Leader of the Pack or a Wheelie Good Exit

David St. John has style, and style is everything.

After topping his first board with the Weasels last night at the Red Lion, St. John bought a round of drinks, then mounted his motorcycle and peeled off in a cloud of dust. If I could do it all over again, that’s the exclamation point I would put on my first Weasels board top. … I’d be riding a Harley instead of a Honda, but still, the man knows how to make an exit.

Despite a typically late start, we played at a pretty good clip and managed seven years in four hours. The game ended by time limit after the Fall 1907 turn in the following center counts:

Austria (Nate Cockerill): 5; 11.364 points.
England (Josh Heffernan): 7; 22.273 points.
France (David St. John): 9; 36.818 points.
Germany (Don Glass): 0; 0.000 points.
Italy (Scott Soren): 2; 1.818 points.
Russia (Matt Sundstrom): 6; 16.364 points.
Turkey (Jim O’Kelley): 5; 11.364 points.

The supply center chart is here.

Prior to St. John’s exit, we welcomed Scott Soren to the Weasels. Soren has the distinction of being our club’s first recruit from webdiplomacy.net, a site where several of us play on occasion. We’ve had a much easier time of luring players from playdiplomacy.com; hopefully Soren will be the first of many recruits from webdiplomacy.

Soren hadn’t played Dip face to face in about 30 years. He acquitted himself well but twice blundered on retreats, both times because of the pace of the game not a lack of familiarity with the rules.

In his first game with us, Soren got to see something that he may never see again: Heffernan, O’Kelley, St. John and Sundstrom all united in a common cause. And what could possibly unite these four fierce, if friendly, rivals? The perfidy of Nate Cockerill.

By 1904, the Prime Weasel had hyper-oozed his way to 10 far-flung centers and a commanding lead. But along the way, he stabbed all of his eastern neighbors, and with them pecking away on three sides, keeping his centers proved more difficult than taking them. He finished with five.

The West, meanwhile, was fluid and fun to watch. St. John was under attack by all three neighbors in 1902, but one by one, they backed off. Eventually, Glass’ dying Germany tipped the balance in favor of France.

Perhaps the players will chime in with their thoughts. In the meantime, we’ve scheduled a house game for May 3 at Sundstrom’s home in Glenview. Check your calendars, sign up, and start thinking about your dramatic exit.

Vroom, vroom.