From: Roberto Chiavini <mumaye@libero.it> 
Subject: Two more reviews 

Twilight of the Hapsburgs (Strategy & Tactics)

I was aspecting this game with curiosity and trepidation, like several
other wargamers here in Italy: in a period of great expansion for the
simulation designs regarding WWI, it was really interesting to see a
game on the forgotten Italian front of the Great War. But my great
expectations turned very fast in an almost total disappointment. I
didn't like the game.

And in this review I'll try to let you see the whys of this harsh
judgment on this game.

Graphics are good, but not particularly so: standard for a magazine game
of a few years ago, probably not fantastic for today's ones. 

Rules are simple and very fast to understand for any grognard out there:
each unit is rated for attack - defense - movement, with a mobile and an
entrenched side (the back of the unit, with values only for defense - as
an entrenched unit may not move nor have offensive combat).

HQs have also a radius over which they exert their command effects
(important only in letting units inside this range having a second
movement and combat phase).

Each turn starts with an events phase (roll two dice and read the result
on the special table), followed by the Austrian player turn
(reinforcement, first impulse - reorganize, move, have combat, and
second impulse - like the former, but only for units inside HQ range)
and the Allied player turn. This sequence is used both in the Caporetto
and in the Piave scenario, while in the third scenario of the game,
Vittorio Veneto, Allies move first.

The game has the usual rules for rail movement, ZOCs (semi-fluid,
passable only by a few special units - mountain, assault troops, etc.),
three different CRTs and a plethora of specific rules for each scenario.

I've played the Caporetto scenario and I have obtained a complete win
with the Italians in practice at the end of turn 1! Yes, I didn't have
any luck with my Austrian die rolls (I've played solo), obtaining 5 "1"
in a total of 6 attacks!! But apart from statistic considerations, the
CRTs are terribly bloody and attacking it's almost a suicide: if, as in
my case (yes, it's almost a limit but could happen), the Austrian player
dilapidates his starting bonus wasting his rolls, he loses at the end of
his impulse, as the entrenched positions are almost impenetrable.

I don't know if all the scenarios suffer from the same kind of
limitations (apart from the bad luck with my die rolls, I really don't
like the conformation of the CRTs, too harsh on the attacker - yes, it's
historical, but it's definitely not fun to play), but I think that, as
it stands, the game is not really interesting nor for competitive play
(with a normal luck, the Italians would have been forced, as it happened
historically, to a hurrying retreat toward the Piave river, and probably
the Austrian player would have won), nor for a solitaire study of the
campaign (there are more specific rules than standard ones in a game of
such low complexity, and this is in my personal opinion a design flaw).

I rate this game 5 in a 1-10 scale.