9th Friedrich World Championship 2014
The Qualification Round
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In the qualification round 36 games were played. They can be briefly summarized like this:
Game 1: Stefan Senger loses with Prussia after early subsidy reductions (turn 6 and 8). After 11 turns Russia (Bjorn Apelqvist) and Austria (Raphael Sümpelmann) win simultaneously. Game 2: T. Franke suffers a quick defeat, and one of a special tragic: After turn 8 France quits the game, and Anton Telle takes over the Imperial Army and is the sudden winner of this game! That's because Andreas Zölitz had already conquered all 1st order. And Andreas is double unlucky, since his Austrians score only 3.3 points. Game 3: Bjorn von Knorring is defeated quite fast as well. After 11 turns Andrew Brown's Austrians win. Game 4: Steffen Schröder withstands the attacks of his opponents quite long. However, after 18 turns Christian Blattner (Austria) and Alex Calderón (Russia) overcome his defense at the same time. Game 5: Mark Luta's Prussia is defeated after 14 turns in a game with only few stroke of fates. Winner is Niclas Büchel (Austria). Game 6: Peter Hannappel is the first to win with Prussia. He dominated his opponents quite well, even occupying the Imperial depot city. Poor Hildi! Game 7: Alberto Romero follows the advice of his Spanish team-mates: "Never attack with Prussia". And so he is holding out until turn 18. The game ends with a triple victory of Sweden, France and Austria (Stefan Schönweiß, Rainer Haslauer, Manni Wichmann, respectively). Game 8: Klaus Blum accomplishes the 2nd Prussian win of the evening. Besides him, only Austria (Arnold de Wijs) scored well (9.17 points). Game 9: Richard Sivél has no luck with the fate (Lord Bute with the first card), but a quite teethless Austrian player. However, Jose Bonilla Rau is pressing hard, and so a supply eat festival in Poland is started: Every turn between turn 10 to 15, Prussia eliminates one Russian supply train. Finally, Prussia wins after 21 turns. |
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 Game 2: T. Franke is defending against Guy Atkinson and Andreas Zölitz.  Game 5: Maurice de Wijs, moving his Russian pieces, watched by Mark Luta and Niclas Büchel, while Greg Rogers mixes the cards.  Game 3: Bjorn von Knorring deeply sunk into the Silesia situation. This game will be won by Andrew Brown (Austria). |
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 Game 10: Anton Telle (Prussia) is attacked wildly by Bernd Preiß, Jose Bonilla Rau and Niclas Büchel, and will lose after 13 turns. His first loss with Prussia since the 2008 FWC final.  Game 15: Stefan Senger (Russia) ignores East Prussia, sending all Russian generals to the Neumark and Kammin area. Meanwhile Jan Hölk is counting his troops for the upcoming combat.  Game 19: Bjorn Apelqvist brings his Prussians into the defense positions. Steffen Schröder (Austria) will attack him repeatedly in order to crack the Prussian 3-generals stack. |
Game 10: Maurice de Wijs suffers early subsidy reductions (turn 7 and 11). Bjorn Apelqvist (France) wins after 11 turns, and also Christian Blattner and Christoph Kaminski were close to victory.. Game 11: This game ends after 11 turns with a Prussian defeat (Rainer Haslauer) as well. John McCulluoghs Russians are the winners, while Arnold de Wijs had no luck with France, and played with the Imperial Army already starting with turn 10. Game 12: Anton Telle, undefeated with Prussia for many years, loses his nimbus. Bernd Preiß (Russia), Jose Bonilla Rau (Austria) and Niclas Büchel (France) are concentrating his attacks massively, so that Anton is defeated after 13 turns. The strokes of fate were remarkable in this game as well: America (turn 6), Poems (7), India (8), Lord Bute (9), Sweden (10). Game 13: Andreas Buschhaus keeps the allies at bay until turn 20 and wins, partly favoured by an early exit of France (turn 7). Game 14: Guy Atkinson wins with Prussia in turn 22. Russia (Andrew Brown) left the game in turn 8, followed by Sweden immediately thereafter. And sending 24 Austrians (Richard Sivél) into starvation was helpful, too! Game 15: Thorsten Hennig's Prussians are defeated by Peter Hannappels French after 19 turns. Game 16: Stephan Jordan is unsuccessful with Prussia, too. Alberto Romero (Russia) wins in turn 16, just in the last minute before the Tsarina would have died. Game 17: Greg Rogers holds out long with Prussia. Already on the stop watch, he is finally defeated in turn 22. Winners are Bjorn von Knorring (Austria) and Andreas Zölitz (Imperial Army). Very bad luck for Greg, since in turn 22 the game would have ended with his win... Game 18: Alex Calderón, however, wins in turn 22. Raphael Sümpelmann (Russia), Manni Wichmann (Austria) and Rodrigo Witzel (France) tried all they could, but without success. |
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Game 19: Bjorn Apelqvist, the fastest Prussian player of all FWC's, needs only 52 minutes to complete his victory after 21 turns. That's his third win of this tournament! Game 20: Christian Blattner is defeated by the Peter Hannappel (Austria) after 14 turns. For Peter it is the third win, too! Game 21: Rodrigo Witzel is not able to stop Alberto Romero from making his second win perfect (this time as Austria). Game 22: Arnold de Wijs (Prussia) is defeated by Stefan Senger (Austria) after 13 turns. Game 23: Andreas Zölitz is almost victorious with Prussia. The cards of fate were good for him, the game would have ended in turn 12. However, Andreas does not recruit for the defenders of the last Austrian objectice (Radeberg) and so Bernd Preiß wins in the last second. Game 24: Niclas Büchel is defeated by Christoph Kaminski (France) after 15 turns. Game 25: After 19 turns, Alex Calderón enters the group of players with 3 wins out of 3 games! As France, he wins against Andrew Brown. Game 26: It is minutes to midnight, when Raphael Sümpelmann makes his Prussian victory perfect. Game 27: Jürgen Winter is maybe playing the most spectacular game of the tournament. He dares an Offensive Option, annihilates early in the game 24 Austrian troops, and all would have worked out perfect, if he had not forgotten to protect the already conquered Trautenau. So, the OO fails after 14 turns. However, the winner is still Jürgen (defensivley, after 21 turns). |
 Game 22: Arnold de Wijs thinking about his defense against France.  Game 23: At the moment Andreas Zölitz is still smiling. In the end, however, Bernd Preiß will triumph with Austria.  Game 25: Roman Gutschow moves his Swedes. Like Stefan Schönweiß (Austria) he is FWC debutant. This game will be won by Alex Calder&oactue; (France). |
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 Game 26: John McCullough (Austria) tries everything to defeat Raphael Sümpelmann. In the end John has conquered 11 out of 12 objectives.  Game 24: Niclas Büchel moves his Prussian pieces. Thorsten Hennig watches the situation in Hanover sorrowful. Does he already suspect that France will win in the end?  Game 27: Jürgen Winter has encircled an Austrian 3-generals stack (soon later this stack will be eliminated). What a fine start fot the Offensive Option! However, a real blunder will cost Jürgen his offensive victory. |
Game 28: John McCullough loses with Prussia after 11 turns. He cannot stop Andreas Zölitz in overruning Hanover. Richard Sivél (Russia) was close to victory, too. It were some hearts missing. Game 29: Roman Gutschow has to resign after 9 turns. Peter Hannappel (Russia) is the winner, and it is his fourth win! Peter's total score is 48 points! Game 30: Another game with a Russian win (Niclas Büchel). Stefan Schönweiß, a FWC debutant, played Prussia too aggressively. Game 31: Daniel Dunbring has a bad fate (subsidy reductions in turn 8 and 11 ). He loses before Sweden drops out. Winner is Austria (Anton Telle) in turn 13. Game 32: Jan Hölk is another player with a bad Lord Bute connection (turn 6), and so Bjorn Apelqvist pulls off victory with Austria. Like Peter Hannappel, it is his fourth win, but his score is "only" 47.5 points. Game 33: Bernd Preiß hammers Richard Shako's Russians, but neglects Sweden, which could have won in turn 6 or 7, if the Tsarina had died. However, she did not, and so Maurice de Wijs wins with Austria due to his methodical advance in Silesia and Saxony and an unorthodox style of playing his reserve cards. Game 34: Jose Bonilla Rau shows a magnificient Prussian play. Despite the subsidy reduction in turn 6, he wins after 22 long turns. All other stroke of fates were very late (besides Sweden): Elisabeth 9, Lord Bute (20), America (21), India (22). Game 35: Christoph Kaminski is defeated by Bjorn von Knorring. Spiel 36: The last Prussian victory of the qualification round is by Manni Wichmann. Klaus Blum (Russia), Andreas Buschhaus (Austria) and Stefan Senger (France) have no chance against his solid defense. |
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Ranking after the qualification round:
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 Game 27: Jürgen's Offensive Option. Trautenau was already conquered, but is now in Austrian possession again — otherwise Jürgen would have won now! At the end of this turn, all Prussian generals in Austria will be flipped due to lack of supply.  Here the games were played: The castle Friedrichsfelde, in the middle of the Berlin Zoo. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 A pelican. |
The four highest ranked players were: Peter Hannappel, Bjorn Apelqvist, Alex Calderón and Alberto Romero. They entered the final which was started at 5:30 p.m. Peter Hannappel (best player of the qualification round) picked his role first, followed by Bjorn Apelqvist, and so on. For Alex Calderón and Alberto Romero it was their first FWC final, while for Peter and Bjorn it was their second. Bjorn was FWC champion in 2009. The Fair Ehrensvärd was awarded to Andrew Brown. |