Maria x2

I'm a few weeks behind, but I wanted to post this before tomorrow's game night so I will keep it short.

Over the past two weeks we've played Maria, the successor to Friedrich. It apparently plays best with three, which is very useful in our group (Friedrich is best with four).

In a nutshell, although we've only played the simple version so far I really like it. Movement is a logistical challenge for the players that aren't playing Maria since units must maintain supply and supply is slower than the troops. Combat is very interesting because the board is separated in regions and each region has a traditional card suit assigned to it. During combat, only cards from the appropriate suit can be used. This has the interesting effect of encouraging players to pay attention to where battles have been fought, because if a suit is exhausted by an earlier battle it can be advantageous to try to take advantage.

Anyway, the full game apparently introduces politics and different armies that change the dynamics substantially. Looking forward to trying it, though it will be hard to find the 5 hours to commit to it.

In our first game, I played France and managed a win on the very last action of the last turn of the game. Similarly, in our second game I won on the last action of the last turn as the Prussians. In both games, I was extremely lucky with my card draws so I can't claim any particular prowess at the game! So far, each power seems to play quite differently (the supply situation for the prussians is much more difficult than it is for France, it seems to me) which is nice to see.

Anyway, highly recommended even at the basic game.