A late cancellation forced Hipster John Gramila to play on two boards last night at the Red Lion, but we still had 13 folks come out on a Wednesday night to close the curtain on our sixth annual March Madness extravaganza. Both games ended by time limit after the Fall 1906 turn.
Game No. 209 ended in the following center counts:
England (Ted Phillips): 7; 26.630 points.
France (Ted McClelland): 2; 2.174 points.
Germany (Ryan Whalen): 4; 8.696 points.
Italy (Matt Sundstrom): 7; 26.630 points.
Russia (Keith Ammann): 5; 13.587 points.
Turkey (Ben DiPaola): 5; 13.587 points.
The Teds united in the West, with McClelland determined to play aggressively. His newly minted posture helped him get out to a quick lead at seven centers, but eventually, his aggression allowed first the Italians and then the Turks to slip past Gibraltar. Both fleets found safe harbor in formerly French centers, as McClelland dropped to four centers in 1905 and then two in 1906.
His fellow Ted managed to hold on to a share of the board top, along with Matt Sundstrom, who scratched and clawed his way from four centers in 1904 to seven by game’s end.
Ryan Whalen, making his Season Eight debut, was welcomed back in rude fashion. He didn’t grow until the final year.
The game also featured newcomer Keith Ammann, another Meetup recruit. For Ammann, at least one face was familiar. He edited McClelland’s second book.
Meanwhile, Game No. 210 ended as follows:
England (Don Glass): 3; 3.285 points.
France (Nate Cockerill): 7; 17.883 points.
Germany (John Gramila): 0; 0.000 points.
Italy (Josh Heffernan): 6; 13.139 points.
Russia (Christian Kline): 12; 52.555 points.
Turkey (Mike Whitty): 0; 0.000 points.
Like Whalen, Kline was making his first appearance of the the season. Unlike Whalen, his neighbors rolled out the red carpet for him. By 1903, he was at 11, and he picked up two more the following year. The other players finally got their acts together, however, and ended the threat of our first bar-game solo. We checked his growth and pushed him back to 12 in the final year.
Check out the supply center charts here.
And thus ended our sixth March Madness. We played a total of five games this month, with 22 unique players participating, including five new Weasels. The Easterners dominated the month. Italy topped 2 1/2 boards, Austria and Russia grabbed one each, and England got a half. Kline’s board top ended a run of three straight outright or shared board tops for Italy.
So, next up for the Weasels is our seventh annual CODCon Open Diplomacy tournament at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn. The dates are April 20-21. Make your plans to join us for an exciting weekend of Diplomacy and people watching!
