Have also able to get in a couple of games of Hapsburg Eclipse (HE), the “sister” game to Ottoman Sunset (OS).  Been trying to work up a stand-alone review, but these games are so similar physically and mechanically that I’ll just cover salient differences.  Must not be alone in this.  No reviews in BoardGameGeek, but plenty of comments.

The Austrian have to fight on the Carpathian, Romanian, Polish, Italian and Balkan fronts.   Three battles in Serbia are considered Out of Theatre and handled the same way as battles in Europe or the Near East, with defeats or victories effecting National Will.

The Hapsburg player receives three Radio Intercept tokens which can stop enemy advances.  German aide is more extensive in his game.  Besides providing staff DRMs, five Mackensen counters allow the player to take the higher of two dice rolls. Would you mess with him?

Another interesting aspect is  the Hapsburg player can literally “shut down” the Polish front by trading victories or actions to initiate the historical Russian “Great Retreat” from Poland.

The biggest difference is that Event cards have an additional “Trigger” section indicating which of three nationalities (Croat, Czech, Hungarian) must be checked (no pun) for loyalty.  On a roll lower than the loyalty rating, the nationality moves closer to revolt.  When a nationality is in revolt, there is a negative DRM for specified fronts.  If all three are in revolt at the same time…game over

I really like the addition of this aspect to the game.  It’s historically relevant and creates more a lot more tension.

Again, a fun and challenging game.  At some point I’ll link them up and try the campaign.  Here’s another trailer (trash) photo of the map.  This one is  a bad defeat.  I left too many Mackensen chits on the table, and those foreign defeats didn’t help either.