CAFE’25: 1st Round

While Andrew attentively observes him, Carlos ponders over his next assault against the Prussian army at Silesia.

Andrew Brown’s gaming experience made itself felt at this table. He was playing as Prussia, and though Björn v. Knorring – who was playing France – was at least his equal in experience with the game, it was not enough as the other two players didn’t know so many tricks. José Luis (reserve player) took his seat as Russia, conducting himself with extreme caution and leaving the game at the end of round 13 with just the objectives in East Prussia to show for. Meanwhile Carlos, who had taken part at a previous CAFE, managed quite a decent display with Austria, but couldn’t keep Andrew from feeling quite comfortably installed in Silesia with a 3-general tower and an abundant supply in tactical cards that suffered no reduction until round 15. Even though the game lasted the whole 23 rounds, it was the first game to be finished this afternoon. Andrew himself later recognized that he had found next to no challenge during the game.

During the relentless Austrian hunt for the Prussian supply in Saxony curious piece positions were recorded.

Mark Luta didn’t have an easy set of opponents to his Prussian play. He was facing both Alejandro Calderón as Russia – a veteran player with several tournaments on his account – and the designer himself – Richard Sivél – as Austria. But also the newbie Jorge Sancho was able to develop quite a lot of pressure with France. Mark had some early successes, eliminating the Imperial Army, but in doing so he revealed his main concentration of troops in Saxony, though it also gained him a brief respite while Austria was mopping up in Silesia. When Richard finally attacked Saxony, the resurrected Hildburghausen was there to make matters more complicated for Mark. But the Slovakian player was up to the task and managed to navigate through the complex dance of pieces in the area and repel alll Austrian assaults. Richard then turned to helping Russia as a means to increase pressure on Prussia. By that time Mark was defending Küstrin with every card he had, and the Austrian assistance was everything Alejandro needed to attain victory as Mark exhausted both almost all of his cards and all his clock time.

Sensing the game is about to end, Juan makes a last ditch attempt at victory expending up to the las of his … 5 reserves!

In spite of enjoying a relatively short game – 17 rounds – and suffering no subsidy reductions until round 13, Laughlin had to spend every tactical card and every minute in the clock to survive as Prussia. Those making the game so difficult for him were Alberto as Russia, Juan Aguado as Austria, and Maurice as France. All experienced tournament players. Even though Juan was able to conquer Saxony early, Loughlin concentrated his defense in the club sector between Silesia and Saxony, and from there he was able to thwart Juan’s attacks throughout the game and block the movement of Austrian generals to Silesia. An incursion by a Russian general into Silesia made things difficult for Laughlin for a while, but it was brief and Elisabeth passed away shortly thereafter. In the end, Laughlin managed to hold on to Liegnitz with a decent hand of clubs and three stacked generals.

Even though the main Austrian forces keep a healthy distance away from the Prussians, in all of his other fronts Ricardo is fully engaged with his enemies. Harassed by Sweden and Russia simultaneously in the east, and a french general doing his outmost to take Magdeburg.

Both Ricardo – playing as Prussia at this table – as well as Rubén – who was playing with Austria – had previus experience at CAFE, but little opportunity to play training games before this event. Ruben thithered, probing first into Saxony but finally concentrating on Silesia. In the time he took to do all of this, the Russians led by veteran Arnold de Wijs defeated Lehwaldt in East Prussia and cornered Dohna in Pomerania until he managed to take his final objectives in round 10. Guy Atkinson, with France, managed to score 9 out of 10 objectives in spite of receiving the attention of 2 Prussian generals.