Hapsburg Eclipse (9)

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Hapsburg Eclipse is on my Dime list and a candidate for my overall H-index and wargame-specific H-index. While it might never be a member of the overall H-index, getting it to Dime is prequisite for gaining either list, so it's time to knock out a game.

Fortunately, it's a game which I can play intermittently while doing other things, like chores.

Also, I'm just itching to get back to Lord of the Rings card game, but I really want to knock out the Dime. Since Lord of the Rings is harder for me to play intermittently (because it sucks me in so hard), I need to get these two dimes done for jumping back into that.

I think I've won this game one time only. I'll be happy if I can get through 17 cards, which seems to be my average.

  1. 09 Battle of the Falkland Islands. Defeat. Advance Carpathian, Hungarian Support -1. Actions fail. Not an auspicious start. NW -1.

  2. 10 German 9th Army. Nothing happens and both actions fail.

  3. 03 Battle of Cer. Victory. Carpathian pushed back to 5. Purchase DRM +1.

  4. 15 Treaty of London. Croat -2 Support. All actions fail. So far this game, I've had 1 successful action. Time to change dice. NW -3.

  5. 12 Battle of Dogger Bank. Victory. Action: Croat Support -1.

  6. 19 Battle of Ctesiphon. Defeat. Croat Support -2. Action fails. NW -2.

  7. 34 Hungarian Food Shortages. Croat Support -1. NW -3.

  8. 08 Battle of Lodz. Victory. Czech Support -2. Polish pushed back to space 3. NW -1. Looking a bit better.

  9. 14 Gallipolli Campaign. Defeat. Carpathian pushed back to space 5. NW 0. Huzzah.

  10. 35 German Aid. Action fails. NW 0.

  11. 16 Mackensen Takes Command. Czech Support -1. Polish back to space 4. NW 0.

  12. 27 Provisional Government Takes Charge. Italians advance. Italians pushed back. NW 0.

  13. 20 StrafExpedition. Czech Support -2. All 3 actions fail. NW -2.

  14. 07 Drina Campaign. Defeat. Polish and Carpathian pushed back. NW -1.

  15. 13 Czechoslovak Legion. Czech went into revolt but was pushed back, Carpathian pushed back. NW -1. This was almost really, really bad. Used a couple of markers to get the die roll.

  16. 17 Bulgaria Joins the War. Placed Bulgarian Trench Line.

  17. 11 Putnik Reclaims Belgrade. Defeat. Probably should have used the helper markers for this one. Italian and Carpathian pushed back. NW -3.

  18. 02 Drive into Galicia. Polish pushed back. NW -4.

  19. 33 Battle of Passchendaele. Victory. Carpathian pushed back to space 5. NW -1.

  20. 05 Battle of Tannenberg. Victory. Polish and Carpathian pushed back. NW 0.

  21. 04 Battle of Mons. Defeat. Polish and Italian pushed back. Too little too late probably. NW -1.

    I think I've been forgetting to count the Revolts, so all of the NW above which is below Croat in revolt should be +1 from given value.

  22. 01 Second Army out of Position. NW -5. Bad, very bad.

  23. 21 Brusilov Offensive. Carpathian advanced 2 spaces past Prem. There is no way for me to get it back to get the Russia Tires Victory marker. Hungarian Revolt. Actions: Hungarian Support back to -2. Polish pushed back to Space 2. NW -6 game over.

AAR

As per usual in this game, collapse seems to come very quickly. I probably should have played my helpful markers earlier, instead of saving them for something "important."

I have supposedly won this once. I have that written up. I should read through it. I'm betting I probably made a mistake in the game play somewhere, which was in my favor. An alternate reason could be I'm making mistakes in game play against my favor now. Or I just roll super crappy dice.

My hunch is that most of the battles need to be won. As in, 2/3 of them or more.

I have been playing this incorrectly: The Premszyl Fortress must be reduced (captured) for the double Strategic Site to be scored.

This was a mistaken loss. Possibly one or more of my other games was mistakenly lost as well. Playing this correctly will almost certainly increase the number of cards I get through per game.

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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.