I just finished my first playing of this one and it has immediately become my favorite Worthington game. It's a fascinating situation, captured elegantly, without excess chrome. Furthermore, the production values are top-notch and represent a significant step up from my other Worthington game (Victoria Cross)

We did have a number of questions regarding the combat system, which, in my opinion, is excellent, but is not one I had seen before. Battle-boards are familiar to me, but I have not seen cavalry treated in this way. From my perspective, this treatment makes the battle board so much more interesting. The role of cavalry is crucial, as is the timing of withdrawals. However, there seem to be a number of relatively uncommon situations that can arise, such as what to do if charging units destroy all opposing units, and we were very unclear how we should handle them. The designer responded swiftly to request for clarifications on Consimworld and we are now considerably clearer about how combat should proceed and are both looking forward to our next game.

In our game the Prussians opened with an attack on Dresden, which fell relatively swiftly. They then marshalled forces around Berlin, unsure in which direction they should strike next. Ultimately a force marched north to eliminate the Swedish front, and another tried to hold Dresden while the Russians marched on Konigsberg, which fell without too much of a fight. (In retrospect, as the Prussian, I should clearly have withdrawn my army from E. Prussia rather than waste it in futile attempt to delay the Tsarina's troops.). Frederick was then badly mauled by a Franco-Austrian attack on Dresden, escaping elimination but leaving most of his forces in the dead pile.

The Prussians then changed strategy, focusing now on forming a single large stack and attempting to pick off the Allies piece-meal. First the French were dispatched, then the Russians, but at that point we had to call the game.

Timing is everything in this game. If you move last in a turn and then play a low card in the next you can set-up an attack which you can then prosecute by choosing to go first on that following turn. Do it right and the opponent's forces may be too far away to reinforce the battle. This brings me to a final thing I like about the game. After revealing command cards both players then indicate the units they are going to activate (i.e. before either side actually moves). This gives considerable scope for bluff, and forces difficult choices upon the players as they decide whether they should spend one of their precious command points to activate a leader that might to react to a possible threat (instead of spending that point on a valuable reinforcement, for example).

In summary, I was very impressed by my first playing. From my perspective, the combat rules could have been written a little more comprehensively, but that shouldn't detract from what was, and I expect will continue to be, a great gaming experience. Recommended.