We debuted our freshly minted Red Wednesdays last night at the Red Lion, and the new brand was a hit. We had seven for the game, plus onlooker Chris Kelly. The numbers included another new recruit from the Chicago Game Lovers Meetup, and once again, we batted .500 from that site. Two signed up, one showed.
And as the saying goes, showing up is half the battle. Playing his first game in more than 20 years, Mike Esposito was understandably rusty. On the first turn, he held in both Marseilles and Paris. But he recovered, weathered the Platoon-like battle for his soul between me and Ben DiPaola (I was Sgt. Elias), and ultimately fragged us both to top the board.
We got off to a late start and managed just five game-years. The game ended by time limit after the Fall 1905 turn in the following center counts:
Austria (David St. John): 6; 17.647 points.
England (Jim O’Kelley): 1; 0.490 points.
France (Mike Esposito): 8; 31.373 points.
Germany (Ben DiPaola): 5; 12.255 points.
Italy (John Konwinski): 2; 1.961 points.
Russia (Ali Adib): 7; 24.020 points.
Turkey (Matt Sundstrom): 5; 12.255 points.
Hopefully we’ll see Mike again. We were certainly glad to welcome back John and Ali. They were two of last month’s five recruits from Chicago Game Lovers. John, who topped the board in his first game ever last month, didn’t fare as well this time around, but he still had fun and wants to keep playing and learning. Ali, who was no stranger to Diplomacy when he joined us last month, turned in another workmanlike performance against stiff competition in the East.
You can check out the supply center chart here. Hopefully some of the players will comment. We’ve been lax about our after-action reports lately.
So, Red Wednesdays are officially a thing. We’ll be at the Red Lion on the second Wednesday of every month clear through December of 2015. Get ’em on your calendar and join us for some games.
Hope to see you on November 12.
