[MN-dip] Game Report

[Jim Swift]

>      This is Pat, hope that the game goes well today.  I was waiting to see
> if I could get work off, but alas I have to work.

The game went well.  We had four people show -- the three who registered plus
the ever-elusive drop-in!   (The weather finally cooperated -- it was generally
crappy outside.)

We played the variant where we take turns picking starting centers, and where
one player starts w/ 4 centers, one starts w/ 5, one starts w/ 6, and one starts
w/ 7.  The first three centers chosen are automatically a player's home centers.
The line-up was:
    7 James Kanne: Portugal, Paris, Rome
    6 Kirk Koudelka: Bulgaria, Constantinople, Ankara
    5 Jens: Denmark, London, Kiel
    4 Jim Swift: Vienna, Trieste, St. Petersburg

Also, we played that 6 centers of the smallest power(s) are dropped when
determining victory or draw.  The rules worked as designed; it was tight right
to the end.  The final result:
    14 James Kanne *
    14 Kirk Koudelka *
    5 Jim Swift
    1 Jens
The 6 centers dropped were Jens' and mine.  Therefore James and Kirk achieved a
rare two-way draw!
Additional note: it may seem that the staggered start dictated the outcome.  It
was not the case.  We all had 8 or 9 centers to start the second game year.

Jim