On the down side of things, finals are coming up and the task of having to write two 1,500+ word papers and a few other things is looming over my head. To say I’m stressed is like saying the Dead Sea is a bit salty. However, I can say that I will only fail history if I do absolutely nothing or write a paper about the socio-political significance of the Lollipop Guild, and not because I killed my history professor again.

Last night at Dork Club we played a few games of Sails of Glory. Now, Sails of Glory is much like the game Wings of Glory which I mentioned earlier in the year, except instead of flying around in WWI era fighter planes, you command Napoleonic Era warships and try to blow other Napoleonic Era warships out of the water. I love the age of sail, so this game was just what I needed to calm down after a rather stressful day (I won’t get into details, but it was stressful).

Anyway, we started the night with a brief overview of the rules before moving on to actual gameplay. I was in command of Le Swiftsure, a 74-gun French Ship of the Line (that was probably stolen from the British, but that wouldn’t be surprising as ships swapped hands plenty of times back in those days). Professor Porter was commanding a similarly sized ship on the other side of the map, while Professor Morillo, his kids, and one other Dork Club member controlled a small variety of British ships, two of which were in similar classes as the French ships. Everyone seemed to gang up on Porter, so his ship was taken out rather early on in comparison to some of the other ships. Me being on the other side of the map, I had a little more time to do some damage, but ultimately I lost due to just not having enough structural integrity left.

Professor Porter’s last stand

After that game, we reset and started over, this time three vs three. Once again, being on the other side of the map had its advantages, and I managed to survive until the end without taking too much damage. Porter and our new teammate got the worst of it, although they were able to bring down quite a bit of the enemy fleet by the time I arrived. Towards the end, the ship that Professor Morillo had been controlling (he had to leave early, though) got stuck, and the win was eventually given to me as I could just maneuver to where I could not be shot and keep shooting until the other ship sank. In the end, I had the highest number of ships sunk (three), and that made me happy. Admittedly I’ve been rather stressed out by a few things around campus, but once again Dork Club provides me with a way to relax and not worry about things too much.

Also, one of these days I need a chance to sleep in. Heh, like that will ever happen.

Two things.

First thing is that today was International Tabletop Day. since we didn’t have anything planned for today, the Dork Club did our celebration yesterday with a nice game of Diplomacy.

Not shown: shattered friendships

Basically, Diplomacy is a game that kind of recreates the shifting alliances and fronts of Pre-World War 1 Europe. Players control one of seven powers as they maneuver armies and fleets to control important supply centers while also blocking the advances of everyone else. Backstabbing and plotting ensues, and boy did it ensue.

I chose to play England, and things got off to a rough start only because we didn’t know the rules. but we figured them out pretty quickly, and I set up shop in Scandinavia with every intention of invading Russia. However, I misread one of the rules so my Russian invasion was scrapped, especially when Russia came knocking in Sweden. Knowing I was outmatched, I asked France if I could have Belgium, just as somewhere where I could build up resources so I could better fight Russia. They didn’t answer, so in retaliation I sided with Russia and invaded France. I was kicked out soon after, but things turned around for me when I took Denmark and Portugal. Now I had enough stuff to challenge France, but the game ended due to time constraints before I could go any further.

That was just in my neck of the woods. On the other side of the world Russia (played by Professor Porter) got off to a great start, as did the Ottomans who turned out to be sneaky little jerks. Italy was the receiver of most of the punishment, losing most of their cities and being forced to disband their armies. Austria was in a pretty good position and probably played everyone at one point or another, although they had issues when the Ottomans came by looking for some territories to take. Germany… ceased to exist by the time we finished, in no small part due to Russia, Austria and England teaming up on them.

It was a good game. I’ll have to play it again sometime.

Second thing: TODAY WAS MY BIRTHDAY! Yay!!! I got a lot of nice things from my parents, my sister and my girlfriend, and I got to go out for dinner and shakes with my sister and her boyfriend. It was great, and it really made me happy. I think today has been one of the best days of my time here at Wabash. So for everyone that made this a great day, when they read this blog, thank you so much for making this a great day.

Wow, I’m already 19. I’m going to be even more of an adult in two years… Well, guess I’m on my way, or: