The 16th Friedrich World Championships will take place in Berlin on 9-11 September 2022. The venue is in Alt Moabit in old West Berlin. There is plenty of time to enter, so head to the Histogame or BoardGameGeek websites for more info..
FriedrichUK22 took place at the Bar Convent in York this weekend (17-19 June). 12 players (numbers still down due to Covid worries/travel disruption) from 8 countries took part - the Spanish players were particularly relieved to have escaped the furnace that was Madrid! Richard Sivel, the game designer, honoured us with his presence, wisdom and rules insights.
The revised tournament rules were used (fate cards Poems, Elisabeth & America seeded so as not to be able to fall until the end of turn 10 at the earliest) and remain very popular. Competition was tight - less than 10 points covered the field at the end of the 4 qualification rounds. Only one player failed to win a game and no-one achieved more than two wins. The average game length (13 games total) was 18 turns. The shortest three games ended on turns 9, 11 & 15 respectively. Three went the full 23 turns. Nation wins (16 in total, as 3 joint victories) were as follows: Prussia/Hannover 5 (31.25%) Russia/Sweden 3+1 (25%) Austria/IA 2+3 (31.25%) France 2 (12.5%) The top 4 qualifiers were: Mark Luta (Us/Slovakia) 41.2 points Bjorn von Knorring (Swe) 40.8 points Jose Bonilla Rau (Sp) 40.7 points Jon Brede-Smith (Nor) 39.5 points Having played one 23 round game as Friedrich on Sunday morning/afternoon, it was perhaps no surprise that Mark opted to play Austria/IA in the final. Bjorn took Prussia/Hannover and Jose took Russia/Sweden, leaving Jon (in his first final) France. The final was a wild affair, with an exceptional number of battles and supply train captures. An unusual feature was the persistent low hand sizes (due to all the battling). Not just each player, but each nation, could and probably should have won. Jon rued a retreat error, but for which he would have won. Jose rued not pressing a battle that would probably have led to a Russian victory and that, had Elisabeth dropped one turn later, he would have won with Sweden. Bjorn, fighting potential disaster on 5 fronts but fighting it well, probably most rued a cross-sector battle v Russian hearts that bled a lot of diamonds from him (the suit in which he would eventually lose). Mark initially rued his lack of diamonds, as he made little early progress against Prussian defensive stacks in Saxony and Silesia. But that changed after the Russian drain of Prussian diamonds and steady play with the IA, supported by his Austrians, led to a turn 19 win. Well done Mark! |
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