Season 7 kicked off last night at the Red Lion in Lincoln Square with a novice game organized by Nate Cockerill. Nate and fellow new Sneakers John Gramila and Peter Lokken did an outstanding recruiting job. The game featured five new Weasels, two of whom were firstime players. In addition, a sixth potential member shadowed Nate for the first two game years before leaving for his Magic the Gathering Meetup in a different room.
And get this: The five new Weasels included two, count ’em, two women.
Last May, in a game at John Gramila’s home in Logan Square, Celeste Levitz-Jones staked an early claim to the Weasels’ coveted Girlfriend of the Year award by braving the rain to pick up food for us. Last night, she virtualy locked it up by not just playing but also topping the board. The game ended by time limit after Fall 1905 with Celeste’s Turkey at 9 centers, having just taken three. It’s difficult to say whether John was prouder about that or his solo at the Moot.
The final supply center counts were:
The supply center chart is here. Stephanie had to leave in 1904, so Peter Lokken took over for her. Per club rules, Stephanie will be the player of record, but neither player scores.
Stephanie was one of two recruits from the Chicago Game Lovers Meetup group. The other was Ulysses Peterson, an aspiring restaurateur now living in Oak Park. In addition, Magic player Jeff Engel from that Meetup learned the rules and played with Nate for the first few turns.
Aaron Bernhardt and Kevin Schiferle are both connected to Lokken and Ben DiPaola. Kevin watched the third round at Weasel Moot earlier this month and liked what he saw enough to give the game a try. Aaron Bernhardt played at the World Diplomacy Championship in Denver in 2003 and a few times with the old Armada club in Denver.
In addition, another friend of theirs, Will, came out to talk skydiving (?!?) with Lokken, but he also enjoyed watching the game and said he’d like to give it a try. And Ben says another recruit is on the way.
While all of this was going on, Mike Morrison, Jeremiah Peterson, John Gramila and I kibitzed and played other games. Mike and Jeremiah beat me at a fun, old Milton Bradley game called Scotland Yard. Then Jeremiah won a close game of Cash and Guns. Mike then cleaned our clocks at Liars Dice, and Jeremiah won the rematch.
Oh, and how about this: While talking with the bartender about Diplomacy at the beginning of the night, he pointed to a poster on the wall behind me. It was a familiar map of Europe with felt pieces affixed to it. Apparently there’s a regular at the Red Lion who’s been trying to get a Diplomacy group together.
So, it was a good start to Season 7 and a great night for the Weasels. We found a new venue and a bunch of new players. And it says a lot about our club that our 150th game featured five new Weasels. The future looks bright.
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When I told Meghan that she had missed out on the opportunity to be the first Weaselette to become a Weasel, she didn’t seem to care. I hope you have more luck motivating your significant others to play.
[quote]Apparently there’s a regular at the Red Lion who’s been trying to get a Diplomacy group together.[/quote]
We [i]really[/i] need business cards. And thanks to all the new guys who gave Dip a whirl. We hope you return for another game soon!
My favorite part, was after taking over Austria, Cockerill and I both suicided against each other. I took Munich while he had Vienna, and we both were able to regain our home centers via double popped units. it was a mess of red and black in the center of the board.