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Rio Grande Games  |  SKU: RIO451

Friedrich (Anniversary Edition)

$70.95 CAD
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Description

Designer Richard Sivél
Publisher Rio Grande Games
Players 3-4
Playtime 210 mins
Suggested Age 12 and up
Honors


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. 

Details on the Jubiläumsedition

In 2011 Histogame released a slightly revised version of Friedrich, dubbed the "Jubiläumsedition" or "Anniversay 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.

Customer Reviews

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T
TheoL
Absolutely Brilliant

- The rules are short and easy to understand (5mins for me to explain them).
- The board and pieces are beautiful.
- The game is fast-paced and does not lag.
- The action is tense.
- A moment of inattention can erase an hour of planning. (Which is hilarious to watch if it's not you)

Players take control of objectives on the board and battle using suits corresponding to the grid overlay on the map. Each battle is tense as you try to bluff each other into retreating. 3 vs. 1 sounds rough but its challenging and it never feels hopeless.

There are also event cards that can remove players from the game. Some people don't like the randomness but it sets a time constraint on the attackers to gain their objectives quickly and it is the the only real advantage the lone defender has; all they have to do is survive.

This is my go-to strategy game.