19th Friedrich World Championship, 2024
The Qualification Round
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In the qualification round, 28 games were played. They can be summarized as follows:
Game 1: After subsidy reductions in turn 10 and death of the Tsarina in turn 11, Bernd Preiß's Prussians collapse in turn 12. Winner is Jonathan L. with Austria.Game 2: Steffen Schröder's Prussians are defeated in turn 18. John McCullough pulls off victory with Russia. Note that exactly at the end of turn 18 the Tsarinas would have died, and then Steffen would have won! Game 3: Marian Leimbach cannot stop the Imperial Army from winning. The Empire was taken over by Christian Blattner after the Tsarina's death in turn 11; and he manages to win in turn 18. Game 4: Mark Luta wins with Prussia after 18 turns despite early subsidy reductions in turn 7 and 12. Game 5: Marcus Straßmann keeps the green hordes (Richard Sivél) at bay with clever play, but in turn 16 Klaus Blum conquers with Austria the last Silesian objective and wins. Game 6: Jon Brede Smith becomes a nightmare for the attackers. They cannot find any weak spot to attack, and so all TC-stacks keep growing and growing. Almost a 6th TC was needed! In the end, Jon wins in turn 22. Austria (Thorsten Hennig) makes 4.17 points. Game 7: Bjorn v. Knorring takes advantage from France's early exit (turn 10), and wins after 22 turns. Alex Schröder (Russia) and Guy Atkinson (Austria) score 9 and 9.17 points, respectively. |
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 Game 3: Son-Khuê Nyuyên and Marian Leimbach.  Game 6: The enormous TC stacks of Prussia, Russia, and Austria at ca. turn 13. |
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 Game 11: Loughlin Deegan, Khuê Nyuyên and Andrew Brown.  Game 11: Prussia (Loughlin Deegan) has taken his supply train in good protection. |
Game 8: Klaus Blum's game as Prussia does not see any stroke of fates for a long time. However, after almost 5 hours, Christian
Dickhausen wins with Austria after turn 17. Game 9: Richard Sivél's Prussians hold off the attackers quite perfectly. Okay, Hanover is wiped off the board when encircling the French (Mark Luta) in spades due to 3 French reserve cards; but there is still Seydlitz at Wernigerode (spades), and Mark has really no spades left. And, Jon Brede Smith manages to deplete the Prussian diamonds after a long series of battle, but in the end the Neisse-defense holds with the use of two reserve cards. In turn 22, Prussia elmininates 24 Austrian troops. Prussia wins in turn 23. Game 10: Prussia (Christian Blattner) suffers one combat defeat afterthe other, and becomes a "shopping queen": Prussia recruits ca. 40 troops in the whole game. Steffen Schröder pulls off a double victory with Austria and the Imperial Army in turn 17. Game 11: Loughlin Deegan's Prussians win after 21 turns. Andrew Brown misses victory by1 objective. Game 12: Anton Telle hands off Silesia to Austria (John MccCullough) only to set up an unbeatable defense in Saxony. Alex Schröder's French leave the game in turn 13, without having played a single TC against the Prussians. In turn 19 the first subsidy reduction occurs, and Prussia wins in turn 20. Anton's TC stack was enormous; he naver ran into danger of losing an important battle. Game 13: Bernhard Kollmuss Prussian defense seems very stable. However, on turn 21 he is on the stop watch, and this causes an immmediate blunder! Mark Luta wins with Austria. Game 14: Arnold de Wijs sends 3 Prussian generals against France (Andreas Z.). Andreas K. takes advantage of this, and leads the Imperial Army to victory in turn 17. Up to that point, only Sweden dropped out (turn 10), and only 1 subsidy reduction occurred (turn 14). |
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Game 15: Tobias Kriener's Prussian defense is off-balance very fast. Even before the first stroke of fate hgappens, Christian Blattner's French overrun Madgeburg and win in turn 10. Game 16: Jonathan L. is defeated in turn 10 as well. Winners are Maurice de Wijs with Russia (after a methodical advance) and Bjorn v. Knorring with the Imperial Army. Game 17: Prussia (Andreas Z.) is hit by subsidy reductions in turn 6 and 14. The exit of Sweden and Russia (Bernhard Kollmuss) in turn 10 an 11 give new hope. However, in turn 16 Alex Schröder wins with Austria. Game 18: Suddenly loud laughter breaks out at table 2! — What happened? Russia (Klaus Blum) cannot be stopped from winning next turn. Although, they are currently 4 objectives short, it is a sure thing to conquer them next turn. So, Russia cannot be stopped – except by the fate! Elisabeth dies in this crucial turn 11, and so Klaus makes only 6 points instead of 12! Unfortunately for on-Khuê Nyuyên, Prussia does not really profit from this, since Bernd Preiß (Austria) wins just one turn later! (Jon Brede Smith scores 9 points with France.) Game 19: After Lord Bute in turn 12, and the exit of Sweden in turn 13, fate is silent for a long time. Since Andreas K. sees no chance on victory for his Russians, so his green men start to campaign in Saxony, where they empty Bartek Żmudas Prussian hand of diamonds. When the Tsarina dies in turn 19, the Imperial Army switches over to Andreas, and he wins in turn 20. Game 20: Guy Atkinson and Lord Bute meet in turn 8. France (Steffen Schröder) exits one turn later, and so Guy is able to consolidate. He wins in turn 19. Game 21: Jürgen Winter's Friedrich-poems are published in turn 11. Two turns later, the Tsarina dies (Loughlin Deegan). When both sides are on the stop watch, Jürgen is still able to hold off Mark Luta in Saxony diamonds, and eventually wins in turn 22. All attackers score 9 or 9.17 points. |
 Game 18: Bernd Preiß is amused.  Game 21: Jürgen Winter moving his Prussians. |
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 Game 23: The Madgeburg encirclement. Seydlitz is wiped off the board! In the subsequent battle, France plays two 13's of spades and eliminates Ferdinand as well.  Game 24: Loughlin Deegan and Marian Leimbach. |
Game 22: Alex Schröder's Prussians are very close to winning. But in turn 18, Arnold de Wijs wins with Austria, just right in time before France drops out. Game 23: Jürgen Winter starts the game with a drumbeat! In turn 4, his French encircle Andrew Brown's Seydlitz at Wernigerode and wipe him off the board, including Ferdinand on Salzgitter as well! (Jürgen played 59 points in spades in both battles.) But then, France finds it hard to make progress. Against Austria, Andrew is clearly dominant in diamonds, and so Richard Sivéls Austrians turn to the weak defended Saxony, where they can take optimum advantage of their troops superiority. Despite a despairing lack of diamonds, Richard manages that Hildi conquers Meißen, Dresden und Pirna. When the Austrians succeed in eliminating both Prussian supply trains, Andrew has to fight to re-open his supply lines, only to be encircled in a hearts-diamonds battle. The Prussian stack is eliminated, and there is nothing which can stop the Empire from winning. But one turn before final objective is conquered, the Tsarina dies in turn 14, and it is Andreas Z. who instantaneously wins with the Imperial Army. Game 24: David Önkür's Prussians collapse in turn 13. Winner is Loughlin Deegan with Austria, Since this is his 2nd win, he reaches the final, outperforming Bjorn v. Knorring by half a point. Note that Bjorn was Elisabeth in this game, scoring 9 points. Game 25: Bernd Preiß and his French overrun Maurice de Wijs's Prussians and win in turn 10. Both Thorsten Hennig and Tobias Kriener score pretty well (8 points with Russia, and 8.13 points with Austria). Game 26: Andreas K.s Prussians win in turn 23. John Brede Smith's Swedes drop out in turn 11 (with 9 points); the Tsarina dies in turn 13. Subsidy reductions occurr in turn 16 and 20. Steffen Schröder makes 8 points with France, and Bernhard Kollmuss 9.17 points with Austria. With his win, the FWC-debutant Andreas K. reaches the final as 2nd best ranked player!! Game 27: John McCullough is under heavy pressure by Russia (Guy Atkinson) and Austria (Son-Khuê Nyuyên). In addition, Marcus Straßmann pushes hard with France. However, John prevails after 22 turns of struggle, and qualifies for the final as well. Game 28: Christian Dickhausen Prussians are delighted by the exit of Mark Luta's Russia in the earliest turn possible (turn 10) and France's (Jonathan L.) early bankruptcy (turn 14). But, although subsidy reductions happen late (turn 18 and 20), Christian Blattner wins with Austria in turn 20. With this win, Christian Blattner becomes the best player of the qualification round. Note that Christian Dickhausen could hve reached the final with a win as well. |
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Tabellenstand nach der Vorrunde:
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 Game 23: The only chance for Andrew Brown to save his flipped general is to: (a) move the supply train 2 steps westwards, and (b) defeat Hildi in a diamonds-hearts battle. (All other supply routes are hopelessly blocked.) Andrew goes for the attack on Hildi, with all forces committed (2 generals, 15 troops.  Game 23: Hildi escapes with −3. And then the Prussians are trapped! Austria attacks with hearts against Prussian diamonds, and they go off the board w/o playing any TC. (Comparing the TC's after the game showed that it would have been a close thing. Both sides held ca. 100 points.) Now, Hildi cannot be stopped anymore: Bitterfeld, Torgau and Naumburg will be conquered in 3 turns. Crucially, however, the Tsarina dies exactly one turn too early, and so Andreas Z. earns the IA-victory.
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 The Young Fritz goes to the best FWC-debutant: Andreas K. (Andreas does not want to show up in the internet.)
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 David Önkür is awarded the Fair Ehrensvärd.
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 And Tobias Kriener the Golden Hildi.
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With 3 wins each, Christian Blattner and Andreas K. will enter the final, followed by John McCullough und Loughlin Deegan. Since Christian thinks his IA-victory was too much of a gift, he wants to be treated as having scored only 8 points in that game (not 12), even if he would miss the final. But, Christian is still in the final (fourth-ranked via tie-breaker). The final starts at 5:15 pm. Andreas K. has the first choice of roles, John the second, and so on. For Christian it is the 6th final, for John the 4th, while for Loughlin and Andreas it is their first appearance. The Young Fritz, the award for the best FWC-debutant, goes to Andreas K. And Tobias Kriener is the winner of the Golden Hildi: A special reserve card with an value of 1000. The Fair Ehrensvärd is awarded to David Önkür: He always took very good care of all supply checks, and was a very pleasant and sportsmanlike player.
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