Game Developer (F. Schachter) Introduction: Most InsideGMT articles are submitted by game designers and developers; but this is authored by a play-tester who was so taken and enthused about the game that he took a multitude of photos during play and here shares his experiences of this upcoming exciting new GMT game (Thanks Jeffro!)

Although this article is illustrated, readers may find it helpful following the action by having a copy of The Seven Years War: Frederick’s Gamble (7YW:FG) play test map available for reference.  There is also a host of material related to this forthcoming GMT publication within InsideGMT as well as the game’s P-500 site.  Hopefully, this encourages your interest in the game and placing an order for it.

The following is an after action report of my experience as the British Player during a May 2016 play-test game of The Seven Years War: Fredericks Gamble (7YW:FG).  Chris was my Prussian partner as the Coalition and together we faced Jeff M (France) and Mike (Austria) playing as the Imperial Camp.

My plan as the British was to gain as many keys as possible in the Colonial Areas of India and North America– mainly because I had played in those departments during my first learning game and was fluent enough with the rules to make informed choices there. So a Colonial Strategy it would be.  The situation on the continent was difficult for me to assess from Britain’s perspective and, considering the limited number of British troops under a 0-4 Leader in Hanover; I couldn’t see clear to what I could do. My hope was that aggressive play elsewhere would allow me to eventually seize continental initiative.

Clive attacks the French Bengal Port Key.

Things got off to a fair start. Clive did beautifully in India, although my opponents seemed to have every card in the deck needed to impede him. Clive’s Army took over France’s Bengal key of Chandernagore and then severely dented the NAWABs. However, before Clive could finish off the Nawab unit, he had to react to the France Descent from the Sea (In India) event, which has a 2SP French European Regular unit amphibiously attack India, which was fortuitously repulsed.  Britain held on to its Bengal gains and even had the energy to take a stab at eliminating the Nawab again, although the dice finally ceased favoring Clive and the now 1SP Nawab, the battered and sole remaining piece France had in the area, reposed in North Bengal to lick its wounds.

Event Card – France Descent from the Sea (In India)!

Clive’s Glory

I might possibly have compensated for my poor understanding of the rules, but the French were played by a top notch gamer well experienced with 7YW:FG. A “Hand of God” card played as an Event by his Austrian ally meant that all of those great for him India cards were shuffled back into the deck to possibly come at me yet again— and even worse, the good British generals with their Armies that were due to come up from the nearly depleted deck were now stalled sufficiently that they might never enter play.  Those were: “William Pitt” (to bring Wolfe, 2-8, and an Army to North America), “Eyre Coote to India” (which triggers arrival of the Leader Coote, a 2-6, and a new British Army to India), and “His Britannic Majesty’s Army” (to bring Ferdinand, 3-8, with his new British Army into the European theatre).

Bungle in North America

Finally, in North America, I did not understand that retreating was a much better strategy and gave battle against Montcalm’s superior French Army when I really didn’t need to. After defeating my field Army, my opponent then traded Indian Native units in raids to severely reduce my capacity to do anything further while putting tremendous pressure on my two keys: Boston and New York. In response, I mustered new Colonial Militia forces and cut him off by seizing Albany in order to prevent a siege assault at Boston, but that took valuable time. Clive, for instance, was in position to destroy his opposition in the Mysore India area I “transferred” him to, but I couldn’t afford to spend Command Points there because I had so many other fires to put out!

Mustering new Colonial Militia forces in America

Meanwhile, my opponents drew and played many of the cards that affect the Diplomacy Tracks. Both of my opponents made Kleiner Krieg plays to remove my trained troop point reserves and British SP’s got tied down by the “Caribbean Foray” Foreign War. I was paralyzed. My British were under siege and run ragged on the continent and were reduced to little more than slowing down the French takeover of my Hanover Keys. By the time I did get another English general into European play, Sporcken (1-6), with some semblance of an army, assisted by freeing 3SPs from the “Caribbean Foray” Foreign War’s end, there was very little he could accomplish. 

Down in India, the now powerful Nawab made a comeback thanks to Event cards providing them additional strength points. They made short work of the defending British forces that looked so imposing to me before and went on to conquer all of Bengal, capturing both Chandernagore and Calcutta. What a surprising turn-around!  Those Nawab were certainly resilient!

Return of the NAWAB

I made risky gambles: such as my attempt to take Quebec with my British Army led by 0-4 Amherst which failed to foil Montcalm’s attempt to resume his siege of Boston and capture that vital British Key. But gradually, my options became less and less useful even as the dice ceased to favor me altogether.

Britain’s End Game Gamble: Use Sea Line LOC to Besiege Quebec in hopes of making Montcalm’s Boston siege untenable.

The French had one last big siege on my final Key on the continent with goal of achieving a 7YW:FG auto game end when all four British Hanover Keys are lost to the enemy.  However, that successful French siege assault was blocked my Prussian ally playing a cancelling response card (“Siege Assault Foiled”).

Event Card – Siege Assault Foiled

This didn’t ultimately matter, because France took Boston next Impulse to fulfill the auto game ending condition of one Power controlling 14 Keys.  This was enough for the Coalition to get an instant 1760 win, which I was glad for– that last year of play was so brutal I was relieved to be put out of my misery.

7YW: Frederick’s Gamble – A Few Combat Cards

The game, however, is great fun to play and I look forward to taking the hard lessons learned to our next contest. The thing I like about this game is that the armies have a dynamic to them that makes them feel like real “men” and not just a pile of Checkers or Risk pieces. The variety of results for the battles is pleasantly volatile as well. Every single dice roll matters! When all these factors are taken together, it feels like you have to have a certain amount of guts if you’re going to effectively fight. It’s just a richer abstraction than what you find in most board wargames.

At the strategic scale, it’s fairly easy to grasp what is going on. What’s challenging with 7YW:FG is figuring out how to best spend your resources in order to get the most impact. The sense of overload and desperate need to spin more and more plates simultaneously than you can actually handle really is exciting. If this razor thin balance really does correspond to the history, it makes me wonder how anyone could really have the kind of audacity King Frederick II of Prussia displayed to embark into a war like this…. “Frederick’s Gamble” indeed!

I think this particular “World War” deserves much more attention than it has gotten by our hobby. The use of “named” leaders is perhaps a little more compelling than the focus on technology and materiel that comes to the fore in later eras.

An overview of the game from Game Developer Fred Schachter:

Here’s a summary of the somewhat over three years of play of this game from my perch as an observer.  The Prussians launched Frederick’s full strength Army over the border to invade Austria and seek the siege and capture of Prag.  The Austrians were up to the task of halting that advance, with much mutual blood-letting on both sides in battle after battle.

This back and forth struggle by the game ending 1760 year saw the Austrians on the outskirts of Dresden threatening a weakened Frederick Army.  The Austrians throughout the game kept to their side of the Silesia/Austrian border and no action was seen there due to the main struggle against Frederick’s host.

The Imperials had the good fortune to receive “Russia Fully Commits” during late 1758 and launched Saltikov 3-8’s powerful Army through central Poland, where the Russians had previously captured Warsawa, to besiege Kustrin… a siege which remained underway when the game ended.

Apraxin 2-4, invaded East Prussia but battlefield losses reduced this Army so that by 1760 the Prussian Army under Lehwaldt 0-4 was able to liberate all of Russian-held East Prussia to advance to Insterberg opposite the sole Russian unit garrisoning Riga… Apraxin himself without a single SP remaining.  Had the game gone on, would a Prussian siege of Riga have been attempted?

In the west, France received “Army of Westphalia” during 1757 and under its 1-8 leader launched an offensive against a weak British Hanover defense.   The British had 0-4 Cumberland and some 6 SPs in Europe which was woefully inferior to what the French could bring to bear:  for Britain’s main efforts, as indicated within Jeffro’s above report, were in the Colonies.  These British European forces would certainly have been overwhelmed had not Prussia come to Britain’s aid by sending 3-8 Ferdinand’s Army to their assistance.

This slowed but did not halt the French advance, which was ultimately reinforced by Soubisse 0-6’s French Army and even the French Pact Allied Swedes (who were forced to withdraw from their siege of Stadt by Cumberland’s British Army).  By 1760, Ferdinand’s Army, what was left of it, was forced out of Hanover to assist Frederick’s defense of Saxony against the Austrians.   By game end, in Hanover, all but Munster was French occupied despite Sporcken 1-6’s best British efforts to impede them.

Sporcken was ground down by several battles to the point of ineffectiveness which permitted the French to capture and retain three of Hanover’s four British Keys: Kessel, Hanover, Stadt, with Munster soon to follow had the game continued. French control of all four of Britain’s Hanover Keys would also have automatically stopped further play.

The fourteen (14) Keys the French controlled to automatically end and win this 7YW:FG game were their original nine (9) plus five (5): in Hanover: Kessel, Hanover, and Stadt (3), in North America: Boston (1) which was captured during 1760 by Montcalm’s Army after its initial attempt failed, and in India – Calcutta (1) as part of the remarkable Nawab saga of defeat, near annihilation, resurgence, and conquest of their British enemy’s Bengal Port Key.

When Victory Points were assessed the Imperial Camp was the clear winner.  While its Coalition Camp ally Prussia did not lose a Key and was able to preserve its “Frederick’s Gamble” acquisition of Saxony (the Keys of Leipzig and Dresden) that could not compare to the French triumph.

As to the Imperial Camp: Britain was the loser.  Austria merely retained what it began the game with while France gained 5 Keys and had Pact Allies for two more Victory Points: Russia and Sweden.

Author: Jeffro Johnson