The final match was played very aggressively right from the start from all sides. Cumberland won a big battle in round 2 (near Minden) against the French. Russia started massive attacks in round 3 (and attacked almost every round), but suffered heavy defeats. Obviously Bernd was playing a war of attrition against the Prussian TC deck. Anton Telle (Austria) was very fast in stacking 3 generals together. This stack was sent to Silesia, where it fought repeated battles against Prussia with an initial score of -12 (or so). France had a hard stand fighting Hanover for a long time due to its bad start (in the mid game Cumberland was hunting French supply trains at the very outskirts of Hanover territory using the southern one-city-enclaves!).

Despite this aggressive play (which is almost ever a sign for a Prussian early defeat), the game was balanced for a long time. Prussia did not lose one combat before round 11 (this was a -1 retreat of Prinz Heinrich vs. the Austrian general Browne). Josef Gundel's positional playing was simply excellent. For instance, in turn 3, he managed to encircle one Austrian general in Saxony; for that he needed 2 generals and 2 supply trains.

Suddenly, after turn 7, the Tsarina died. This hit the allies hard. However, 2 turns later Voltaire published Frederick's poems: England decided to reduce subsidies to Prussia. This caused big cheering ! ! — Nevertheless, about turn 13 the game seemed to be more and more like a Prussian victory, since France was not able to put enough pressure on Prussia/Hanover. — Just in the moment when Swedish forces occupied the empty Berlin, Sweden sued for peace. The text of the Fate-Card: "Peace? Do I have war with Sweden? I do not, do I?" became a very special joke in this situation. Laughter from all sides.

Thus, Bernd took over the Imperial Army. He found back to his initial aggressiveness. Hildburghausen even defeated Winterfeldt in a bloody hearts battle (all cards of Hildburghausen were hearts!).

After turn 15, France lost India. And after turn 16, England completely cut the subsidies to Prussia.

Still, Anton's 3-general stack was laying siege to Silesia. Again and again there were big battles. It took quite a long time until Josef succeeded in uniting 3 generals as well (with 20 armies vs. Anton's 24). After that the situation in Silesia became more and more safe for him.

Around turn 15, France offensive started to open up new perspectives again... Maybe the final match would have swung to one of the attackers, but when France lost America in the war for the colonies, the game was over after turn 18.

And the 1st Friedrich World Champion held the trophy: JOSEF GUNDEL.