As the Luftwaffe circles overhead, hovering over the descending parachutes, a shocked Norwegian garrison attempts to rally its scattered forces and defend the airfield outside Stavanger, Norway: a country that has suddenly become the next victim of German aggression. Elsewhere, in the harbors of Bergen, Oslo, Trondheim, Stavanger, and far to the north in the ore-rich area around Narvik, the scene is being repeated as concentrated air, naval, and ground forces of powerful Germany invade a peaceful countryside.

This scene is played out in the Europa game Narvik, a simulation unique in the field of wargames. As the German operational commander you are given overwhelming force to invade Norway. But the hapless Norwegians, more an annoyance than a threat, are not your enemy. Time, terrain and a growing Allied reaction force are your enemies.

Time because you must conquer the land, secure the ports, fill the airfields with your planes, subdue the populace, and secure your precious iron ore supply before the Allies arrive with just enough force and in just the right places to defeat you. Time is running out as you begin your campaign, for even as your troops embark toward their final destination the Allies are on their way. Terrain is also your enemy. Mountains that rise before you, overpowering all but your elite mountain troops. Glaciers and icy fjords that block your every move. Bitter arctic terrain and weather that exhaust your troops and hinder your efforts to keep them in supply. Dense forests that hide small bands of Norwegians who delay you, cost you time, and sometimes hurt you. And the Allies. Insignificant in comparison to your array of ground forces, but every bit the match for your limited naval units, possessing a navy that can blockade your ports, launch air strikes at a crucial moment and perhaps turn the tide of that one allimportant battle. Allies that can land around you and behind you. Allies that possess strong antiaircraft forces to fend off your Luftwaffe. Allies that can build a fighting team to overwhelm your isolated Narvik invasion force and snatch victory from you at the last moment. They never seem to run out of options to confound you and cause you to shift the thrust of your attack.

This is Narvik, a simulation of a mostly forgotten campaign that saw German combined arms put to a severe test. A game where one turn you sense victory in your grasp, only to have it elude you yet again. Narvik represents the best game for solitaire play I have seen in my 25 plus years of pushing cardboard. It's a game between you and someone, or no one. A game where you can always improve your play with a better attack or a better masterstroke on the initial invasion turn. A game where every single unit must be used to its maximum. A game so obviously unbalanced, yet balanced as no other I have ever seen. Beautiful and wonderful, yet wonderfully frustrating.

Proof of these points was given at last year's Europafest. At that convention I played a game of Narvik with Frank Chadwick. Frank designed the game but had not played it in many a year. Sure, he remembered the clever tactics, but he had never been exposed to my careful invasion, my use of every single unit allotted for the invasion and follow-up waves. And as wave after wave of Germans flooded Norway seizing the airfields, the capital, and the key ports, including Narvik and its adjacent terrain, he looked on with amazement and I felt good. I was out to grease him real good and I knew I could do it. The PLAN was working.

His comment was simple, "Well, I've got a lot of opportunities here." Oh how I hated to hear that, because I knew he was right. Over the next couple of hours Frank poked and cut away, a little here and a little there. He captured a port south of the "A" weather line and no amount of praying to Thor was going to get it back. He watched with pointed eyes as I made my one mistake and so lost the airfield next to Trondheim along with the six all-important Ju 88's that had kept him at bay in the Narvik area. And he took this hex at low odds, which is another of the demons of Narvik. You can attack the Germans at low odds and destroy a carefully laid, well executed, and wonderful plan. Sure, he massed his limited forces, but in the dense forest, so what. The Germans can stomp you, but mostly you just retreat, laughing and eating cheese. Still I pushed and clawed and fought off attack after attack in the Narvik region. I had captured everything except that one southern port, and I was still on top. That is, until the big attack at Narvik. It was something to behold. He kept putting Allies in the area and I could not stop him. Though I maneuvered furiously and counterattacked when I could, in the end he waxed me. Drat! Next time for sure!

And that, my fellow campers, is what Europa means to me. One real good time, and that time will come again. At Europafest with the new Narvik maps it will be a new game. And this time I am ready.