The Seven Years War: Frederick's Gamble

The Seven Years War: Frederick's Gamble (7YW:FG) is a wargame based on the innovative and still ever popular card driven game engine The Napoleonic Wars (TNW). If you’re familiar with TNW or its successor games, Wellington and/or Kutuzov; you’ll have little difficulty getting into enjoying this game.

The game’s title stems from Frederick the Great, King of Prussia’s 1756 land grab of the independent central European State of Saxony, right on his arch-rival Imperial Austria’s doorstep. Frederick “gambled” he could get away with this annexation without triggering a general European War. He failed, and when Austria was joined by its Ally France (Imperial Camp) and then Prussia's Ally Britain (Coalition Camp) entered the fray with its mainland interests in Hanover/Hesse, that European War expanded into one of history’s first Global Conflicts.

To reflect the global nature of this conflagration, 7YW:FG has “mini-maps” off to the side of the main European theatre: one for North America and two areas of the Indian sub-continent. These maps use a point-to-point map of “Duchies” similar to TNW. An abstract “Naval Control Track” accommodates the war on the waters so players can concentrate on the action ashore.