Ottoman Sunset first play

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As part of my unplayed games effort, I thought I’d get this little States of Siege title played. It also counts for one of my 2017 Nickels, so no better time than the present to knock out a play.

This will proceed as usual, the cards listed out in the order they get drawn, with a bit of commentary about what I decided to do. There are a number of odd pieces in this game, I’ll figure out what to do with them when I pull the relevant events.

Let’s get started.

  1. 19 Senussi Revolt. Purchase +1 resource.

  2. 04 Enver to the Front. Both actions against Caucasus, both rolls failed, ugh. Off to a great start already.

  3. 18 Bulgaria joins the Central Powers.

  4. 17 Grand Duke Nicholas takes control.

  5. 01 Intelligence Bureau of the East.

  6. 07 Turkish Minelaying. One mine standee placed for free. Spent another action to emplace the Dardanos gun.

  7. 03 Jihad Declared. Day cards go in. I keep failing rolls on offensive with very low values, like 2 and 3, not good.

  8. 29 Brusilov Offensive. Victory.

  9. 33 Yudenich Named Commander in Chief.

  10. 11 Gallipoli Landings. Gallipoli track now in play. Placed the last Turkish gun in The Narrows. Now let’s see what happens.

  11. 26 Verdun. Victory. Still rolling super bad on Caucasus front.

  12. 31 The Somme. Victory. Dang. Winning the battles, this is good.

  13. 25 Erzurum Offensive. Resource for Eastern Theater.

  14. 05 Ghadar Conspiracy. Coup in India fails.

  15. 20 Landings at Salonika. Caucasus is in it’s 1 box, next card could be game over if Causasus advances.

  16. 28 Jutland. Defeat. Managed to push back Gallipolli and Caucasus fronts to their 2 spaces.

  17. 13 Italy joins the War. Victory. Salonika and Gallipolli pushed back a space.

  18. 27 Mesopotamian Siege. I’m now doing about as well as I usually do at these States of Siege games, getting to the 17th card. Caucasus is again on its 1 box.

  19. 21 Central Powers Meddling in Afghanistan. Caucasus advance into Constantinople, and that’s the game!

Ok, well, the whole rest of the map looks great except I kept rolling 1s and 2s against Caucasus, and it kept advancing. I suppose I could have spent more actions attempting to control it, but that’s in the nature of the risk, I had a better than even chance of beating it back, but the die didn’t roll for me there. Bummer.

In any case, lots of good, new historical events to look up. This game feels easier than Hapsburg Eclipse, there doesn’t seem to be quite as much going on.

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What to play next?

Deciding what to play next is always a tough call when faced with a closet full of games, all of which were purchased with intent to play. Here's one I'm dealing with the decision.

  • Something New: this means both something new to me and a game which has been published recently, within the last two or three years.
  • Something Classic: I've acquired a number of games properly considered "classic" which haven't yet been played. The current example would be PanzerGruppe Guderian.
  • Something Again: mastery requires constant practice, which means playing games many, many times to allow nuance to appear.
  • Something Vietnam: as I'm on a Vietnam binge. I don't have all the Vietnam games ever published, but I can say that I have a lot of them, and probably more than most people.
  • Something Obscure: as it's fun to poke around in the dustier corners of game design.
  • Something Different: break away from the same old publishers and try a game from one of the new kids on the block. Or, conversely, dip into legacy with a classic tried and true.
  • Something Light: once in a while it's nice to actually finish a game all the way through in one sitting, in an hour or two.
  • Something Heavy: if possible, it's nice to set up something big and complicated which can be left out for days or weeks or even months, for a leisurely stroll through a very large or long game.

There are surely many more ways to choose, but the above method keeps me busy enough, helps me get both breadth and depth into my play, and provides me with a sense of progress.

The odd man out

When there is an odd man out:

  • Have a solo game ready to play.
  • Keep score or advise on a game in progress.
  • Referee a game in progress.