Last night at the Red Lion in Lincoln Square, five of us–including one actual Don–gathered around the corner "Dons Table" to play the Windy City Weasels’ new Ra sub-club’s inaugural game. I’m pleased to report that I topped the board, earning 45 fame points in a win that was tainted somewhat by my poor explanation of the rules to novices Ben DiPaola, John Gramila and Mike Morrison and rusty vet Don Glass, all fellow charter members of the sub-club.
Meanwhile, across the room, seven other Weasels played our club’s 203rd game of Diplomacy. Ho hum.
The Diplomacy game ended by time limit after the Fall 1907 turn in an impressive board top by newcomer and Meetup recruit Josh Heffernan. The final center counts were:
- Austria (Matt Sundstrom): 10; 30.488 points.
- England (Josh Heffernan): 13; 51.524 points.
- France (Peter Lokken): 7; 14.939 points.
- Germany (Ted Phillips): 0; 0.000 points.
- Italy (Chris Kelly): 0; 0.000 points.
- Russia (Nate Cockerill): 1; 0.305 points.
- Turkey (Ulysses Peterson): 3; 2.744 points.
You can check out the supply center chart here. (The Ra sub-club is still a bit disorganized. We don’t have fancy charts for our results.)
The other newcomer last night was Ted Phillips, who audited the club at Game No. 200 at the Red Lion and, true to his word, signed up as soon as we scheduled this game. In true Weasel fashion, he seemed to enjoy himself despite his troubles on the board. We hope Josh and Ted will join us for many more games.
It was definitely good to see Kelly and Peterson again. Kelly last played on Opening Night, when he topped one of the boards, and I believe Peterson hadn’t picked up the diplomat’s pen since my birthday game in October.
It’s also worth noting that Lokken finally got off the Schneid after four straight eliminations to open the season. You knew that streak wasn’t going to last, but it sure was fun while it did!
Finally, although we fell short of our goal of two boards, the way the evening played out is a testament to our club and its members. Our full-court press for two boards this week yielded Peterson, Heffernan, Morrison and Lokken, but we lost three others to go from 11 to 12.
We could have made two boards work by asking two people to play on both, but the five of us who ended up playing Ra were all of a similar mind. We showed up to give the club a shot at two boards, and while we would have liked to play Dip, we were equally happy to sit out so seven others could play a clean game. That decision made for a better playing experience for the two newcomers. And we had a hell of a time playing Ra, my poor explanation of the rules notwithstanding.
Okay, that’s enough from me. Maybe the players will contribute their thoughts on the game? The club standings are now current, and I’ll update the Brawl standings, and post a crapload of new game openings, later. Stay tuned.
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One other comment: Although our games pace has slowed this season, it’s refreshing to see the diversity on the boards. Our past three games, for example, have featured 18 different players, none of whom played all three boards. Also, we’ve had a different board-topper in each of our past five games. That’s another good sign.