Symbols provide a uniform method for pictorially portraying various military organizations, and standard counter symbols enable players to quickly identify ground components in Europa simulations.

The current symbology of the Europa system was recently illustrated and labeled on Page 38, Issue #16 of Europa magazine. Many designs were derived from standard military symbols used by the United States Defense Department, while newer patterns were created to meet the specialized needs of certain Europagenerated categories. Players who understand the rationality behind these counter symbols not only enhance their individual re cognition skills, but gain greater enjoyment from the unique Europa experience.

This column gives an overview of the basic logic behind Europa military symbols. Future columns will discuss, from time to time, the exact background development of particular symbol types.

The starting point for Europa symbols was the May 1970 edition of Department of the Army Field Manual FM 21-30, Military Symbols. The manual contained military symbols that had been approved for use by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO), and the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). The manual conformed to NATO standardization Agreement STANAG 2019, Military Symbols, except for minor modifications required to fit the organization and normal employment of U.S. units.

In June 1973 Paul R. Banner of Game Designers' Workshop introduced many of these symbols into the first Europa production, Drang Nach Osten.

The more common U.S. military symbols had the benefit of much previous wargaming employment, where their widespread acceptance benefited the wargaming community by formulating a basic code of standard recognition. This acceptance was underscored by the appearance of the same authorized symbology in official government texts, such as the Army's massive World War II historical series, as well as many privately published books.

Likewise, these symbols constituted the basic framework of Europa symbology and continue to function in this regard.

Paul R. Banner brought several conventional designs to the Europa field by using the primary depictions of Armor, Artillery, Cavalry, Engineer, and Infantry. The armor symbol was a flattened oval, described in Army FM 21-30 Appendix C as a tank track and by STANAG 2019 as the hull of a tank. For Europa purposes, it depicts an armored fighting vehicular tank tread.

The "blackball" artillery symbol is described by both U.S. and NATO documents as a cannonball, and also functions in Europa as symbolic of a traditional artillery cannonball. The cavalry symbol, according to FM 21-30 and STANAG 2019, represented the cavalry bandoleer, but Europa designers discarded this blatant bureaucratic attempt to modernize a time-honored symbol and adopted its more popular definition as a cavalry sword.

The engineer symbol was achieved by turning the E of Engineers on its side to represent a bridge, at least according to FM 21-30. STANAG 2019 accepts the symbol without descriptive comment, because several NATO member nations have engineer terms that do not commence with the letter E.

The Europa system, however, employed the American engineer bridge symbol to signify building activities. For years, this symbol originally represented all Europa engineer-type units. In Drang Nach Osten and Unentschieden the differences between various categories of combat or construction engineers were denoted by movement and combat factors instead of symbology. Line symbol became restricted to combat engineers with the February 1976 release of Their Finest Hour.

The intersection lines of the infantry symbol has been variously explained as either crossed rifles or the crossed straps of customary soldiering uniforms. Both FM 21-30 and STANAG 2019 endorse the latter view, but the infantry symbol represents crossed rifles in Europa. These basic military designs were used as the basis or inspiration for other counter styles. Elaborations like the mechanized emblem combined both infantry and armor symbols. Still other symbols were newly minted designs necessitated by expanding Europa development.