Two bull weasels were sitting atop a hill overlooking a meadow where a number of does frolicked. The brash younger weasel turned to his elder and said, "What do you say we run down there and screw one of those does?"
The older, wiser bull weasel put a paw on the other’s shoulder, shook his head, and said, "Son, let’s walk down there and screw them all."
–Old Weasel proverb
Nate Cockerill screwed them all in Season Seven. He amassed a league-high five board-tops en route to a fourth-place finish and a third straight berth in the Weasel Royale club championship game. And on Oct. 27 at Dan Burgess’ home in Downers Grove, Cockerill toppped that board, too, the biggest one of all.
The players conceded the title of Bull Weasel to Cockerill in Spring 1909. The center counts were:
England (Jim O’Kelley): 3; 4.245 points.
France (Mike Morrison): 5; 11.792 points.
Germany (Peter Lokken): 5; 11.792 points.
Italy (Ben DiPaola): 6; 16.981 points.
Russia (Matt Sundstrom): 6; 16.981 points.
Turkey (Kevin O’Kelly): 0; 0.000 points.
The Royale championship is Cockerill’s first Chicago title of any kind.
The only change in the selection order was when top-seed O’Kelley dropped down to No. 3 to get a more favorable tie-breaker and a look at where a couple of his opponents would sit. Lokken took Germany with the first pick, and Morrison grabbed France second. O’Kelley then rounded out the West by taking England.
Interestingly, Cockerill took Austria with the fourth pick, and Turkey fell all the way to fifth. DiPaola grabbed Italy with the sixth pick, leaving Sundstrom with Russia at No. 7.
Also, Cockerill became the third No. 4 seed in four years to win the title. Last year’s champion, Peter Yeargin, is the only top seed to have won the Royale. The other winner was sixth-seeded John Susoreny in the inaugural Royale.
The supply center chart is here. Hopefully the players will chime in with their thoughts. Surely we can match the output of yesterday’s commentators on Twitter.
This Post Has 9 Comments
After picking Germany (a country i ussually play reasonably), and convincing France and Russia that it is in our best interest to take out Okellys Englang first, i was feeling quite confident in my position. With Turkeys move to Armenia in the spring, it looked like Russia wasnt going to get a build, and so i let him into Swe. Turns out he did end up with Rum and went to 6 at the end of the year. A northern army build and some piece rearrangement left him in a comfortable defensive position, while me in a comfortable attack position. I had, after taking sweden, a fleet in helgo, skag and holland, plus a friendly russian fleet in norway. Jims demise was imminent, until France got paranoid and decided that Englands great and desperate convoy to picardy was planned by yours truly. It was not planned by me and i was amazed at how what seemed to be a pretty obvious possibility for england given the circumstances, ended up spoling my alliance with france. At the same point, some french fleets in the med prompted the italians to turn their lepanto around to defend the homeland, and it would have been too late had England not betrayed his agreement with france and walked into paris. Mike Morrison has three personalities. They go in succession and repeat once they’ve run their cycle. Funny mike: always making jokes; paranoid mike: the voiced in his head telling him things; then hyper-focused vengeful Mike: great if the rage is not directed at you. Fortunately his vengence was directed towards Jim, but by then it was too late. We, in the West, collectively lost our momentum, and werent able to realyl straighten ourselves out before the heat from the AI started turning our direction. I was able to throw three armies to the line, while russia and france held the med and the land. This left a couple units to do nothing more than take pot shots at landing an army in england. It never made it to there and Jim and I ended up with 3 and 5. Bens Italy never mustered up the courage to stab his long time ally. While in normal games you can maybe take solice in finishing second, fostering relationships/gaining street cred, or improving your score, in the Royale, there is first place, and last place, nowhere in between. So while I dont understand it, I guess ill chalk it up to Cockerill the Snake’s charisma at pulling it off and finally getting a draw vote.
Congrats Beefy!
Fully expected to get Austria because I was picking last. Pleasantly surprised to see Nate take it. Other than that, the picks went as expected. Austria’s victory just shows you can win from anywhere if you play it right. I think Nate had a pretty good hold on what ended up happening in the east. I believe AIR agreed to go after Turkey first. All our moves certainly suggest that was the case. Kevin’s Turkey opening to Bla and Arm all but guaranteed I would stay on board. Kevin said he wouldn’t press the attack and he did not to his credit. But he never backed off either. I think that sealed Turkey’s death and the eventual result in the east. Had Turkey shifted away from me, it would have been much easier to take on Austria with an RT. Austria eventually ended up with the best position. Having Italy as a solid ally all but guaranteed Nate could hold his dots and likely grow even bigger.
If France were more successful against Italy, things may have changed. Mike was looking to do very well for a moment.
Nate played well-congratulations. Thanks to Dan for hosting and all the Twitterati who followed the game. Some great zingers.
Vengeful Mike here just to briefly report that poor one-personality Peter Lokken has no idea how many personalities I’ve got…
oh, and I’ll give a fuller report when I’m not under the gun behind on a deadline. (Likely never.)
[quote]Vengeful Mike here just to briefly report that poor one-personality Peter Lokken has no idea how many personalities I’ve got…[/quote]
like I said, it goes full-circle and now we’re back to stage one. nobody piss him off and we can maintain the joyful funny state
By the way, my shirt in that photo makes me look like i have a flappy left brest. Am i getting the Diplomacy build?!?! Noooooooooo!!!
Entering the Royale I had planned on taking Austria first followed by Russia. The Central Powers alliance was discussed and it was one of neutrality until Turkey was eliminated and then the plan was to go for Russia. Which didn’t happen as planned.
Ben (Italy) and I agreed to Lepanto. We discussed the dissection of Turkey with Russia and moved accordingly. It was all back and forth for a bit as Matt and I struggled over position in Galicia each not quite trusting the other too much with our other moves.
Kevin put up a good defense but eventually I offered unwanted support of his army Syria-Smyrna and Ben’s convoy made it in allowing us to eventually crack the shell. My early second fleet build helped out in tis way too and allowed us to back off when France headed into the Med. ( I do not think an Austrian 2nd Fleet is such a bad thing.
I was never really worried about the French hurting Italy too much as I had backed a fleet up to help and had offered him Trieste and or Greece if the situation became dire and he needed builds.
The back and forth of EFG did alleviate the matter as well did Ben’s Diplomacy with Mike.Ben had the upper hand heading into the last year and if he hadn’t forgotten his support order Spain would’ve been his. As it was he was in the Mid and would’ve forced Mike to make alot of hard decisions had we continued.
As for Ben not stabbing me. He never had a viable stab that could be capitalized. As we were working together well and I’d offered him builds and support against France and Turkey. If he would’ve I would’ve have turned a larger force against him more to his detriment than mine. I was always able to take 2,3, and on some turns 4 centers from him but that too would’ve ruined a perfectly capable alliance.
So you see you don’t always have stab in order to win, or use ophidian like charm, but play your position, the position of the other players and most importantly the other players themselves.
I’d like to thank Jim and all of the Windy City Weasels who welcomed me into the fold upon my return to Chicago years ago. Dan for being a most generous and hospitable host. Ben DiPaola for running a successful Lepanto and a great AI and Greg Stewart for teaching me the hobby 20 years ago. Finally I’d like to dedicate the win to Jeff Ameer a gamer and friend I knew from Cleveland who passed last week. I taught him Diplomacy two years ago at Origins. I’ll miss him.
Thanks again and I hope to see you across the board.
Nate Cockerill
Bull Weasel 2012
Never say never a Heineken…
As I recall, Peter Lokken opened negotiations by saying, “Let’s attack Jim until you’re vulnerable enough for me to stab, about Spring 1902, let’s say.”
Jim heard about this offer, and countered with, “I’ll do him one better, and never stop stabbing you.”
Ben wanted in and said, “I’m a little busy right now, but if we arrange a bounce in the Tyrrhenian, I’ll be sure to stab you continuously after that.”
Matt and Nate both argued that they couldn’t reach me in time and would stab me after the game.
Several hours later, I woke up in Dan’s basement covered in ketchup and scented of Heineken.
At least they didn’t take my Beretta.
Oh, forgot to mention, first negotiations were with Kevin O. who asked me to stab him immediately. I lied and told him it would be fine, but I never actually got around to it.
We still haven’t heard from our Weasel Emeritus…