The snakes had to go somewhere

St. Patrick would have appreciated the irony. We played our 227th game on the second floor of the Irish-American Heritage Center on the city’s north side, right between a pair of statues honoring the patron saint of Ireland. Both statues depicted a tangle of snakes at his feet, celebrating the legend that he had banished them from Ireland. And there we were.

Game No. 227 ended by draw vote during the Spring 1907 turn in the following center counts:

Austria (Matt Kade): 9; 34.615 points.
England (Jim O’Kelley): 8; 27.350 points.
France (Brian Barnstable/Tony Prokes): 4; 0.000 points.
Germany (Jack Sundstrom): 6; 15.385 points.
Italy (Matt Sundstrom): 6; 15.385 points.
Russia (Mike Whitty): 1; 0.427 points.
Turkey (Nathan Cockerill): 0; 0.000 points.

The board top was Kade’s first with the Weasels. The game itself was our first recruiting trip to WolfCon since November of 2007 when Thom Comstcock, Greg Duenow and I successfully drummed up a game.

This time around, we had six Weasels in the bag, including Jack Sundstrom, Matt’s son, who was making his Diplomacy debut. We were hoping to find at least one new recruit to round out the board.

Our first prospect was new to neither the game nor the Weasels. It was Tony Prokes, who attended the con to play other games. He offered to be our seventh, however, and we were just about to start with him when Brian Barnstable, a rusty diplomat from Milwaukee, joined us.

Prokes graciously agreed to sit out, and we were off. Barnstable eventually had to bow out to run some other game, so Prokes took over in Spring 1905. Per club rules, neither player scored the position.

You can find the supply center chart and Spring 1901 moves here. Perhaps the players will share their thoughts.

Next up for the Weasels is a game next Saturday (Dec. 7) at Ted McClelland’s home in Rogers Park. We need three more players to fill it. Who’s in?