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Defeat Prussia before the Tsarina dies! Or be Frederick the Great and struggle for survival with a mixture of courageous willpower, sudden inspiration and stoic patience.
It is the summer of 1756. On the eve of the Seven Years War, half of Europe has formed an alliance. Frederick the Great is in deep sorrow: Is the annihilation of Prussia planned? Is it Prussia's defeat or is it Prussia's glory?
All against one – but only one will reign supreme. On a map of Old Europe, players maneuver their generals from city to city. Frederick must retain a part of each Prussian province, while the attacking powers savagely seek out their objectives. The clever use of tactical cards is decisive to winning.
Histogame and Richard Sivél present Friedrich as a novel concept uniting the fascination of board and card games. Accurately based on history while maintaining a slim set of rules, Friedrich offers wide open spaces for chess-like moves and great depth for decision making. Taken into Frederick's era, you will reflect on tactical finesses, smile about interspersed anecdotes, and be perplexed at how often you are not able to count to three...
Note: A common misconception is that Friedrich has player elimination based on the cards of fate making countries leave the game. The game does not have player elimination; it has country elimination, and a player could end up controlling fewer countries than they started with, but players are never eliminated by the cards of fate.
Friedrich FAQ
Details on the Jubiläumsedition
In 2011 Histogame released a slightly revised version of Friedrich, dubbed the "Jubiläumsedition" or "Anniversary Edition" in honor of Friedrich's 300th birthday. Designer Richard Sivél notes the following differences between this edition and earlier ones:
New cover art.
Four color images for the patterns of the cards.
Small rearrangements of cities on the map, such as Falkenau (in northwestern Austria) moving into the spades sector and Gollnow (close to Stettin) getting a diamonds-city neighbor.
Minor adjustment of some fate cards to clarify the wording.
More details: on this webpage
- Fantastic game
- Packs a huge punch
- A bit of a longer game, maybe about three to four hours
- Warfare
- Seven Years War
- Maria
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area Control — They're trying to capture objectives before their enemies can.
- Card Play — You're playing cards, you know, suit cards. And the the there's grids throughout the board that have those suits on them. So, you can only play those suits in those those areas.
- event cards — Then, of course, you have events come out, different historical events...
- Hidden Strength — You kind of write down how what your strength is on each of your armies secretly.
- Variable player powers — One of you is Frederick the Great and Prussia, but then you also have the French, the Holy Roman Empire, the Russians...
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- This is a great war game set in the Seven Years War.
- You can only play those suits in those those areas.
- This is a great game about the American Revolution.
- The die is just as likely to hurt you as to hurt the enemy um or cause you to retreat.
- It's a very accessible, very easy game to get into, but it still packs a huge punch.
- This is, I think, one of the only games, if not the only game on this list that is a dedicated campaign game.
- I'm not a huge fan of campaign games generally. I'm just I'm not. But I love this one.
References (from this video)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- The real ingenuity of this game is how the resources are acquired.
- So much going on, it really feels like it's paying tribute to all of the games that you find inside of it.
- This really is six-player solitaire.
- for an engine builder worth $200, it just isn't doing anything that another 30 or $40 engine builder can't do.
References (from this video)
- Fascinating game
- Takes top dog place on this list over Maria
- Supply lines are easily broken
- War
- Maria
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area Control — Try and take over a certain number of strongholds.
- Card play combat — Uses a bog standard set of playing cards but you can only use the suit of the playing card in the section of the board where you have troops.
- Supply lines — Try and keep your troops and your army supplied with supply lines which are easily broken by the opposition.
- war game — A very very simple war game on the surface.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- If you're struggling to keep up with the level of intense boredom in this series of videos you are free to live there's a [__] door over there just walk through it yeah it's not that difficult
- Russian railroads is notoriously difficult to get hold of
- Who would have thought that the German elections would be this engrossing
- Friedrich is like a sort of a bug standard war game with a twist right
- 1812 invasion of Canada is one of the most simple war games and also one of the most enjoyable war games that you can get
- This game uses a soundtrack did come with something called a CD which for people that are under the age of 25 was like an MP3 that had been baked onto a piece of plastic with a hole in it
- Terror mystica looks like dog [__] on the outside but there's loads and loads of strategy on the inside
- Coconut's one of the best dexterity games of all time some people say this is a toy in which case I say you can shove that dildo up be bum bum
- It's the human beings that are the greatest threat in this game
- if this is making your brain bleed come back next time to listen to my monotone droning voice waffle on about another 10 ball games that you probably haven't played