A few weekends ago I made the 4.5 hour drive from Houston to Dallas with my brother, Regan, for a weekend of pure gaming fun at Europafest, which was held on the twelfth floor of the LeBaron Hotel, a nice, reasonably priced place.

On that Twelfth floor was... Nirvana! (Or, at least a gamer's version of it.) Opponents galore, games everywhere, dice, chaos, counters, cola cans, rules... it was great. I very quickly became wrapped up in two games and so unfortunately did not get to monitor the other games as closely as I would have liked.

My first endeavor was in the 1943 Scenario of Scorched Earth as Army Group North commander. Rick Gayler and Victor Hauser ran the less vital southern two-thirds of the front where all the armor, aircraft and victory point cities for both sides were located.

With able assistance from Regan and on one occasion, Arthur Goodwin, I guess I performed adequately. This was mainly due to the fact that the wily Soviets (Joe Hayes, Tom Johnson, Jason Long, Gary Stagliano and the ubiquitous Arthur Goodwin) did not want anything to happen in my sector, except the surrender of Finland. (And if they want that, then they WILL get it.) Watching the rest of the front was fascinating.

You have not lived until you have been involved in one of these things and seen how experienced players fight. Not only can you learn, but you may even find that you already know how to play pretty well, too! Making a long, gory story short - we got beat. It just does not seem likely that the scenario's victory conditions can be met against able Soviets (at least, that's my excuse!). Perhaps if we had conducted more reasonable withdrawals... But, that is another story.

My other endeavor was a game of Kasserine Crisis with Rick Gayler. This was a wild affair where each of us made a move or two we'd like to have taken back. I (the Allies) cleverly lost Constantine and a whole lot of aircraft. Rick got most of the Afrika Korps surrounded and butchered. It was a whole lot of fun.

Other neat things at the Fest that I noticed on the way to and from food and sleep were two 1941 FitE/SE games, a Med monster, Winston hammering someone at Narvik, a Second Front setup, a Winter War game, a Czechoslovakia 1938 game and some really cool-looking Balkan Front counters. The Hamilton and Astell talks are, I'm sure, reported elsewhere. One of the SE games was using a combat results GRAPH. This is something I always use at home and plan to present in more detail in the future. Like anything new they are awkward at first, but can save much time later. I've gotten mixed reviews on the idea from John Astell, Arthur Goodwin, Victor Hauser and others.

As a matter of fact, some really interesting graphs are brewing in Austin. If you have any comments, send 'em in! Another playing twist I liked was the modified patrol attack rule used in our 1943 Scenario patrol attacks are not conducted until all air units have moved, and all the escorts in a strike must be patrolled before any bombers can be patrolled. Think about it.

The one thing I noticed that bothered me was that almost everyone in attendance was at least 30-35 years old. This is not good. We need a stripped-down version of the rules to get college-aged gamers (or younger) to try out Europa. The introductory game produced by these rules might not be exactly what we think of as Europa, but it would be a start for someone new to the system. The raw appeal of an interlocking series of games covering all of WWII in Europe is a strong draw.

Once a new gamer gets inducted into the system and becomes tired of the simple introductory rules he could move up to the regular rules at no additional cost - and in effect have a whole new game! Isn't this type of progression of sophistication exactly what most of us went through with Avalon Hill and SPI?

We must provide a similar progression. New gamers should not be expected to jump-start straight into this complex system. Each of us should make an effort to introduce someone to the system, remembering that many people, especially new gamers, are more interested in playing a fun game than working up a sweat conducting a simulation. Let's get them hooked. Europa will do the rest.

In closing I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed being with Europa players. I found them to be intelligent, well-read, competitive, good people. If you get the chance, GO TO A EUROPAFEST! You will be glad you did. Next year's Europafest will be held in conjunction with ORIGINS 1991 in Baltimore, Maryland.

There will be a number of special Europa events to make next year's Fest the best ever. Bring your favorite E game and be prepared to have a blast!