Bargain-basement Balkan bloodshed

I breakfasted in the Balkans this morning courtesy of Wars Across The World’s latest DLC. Bulgaria 1913 translates the brief and complicated Second Balkan War into a dirt-cheap seventeen-turn digital board game. Halfway through my first playthrough, I’m simultaneously battling the Greeks, the Serbs, and the Turks, and finding the going pleasingly tough.

Midway between ‘overwhelming’ and ‘miserly’, the unit and region count in B13 feels just about perfect. Bulgaria’s unenviable position at the start (enemies and potential foes surround the young kingdom) guarantee the first few turns are eventful.

My ahistorical choice of PM on turn #1 meant my forces couldn’t swan into Greece. I lunged westward narrowly ‘liberating’ Skopje instead. Taking advantage of my Serbian offensive, the Greeks promptly bustled me out of a couple of ‘disputed’ regions next to my mountainous southern border.

During the following eight turns, I lost ground (including valuable Skopje) to well-organised Coalition counter-offensives, but, after several close-run scraps, eventually managed to expel most invaders from southwestern Bulgaria. Things were looking promising until, on turn 9, an event card triggered a Turkish invasion across the undefended Enos-Midia line.

Can I stop Ottoman forces fired-up by bitter memories of the First Balkan War, without fatally weakening my tenuous hold on Macedonia? I plan to find out over breakfast tomorrow.