Peter left a decoy force in Silesia and Klaus concentrated there and conquered it completely in a few rounds. A Prussian rearguard was left loitering with a supply train in Poland. This would make an appearance during the game's last rounds. Bjorn cleared out East Prussia in 4 or 5 turns and went into the offensive inmediatly in Kammin with his main force. Peter didn't seem too strong in clubs, as he soon moved Dohna behind the sector border at Gollnow. Surprisingly, Bjorn insisted in attacking him there with 3 generals and 15 troops. This unhinged Peter's defense there. He could not afford to spend many diamonds, as these were needed for the defense of Saxony against Austria.

During this initial phase of the game, I had 2 generals with 15 troops chasing after Cumberland in southern Hannover. This took them a long while (9-10 rounds maybe) and it was costly in terms of cards for both sides. But I could better afford that than Hanover. The 3rd general was Chevert, who took Diepholz, Minden, Hammeln, Hannover, and then headed straight for Magdeburg to pick up a fight with Prussia. In Magdeburg he clashed with Seydlitz, who had 3 troops. Peter immediatly accepted a −2 retreat, and I conquered Halberstadt. The next round Peter forgot to recruit the 2 lost troops, and I attacked Seydlitz again, knowing he couldn't retreat and would have to accept a fight. We exchanged some hearts and then I got precisely what I was looking for: a −3 retreat that left Chevert with just 2 troops and the perfect tool to hunt Hanoverians down. I sent him inmmediatly southwards but Cumberland had been kicked out northwards when Chevert got there.

The Battle for Saxony began in earnest. Klaus kept attacking with a 3-general stack (24 troops), and tried to cut Prussian supply lines at the same time. Peter managed to beat off all attacks, but the constant fighting was a drain of his hand of cards. Further north, Peter moved Dohna and set him up to defend Neu Stettin from the northeastern corner of Kammin in a series of spades-spades battles that he kept on winning, but were very costly, too.

For me, the battle moved north, still focused on trying to wear down the Hanoverians to the bone. There were several battles and skirmishes. At a certain moment I could have encircled a Hanover general at Wunsdorf, but didn't dare to because I believed Hanover to have far more cards than they actually did. My fault, as it is a prerrogative for any player to take a look at the thickness of the enemy's deck. Diepholz was liberated, then conquered again. One Hanoverian went off the board, and re-entered at Stade. The other one managed to slip to the south with Chevert in close pursuit. Althoug neither India or America had happened until now, I thought I had to speed up. One French general went for Magdeburg with 8 troops.

My first attack there against Seydlitz resulted in a −1-retreat as quickly as Peter could get it. He seemed to have taken the proper measures to guarantee a perpetual dance of −1-retreats to defend Magdeburg and frustrate me. But then Klaus, who had a general lurking in the Berlin area, attacked Seydlitz from the East. He probably did it becasuse Seydlitz was sitting next to a Prussian supply train, but started a hearts battle which Peter could not afford to lose, not even with a −1. Seydlitz was blown off the board. As I conquered Magdeburg I attacked and destroyed the Hanoverian general covering Wittingen, which I conquered next turn. Bjorn made one last attempt to take Neu Stettin, but failed by 2 points of TC. I had won the tournament!


My sector strategy was: Clubs vs. Russia, hearts vs. France, and spades or diamonds vs. Austria, and I set up:
• Friedrich (1 troop) to chase Hildi right from the start.
• Keith (1) for partisan actions (together with a supply train) in Poland.
• Winterfeldt (7) and Schwerin (6) for defense duties in Saxony/Silesia. Where exactly to be based on the Prussian TC's.
• Heinrich (8) as reinforcement for the former two.
• Seydlitz (3) for intial action against Sweden; but his main task was the defense of Magdeburg.
• Dohna (5) and Lehwaldt (1) as defense in Kammin and East Prussia.
• Ferdinand (7) and Cumberland (5).

Right from the start the attackers made a lot of pressure. Since I received only few spades, I opted to defend against Austria in diamonds and sat up a defense in Saxony. I It was a bit tricky to march Schwerin to the Heinrich-Winterfeldt-stack. I made some mistakes during that maneuver, and Klaus relentlessly took advantage by attacking me.

Friedrich chased Hildi successfully, and was then sacrificied for re-enter in Berlin for further support of Saxony. Hanover received pretty good TCs and was able to hold out in South Hanover quite long, although I made some really bad moves. I the first clubs Russian attack I was able to retreat them by −6. But I was never able to repeat any high clubs battle victory thereafter. After some turns, Lehwaldt went off the board, as planned.

Against Russia, I started to sweat quite soon. Bjorn received many clubs; so many that he repeatedly made cross-border attacks with clubs (with a troops superiority of +10!). Due to these attacks, I lost a significant amount of hearts (Waldenburg) and diamonds (Massow). He was then even able to repulse my clubs-clubs counter-attacks! The sitution in Kammin became quite dark.

Without any clubs, I finally had to retreat into the spades sector at the Baltic coast from where I could protect only 1 objective (Neu Stettin). Due to this, I started to march Keith to East Prussia to bind one Russian general. Furthermore, I used Keith's supply train to re-conquer Küstrin (the supply train was in a position where it could block a Russian general, thus making the protection of Küstrin impossible. — For the moment, my spades defense seemed to be solid. But it was still quite early in the game.

In Saxony, things developed better: Klaus lacked diamonds, and so his offensive was stalled. However, he sent one general towards Berlin to raid my supply trains. I was happy though that Klaus did not attack the general who had reconquered Küstrin at Krossen. That was of enormous help against Russia. Since my supply train is Saxony was in a safe position, I never had real supply problems there.

Meanwhile Jose made systematic progress. At least one Hanover general slipped through the lines and reached the Southern exclaves where he binded one French general. But at Magdeburg I made a big blunder: After a −2-retreat, I forgot to re-recruit these 2 losses, and so Seydlitz had only 1 troop when Jose attacked! Therefore I had to win this battle by all means. And I did! But there was only 1 hearts TC left! — Phew! This could have been the end already!

After that blunder, my game play became better. I was still safe in diamonds against Klaus. The supply train for my Saxon army was positioned pretty safe in Austrian spades. Jose had to take care of my Hanoverians again. Only Bjorn's Russian were still causing headaches: He managed to wear down my spades by systematic attacks and to reconquer Küstrin.

And what about fate? It was not on my side! The only stroke in the first half of the game was Poems. No America, no India, no Elisabeth! (After the game, I learned that they were to appear after turn 18, 22 and 21.)

Against Sweden I had re-conquered Malchin. But still I was suprised when Ehrensvärd bypassed the unprotected Kammin and advanced to my lone anti-Russian defender. I immediately understood: I had to reconquer another Russian objective! This could only be done in East Prussia, where Keith was already sitting at Rastenbrug. I moved Keith to Preußisch Eylau, Bjorn responded by moving to Orneta (otherwise Königsberg would be unprotected!). In my next move, I attacked from Lidzbark-Warminski and won by +1. I retreated the Russian general to Braniewo. Bjorn then moved to Zinten to protect Rastenburg, and blocked the re-conquest of Ortelsburg with his supply train on Olsztyn. This was in turn 16. My plan was to move in turn 17 to Riesenburg which Bjorn could then protect only from a distance of 3. In turn 18, I would then attack in hearts again, and with a +1 I would re-conquer Riesenburg. That should have been enough to hold off the Russians for 3 or 4 more turns.

The drawback of all these was that I had not many hearts left for fighting the French. Therefore I always kept to holy hearts: a 4 and 5 of hearts, with which I would be able to conduct two −1-retreats with Seydlitz (3 troops) against the French general (8 troops).

Unfortunately, the role of Klaus was not part of my plan: The Austrian general close to Berlin eliminated my supply train on Brandenburg — and next to it was Seydlitz on Genthin (hearts). A −1-retreat would have been okay for me. But Klaus played repeatedly on +2, and I dared not to go with only 1 troop into the next combat with the French. Therefore, in order to get the needed −1 I had to play all my hearts (destined for the reconqest of Riesenburg), and then even my holy 4 and 5 of hearts! The battle ended in Seydlitz being wiped out by the Austrians! Ouch!

Jose conquered the unprotected Madgeburg, and eliminated my Hanover general on Gardelegen so that Wittingen (the last French objective) became unprotected. France would win in the upcoming turn 17. There was nothing left to stop him. Not even the fate, because neither India nor America have shown up so far.

Before Jose made his winning move, both Bjorn and Klaus had a final shot on victory as well. Bjorn missed the conquest of Neu Stettin by only 2 points of spades. (After the game it turned out he had only a 7 in hearts; so without the fierce hearts battle at Genthin, I could have reconquered Riesenburg.) Klaus marked only 1 of his 2 missing objectives with a question mark. Therefore the battle was of no real importance. After having played some TC's I took a −3-retreat. After the game I turned out that I was superior in diamonds for some more turns.

Then, Jose moved through Wittingen and won the game, highly deserved. Congratulations to the Friedrich World Champion 2022!