Game No. 171 was billed as a Leap Year celebration, and Mike Morrison embraced the theme. He showed up at my home in Little Italy last night wearing a pair of tights, and by game’s end, he had pulled off a magnificent Tour en l’air, landing in first place.
For Morrison, it was his second big board top in as many games at my place. What a lousy house guest. Play ended at 5:10 a.m. during the Spring 1913 turn in the following center counts:
Austria (Simon Marcelis): 11; 33.799 points.
England (Mike Morrison): 14; 54.749 points.
France (Nate Cockerill): 1;0.279 points.
Germany (Ben DiPaola):0; 0.000 points.
Italy (Peter Lokken):0; 0.000 points.
Russia (Jim O’Kelley): 2; 1.117 points.
Turkey (Herve De Theux) 6; 10.056 points.
As you’d expect for a game that occurs only once every four years, we saw some unusual things. Cockerill spilled three beers. Lokken passed out in Fall 1908 without submitting orders for his two units. Morrison took a couple of smoking breaks on the patio in the slush in naught but his ballet slippers. And throughout the game, two treacherous Belgians negotiated at the table in French. Even the post-game clean-up this morning produced a weird find: Someone left behind a can of Axe.
Friday night Diplomacy was a nice twist and a lot of fun, but Christ, it was a long night. Still, thanks to all the players for permitting me to move the game from its original Sunday slot so that I could watch my son’s playoff basketball game. And now, I have to dash off to his first playoff game, so I’ll cut this off.
Hopefully we’ll hear from some of the players, This was a game that deserves some post-game discussion. Here is the supply center chart. Now, let’s hear from the players.
