What is a GEnie? Or, more specifically, what is Europa-On-Line (EOLP When I open each new issue of TEM, one of the first things I do is look at the EXchange column. On a nightly basis however, I get EOL. The difference between EXchange and EOL is prompt feedback from other Europa grognards. This issue, in an effort to show the computer-literate Europa fanatics what they are missing, I will feature a small portion of Topic 22 from GEnie's Europa Category #26.

Topic 22 features an ongoing discussion of the Europa air rules. The Topic was started by Gary Dickson in an effort to better understand how the air system works and to get feedback from his fellow Europa gamers. As of this writing there are 160 messages for this Topic. Well, I began editing the first 20 messages of Topic 22 hoping that 20 messages would be enough to fill my column.

I was astounded by the quality of the material and the caliber of the contributors taking part in this discussion. There were over 4,000 words in the first 20 messages of this one Europa Topic alone. And since I was originally given only 750 words for this column by our friendly editor, you can see that I was in a bind. Thankfully, I got more space.

Please note that dates have been included, so readers can better understand the pace of the discussion. Also, due to the effects of real-time text entry at the computer terminal, the wording of the messages may seem a little awkward at times.

Top1c 22 - Air Rules

1. 4/29/91, Gary Dickson

Okay you guys, everyone's always harping on how the air rules are all fouled up. How about a central place to discuss them? (I've lived a deprived life and have never read an issue of ETO, but at least I have every TENITEM, so if this has been ,discussed in ETO before, EXCUSE me!)

1. Flexible DAS. How much flexibility? One hex, four hexes, or how about letting each bomber have a ground defense intercept range of half its range, cut its DAS strength in half,  and let it defend anywhere within its range? (should be used with incremental odds)

2. Half strength air support of overruns - half strength since an overrun takes less time than a regular combat. This would prevent guaranteed non-overrunable stacks, no need for mega-wad stacks.

3. Eliminate patrol attacks and let intercepts take place while the attacking stack is moving through your intercept zone.

2. 4/29/91, Rick Gayler

Gary, there are rules addressing #1 and #3 above already in development. See the Chrome Rules Topic, message #10-14. I will be posting a rewrite of the flexible DAS rule within a few days.

As for #2, I think this would be a devastating bonus for the Germans in 1941 and 1942. I say with all modesty that no Soviet team could stand against me if I had this rule as the German player. That's not to say let's rule it out forever. Just that if it were taken as a stand alone change the Germans would kick posteriors to Pyatigorsk. Maybe in combination with some other changes it might work, however. I'll certainly think about it some more.

3. 4/30/91, Robin D.Roberts

Gary, I have to argue against the air support of overrun rule, as well as some of the DAS rules I've seen and also against the intercept while moving rule.

My main argument is that in all cases people are ignoring scale. That's a two-week turn. All air combat is or should be taking place over the better part of two weeks. I ought to be able to use defensive air over its whole range, it's obviously not orbiting waiting for air strike requests the whole time.

Paradrops are unrealistic in my mind, but exactly how to resolve them still require some thinking I haven't had the chance or the data to do yet. I think that they require more assets for the initial drop than are required, but only for the initial drop. Once in I think the aircraft required correctly account for air drop supply requirements for the initial forces.

4. 4/30/91, Gary Dickson

Rick, I agree that an air support in overrun rule favors the Germans in the beginning (only), but that shouldn't be too hard to counter balance. I'm not really suggesting it, but a limited intelligence rule would certainly favor the Red Army, at least in the beginning. There must be other rules/changes you can think of for balance.

Rick, do you mean flexible DAS and no patrols are in development for OFFICIAL Europa, or as home brew?

Robin, sure an air unit might be able to conduct air operations over many parts of the front in a two week turn, but it's bombing strength would be so diluted as to be ineffective in Europa scale. In order for its full strength to be used, it has to bomb one hex for the whole turn (or whatever).

As far as air drop is concerned, you might need many more planes for a much shorter period of time to drop a unit, but averaging it out over the two-week turn gives you the 1/2 RE or 1 RE per plane rule. Hey, nothing's perfect; the longer the game turn, the more abstract it gets. If we want to play with individual air groups, and we do, we have to have a lot of abstraction. It might be more realistic to use off-map 'air transport or support points', like SPI did in War in the East, but that would take a lot of the fun out of the game!

5. 5/1/91, Robin D.Roberts

I guess I didn't express myself correctly, I didn't mean that an air unit could perform defensively in more than one hex. I agree that would be diluting its effect. I meant that at the time scale it had time to react to the situation and contribute to any single defense in its air range.

My point about airdrops needing a lot of air transport for the days of drop related to my perception that historically an airdrop used ALL of the available air transport resources, at least much more than are tied up in an Europa air drop. But that I'm not in possession of enough research materials to flesh out my ideas on how it would be more accurately modeled.

Just as a general observation I've noticed that a majority of design mistakes are usually one of scale. Either the designer has over or underestimated the effect of something in relation to other items or more often he has put something in a game that doesn't match its scale in time and/or unit size.

6. 5/2/91, David Berry

Hoo boy! This topic should be a hummer.

Flexible DAS: Gotta happen. I can't remember the last time I had the patience to play when an opponent insisted that since my DAS was sitting one hex away, it could not participate. It also telegraphs the defensive setup too clearly.

We've worked with a number of options. Without going to Bro air rules (see the PIOT rules in the library for details if you're interested), I'd think that allowing DAS to fly 1/4 during the phasing player and a further 1/4 during the nonphasing gives flexibility and unpredictability without giving the defense a cast-iron feel.

Overrun Support: Tricky one. I'm inclined to agree with Rick that it makes things just awesome. But I'm not a fan of the "non overrunable stack, neener! neener! neener!' approach to play and this is one way to disrupt its mathematical calculations. Maybe some serious loss in TBFs or die roll to see if it connects. Overrun takes only a fraction of the turn and so should not get anything like full air effects.

Patrol Attacks: In my opinion, the lamest part of the system and long overdue for the coup de grace. Trying to intercept attacking stacks as they move through gets messy. Have escorts joined up yet? Is there a MP penalty for joining up? What if the interceptor's half-range includes the attacking airbase? Can they intercept over the home airfield. Then what about attacker CAP? This needs considerable work to fix.

Paratroopers: The old debate about elapsed time always runs into trouble if you take it too literally in a game like Europa. A para III is about 3,000 men, plus equipment. Good luck stuffing them into 50 C47s (at 12-15 men each) for a single drop. That would take over 6 wings to drop in a single lift. Maybe they straggle in over the course of a week, but what are the defenders doing for six plus days while dribbles of paratroopers rain down on them?

I'd have no objection to cranking up the number of air units required to carry a combat drop. But you get so little chance to use paratroops in a game and they're such easy meat when they're down that I think the rule may not be so bad as is. Since there's nothing that represents the sheer paralysis and confusion that paratroops could create and Europa has them sitting there on the map like ducks in a gallery, let's turn a blind eye to this one, Robin.

7. 5/2/91, Gordon Johansen

Gary, we use a slightly modified rule for overruns. Only type D air units are allowed to support them but they can be escorted and intercepted normally. The planes that do any of these missions may not be used for the rest of the turn of course.

Another rule we use is that any TBFs are doubled if the defender does not have AA in the hex, has a friendly air unit attempt an interception, or is not in a fort or city. This really forces the Soviet to send up some of his poorer air units to stop the doubling effect and stops him from getting air superiority so early.

Air units are halved in forests, swamps, mountains, and may not add undoubled factors greater than the modified attacking strength of the ground units. The factors could still be doubled if the defender has no air defenses though. For example a 4-6 with one Ju 87B (4 TBF) attacking a 3-6 with no AA would be worth 12:3. This really gives the air force some punch in certain circumstances.

8. 5/3/91, Gary Dickson

Gord, I like your concept of improving bombing strength if there is no AA or interceptors in the hex. It's well known that the principal use of AA is to keep the bombers high and throw off their aim. If they face no opposition they are much more effective. I also like air units halved in certain terrain - you can't hit what you can't see!

9. 5/3/91, Rick Gayler

Gary, the rules presented in message 10 of Topic 16 are indeed under consideration and development for possible inclusion in First to Fight as OPTIONAL rules. The latest rewrite, which has benefitted from the discussion here on GEnie, of the DAS rule appears in the next message in this category (#10).

To Bro Berry, have you read the Opportunity Intercept rule in message 10 cf Topic 16? 1 thought the prose was rather concise and covered most of your questions.

The question relative to whether an air unit can be patrol attacked (or similarly, opportunity intercepted) is a valid Q&A under the current rules as written. Rephrasing it: "May an air unit patrol attack an enemy air unit in the hex it takes off from?" Not too good grammar, but I think it covers the point - what if the unit enters a hex outside the patrol range of an enemy unit and proceeds to move farther away? Can the enemy patrol it in its airbase hex as it takes off?

Very tricky... the rule uses the wording "when an enemy air unit enters a hex in the patrol zone of a fighter, the enemy unit is subject to patrol attack." Now taking this literally, the unit could not be patrolled as it doesn't really enter the hex it already occupies, no more than a ground unit enters the hex it occupies at the start of the movement phase during its movement.

But consider this: What if the air unit took off and stayed over its hex, say to perform a DAS mission? This hex is in intercept range of the enemy fighters and so could be intercepted. Shouldn't it also then be able to be patrolled, as presumably the patrolling fighters are prowling around in the vicinity.

Well, I can see reasons to lean either way, and so I asked John Astell this question. He says that it IS ALLOWED TO PATROL ATTACK (and so similarly opportunity intercept) an enemy air unit in the hex from which it initiates its air mission.

His opinion is good enough for me.

10. 5/3/91, Rick Gayler

Rule 20F2d - Defensive Air Support

The purpose of this mission is to aid friendly ground units. During the owning player's air movement step, an air unit declared to be flying the DAS mission may move to a designated patrol hex. It remains there until the end of the next enemy movement phase. When flying to a patrol hex, the air unit has its movement allowance reduced by 1 MP. A patrol hex may be any hex; it need not contain friendly units. An air unit flying this mission has a support zone which consists of the patrol hex and all six adjacent hexes.

An air unit flying the DAS mission may be intercepted by enemy fighters able to reach any hex of its support zone. All such intercepting enemy fighters engage the DAS mission force in one combined air combat (as if all had intercepted the mission force in the patrol hex).

Example: Two Soviet IL-2s declare they are flying a DAS mission and move to hex

2A:2925, which is designated to be a patrol hex. The support zone consists of hex 2A:2925 and the six adjacent hexes: 2A:2824, 2825, 2924, 2926, 3024 and 3025. One German Me109F intercepts the mission force in hex 2A:2925, while another intercepts from hex 2A:3024. The ensuing air combat is resolved as if all the engaged air units occupied hex 2A:2925.

After the enemy ground movement phase and as the first step (added to the master sequence of play) of the enemy air phase, friendly air units on DAS may react. An air unit on DAS is not required to react, but if it does so (owning player's choice) it may adjust its position by one hex to any other hex of the support zone.

During the enemy combat phase (only), add the TBFs of all friendly air units on DAS in the hex to the total defense strength of the hex. DAS has no effect on overruns, which do not occur in the combat phase. Terrain does not affect the TBFs of air units flying the DAS mission. The total printed TBFs contributed by air units on DAS may not exceed the total printed defense strengths of the defending ground units; excess TBFs are ignored.

Prior to the resolution of the attack, the attacking player may fire antiaircraft fire against the DAS air units in the hex per rule 22B.

It is recommended that incremental combat results be used in conjunction with this rule.

INCREMENTAL COMBAT RESULTS

After calculating the odds for any combat, if the odds are greater than 2:1, retain any fraction in the form of a decimal rounded down to one decimal place. For example, 23:5 would become 4.6:1. Roll one ten- sided die before resolving the combat to determine the final odds of the battle. If the number rolled on the 10- sided die is equal to or less than the decimal remainder retained in the original odds, the battle is resolved at the next higher odds level.

In the example given, if a 4 were rolled on the 10-sided die, the battle would be resolved at 5:1 rather than 4:1. If a 7 were rolled, the odds would be reduced to 4:1 as normal.

Note: Consider the "0" result on the 10-sided die to be a "10" result.

11. 5/4/91, Roy Lane

The wording of the above rule states flexible DAS will remain in the hex until the END OF THE NEXT ENEMY MOVEMENT PHASE. That could cause some confusion. If the rule stated up to the beginning of the next enemy Combat phase, where its allowed to move within its mission zone. Something along those lines.

12. 5/4191, Rick Gayler

Yes, I've already caught that. It should say "the end of the next enemy GROUND movement phase." This was just a typo as I keyed the rule.

The idea is that the phasing player should get to see where the final locations of all DAS units are BEFORE his air movement step so that he can "patch up" his attacks with his own air support. The logic behind this sequencing is that the attacking player is more knowledgeable about where and when the attack will occur, and so should have the edge in flexibility in committing air assets.

13. 5/4/91, Rick Gayler

Oops! I see what you mean now.

Let's try this as a fix instead: "During the owning player's air movement step, an air unit declared to be flying the DAS mission may move to a designated patrol hex. It remains there until the end of the enemy player's next ground movement phase, at which time it may react (see below)."

Also revise the next to the last paragraph as follows: "Prior to the resolution of the attack, the attacking player may fire antiaircraft against the DAS air units in the hex per rule 22B. Units flying the DAS air mission return to base at the end of the enemy player's ground combat phase."

Thanks for the input.

14. 5/5/91, Gordon Johansen

Gary, I can't really take full credit for the doubling idea. It first appeared in an old issue of The Grenadier and we just modified it. It has always been a pet peeve of mine that the air factors that can be added are based on the printed strength of the unit. It doesn't come up too much in the east or the other campaigns but it sure will in Second Front with the massive allied air power. Even major rivers don't mean much when most of your strength comes from air units. With our rules, if you are quartered with a major river and you can only double that strength, they are still a significant barrier.

Rick, I haven't had too much time to think about the opportunity intercept rule but on first glance it looks like it might work well. We use two things to solve the patrol problems. One is that any plane that is patrolled gets to patrol the other unit back and if successful the original unit may not intercept (also, a six at 2-1 or greater means an abort when making a patrol attack). The other rule is that all of our patrols and air combats are done with the units flipped over so we cannot see what they are.

All we get to know for combat is whether it is a screen or mission force before the interception is fought. There's nothing like faking out the other player with a big stack of bombers with no escorts since he doesn't get to find out which is which before he declares his interception. It also makes the actual combats interesting when you end up with non-optimized air battles.

15. 5/8/91, Rick Gayler

Thanks for the comments Gord; I will factor them into the meat grinder. The opportunity intercept is getting some extensive playtesting with a half dozen or so volunteers putting it through its paces. If there are major holes, they should show up soon.

16. 5/8/91, Gary Dickson

This question about patrols or opportunity intercepts having to pick attacking planes to patrol/Ol as they are flying to target rather than after all air movement has taken place bugs me.

It's like this: if we were simulating one air mission, then airight - you hit one wave of bombers and another gets through. But that is not what is being simulated.

These are two week turns, and the attacking planes represent STREAMS of bombers, and the interceptors represent waves of fighters, all of them taking off over a period of days. The defender might miss the first wave of an attack, but not each one over many days. So why not let the defender get a chance to see all the attacking targets and concentrate his resources against that particular bomber stream? (This would also fit well into PBEM.)

17. 5/8/91, Roy Lane

Actually, RAW (Rules as Written) states that the phasing player must fly his units one at a time, forcing the defender to announce patrols one at a time. If played exactly according to RAW the phasing player could stage feints, however in a ftf game without incremental odds this could get hazardous.

Our local group, and the last PBM flew all phasing air units before the defender declares patrols/intercepts. It simply works easier and faster. It will probably work the same, yet the rule is being written and should model somewhat the present RAW and work in a ftf game.

What players realize when using incremental odds is the way air tactics change. Under RAW my air tactics would involve several secondary air missions in the same area as a heavy GS mission. This forces the defender to either concentrate on turning back the effective strength needed to raise the odds, or allowing several other air missions go unhindered.

With incremental odds the phasing player can diversify his air force even further. Since no one attack will require an exact number of factors, the attacking player isn't under the same pressure to get missions through. So many smaller missions will be used to greater effect.

18. 5/9/91, Robin D. Roberts

Gary, I agree with your last msg 16 about patrols but my question is... what is a patrol simulating that is different from the intercept mission? I agree with you that it is too tactical.

19. 5/9/91, Gary Dickson

Robin, beats me what the difference is between patrol and intercept. That's why opportunity intercept is being developed I guess.

Roy, you deviationist! It looks like your group DOES have a lot of home brews!

20. 8/9/91, Gary Dickson

The air rules still don't feel right, even with flexible DAS. Consider this: interception really doesn't make sense within the framework of a two-week turn. Sure, if it was a day or so I could see planes being restricted to half their combat radius to account for the territory they patrol. But in a two-week turn they should be able to fly just as far as the attacking planes, especially full-featured air forces like the U.S., Brits, or Germans (leaving out the Italians and Soviets).

Another problem, and one that is compounded by flexible DAS, is that interceptors, besides only having half their combat radius, can only intercept DAS on the opponent's turn, before their own turn when their combat units move, engineers make airfields, etc.

For example, perhaps it would be better to allow, say, German DAS to be intercepted in the Soviet turn, after the Reds have moved up their airbases. Otherwise DAS often sets up outside of the attacker's intercept range (which is half) and thus is vulnerable only to AA fire. It might be better to let the Germans bring up his fighters to deal with the defensive DAS in his own player turn when his ground units make the attack. After all, he brings up escorts and GS bombers that way, why not interceptors?

Well, I hope you've enjoyed your first glimpse of Europa-OnLine. Future columns may contain additional messages from EOL, especially when my column is due and I haven't even begun writing! Happy Hunting!