November 2025

Three first-time, wanna-be forest rulers sat down at the table. They were initially befuddled by sentences like “Birds Are Wild. You can always treat a bird card as a card of another suit”… “WTF is a bird card?!” one wanna-be lamented. Eventually, it dawned on all of them that they were playing three different games and that maybe at least one of them should have paid attention in Civics 201: Ruling a Forest in 2025.

Alphonse Lichtenberg III held court at the head of the Eyrie Dynasties. She managed two turns without the government collapsing due to infighting, and back-beaking. A remarkable feat for a new ruler. Though she is the third in her line. Crabapple Westlake, the famous industrialist saw her way through three turns of turning trees and forests into armies and invention. She decisively won her first battle and was well on her way to a steady performance. Charlie Dash, the communist rabble rouser, roused some rabble but made no impact on the forest according to both Lichtenberg and Westlake. This was to be expected of such a hopeless optimist. The prepared master for the training session, Edgar Allen Rat, sought to disrupt the would-be tyrants, but was mostly there to instruct. Nothing useful was added by the other participant, the dog, who attempted to bully Westlake into going outside.

A puzzling coffee suitable for the intense study session was brought in from Ethiopia and was matched by a less puzzling but absolutely correct flavour of Kettle Chip.