Hapsburg Eclipse first play
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Broke this out a couple of days ago and have been working through the deck whenever I want to take a break from anything else I'm doing. Here's the draw of the deck:
6. Russian Cipher cracked. Purchase Reserve Western Front for 2 act
Ions. Croat triggered, roll 4, no effect.
4. Battle of Mons. Use reserve, roll 3 for stalemate. Purchase Reserve for Naval. Croat triggered, roll 5 no effect.
3. Battle of Cer. Rolled 1, defeat. Advance Carpathian. Trigger Croat, roll 1, move toward revolt. 2actions Reserve to Eastern Theater, roll 6, push back Carpathian. National Will -1.
9. Battle of Falkland Islands. Roll 6, victory. Advance Carpathian. Hungarian loyalty assured. 2 action, Reserve to Western. Natl Will 0.
35. German Aid. Roll 4 + 2 German Aid to push back Carpathian.
10. German 9th Army. Hungarian triggered, roll 1 advance toward revolt. Polish offensive roll 3 pass with +1 from card. Croat loyalty roll 6 succeed.
16. MacKensen takes command. Add Resources to Naval Theater with 2 actions.
7. Drina Campaign. Roll 2 lose Drina. Roll against Czech, 1 fail, 6 pass for 2 actions. National Will -1.
15. Treaty of London. Roll for Croat, 2,5 for 2 actions, roll against Italian 1, offensive failed.
27. Provisional Government Takes Charge. Actions: Italian offensive fail with roll 1, Croat loyalty roll 4 move toward loyal.
8. Battle of Lodz. Battle of Lodz is a defeat. Trigger Croat. Roll 5 for 1 action push back Croat.
24. Danube flotilla sails. Another defeat, national will to -3. Offensive against Italian Front, roll 2,3, front is back to Udine.
21. Brusilov Offensive. Czech and Hungarian triggered, Polish and Carpathian do not advance as a result of 27's side flip. Roll 1,3 push hungarian back 1 towards loyalty. Natl Will -2.
14. Gallipoli Campaign. Advance Balkan, trigger random Czech. Gallipoli victory. Fail on 2 Czech loyalty rolls, with 1,1.
22. Romania join Allies. Hungary now in revolt. Move Hungary out of revolt with roll 2, move czech back 2 with roll 5,6 for 3 actions.
29. Ontranto Barrage. Win. Roll 4 on Croat. Natl Will -1.
1. Second Army out of Position. Trigger Hungarian, in revolt. Roll 1, stays in revolt.
33. Battle of Passchendaele. Defeat. Romanians at Budapest, cancel with Radio Intercept. Roll 4, 6 bring Hungary out of revolt. Natl Will -2.
18. Von Lettow-Vorbeck. Win. Offensive succeeds against Italian, fails against Romanian. Natl Will 0.
5. Battle of Tannenburg. Win.
26. Fighting inthe Trentino. Defeat. Roll 5 on Croat one step back to loyal.
13. Czechoslovak Legion. Czech double triggered, roll 1,5 for 2 actions bring out of revolt.
34. Hungarian Food Shortages. Trigger Hungary double, in revolt, use action roll 1, stays in revolt. Bummer.
30. Neville Offensive. Win. Hungarian moved from revolt, Italian offensive failed.
25. Death of Franz Josef. Italian advance negated by Radio Intercept. All triggered, Czech and Hungary in revolt. Roll 2,4 bring Czech out of revolt. Natl Will -1.
19. Battle of Cestiphon. Win. Romanian advance negated by Radio Intercept. Hungarian loyalty reinstated. Natl Will 1.
12. Battle of Dogger Bank. Roll 1 defeat. Romanian offensive roll 3 succeed. Natl Will -1.
20. Strafexpidition. Croat in revolt, recovered, and Hungared Support increased. Natl Will -1.
2. Drive into Galicia. Romanian advance beaten back, Hungarian Support gained. Natl Will -2.
17. Bulgaria Joins the War. Great War Status advanced, evening deck shuffled in. Croat in revolt. Balkan in Play. Polish and Italian advance. MacKenzie employed against Italian and Polish. Natl Will -3.
42. Kaiserschlacht Begins. Trigger All and game over, everything in revolt.
Impressions
Not bad. Learned some bite-sized history. It seems to play longer than Soviet Dawn, which is particularly efficient at killing you off really fast. In this game, it feels easier to hold on, until everything craps out at once. However, that could be the luck of the draw on this game, not playing it quite correctly, and not really caring to beat the system (just wanted to get enough of a play through to get familiar with some of the details).
One odd aspect of this game is that, despite shuffling, I went through most of the morning deck before adding the day cards, then all the way through the stack until the second to last card (the game loser) before adding the evening deck. That doesn't happen very often in these games.
I'll definitely play this again, probably without as much detail listed as shown above. Writing everything out sure helps comprehension, but it does slow down game play quite a bit.