Conquest of the Empire

 Now that Dad is back from Europe, strategy gaming has returned to the household. Right now we're playing Conquest of the Empire, about the battle by various factions for the control of the Roman Empire. The four factions competing are controlled by Purple Zebra, Swirls (a tiger with swirls instead of stripes), Puppy, and Piggy. Daddy controls the last two and has the Roman centurions greet each of their orders with

Ave Puppy!

or

Ave Piggy!

Ave, I've now learned, means "hail" or "praise be to" in Latin, the language of the Romans. My Romans mostly just talk in Mario accents. It's still early going, but Purple Zebra and Piggy are in an alliance against Puppy and Swirls. We'll see how things play out.