Ottoman Sunset (4)

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I’m considering putting Ottoman Sunset into rotation to build up a number of plays. Not sure how many plays I want to target, but I’m thinking around 10 for this round. We’ll see how it goes. I have some Lord of the Rings LCG scenarios I want to beat this fall as well.

  1. 04 Enver to the Front. Push Caucasus back.

  2. 02 Goeben Dominates Black Sea. Purchase Resources for Eastern Theater.

  3. 01 Intelligence Bureau of the East. Place Nagara in The Narrows.

  4. 09 Armenian Volunteer Units. Buy another Resource.

  5. 12 Gorlice-Tarnow. Use Resource and roll 5 for Victory, Purchase Dardanos emplacement, fight in Caucasus roll 6, place Yildiz emplacement. NW 1.

  6. 19 Senussi Revolt. Roll 4 against Mesopotamia, roll Caucasus back to 4.

  7. 10 Second Battle of Ypres. Defeat. Sinai is sticking nicely behind the lack of pipeline. Super helpful. NW 0.

  8. 18 Bulgaria Joins the Central Powers. Sinai still pinned. Roll 2 against Mesopotamia, fail.

  9. 17 Grand Duke Nicholas Takes Control. Roll 2, 4 push Mesopotamia back to 3. Emplace last minefield.

  10. 05 Ghadar Conspiracy. Coup in India succeeds, NW 1. Roll 6 against Caucasus, roll 3 against Mesopotamia.

  11. 03 Jihad Declared. Mid-day cards go in. Three failed rolls against Mesopotamia, even with the +1 DRM. That’s bad luck for sure.

  12. 23 Sinai Pipeline. Shuffle in the Dusk deck. Yeehaw.

  13. 34 Yildirim (Thunderbolt). Roll 1 against Caucasus. Looking not so good here. I should have a couple more Resources in play rather than worrying about the Narrows. I’m doing better than the last game though.

  14. 31 The Somme. Victory! Really helps. Roll 4 to push Caucasus back to space 3 Van. NW 2. Need to get moving on Mesopotamia.

  15. 37 King Constantine Flees Greece. Roll 1, 1, and 3 against Caucasus. This is bad. I’ll use Yildirim to negate Mesopotamia.

  16. 43 Bolshevik Revolution. Roll 4, 2 against Mesopotamia.

  17. 40 Lawrence Stirs the Arabs. Roll 3 against Mesopotamia.

  18. 24 Gallipoli Evacuation. Acquire another Resource for Eastern Theater.

  19. 45 Sykes-Picot Agreement Revealed. Sinai and Arab fronts pushed back.

  20. 14 German U-boats in the Mediterranean. Purchase Resource.

  21. 30 Asia Korps. Roll against Mesopotamia, 3, 2, 1, pushed back Ctesiphon. Not bad. National Will is 2, still have more than half the deck to get through, but this is my best play so far.

  22. 15 Armenian Massacres. Roll 3,2,1 against Sinai, bad. NW 1.

  23. 20 Landings at Salonika. Salonika enters play. Roll 2 against Sinai.

  24. 32 Arab Revolt. Sinai back to Gaza-Beersheba.

  25. 27 Mesopotamian Siege. NW 3. Looking better.

  26. 21 Central Powers Meddling in Afghanistan. Coup succeeds! Move intelligence to Persia. Roll 4, 2 on Sinai, push back to Gaza-Beersheba. I’m more than half through the decks. NW 4.

  27. 07 Turkish Minelaying. Sinai back to El-Arish. Need to remember Salonika, lurking in space 3 Monastir.

  28. 16 Suvla Landing. Fail Salonika, Sinai. Bummer.

  29. 11 Gallipoli Landings. Offensives against Sinai and Salonika fail.

  30. 22 Fortification of Gaza-Beersheba Line. Cannot place fort, Murray controls that space. Offensives: Salonika succeeds, Sinai fails.

  31. 39 Allenby Take the Helm. This is bad, Sinai flips to 4. Offensives against Sinai fails; Arab succeeds.

  32. 38 U-boat Campaign. Fail bigly. Offensives against Sinai fails, fails again, suceeds.

  33. 44 Balfour Declaration. Offensives against Sinai fails, against Arab succeeds.

  34. 49 Vittorio Venetto. Defeat! Everything is advancing, bummer. Offensives against Gallipoli succeeds, Salonika succeeds, Arab succeeds. Whew! Close one! NW 3.

  35. 46 Kaiserschlacht. Spend 2 for Resources into Western Front. Offensives against Gallipoli succeeds, Arab succeeds, KS: succeeds.

  36. 26 Verdun. Defeat! Offensive Mesopotamia succeeds. KS: defeat NW 2.

  37. 29 Brusilov Offensive. Stalemate. Salonika offensive fails. KS: fails.

  38. 41 War Weariness. Bummer. Sinai advances. NW 0. 11 more cards to go. KS: Stalemate.

  39. 47 Army of Islam. Offensives Arab fails; Sinai fails; Mesopotamia succeeds. NW -1.

  40. 36 Sandstorms. Mesopotamia retreats. Offensives for Arab fails, German Staff Op, roll 6 for Arab back to Damascus. KS: fail. NW -2.

  41. 06 Wassmuss in Persia. Coup succeeds. Arab offensive succeeds. KS: fails. NW -1.

  42. 33 Yudenich Named Commander-in-Chief. Offensives Arab fails, fails. KS: fails. Not looking good, this might be curtains…NW -4 and that’s the game.

A National Will collapse is a Crushing Defeat.

Still, not bad.

I’m going to put this up for a while. Not sure I want to bring it into rotation right now. Would like to finish a few other games I have already underway, and get back to LotR for a while. I can see myself picking this up again at some point. Given further thought, I may end up picking just one of the States of Siege games and just mastering it, and it will likely be Soviet Dawn.

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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.