Trey Nelson

Things that make players go "Hmmm..."

ATEC must be used (if possible) by the defender when attacked in weather or terrain that negates AECA. Oddly enough, however, mandatory loss of armored units by the attacker is not required. Imagine a plain full of tanks floundering forward through the muck. Enemy AT guns, present in force, open a devastating fire and... the small armor-piercing projectiles miss the lumbering tanks and cut down the supporting infantry by the hundreds instead! To correct this situation and simplify/unify the AEC rules, Scorched Earth Rule 10G should be changed to read as follows:

"The Terrain Effects Chart lists several terrain types and weather conditions as no AEC. This means that AECA may not be used by a unit attacking into such a hex, across such a hexside, or in a weather zone with that condition. It means AECD may not be used by a unit defending in such a hex or weather condition. ATEC is unaffected and must be used in such a hex or weather condition if the attacking units are capable of 1/2 or more AECA, even though AECA may not be used due to the terrain or weather. Whenever ATEC is used in a combat, the attacking units are subject to required armored losses per Rule 9J."

There seems to be a physical anomaly allowed by the current rail regauging rules. As stated by Fred Helfferich in an ETO column (#41), rail repair units travelled along existing railroads, not cross-country. (Two railroads, the "Mopac" and "Katy", cross my ranch in central Texas; repair crews work on the tracks regularly, but they never cross my pastures to do so-they always work from railbound vehicles.)

This being so, work parties should be required to proceed along advancing railheads to regauge/repair existirig rails, hauling their special equipment along the track.

The rules' time-space problems arise as follows: in a given time period, unit A can regauge a section of track A-B, B being the farthest point the railhead can be advanced during the time period. As currently allowed, however, RR engineers can march overland and space themselves along a rail line in a "daisy-chain" effect, so that all in the same turn unit A regauges section A-B, unit B regauges section B-C, and so on. Theoretically, using this method the entire line between Kiev and Kharkov could be regauged in one turn! In reality though, since in this given time period unit A can only advance the railhead to point B, the sections further down the line could not be receiving the materials required for regauging.

To reflect this time-space constraint, the rules should reflect that railheads progress at a given rate radiating from the main rail net. If 4 hexes per turn seems too low for railhead advancement, then the rules may have to be adjusted slightly. But the final effect in play should show a gradually expanding rail network rather than long stretches springing suddenly into use out of thin air.

And speaking of time-space warps, how about the overrun situation? In Europa, movement factors appear to represent the passage of time, not passage over terrain. Thus, a Soviet mechanized unit spends roughly 1 movement point per day (8 MPs plus 8 MPs during exploitation in 1/2 a month).

From this perspective, imagine an overrun situation where a unit has to use most of its MPs to reach the hex from which the other units are overrunning. Assume that it has to stop in the hex overrun, having exhausted its MPs, while the other units are capable of moving almost their full limit, even though they had to theoretically spend most of their "movement time" waiting for the late- arriving unit to join them.

The solution is to mark units assembling for the overrun, allowing the entire stack to use only the MPs available to the last-arriving unit. Thus, if unit A used 5 of its MPs moving to join units assembling for an overrun, the entire stack would be considered to have spent 5 MPs prior to the overrun.

Another problem arises from Naval-Air Interaction Rule 38E, especially regarding the siege of Odessa. Historically, the Soviets experienced little difficulty keeping Odessa supplied by sea. Transports were able to make the run from Sevastopol to within 80 miles (5 hexes) by day, then make the final run to port under the cover of darkness, when the Luftwaffe was unable to intervene effectively. This allowed Odessa's defenders to conduct an aggressive defense against the besieging Romanian forces, including local amphibious counter-attacks. They were finally evacuated October 1941 only because Sevastopol itself was threatened by the German advance through the Crimea.

Sevastopol was successfully supplied by warships able to make the run from Novorossiysk in a single winter's night, with the additional cover of winter weather. Even at the end (July 1942) submarines were effective in bringing in supplies and reinforcements and evacuating wounded.

Since the rules currently allow resupply by air transport at night, why not harmonize the supply rules and allow naval supply missions at night, with only night-capable air units allowed to conduct the naval bombing mission against them? Depending on the season, allow this night movement only within a certain radius of ports (say, 5 hexes for transports in summer, with longer radii allowed for warships and in winter).

This will mean daylight NAS will have to disperse somewhat to fly true "search missions" farther out at sea, where it was much harder to locate targets before the days of global reconnaissance satellites, rather than massing to blockade the entrance/exit to a port. Air units could naturally still choose to brave a port's defenses to attack naval units in port during the day.

The Baltic restrictions would still apply to the Soviet Navy, as the restricted waters and corresponding defenses (mines, antisubmarine nets, coast artillery, etc.) presented special problems that seem to be adequately reflected in the current rules.

Tom Fetter

I started buying the Europa series in 1983 with the purchase of Their Finest Hour, and I now have every game and module available. However, even though I have the games and modules and have played numerous solitaire games, I have the feeling that I'm not quite playing the game right. That's one reason I am upset that I missed Origins '91-my opportunity to watch and learn.

There are two other things I would like to pass by you. First is Czech '38. I have seen several conflicting reports on this project. What is the current status? Has it been shelved due to Second Front?

My second point is to propose an add-on for "WitD". Mussolini wanted a new Roman Empire when he came into power. His first move was to march into Ethiopia, where he succeeded with his ambitions. His second was to invade Egypt, and had it been planned properly, it is possible that he might also have succeeded there. But even given the utter defeat of Graziani there was still more Mussolini could have done to win in North Africa had he not succumbed to the Siren call of Barbarossa and the fight against Bolshevism.

What if he had withheld support from the Russian adventure, opting instead to send those much-needed troops and arms to Libya to fight the Limeys? My suggestion is to let the Italian player have the reinforcements and replacements available in FitE/SE. They would appear in the "WitD" OB one turn prior to their appearance in the FitE/SE OB. Then the Italians can ship these men and materials to Libya, and Mussolini may yet be able to march on Cairo in victory, just as Hitler had done in Prague and Paris earlier.

One last issue. Is GR/D going to make counter sheets and maps available for purchase again?

Please keep the good times rolling.

Czech '38 is still in the planning phase at this time. Although quite a bit of work has been done on it, there is no definite timetable for its publication. It is not currently on the 1992 production schedule.

GR/D has no plans at this time to sell spare parts. The few parts from the older games that remain are required to meet customer service requests from the games still in the field. It is possible, however, that at some future date GRID will announce a final parts clearance sale. -RG

John Berger

Issue #20 was delivered to my office earlier today and prompts the following question regarding Jason Long's article, "Czech '38 Playtest Report" on page 6.

Is the gratuitous anti-German bias of the text of the article intended as some form of sick racist joke-or was Mr. Long perhaps attempting a spoof of Staliniststyle propaganda?

Or, did no one on the editorial staff have time to read and edit his piece before it went to press?

The type of subjective bias and cheap-shot political axe-grinding indulged in by Mr. Long has no place in the serious analysis of historical events and/or conflict simulations-and certainly no place in the Europa magazine.

I sincerely hope that any future articles submitted by Mr. Long will be written and/or edited to conform to the standards of objectivity that I have enjoyed in past issues of Europa.

Jason Long is ON the editorial staff of the magazine. Even so, his article was carefully edited here in Opelika. Although Jason's anti- German tone was noted, it seemed apparent he was merely engaging in a bit of harmless roleplaying (the article stated that Jason was the Czech player in the playtest). Knowing how Jason casts himself in the role of OKH with equal zeal when commanding German teams as a member of Task Force Johnson, it was not imagined anyone would construe his use of such playful phrases as "Nazi sky gransters' as racist slurs. After all, this is a game.

Jason's mild barbs fall far short of the venom of Stalinist-style propaganda. Consider this text of a Stalin speech as reported by Daniel T. Brigham in the lead story of The New York Times, November 7, 1941 edition:

BERNE, Switzerland, Nov. "Addressing the Moscow Soviet on the twenty-fourth anniversary of the October Revolution in an atmosphere electric with suspense, Premier Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union this evening for fifty-two minutes told his audience in a speech broadcast to the world that since Germany wanted a war of extermination 'she will get that war.'

"From here on the task of the peoples of the U.S.S.R" he said, "the task of the fighters, the commanders and the political instructors of our Army and Navy will be the extermination to the last man of all Germans who have penetrated the territory of our native land in the role of invaders. There will be no mercy to them!

"Death to those who, having lost all human semblance long ago, sank to the level of wild beasts... who have doomed themselves to inevitable perdition.' -RG 

Phillip Buhler

I have just finished a good game of Fire in the East/Scorched Earth, or rather it was finished for me by the impending arrival of a new addition to the family which has turned my gaming room into a nursery. I am afraid that this is the fate of many an avid gamer. We did manage to get most of the way through 1942, although this took several months. It did provide a number of interesting events which might be worth a small article. However, while this is certainly my favorite game, as it is for many Europa players, I think that an inordinate amount of time has been devoted by all of us to writing and reading about, and playing this one game, whereas there are so many other good games in the series.

My second favorite game in the series is undoubtedly Their Finest Hour, but I have seen very little written about this. It is certainly the only game with any significant naval activity and in fact many of its systems are quite unique to the series. Therefore, I intend to study this in more detail and hope to pen several articles on this game, dealing particularly with strategy. In the number of times I have played TFH, usually as the German, I have seen all extremes of results. This to me is a good sign that the game can have many outcomes and is pretty well balanced.

Based on survey results from our readers' resubscription forms, two points stand out.

FitE/SE is the most popular game of the series, and so...

Although there are some who feel the magazine devotes too much space to this game, most of you want us to continue (or even increase) the emphasis given by the magazine to the East Front.

If you wish broader coverage of the series in the magzazine, one solution is for you to take pen in hand and create it yourself. The fact is, some of the titles just don't generate many articles. For instance, GRD seldom receives articles dealing with Their Finest Hour or Fall of France.

Although the editorial staff is making an effort to broaden the coverage of material, the ultimate solution is for YOU to sit down and write an article on one of the the other games of the series, as Mr. Buhler is doing. -RG

Stephen A. Strote

I have been an Europa player for years and have always been too lazy to write and thank everyone at GR/D and the magazine for all the work you do for us in keeping the game alive and well. I hope its not too corny just to say, "Thanks!"

I was wondering if anyone has considered working on some more hypothetical scenarios for Europa like "Plan Y" in Balkan Front? How about an order of battle for Germany and the Soviet Union for "What if Germany had waited until 1942 to attack the Soviet Union, or vice-versa - i.e., the Soviets attack Germany in 1942!?" How about different victory conditions if the Soviets attack Germany?

Of course, one has to look no further than this issue for just such a scenario/order of battle.

In addition, Mark Pitcavage is working on a "Greater Europa' mega- scenario entitled "Great Western War', which postulates that Germany devotes full attention to the western front.

John Astell has created a Polish "Defense in Depth' scenario for First to Fight which allows the Poles to sacrifice the western portion of their country in order to attempt to hold a more defensible line behind the Narew- VistulaSan river complex

Deen Wood is working away on a hypothetical scenario which postulates a 1943 invasion of Sweden by Germany. So far this looks to be very exciting.

So, hang in there, Steve. These scenarios are on the way in the next few issues. -RG

James R. Willauer

The bad news, of course, is that Second Front is going to be delayed at least until August 1992. But this disappointment is some what offset by the promise of A Winter War in (hopefully) the next few months.

With the introduction of new naval counters, all of my old ones are obsolete, but, of course, all of my air units except the ones from First to Fight and Balkan Front are in the same category.

Now there is talk of a new series of Pacific campaign games. I would like to say up front that if these units are not interchangeable with Europa, then my interest would be minimal. I think James Broshot has hit the target squarely by putting forward the idea that these units should be interchangeable. If this new system (Glory) is interchangeable, then it will be fantastic.

Finally, I would like to comment on the new game under development - Czech '38. I personally cannot see this as a whole game; how about a scenario in Europa magazine? Maybe this would be a nice, simple game to get more gamers involved.

The problems I see with Czech '38 are all of the "what-ifs" that would have to occur to even have a war. For example, no Munich summit, no support by France or Britain, no Slovak agitation for autonomy, Polish permission for Soviets to transit Polish territory, a passive Sudeten German population (3 million people!), and most importantly, no anti-Hitler coup. It is now fairly well known that there was a scheme to remove Hitler if his foreign policy got Germany embroiled in a war in 1938.

Was this scheme anything like all the "successful' plots to remove Saddam?

Seriously, we are continuing the development of Czech '38 as a stand- alone game (although it will remain nice and simple). Arguing against the inclusion of this as a magazine scenario is the fact that none of the counters would be available from the other games. Would you be willing to make up a whole set with photocopies, blank counter sheets, scissors, and glue? I doubt that many people would. This is a problem with even the relatively few counters you must make for use with this issue's "Operation Groza.

In actual fact, Czech '38 will have a number of scenarios which consider the various ways the pot may be stirred. And, don't lose sight of the fact that one advantage to doing a hypothetical scenario is that you can tailor the & events' to suit your simulation. For example, the problem of transit rights for the Soviets is solved by dictating that Romania grants them to the Red Army.

Now there is only one rickety rail line connecting Romania with Czechoslovakia, but this is okay, because the resulting supply problems gives the designer reason to limit the size of the reinforcing Red Army contingent to suit the needs of play balance. If all this sounds a little contrived, well it is. After all, there was no war over Czechoslovakia in 1938, so why not tailor the situation to create a neat little slug-fest?

And there is an important piece of the Europa puzzle that can be filled in by Czech '38 - the countermix for many of the 1938 armies, which will be needed to complete the eventual mosaic of Grand Europa.

For all these reasons, and more, GR/D thinks Czech '38 merits its own game. -RG

Fred Jacobs

I'm sorry to report that our ongoing game of Scorched Earth got shut down by an irate wife! She presented our host with the "final solution" to having gamers at his home three or four evenings a week! I hope to have an outbuilding on our ranch cleared out and cleaned up enough so that we can use it to start up again this summer. I miss not thinking about and planning the next move. A rather addicting game...

One problem we have (if you can call it a problem) is that there are only four of us for all of that big game. We have played up to the Oct 11 turn and find that it takes the whole evening just to move one side.

Because of this, we found it necessary for the Axis to move, resolve combat, and exploit during one evening, and the Russians to do their thing the next. Each team really needed to have a member present in order to properly execute the air rules, perform retreats, etc. This was not always possible and even with the best of intentions on the opposing players' part, it led to some problems.

One thing that bothered me was that I missed the continuity of face to face play over the span of several turns. Trouble is that its impossible for a 40+ year old warrior with a family to play long weekends like he did in his college days. Of course, we could play smaller, shorter games...

Playing a Scorched Earth game is a challenging task requiring not only commitment, but a great deal of organization. Over the course of the next few issues we will share some of the ways that groups from around the country approach playing the game. Maybe there will be some sug- gestions which will benefit your next game. -RG

Ulrich Blennemann

Thank you very much for Europa magazines #17, 18, and 19. You know, I am no regular Europa player (owning only the two North Africa games), however, I'm very impressed with the magazines and have read them cover to cover. That should prove their strength for someone who doesn't play the system very often.

Immodest as usual, I am asking for a review copy of First to Fight. There's many experienced Europa players here in Germany and in the Geselischaft hir historische Simulation (GHS) who would love to write a review of this game.

Are you interested in a German Europa Association? The GHS, with currently more than 120 members, or some specific experienced Europa players of the GHS, could do it. At least I could try to press some Europa players into service.

We had our annual HexaCon in June, and one retailer had Balkan Front. He sold out of it on Friday. This shows that Europa still lives in Germany, too. Issue #21 Errata

The pages containing the "Leningrad: 1941 Replacement Records" and the "Soviet FitE/SE Replacement Record" were inadvertently reversed during final layout. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Also, under "OTHER NOTES" on page 4 of Section III of the Leningrad: 1941 scenario, the note about air units should read: "If you don't wish to bother with this..."

Issue #22 Acknowledgement

The text accompanying the messages in "GEnie EXchange" was written by Roy Lane, our computer editor. Sorry, Roy.