Hapsburg Eclipse VII

Jan 10 2017

Tags

For whatever reason, I seem to have difficulty getting all the rules straight for these States of Siege games, all two of them I've played. I'd like to actually fairly beat Hapsburg Eclipse, or at least understand how to win. I think I won an earlier game, but played messed up some rules in my favor, can't recall, it's probably logged here.

The following game will take place over several days, I'm playing a few cards after work every day, no hurry.

My goals for this game are to really dig into the rules, and to get the Resource +1 counters on the board ASAP.

Let's flip a card and get started.

06 Russian Cipher Cracked. Croat advances. Spend 2 actions to place +1 DRM in Western Theater.
03 Battle of Cer (defeat). Trigger Croat (no advance), advance Carpathian but repel advance on single action. Purchase another +1 DRM.
02 Drive into Galicia. Since this is -1 on all offensives, picked up another +1 DRM with the 2 actions.
09 Battle of the Falkland Islands (lost). Carpathian now at Premesyl. Turns out I have been playing it wrong, the Fortress doesn't count as occupied unless it's completely reduced. So I don't lose the victory points right away.
35 German Aid` +2 markers. Carpathian stays on Prem.
04 Battle of Mons (lost), no successful offensives.
15 Treaty of London. War Status moved, add Day cards, place Italians. Carpathians advance, but get beaten back to London.
10 German 9th Army. Polish and Carpathian offensives succeed.
25 Death of Franz Josef. Purchase another Resource counter. I'm starting to skate on thin ice here, need to start adjusting loyalties back, or, winning some battles.
21 Brusilov Offensive. Hungarians go into revolt. This needs to be solved as it puts -1 DRM on Carpathian, which I need to get back to Premesyl to get the Russia Tires victory. One offensive canceled with Radio Intercepts. Hungarians stay in revolt with a roll of 2 on Loyalty. Carpathian offensive with +1 ahead of Prem, +2 German Aid, -1 Hungarian Revolt, net +2, rolled a natural 6. I'm at -4 National Will, this is not good, I need to win some battles to get it back up.
18 Von Lettow-Vorbeck (won). Czech revolt, squashed. Hungarian revolt squashed. Prem reduced to 2/3. National Will -2. Need to send the Italians back before they get stronger, they're two advances from Vienna.
12 Battle of Dogger Bank (lost). Czech into revolt.
05 Battle of Tannenberg (win). Czech revolt squashed. Carpathian offensive succeeds. National Will -3.
26 Fighting in the Trentino (lost). Rolled natural 1 on Italian Offensive, not good. Technically, with the collapse of Prem, I've lost the game right here with a -7 National Will.
08 Battle of Lodz (won). Winning Lodz and pushing Carpathian back one space puts me at NW -5.

I'm going to call the game here though. It got off to a rough start, I didn't win any of the first several battles, so I've been in a hole the entire game.

Final Score

I always forget to score these games, so I'm writing up the final score paragraph before starting the game so that I'll remember it this time.

35 cards left in to play.
NW -7

Score 42, a Crushing Defeat. Boo.

Actually, collapse of National Will is automatically a crushing defeat, but that's how I usually lose this game.

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.