Grand Europa Game Plan

During the course of two Europa seminars held at ORIGINS 1990 in Atlanta and a third at Europafest II in Dallas, John Astell shared some insight into his plan of action for the future development of Grand Europa (GE).

The next milestone for the GE project is completion of Second Front (SF). This game will provide the definitive basic rules set and charts for the Europa system. Assuming that SF also contains the 1945 Soviet and German East Front OBs (a question mark as John struggles to keep SF countersheets within limits that will fit into the box), the stage will be set to launch Stage One of GE.

Stage One of GE will consist of a 1943 mega-scenario which will tie the 1943 Scenario contained in The Urals together with the 1943 situation on the Western Front, as depicted in SF. This scenario will play through to the end of the war in 1945. The opposing sides and forces will be historically represented.

Stage Two of GE will likewise be a mega-scenario which begins in the Spring of 1941 and plays through until the Summer of 1946, probably starting in April. The Germans will have the choice of intervening in the Balkans or eschewing this option in favor of an earlier invasion of the USSR. With the possible exception of Yugoslavia, all the participating nations will have chosen sides as historically, and available forces will appear according to their actual Order of Appearance. Hence there will be no need to establish detailed political and production rules.

Stage Three of GE will start the hostilities in September 1939. Now things could start to get wild and woolly! At the very least a political framework will have to be established to allow events to unfold in a fashion that might very well deviate from history. For example, what if France holds out? How might that effect future events in the Balkans? What sort of latitude should each side have in invading neutral nations? How will the Soviet Union be handled?

There will most likely have to be some provision for modifying the makeup and arrival of each sides' forces. An essential criteria for this scenario is completion of the Collector Series games, which will provide the full complement of 1939 Orders of Battle.

Where Less is Better

During the early stages of the SF playtest it was estimated that the number of countersheets required for the game would total 25! For this total to be pared down to the roughly 16 sheets which economy dictates, some changes had to be contemplated.

In addition, SF air phases were consuming copious amounts of time - in some cases taking longer to execute than the rest of the turn!

These factors have prompted John Astell to consider the overhaul of those parts of the system where inordinate amounts of time and counters are required for little game effect.

Consider a massive ground support mission by thirty Allied bomber units against a German stack containing one point of AA. The result is a time-consuming crapshoot which will likely result in the return of 2 or 3 air units.

One way to cut down on this exercise is to design an AA table which will allow players to make one roll and determine the effect on the entire stack of attacking aircraft. This will take a lot of thought and development - will different rolls be required for each type of attacking aircraft (Type A, B, etc.)? Can modifiers be used? If the table were based on percentage results, a typical outcome might be "5% of the attacking air units aborted, 10% returned," with fractions rounded down. While this approach might work fine against the aforementioned force of 30 air units, it doesn't work so well when the number of units in the mission force is small. Despite a number of hurdles to be overcome, this is still a most laudable project.

Position AA units are being targeted as counter-clutter cutback candidates. John confided that although he had sound reasons for representing positional flak as individual, mobile units, the current treatment allows too much flexibility. To address this he is considering making the bulk of position AA intrinsic, residing in cities and at airbases. The amount of AA in such locations would be listed on an AA chart and would vary according to nationality and the year. For example, intrinsic positional AA in a German major city might be 2 in 1939, 3 in 1940, 5 in 1941, 7 in 1942, and so on up to 17 in 1945.

In another maneuver to save cardboard, the position AA units which remain will be consistently rated as heavy (although actually .. mixed"). The counter reduction achieved by eliminating the light position AA units is obvious.

Another way in which John intends to cut the number of counters in SF, and ultimately GE, is to overhaul the air replacement system. A problem currently exists regarding the theoretical number of aircraft which could be produced versus the realistic number of aircraft units which could be maintained in combatready condition.

In game play, if a player doesn't fly aggressively and actively, his Group Allowance can reach ahistorical levels. In actuality, Group Allowance limits should be determined by the amount of trained aircrews and pilots available. John is refining the air replacement system from "War in the Desert" to serve as a system-wide model which would reflect this reality. That the number of air counters would also be radically reduced by this approach is a useful side effect.

John revealed under questioning that the megahex concept for air activity outlined at ORIGINS 1989 is dead, but that he is still investigating ways to speed up the air phase and give it some additional flexibility. Here is an example of how this might work:

Air units flying the rail bombing mission could be staged off map, as opposed to actually flying to a given rail hex. After an antiair roll, the surviving units would attack on a rail bombing effects table. Typical results would be to reduce the enemy's rail capacity or restrict the movement points of units moving by rail in the following enemy turn.

All these changes mark the further evolution and refinement of an already superior system.

Trick Time

Each issue we examine some of the "little things" which over the course of a long game can slowly build toward a victory for your team.

Consider the Rumanian Air Force at the start of a game of Scorched Earth. Nothing to write home about, eh? They sure could use another decent bomber unit, couldn't they?

Well, it just might be possible to obtain one, and right away! There are three Rumanian air units which start the game in the Remnants Box: one is a pitiable PZL 11, but the other two are a nifty MB.210 night bomber and a doughty PZL 37. Either of these would make a welcome addition to your conquering horde. But how does one go about getting one of these worthies out of the Remnants Box and into USSR air space?

For the gamblers out there, here is the trick: deactivate your on- board PZL 11 and PZL 24 units during the Jun II initial phase! This will place five units in the Remnants Box, so that during the Jul I air replacement cycle you can make a Rumanian draw from the Remnants Box. Good luck!

The worst that can happen is you lose a PZL 24. But this unit is likely to sit around Rumania and do nothing until converted to scrap metal anyway. So think positively and go for it; you just might draw one of the bombers! The arrival of the IAR 80 as a Jul I air reinforcement will bring your on- board air units back up to the seven unit maximum dictated by your Group Allowance. Note that you would probably scrap your PZL 11 to allow this unit to enter play even if you didn't ay even if you didn't use this crafty little trick.

This next trick may not be for everyone, but I happen to like it. The Germans start Scorched Earth with 76 air units. Most German players set aside only the Ju-52s, using all their other 71 air units to participate in the surprise air attack against the VVS. This slick trick advocates holding two additional Luftwaffe units out of the surprise attack mission force for use conducting regular on-board missions.

How could this possibly profit the Axis? Remember that 10% of the German air units participating in the surprise air attack are aborted, but that this number is rounded down. By holding out the two units the Germans now have only 69 units in the attack and so suffer only 6 aborts (10% of 69 6.9, rounds down to 6).

Looking at this another way, including the two extra air units guarantees that one of them will be aborted! That yields an unacceptably high casualty rate of 50%.

Assuming you buy into this logic, which two units should be held out and what good can they do for the Germans on-board during the surprise turn?

I like to hold out the Ju-87B and a Ju88A. These can be used in the Arctic to fly out into the Barents Sea, around neutral Finland and hit the Murmansk RR. Alternately they can attack rail marshalling yards if you use that strategy during the Jun II turns. Or they can provide ground support against a tough-to-attack hex, such as 1B:3321 (Grodno) or across a non-border river hexside.

Here is a sick trick to watch for which occurs all too frequently in face-to-face games of SE: Your opponent has already rolled for his air repairs and THEN decides he wishes to deactivate one of the air units which was unsuccessful in its repair attempt. He then activates an new air unit from the Available Box. Naughty, naughty!

Close scrutiny of the Scorched Earth Master Sequence of Play indicates that within each phase, activities are numbered in the order they should be conducted. During the initial phase all air replacement system activities, including deactivation and activation, must be done before any air repairs are attempted. To roll for the repairs first and deactivate your units based on the outcome is foul play.

And while we are debunking dastardly air deeds, let's look at another mischievous mission: The Frivolous Harassment-Transfer.

The purpose of this maneuver is to "stage" a short-range unit (such as a Ju87B) forward at up to twice its range. Here's how it goes: In order to get the Ju87 airborne and make it eligible to land in the late air return step (which occurs in the following friendly initial phase) the Axis player flies a harassment mission behind his front line up to 9 hexes from the Ju87's current base. (DAS works here also, but harassment is more subtle - "Well, you could break through, you know.") Meanwhile, Axis construction engineers are positioned to quick-construct an airfield closer to the front during the next friendly initial phase. After this construction, the Ju87 "returns" to this new base (up to another 9 hexes east) during the late air return step. It can now fly a mission from this base during the current turn, whereas had it remained in its original base it would have been too far away to stage to this newly-built location. Legal?

No. Once again one should refer to the Scorched Earth Master Sequence of Play. Since late-returning air units are landed before airfields are built, the Ju87 may not "return" to the new airfield.

Maps in Our Time

A few days ago the UPS man arrived amid the usual chorus of barking dogs and made his way to my door bearing precious cargo the Balkan Front maps! Here are some of the juicy details:

There is a weather line out there in the water! The "D" weather line now runs across Italy through Barletta and out to sea, then dips south to the 0300 hex row on Map 15B. From here it crosses Greece and runs due east to Lesbos.

Many new little cities appear all over the place. For example, rather than traversing empty clear hexes between Skoplje and Nis, one now travels through the point cities of Leskovac, Vranje, and Kumanovo. Furthermore, as you reach Vranje you're advised that you have entered a new region - Macedonia.

All islands are now named. For instance, south of Fiume (on the Adriatic Sea along the Yugoslav-Italian border) appear the famous islands of Krk (I'm not kidding), Rab, Cherso, and Losini. And you can actually move to these islands using narrow straits/ferry crossings.

There are multiple names for some cities. For instance, just across the border from Hungary is the storied city of Subotica, also known as Szabadka, and later Maria Theresienstadt. There is an asterisk next to this last name. Unfortunately, I don't know what that signifies!

Lakes and rivers are also named. One can now quickly pick out the Spherkios River. Lake Balaton is easily found for setting up that 1945 SS Offensive. The old road symbol - the dashed line - now represents low capacity rail lines. Roads are shown by little dotted lines. And these are what run through the Pindus Mountains where the Italians first launch their dastardly attack against the peace-loving Geeks, oops, I mean Greeks. I suspect supply could become a real problem here

Well, that is all for now. Hope I have piqued your curiosity!

From Other Quarters

There are other publications out there which cover Europa other than E.T.O. and the occasional Grenadier. There is Breakout! magazine, the Australian Garners' Quarterly, which features a regular Europa column in addition to its broader mix of gaming articles. Breakout! has been in existence for over nine years and has produced 38 issues. A little math will attest to the fact that Breakout! has maintained a remarkable publishing record. The April-June 1990 issue had an interesting article by Stuart Lee entitled "USSR Almanac."

From our northern neighbors comes The Canadian Wargamers Journal. TCWJ is published on a bi- monthly schedule and now boasts 24 issues under its belt. In Issue #23 (June/July 1990) there was a review of the Second Front playtest by Gord Johansen. Here is a short excerpt:

"Imagine a typical counter sheet. Now double it and double it and double it and double it. Then add one. That's right; 17 counter sheets in all sorts of colours... Everything from the Italians (yellow of course) to the "fierce" Canadians (it really says that on the countersheet, Honest!).

Two sheets each just to cover the British and American air forces as compared to the once mighty Luftwaffe with 3/4 of a sheet. We've got your Greeks and Norwegians, your Czechs and Dutch, South Africans, and New Zealanders, Poles, Free French, Belgians, Indians, Brazilians, U.S navy, U.S. marines, even U.S./ Canadians. You like Italians you say?

This is the game for you. There's regular Italians, Blackshirt Italians, pro- Axis (RSI) Italians, pro-Allied (co- belligerent) Italians, and everybody but the Blackshirts get their own air force. Not to be outdone in the variety department, the Germans get more unit types than anybody else. They have the Luftwaffe (plus its ground army), the Kriegsmarine troops, Eastern Troops, Foreign and Special Contingents, Hitler Youth, Waffen SS, SS-Police, OKW Forces, and of course the regular army."

TCWJ has a freewheeling style reminiscent of the early days of wargaming which I find most appealing, and does an excellent job of keeping up with current events in the hobby.

If you have a few extra dollars to sink into additional reading matter, these two enthusiastic and timely periodicals may be just the ticket!

Corrections to TEM #14

1. "From the Editor," page 6, column 3, 2nd paragraph: the German 188th Division in Balkan Front is a reserve mountain division. I originally identified it as a fortress mountain division, then realized it was a reserve, not a fortress unit. When I sought to correct this, however, I accidentally replaced the wrong word -- thus the "fortress reserve" misnomer!

2. "Franco's Armed Forces," page 31, column 1, 2nd paragraph: the second sentence should read, "The Germans supplied somewhat more than 400 PAK 37s..."

These corrections have been made in the MagWeb.com archive.--RL