I noticed a mention of this game in Steve Kurzban's excellent report on the American International Toy Fair, and it reminded me that I'd been meaning to post a note recommending the game.

Mike Clifford, in Counter, called Europa 1945-2030, the sleeper of Essen '98, and to this point I'd have to agree. It is easily the best negotiation game I've seen that can be played in a reasonable amount of time (I qualify it this way as I have tremendous respect for Diplomacy, but rarely take the time to play it any more. In some ways it reminds me more of the card game Koalition, but I like this much better.)

Briefly, the game's theme is the evolution of the European Econo-mic Community (both past and future). It's played over four turns, with each turn having different countries petitioning for membership in the economic community each turn (some trying again from the previous turn/epoch after having failed to gain membership). Each country is labeled with a point value that is doled out to players voting that country into the community, and a minimum number of votes needed to gain entry.

Generally, one player will not be able to provide sufficient votes on his or her own to get a country in. Instead the guts of the game involves players moving their Euroguys and Eurogals (pawns in both genders are provided) from country to country attempting to form coaltions to move a nation into the European Economic Community. Members of successful coalitions get victory points, the measure of success in the game. There is also a war/tension factor thrown into the last two rounds in which players have to decide, via bidding, how much of their voting resources to commit to quelling war and political tension. Successful bidding is another way to gain victory points.

While this is the type of game that may not be everyone's cup of tea, and can succeed or fail on the mix of people playing it, it's been the lost frequently played game in our group since October. It's a lot of fun, plays in a little less than a half hour per turn (so it comes in in a bit under two hours) and perhaps most importantly doesn't seem that long. Although it's by no means a simulation, it does a reasonable job of capturing the feel of its them - that of the changing Europe. It's also very well produced (some think it's even overproduced, though I personally am not sure that's possible). Some of us think it should be German Spiel des Jahres this year, although it may not be the type to get a lot of consideration. I'm delighted to see Eurogames making a bigger push in North America and making this available in English.

So if you get a chance, try it. This game has got a lot going for it.