, we realized that all we had to do to win was stick together while the Eastern powers eviscerated each other. At first Austria and Italy tried to gang up on Turkey. But once Germany went down, I went after Italy. I told Aash he’d better get his share of the peninsula, and supported him into Venice. This angered John so much that he maneuvered his last remaining fleet into the Adriatic, to help me take Venice. It wasn’t necessary. Peter and Aash had been working together to prevent England from sweeping through Russia. Then Peter stabbed Aash for two dots. As a result, Aash vacated Venice, and offered to throw me the rest of his supply centers, hoping the game would end in a France-England two-way. He even vetoed a draw, because he wanted Turkey dead.
“I’m trying to do whatever I can to hurt Peter,” he said.
Austria’s sacrifice left me with 13 centers, vaulting me ahead of Mark for the board top. Once Aash was out of the game, the four survivors voted for a draw.
First, thanks to everyone for making their way to Evanston. We had all modes of transportation covered as folks arrived via foot, the El, by car, by bike and by Taxi.
And, I’d like to thank everyone for indulging me on my country selection method. There is an official name for it, but I forgot it. I like it because you have some influence where everyone ends up. I wanted Germany, and unfortunately for me, I got Germany.
My negotiations with Mark went well and we seemed to agree to keep things flexible for both of us. I would not even characterize my conversation with Ted’s France as a negotiation.
Ted: “Let’s bounce in Burgandy” Me: “I don’t want to bounce in Burgandy”. Ted: “I want to bounce in Burgandy”. Me: “I don’t want to bounce in Burgandy. Why do you want to bounce in Burgandy?” Ted: “I am going to also move to Pic and I want to make sure England convoys an army to Bel”.
I went on and on and tried to convince Ted that this was not in his or mine best interest. I was half right.
Ted opened with a supported move to Burgandy from Paris. His fleet opened to MAO.
I opened with a typical F to Den, A to Kie and A to Ruh. I was happy I did not “bounce” in Bur.
The fall was basically trying to figure out how the English were going to take Bel. Mark told me he was taking it with a fleet as he was at least putting up a facade of non-aggression. He also told me that Ted was planning to make a move on Munich. I told Mark that I was going to also go to Bel to force them to use support.
In the end, I was hoping that my feigned move to Bel would force Ted to support the move into Bel, but instead Ted did go to Mun and I neither covered Mun or moved to Bel. Instead I moved my fleet to Ska, and my army in Kie to Den.
Obviously, as I knew I was going to have an E-F issue and I agreed to let Russia have Sweden. My thanks in return was Army Warsaw. This army never really did harm to me, but when I needed a Fleet in STP, I did not get it.
In the end, it was my own case of the Stupids that was my downfall. I should have covered Munich. I would have had 2 builds and a reasonably strong defense. Instead I had E-F at a combined 11 centers vs my 4 and no help in the North from Russia.
The other comment I’ll make is that E-F’s easy time was also helped significantly by the infighting in the East. They were bickering at each other the whole game, even as E-F were rolling the board. Guys – you don’t have to imitate real life in the Balkans!