FRIEDRICH
Reviews and opinions for
|
Boardgamegeek (BGG) http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/12891 Boardgamegeek is a website built on top of a large database of boardgames of all kinds. Every game in the database of more than 20.000 games gets its own page, where users of the site can post pictures, reviews, session reports, ratings, general comments. Some tools of boardgamegeek can only be used after costfree registration. Westpark Gamers (Munich) Lee Brimmicombe-Wood
I have to echo Charles on Friedrich. By the second game turn we were all looking at each other knowing we'd stumbled across The Real Deal.
It has a game system that seems to have had everything unnecessary boiled away, leaving a tiny, perfect set of rules that never once led us false. (When we made an error, it was because we were wrong, not the rules.) As a treatment of pre-industrial warfare it appears to hit the spot. Charles kept calling it 'baroque' throughout, and it had that strange sense of energy and inertia in which you only engaged when you felt you held the advantage to do so. Campaigns were highly positional in which each side tried to unhinge the other without fighting, and battle frequencies felt right. The battles when they came could be epic and exciting. The combat system is so clever it hurts.
The Prussians are buggers to play and the Austrians pulled off a nifty victory after they finally pinned down my armies in Silesia. This is very very good. It played fast - is maybe a three to four hour game - and is very flavoursome. (We particularly enjoyed Frederick's pontifications on his tobacco habit.)
I think we all wanted to play this again. I suspect it'll get several playings in the Vasey household.
Pat Kairns
I played my 3rd game of Friedrich last night with 2 newbies (my wife and my daughter) and my son-in-law who played once before. What a game, although the girls found it a bit long. The game was a massive struggle. Freddy played very conservatively; probably too much so; gathering a stack of cards almost the size of a full deck. Many close, tense battles with Russia and Austria. Not major affairs, just enough to keep the factions on their toes. France had quite an easy time with Hannover early, but those 2 light blue armies kept on coming back! For a while I thought I was fighting the Energizer Bunny!!
Finally, after much cajoling, Austria and Russia launched major offensives against Prussia to free Friedrich of as many cards as we could. Getting the Card of Fate that reduced Prussia's card draw to 5/turn really started to hamper Freddy's abilities. 3 or 4 large battles later, Austria needed 2 cities to win, Russia 3,Imperial Army 2, and France 1...Sweden had been blown out of the game by a Card of Fate! After the dust cleared in the East (Russia/Austria), France made one large concerted push for the last Red city in the Southwest corner of Prussia by pushing Prussia back beyond control range and won the game by a subsequent conquest. Freddy was really low on cards now.
We had a wonderful time. We played a total of about 5 hours, at a leisurely pace, including teaching the ladies. The girls enjoyed the game for sure, but as I said, they thought it was a bit long. We should have played it with them on a Sunday afternoon instead of a Friday night. All the guys I'ved played the game with just can't get enough and want to play all the time! This was my first completed game, and I tell you if I had 2-3 people here right now (10:30 Saturday morning) I'd be playing and not typing this!!! BUY THIS GAME!!!!
Christophe Sancy
|
