Tolkien warned us of Gudrun in a lay edited by his son, Christopher. And still, no one saw her coming.
Playing in her first face-to-face game ever, John Gramila’s beloved turned their Humboldt Park home into a funeral pyre for their guests. Game No. 322, played today, ended during the Spring 1908 turn in the following center counts:
Austria (John Gramila): 3; 3.750 points.
England (Don Glass): 9; 33.750 points.
France (Gudrun Juffer): 10; 41.667 points.
Germany (Geoff Serednesky): 0; 0.000 points.
Italy (Chris Kelly): 3; 3.750 points.
Russia (Ian Miller): 5; 10.417 points.
Turkey (Brian Shelden): 4; 6.667 points.
The supply center chart is here. Players, what really happened?
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A fun game, even if I spent most of it simply trying to survive. Gudrun made her desire to somehow take supply centers from John clear to multiple players (not including John, of course). As my Italy lay in between her France and John’s Austria, this was disconcerting to me at first, but as it turned out I was able to help make it happen.
In the north, England and France maintained an alliance despite occasional forays into one another’s territorial waters, and slowly wore down Germany. In the south, John rallied both me and Russia (Ian) around the goal of eliminating Turkey.
I was, frankly, unprepared for the prospect of being the disposable 3rd wheel of a tight A/R alliance, which manifested itself by Austria supporting Russia into Bulgaria while also taking Venice from me. In desperation, I invited France to send two fleets it had lurking near Spain to help me fend off the invasion.
As it turned out, the Austrian attack on Venice was part of deal with Russia where the latter didn’t hold up his end, leading to not only tension between them but the premature end of their joint assault on Turkey. Even worse, Austria’s opportunistic capture of Munich, in combination with my partnership with France and Turkey eventually persuading Russia to switch sides, meant that Austria was ultimately under attack by 5 of the other 6 countries on the board — too much of a challenge for even Mr. Gramila’s formidable tactical skills.
For myself, I made sure France was respectably compensated for her help in preserving/restoring Italian sovereignty over its homeland, surrendering Tunis and offering advice & support on taking Greece and Trieste. Those centers, plus France’s share of the spoils vs. Germany (Belgium, Holland, and Munich), were enough to enable Gudrun to top the board.