The Hapsburg Reign
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(Note: I actually played this yesterday, but didn't want to write it up with the two short Vietnam Solitaire games I also played.)
While I'm in the mood, let's knock out a game of Hapsburg Eclipse. This should go pretty fast, I usually lose. Unlike Soviet Dawn, I don't yet have a strategy for this game.
In order of the draw:
03. Serbian battle of Cer, lose.
06. Russian cipher cracked.
13. Czechoslovak Legion. Not doing well, Czech advanced 2 spaces and
they are hard to get loyalty back.
16. McKansen Takes Command. Finally getting a bit of a break here.
Going to lose Czech loyalty pretty soon though.
07. Drina Campaign. Czech in revolt, and lucky roll moves them back.
This is important as Czech revolt is -1 DRM on Polish and Carpathian.
05. Battle of Tannenburg. Had to spend another Radio Intercept to deal
with Carpathian. 1 left.
01. Second Army out of position. Polish and Carpathian advance into
bad country. One action only, nothing easy, roll against Polish at -1
DRM, roll 3 for 2, blah.
04. Battle of Mons.
02. Drive into Galicia.
11. Putnik Reclaims Belgrade. Lost the off-map Belgrade, succeeded in
driving back Polish and Carpathian.
35. German Aid.
15. Treaty of London. Add the Day cards.
34. Hungarian Food Shortages. National Will is at -4, this is not
good.
27. Provisional Government Takes Charge. This one is interesting as it
weakens the Polish and Carpathian Fronts, which is really helpful
about right now. Also retreated the Italians 2 spaces.
19. Battle of Ctesiphon. Victory. National Will back to 0. Still in
the game. Would be nice to get the loyalties dealt with.
14. Gallipoli Campaign. And Hungarians are in revolt. Chose to
provision naval resources with 2 actions, can afford the hit to victory
points and DRM on Carpathian.
18. von Lettow-Vorbeck. Things are holding on pretty well at the
moment, need to get Hungary and Croat out of revolt.
20. Strafexpidition. Now Czech is in revolt, but brought it back with
Croat.
29. Otranto Barrage.
33. Battle of Passchendaele. Victory with a roll of 5. Needed.
National Will +1, best I've ever made it this title.
26. Fighting in the Trentino. Loyalty is bedeviling.
10. German 9th Army.
24. Danube Flotilla Sails. I'm about half way through the deck. This
is a more complex game than Soviet Dawn, and takes longer to play.
22. Romania Joins Allies. This brings in the last deck, which I don't
recall having played into yet.
23. Flamanda Maneuver.
31. Kerensky Offensive. Everything advances! Fortunately no triggers.
All offensives succeed for me, which is good because the National Will
would have dropped like a stone here.
44. Greece Enters the War. Fortunately Balkan Front is not yet
entered.
49. National Parliament Reconvened.
38. Rommel's Alpine Corps. Going all three against Italian, big risk
as Romanian is at Belgrade. Will use a radio intercept on that if
necessary. 5 flags are down, but I'm up 3 on off-map victories.
Otherwise I'd be looking at sudden death.
28. Romanian Army Reformed. Romanian goes from 2 to 4. National Will
at -3.
45. War Weariness. No actions allowed. National Will at -5. Next card
will be interesting.
40. Focsani Armstice. Should be able to hold on this card. Romanian
back one, got a flag back.
32. Corfu Declaration. Just figured out about the Italian Front at
Udine needing to roll to advance. I'm not going to advance the Italians
for a couple of turns to see if I can make it up.
48. D'Esperey Breaks out. I don't understand the action on this card
so I'm ignoring it.
36. Bolshevik Revolution. I think I needed to cancel an
advance…because my rolls this card were crap. However, it does say to
simply remove the Polish and Carpathian Fronts. So, that helps a lot.
National Will at -1.
43. Peace Feelers. Retreating Italian to Udine.
47. Flight Over Vienna.
39. Diaz Takes Command. Time to cancel the Romanian advance, because
they would be in Vienna if not. I did not roll against Romania with
McKansee, which is likely a mistake. National Will at -2.
37. Caporetto Offensive. Flips Italian to higher value.
46. Dismissal of Conrad.
12. Battle of Dogger Bank. Victory. Things are looking up.
30. Nivelle Offensive.
41. Palestine Campaign. Defeat.
42. KaiserSchlacht Begins. Victory for the first.
50. Czech Declaration of Independence. I don't understand the actions
for this turn, as stated for rolling on Czech Loyalty.
09. Battle of Falkland Islands. Victory.
08. Battle of Lodz.
17. Bulgaria Joins the War.
25. Death of Franz Josef.
21. Brusilov Offensive. And that's the game. I think I bona fide won
this one.
Nearest I can figure, this scores to 29 as follows: 2 VP for Croat and Hungary in loyalty, 12 VP for Fronts on the map (Balkan 5, Romanian 4, Italian 3), 11 VP for Polish and Carpathian removed, and 4 National Will.
This is stated as a "Strategic Victory."
This game takes about twice as long as Soviet Dawn for me to play, despite having the same number of cards. Probably because I don't know the rules as well.
Hapsburg Eclipse Blunders
Italian Advances past Udine require rolling less than it's battle value to advance. I have not been playing this way, hence, I've been wasting rolls on Italian Front. Bummer.
Advancing Romanian on Balkan Track which is just stupid.