I'm going to give it another Go. Raise the AI, mind the terrain, and play conservatively. Maybe that's the key. The Bulgarians did lose, so it shouldn't be THAT tough to beat them!

I was saddened to learn that Namibia was not only winnable by the Germans, but easy to win. It should have been nigh-impossible! But they made the Boer Rebellion way too big/powerful as an add-on to the Germans.

The terrain definitely favors defense in that hilly region which should have helped you as the defending alliance. That is amazing who both got whipped from the opposite sides. Maybe it means the Ai is radically better than both of us. Or the cardplay played a factor.

That is truly surprising! I have only played the Allies so far, and got crushed. I could see the Bulgarians rapidly running out of steam later on, but early days I had to defend in place or just lose all my Serbs and Montenegrans. And somehow, my Greeks (as tough as they looked) got spanked as well. Maybe the terrain just favors defense? More play/research is required!

I played Bulgaria in Wars across World and got shredded. I was attacking on a 1 or 2 roll with 2hp against the badguys who had 3 or 4 roll plus 3 hp so I had no chance. Then they counterattacked and Greece rolled north into Bulgaria. We got a decisive thrashing for our ill-planned attack.

https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/1292020/Armoured_Commander_II/

Strategic Command: World at War is extremely good game too along with that WW1 game, and the AI is very strong. I like to play as either Germany/Italy or Japan with the other set to AI control and it does a really good job. The war in China is a fun grinding war, but once the allies come island hopping, then Japan is hooped.unless you have Sun Tzu skills. And when the allies land in Normandy, then Germany has a nasty grinding battle to fight too like historically.