The Great Crisis of Frederick II - another board wargame played solo

Got this title from VUCA Simulations back on to table and played through solo to completion over couple of evenings.

A very visually attractive game (a VUCA trait) with low rules overhead and point to point system.

It is very much a dice fest style game with massed units (limit of 8 units making a move but no limits to 'stacking' in an area) in Field Battles hurling bunches of dice needing 6 to hit (Leaders can add +1 to +3 to chances) so can be large swings in fortune which is fine in solo-mode but might not be so desirable in face to face play.

Units are all generic 'Infantry' with 2 steps with reverse side being Damaged status (cannot be used in Field Battles only Siege Defence) that can be restored. Units that are destroyed go into a Force Pool but Leaders killed are permanently lost.

Forts can be besieged and these can be tough to take (especially with my rolling) as only 6 hits (Leaders do not modify) although they only ever have a garrison of 1 or 2 units depending on Fort type.

It is a chit pull system (nations have varied amount of chits in pool) with an End Turn chit that came up very frequently in my game even when chit pool at its max (2 Prussian 2 British, 1 French, 1 Russian (just as well as there a ton of Ivans) and 2 Austrian which also controls the minor Swedish, Saxon and Holy Roman Empire forces). Prussia starts with its 2 chits and other nations appear within first several turns giving Frederick a brief window of initiative/opportunity at game start.

When (if) a nations chit is pulled they roll a dice to establish action points they can spend to restore losses, move and fight or continue an ongoing siege with any retreats conducted previously deducting from this total. Prussians get an inherent +2 to this roll

There are 2 small decks of cards for Prussian (Prussia with Britain/Hannover) and Austrian Alliances (Austria, minor nations and France and Russia - although from 1762 Russia can changes side if Catherine dies by dice roll) to use, these have various impacts on proceedings (modifiers to combat and similar).

Turns are conducted by having 5 possible turns each year (bar first which as only 2) with a Winter phase (during which off-table reserves are mobilized and besieging armies can suffer attrition losses) ending each year. So there can be a lot of possible activity barring the End Turn chit appearing and game could take awhile as some 32 possible turns with 7 Winter phases.

Resource cities are key to game with their loss or capture influencing size of card hand and victory with Prussia under real pressure as they lose if they lose 2 resource areas (from possible 10) or 1 plus Berlin at end of any enemy phase.

Frederick is best leader in game (the only +3 leader) and has some unique combat cards only he can use but he cannot be everywhere and subject vagaries of dice like all lesser mortals.

The Austrians and their allies are more numerous than Fredericks Alliance but with only 1 chit the Russians often fail to act in a turn which showcases their ponderous methods quite well.

My game ended in 1761 with Austrians taking Berlin and having recovered a couple of lost resource areas to force Prussia into surrender.

Overall a fast playing and simple game, nice as a solo experience but lacking depth and rather lucktastic in many regards. Frederick needs to fairly lucky with chit pulls and dicing but then I suppose he also did so in reality.