Neu Gemischt

Friedrich is one of those games that it's honestly hard to praise enough.  The map is a joy, the rules wondrously simple, the piece count as low as can be, and it has that card-driven combat system that's both maddening in its "Can't Stop" way and realistic as it makes you choose carefully amongst both your ground and your fights.

HL chose to play the Great this time around, MB was the Austrians and the HRE, and I was the Franco-Swedish-Russian alliance.

For those unfamiliar, there's a clock built into this game that all sides can here ticking.  At some point, the major players drop out of the game, whether their controllers wish them to or not.  The eponymous king of Prussia is doing the best he can to make it until game's end.

In the event, my Swedes and Russians ran from the field within two turns of one another.  My French, though, combined with MB's Austrians, were able to seize the VPLOCs they needed and get us a joint win.  As is so often the case, though, the game really came down to one battle where both sides burned through what seemed like decks of cards.  MB beat HL by literally one card.  Great stuff as always.

C'mon.  Be honest.  You're surprised to see Hanoverians running from French troops.

Because I didn't have a club in my hand, no less than three armies of Russians were held at bay by one rotten Prussian.