Friedrich
Close-up of board in play
Designer	Richard Sivél
Publisher	Histogame
Players	3 to 4
Age range	12 and up
Setup time	10 minutes
Playing time	3–5 hours
Rules complexity	Medium
Strategy depth	High
Random chance	Low
Skills required	Hand management, Strategic thought
US-distributors: Simmons Games,Rio Grande Games
BoardGameGeek entry

Friedrich (after the German name of Frederick II of Prussia) is a strategic board game about the events of the Seven Years' War. It was created by Richard Sivél, published in 2004 and won the prize for the Best Historical Simulation by the American GAMES magazine in 2006. Image File history File links Friedrich-Game-Board-Closeup. ... A strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal, as differentiated from tactics or immediate actions with resources at hand. ... Rio Grande Games is a publisher of German-style board games in English. ... Frederick II of Prussia (German: ; January 24, 1712 – August 17, 1786) was a king of Prussia from the Hohenzollern dynasty, reigning from 1740 to 1786. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... GAMES Magazine (ISSN 0199-9788) is a United States-based magazine devoted to games and puzzles, and is published by GAMES Publications, a division of Kappa Publishing Group. ...

Outline of the Game

Three to four players command the nations that were involved in the war: Prussia (Frederick the Great), Russia (Tsarina Elizabeth), Austria (Maria Theresa), and France (Madame de Pompadour). In addition to those, Sweden, Hanover and the Imperial Army are also part of the game. Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of Prussia, 1701-1918 Prussia (German: ; Latin: Borussia, Prutenia; Lithuanian: ; Polish: ; Old Prussian: Prūsa) was, most recently, a historic state originating in East Prussia, an area which for centuries had substantial influence on German and European history. ... Frederick II of Prussia (German: ; January 24, 1712 – August 17, 1786) was a king of Prussia from the Hohenzollern dynasty, reigning from 1740 to 1786. ... Monomakhs Cap symbol of Russian autocracy, the crown of Russian grand princes and tsars Czar and tzar redirect here. ... H.I.M. Yelizaveta Petrovna, Empress and Autocrat of all the Russias (1709-62) Yelizaveta (Yelisavet) Petrovna (Елизаве́та (Елисаве́т) Петро́вна) (December 29, 1709 - January 5, 1762), also known as Elizabeth, was an Empress of Russia (1741 - 1762) who took the country into the War of Austrian succession (1740 - 1748) and the Seven Years... Maria Theresa, Holy Roman Empress, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, Archduchess of Austria Maria Theresa (Vienna, May 13, 1717 – November 29, 1780 in Vienna) was the first and only female head of the Habsburg dynasty. ... Madame de Pompadour, portrait by François Boucher circa 1750 Madame de Pompadour, (1721 – April 15, 1764) was a well known courtesan and the famous mistress of King Louis XV of France. ...

The game is set on a map that resembles both the topography and the political situation at the time of the Seven Years' War. The players move their nations' generals and armys and struggle for dominance in Europe. Following historic reality, Prussia fights against all the other players, who try to snatch parts of Prussia's territory by capturing strategically important cities.

Also following historic reality, the course of the game is ultimately determined by events that cannot be controlled by the players: the sudden death of Tsarina Elisabeth for example, which in reality became the turning point of the war. These events are modeled by cards of fate, one of which is randomly drawn after each round. This way, the attacking nations have to quit the game one after the other. Should Prussia manage to defend itself until all of them are gone, it wins the game. Otherwise, the first attacking nation that succeeds in capturing all of its target cities in the Prussian territory is the winner.

What is noteworthy about this game is that, although the rule system is very small and simple, each of the nations has its very own character and needs to be played completely differently from all the others. Still, all the players have roughly the same chances of winning. This was achieved by elaborate statistical analysis during game development, and by delicate fine-tuning of the game's balance both in the board design and the rule system.

Events

• On July 14-16, 2006, the first Friedrich World Championship was held in Berlin, in rememberance of the 250th anniversary of the outbreak of the Seven Years' War. The first Friedrich world champion was Josef Gundel.

External links

• Friedrich official web site
• Friedrich (board game) at BoardGameGeek