{"id":3579,"date":"2005-08-12T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-08-12T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2005\/08\/12\/friedrich-2\/"},"modified":"2005-08-12T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-08-12T10:00:00","slug":"friedrich-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2005\/08\/12\/friedrich-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Friedrich"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friedrich<\/a><\/h2>\n

reviewed by Moritz Eggert<\/i><\/p>\n

In the last years there was a definite trend to “Europeanize” American board
\ngame concepts. Prominent recent examples are games like “Age of Mythology” (a
\nwargame\/Puerto Rico-hybrid) and “Bootleggers” (American “theme”,
\nEuro-game concepts and game length) by Eagle games. So it was only to be expected that
\nthe trend might be reversed, that European (in this case German) game designers are
\ntempted by American concepts (in this case the historical wargame genre, practically
\nunheard of in German produced games). Of course this has happened before, but rarely was
\nthe attempt so successful as in “Friedrich” by Histogame.<\/p>\n

The game takes place in one of the more interesting periods of European history –
\nFriedrich the Great’s solitary defence of Prussia against enemies from all sides: The
\nFrench, the Austrians, The Swedish, The Russians and the “Reichsarmee”.
\n“Friedrich” attempts successfully to bridge the gap between a detailed but
\ncomplicated and long wargame, and a playable but still historic “Eurogame”.<\/p>\n

One player represents Prussia and its wimpy ally, Hanover; two or three other players
\nrepresent France, Russia and Austria. The smaller factions (Sweden and Reichsarmee) can
\nchange owner depending on the game-setup or the game situation.<\/p>\n

The board is very large and consists of a layer of hundreds of dots (cities and
\nvillages) connected by lines, vaguely reminiscent of the boring travelling games like
\n“Deutschlandreise” that we played as kids. The topography is very complicated,
\nand even after several games you will overlook certain connections. But exactly this is
\nwhat makes the map so beautiful and intriguing!<\/p>\n

The factions either are in their own countries and always supplied (like the
\nPrussians), or are travelling in large armies (like the Russians or the French) in
\nunsupportive countries. The various colour codes used in the game are usually good, the
\nonly problem (in bad light) is recognizing the difference between the light yellow
\nReichsarmee-objectives or the grey Austrian objectives.<\/p>\n

\"cards\"\/<\/p>\n

The factions all get a number of “generals” (pawns) and “Trosse”
\n(supply trains). Each country also has a set number of “armies”, represented
\nsimply by numbers that are allocated secretly to each general. A general (all the
\nhistoric leaders are represented) needs at least 1 army to “exist” and is
\neliminated when he loses the last one. Only when armies are eliminated they can be
\nreplaced, so each faction has a set strength that can never be surpassed.<\/p>\n

The most important mechanic in the game is the cards, at first glance an ordinary set
\nof playing cards coming in 4 suits and 2 jokers (there are 4 decks that are run through
\nin succession, to assure a relatively equal distribution). Each faction gets a set number
\nof cards each turn (this number can change trough events, but doesn’t vary
\nwildly).<\/p>\n

On the board there are sectors (squares) that correspond to the colours of the suits.
\nThe idea is simple: an army attacking or defending while residing in a certain “suit
\nsector” can only use cards with that suit. As the players know their cards they will
\nusually try to move their armies to positions of advantage, but of course that’s not
\nalways possible. You might want to defend a spade area but be weak in spades, for
\nexample. The combat system itself is very simple, it is basically an open bidding process
\nwith players using the cards as a kind of money, once a player can’t play the suit
\nanymore (or chooses not to) he loses armies in the amount of the difference between his
\nbid and the other player’s bid. If his general still lives, his pawn is moved the
\nsame number of spaces away from the winner, decided by the winner, usually resulting in
\nthe army being out of supply the next turn, as armies are only supplied when in their
\nhome country or within 6 spaces of supply train. Unsupplied armies can function normally
\nthe next turn, but are eliminated if they are still unsupplied at the end of this
\nturn.<\/p>\n

Of course fighting a massive battle usually means being depleted of a certain suit –
\nthe next player in turn will then try to exactly attack in this suit, but of course this
\nis not always possible.<\/p>\n

The battles are necessary to conquer “objectives” – a faction that can
\nconquer all of it’s objectives wins the game! Generals “protect” objectives
\nnot further away then 3 spaces, which means that even if you move over these objectives,
\nthey are not conquered. Beating an army can result in retroactive conquests of already
\npassed over objectives, an interesting mechanic.<\/p>\n

The game ends through an artificial mechanic that introduces event cards at the end of
\nthe 6th turn and every turn thereafter. These events either give minor advantages to
\ndifferent players, or reduce or raise the number of cards they draw, and finally remove
\none attacking nation after the other from the game (this is when ownership of Reichsarmee
\nand Sweden switch to keep the players whose nation was terminated in the game. These
\nplayers can still win!). If Friedrich survives, he wins, but he never knows how long he
\nhas to persevere.<\/p>\n

This mechanic is historical (all the events are based on actual events) but of course
\nit also brings a certain element of luck in the game.<\/p>\n

Friedrich has a huge advantage at the beginning, he gets 7 cards, Hanover 2, whereas
\nFrance gets 3, Russia 4, and Austria 5, and both minor factions only 1. Individually no
\nnation stands a chance against Prussia, but the longer the game goes on the bigger the
\nnumerical advantage will become, especially if the smaller nations bide their time
\ninstead of attacking immediately. Prussia has to move her armies into well-defended
\npositions, constantly avoiding to get overrun, as bringing new armies into play is
\ncostly, and armies move very slowly on the map. The other factions rather have a
\n“motivational” problem: As each of them is weaker than the Prussians, the will
\nto attack first is rather small, as usually your partners will benefit more of the
\ndepletion of Prussian resources than you, as you will have to slowly build up your power
\nagain after a hard-fought battle. On the other hand Friedrich can’t allow enemy
\nnations to build up their hands – if they hoard cards he has<\/b> to attack them to use
\nhis advantage! France, although having a rather boring position on the map and little to
\ndo, has the advantage of being pitted against Hanover instead of heartland Prussia, which
\nis considerably easier. The well-rounded Prussia player has to take note of this, though,
\nand send additional forces to defend Hanover, a fact that benefits the two other
\nnations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Characteristics<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Playing time:<\/td>\n150+ minutes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Explaining the rules:<\/td>\n5-10 minutes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Downtime:<\/td>\nhigh, if Prussia plays it slow<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Excitement factor:<\/td>\nhigh, lots of tense and close battles that play very quickly<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Brain:<\/td>\nrequired!<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Luck:<\/td>\nconsiderable, but not overpowering<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Best trait:<\/td>\ndelivers a fresh concept in a wonderfully simple package<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

“Friedrich” is a very subtle kingmaker game, as the decisions of Friedrich
\nbasically decide who will win the game. To win with Friedrich is very hard, but you
\ndecide where the action is. If you concentrate on one front you basically make it easier
\nfor the enemies on the other side of the board. But there is one trait that saves
\n“Friedrich” from being an unbalanced wargame, and that is it’s “card
\nshark” element. The basic mechanic is so beautifully simple and elegant that the
\ngamer never bogs down. The rules are covered in little more than 5 pages, and once they
\nare understood the game can be explained to newbies in as little as 5-10 minutes.
\nBluffing, hand management and simple gaming joy in a light historical context are the
\nmain assets of “Friedrich”, and they make the game a winner. The game also
\neasily adapts to 3 players, is in fact especially playable with that number of players
\n(the distribution of forces is much more equal in the 3-player game).<\/p>\n

“Friedrich” can appeal to the strict Eurogamer, the serious wargamer or even
\nthe history buff. It is longish in playing time, and the game can become kind of slow if
\nthe “Friedrich” player is inexperienced (always let the most experienced player
\nplay Friedrich!), but it still plays amazingly quick for a game of its scope.
\n“Friedrich” is a labour of love by the game designer, and it is clear that he
\nspend years honing the game design and balancing it, and the work shows off. As it is the
\ngame can be fully recommended, it is much more interesting than it looks at first glance!
\nA next edition could use a different system then writing the armies down, though, it
\nwould be nice to have counters or pawns for the armies, and to position them behind a
\nscreen, like in “Samurai Swords” (“Shogun”). But players can easily
\nfind their own solutions here.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friedrich reviewed by Moritz Eggert In the last years there was a definite trend to “Europeanize” American board game concepts. Prominent recent examples are games like “Age of Mythology” (a wargame\/Puerto Rico-hybrid) and “Bootleggers” (American “theme”, Euro-game concepts and game length) by Eagle games. So it was only to be expected that the trend might … Friedrich<\/span> weiterlesen →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spieleabende"],"views":6,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3579\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}