Introduction
Friedrichcame out in 2004 and featured a really interesting new way of resolving battles: the use of playing cards. <PERSON> second design, Maria, builds on the innovative systems in Friedrich and in doing so creates a very dynamic game about <PERSON> ascension to the Austrian throne. I'd played Friedrich before and keenly awaited this release as soon as I heard about it. I was lucky enough to play it at BGG.Con 2009 and my own copy arrived from Simmons Games in late November.
Maria is <PERSON> second design.
It is a 3 player game (although playable with 2), and is listed as taking 2-5 hours to play a full game.
This review will assume the full complement of three players and also focus on the advanced game, which I think will be more interesting to most players.
Theme
Maria is a game based on the War of the Austrian Succession. Austria was attacked by Prussia, France, Bavaria and Saxony, while Great Britain, Hanover and the Netherlands helped Austria with the so-called Pragmatic Army.
Components
The game comes in a nice square box that's the same size as the <PERSON> box (incidentally the same form factor used by Ticket to Ride and Espana 1936).
The game features a gorgeous mounted map which is split into two areas - Flanders and Bohemia. This beautiful map would not look out of place framed and hung on a wall. The colour choices are very good too; as much as I liked <PERSON>, the blue for Prussia and Hanover make me think of large bodies of water. The map is not quite to scale, and the reason it's split is that there is a large segment in central Europe that was removed as it did not feature in the war. The two maps are connected at the bottom, and only Austria and France may cross over.
In addition to the map, there are nice round wooden tokens representing the generals commanding armies, two new half thick round tokens for Hussars, an event summary card, an event deck and four decks of playing cards.
Similar to <PERSON>, the playing cards are sorted by conventional suits. There are also counters for each faction and other information markers. The counters are made of good standard wargame quality cardboard. 92
The event summary card is quite small, and difficult to read; however, one can easily see the iconography of the cards, and so it's suitable for the purpose. Nevertheless, I would have liked to see the summary on a full sheet.
The decks of cards are in four suits (clubs, hearts, spades, diamonds) and go from 2-10 with two reserve cards per deck that can be used for any suit and can be used for any value from 1-8.
The rule book is clear and concise and has extensive designer notes in the back. It is available for download from the Histogame site.
Rules and Game Play
If you have played <PERSON> before, you need to be aware that <PERSON> has some key differences in game play; I've attemped to note them all in the text below.
Maria is played over 12 turns representing the four years of the Wars of Austrian Succession (1741-1744). There are three turns per year plus a winter phase.
The powers represented on the map are: Austria, the Pragmatic Army, the Prussians, the Saxons, the French, and the Bavarians. The Saxons begin the game allied with Prussia, but may become neutral or allied with Austria. The Bavarians begin the game as a cooperating power with France. Unlike <PERSON>, where only generals of the same country could stack together, in <PERSON>, cooperating powers can stack together. Thus, France and Bavaria can stack, Prussia and Saxony can stack, and Austria and the Pragmatic Army can stack (in Flanders only). Also unlike <PERSON>, the stacking limit for friendly generals is 2.
Cooperating powers conquer and place VP tokens for their main army. So Bavaria would place (and protect) French markers on the board.
Winning
There are two versions of Maria - the introductory game, and the advanced game.
The introductory game is played out over three years (9 turns) and does not use the Flanders part of the map. Therefore, only Prussia, France, and Austria (and their respective allies/cooperating powers) are in play. Victory is determined as follows:
France controls 9 Austrian fortresses;
Prussia controls 12 fortresses in Austria and/or Silesia (note that Prussia starts with 2 Silesian fortresses);
Austria survives to the end of turn 9 without either of the other powers meeting their victory condition.
The introductory game is very <PERSON>-like. 993