As I write this article (May 1992), our designer, John Astell, and a coterie of Europa developers and researchers are feverishly slaving over the myriad tasks remaining to complete GR/D's mammoth Second Front game project. As obstacles appear, additional resources are being allocated to keep things moving forward. Every effort is being made to try to meet this game's desired publication date of August 1992.

Due to these herculean efforts, there is substantial progress to report to our readers. The following is a brief status report on the various ingredients of this benchmark Europa game.

The final drafts of the maps are being reviewed by John Astell. One of the outstanding issues regards the extent of the bocage terrain in France. There are fringes of bocage here and there, and John is making the final determination as to which hexes actually qualify for this terrain type at the Europa scale. The maps will then be passed on to artist Barbie Pratt.

The ground OBs are well along and Winston Hamilton has already completed an initial draft of the counters for the American and German armies. There is the usual quibbling over the number of "ants" and final unit strengths which accompanies the development of all Europa games. John currently feels that the US Army as originally presented in the Second Front playtest was too strong, based on the result of the playtesting.

Thus, he is considering shaving one point from each American infantry and armored division. For example, an 10-8 infantry division would drop to 9-8, and a 17-10 armored division to 16-10. However, there may be further tinkering pending final decisions concerning battalion- strength units (that is, some of these may be rolled into the divisions to justify their original strength ratings).

John recently noted that when rating units (such as the Americans) he does not necessarily evaluate each division based on its historical performance. Instead he often evaluates the relative proficiency of the 94wave" to which the division belonged and rates it based on the wave's general characteristics.

He feels that to peg a given division on average as a "hero" or a "dog" based on its historical performance is not proper. In game terms this would be determined by the roll of the combat die. That is, an attacking division which rolls 5's and 6's is a good one, while the division which rolls an AH is less skilled. A few exceptionally good and poor divisions do have their strengths adjusted due to performance, but such units must truly be exceptional.

As regards the Brits, John is in possession of reams of information provided by the redoubtable David Hughes. This data only needs to be sifted through and cross- referenced. It is anticipated that this task will result in only minor adjustments to the playtest order of battle.

The German OB is fairly firm at this time. The major outstanding issue is how to handle the reorganization of German forces. It is currently planned to make reorganization slightly easier than portrayed in Scorched Earth. (The SF treatment will eventually be grafted into the SE revision, so this should benefit the hard-pressed German army of 1943-44 on the east front. Unfortunately, additional details are not available at this time.)

German coastal artillery will be handled by a chart system (similar to that which will appear in the new Europa game, A Winter War). Almost every coast hex will have some intrinsic strength, with ports possessing the highest amounts. These intrinsic strengths may change throughout the course of the war. The chart can be photocopied and filled in as required during play.

In a similar vein, most position AA will be intrinsic, eliminating many "ant-like" counters and restricting this force to its historical role.

Michael Parker is doing the final research on the Italian army; his work continues to progress well. A lingering issue concerning the Italians is how to handle the color scheme for their counters given the political possibilities (i.e., Italy changes allegiance). John plans to address this by mating the color scheme to the Italian government--wherever the Italian government goes, the light gray-green color of its units goes with it. The RS1 Italians, on the other hand, would be depicted in a different color, probably black on yellow.

The air system for Second Front continues to demand attention in all aspects: the number of units, the ratings of the units, the air replacement system, the air system rules, and so on. Victor Hauser has been pressed into service here to augment the efforts of Paul Dunigan.

In the area of air ratings (always a hot topic of any Europa discussion), Victor will be proposing an independent set of ratings for the various Europa late-war aircraft, which will be evaluated alongside those previously used. John Astell, of course, gets the last word. Victor's new ratings tend to compress the scale; that is, most of the strongest units (as displayed in the playtest) are down-rated. Thus Victor proposes that the Me-262A be rated 11JF10, the FW-190A 9F7, and the P-47D 8F9. The P-51D would remain at 9F8.

One burning question is the number of air counters necessary: determining the German group allowance, pinning down how many air units the Americans get, and so on. Much remains to be resolved, but one thing is certain- there will be fewer air units in the final version than appeared in the playtest.

Then there are the air rules themselves. Perhaps spurred by the impending release of Second Front, many new and interesting ideas have cropped up in the last twelve months. We have already presented some of these in the last several issues of the magazine, and more will follow. Some general topics getting close scrutiny are patrol attacks, flexible defensive air support, close escorts, and the relative merits of different aircraft in combat ("heavy" fighters, etc.). There is far too much afoot at this point to cover in detail here, but I will mention a few items of especial interest.

It is possible that bombing strengths will be halved when bombing certain terrain types. Mountain terrain is heading the list for consideration in this regard, but this begs the question that other terrain types, such as forest and swamp, be treated likewise. No final decision has yet been made.

A one-die roll AA table is on the drawing board for inclusion in the game, and its prospects are extremely high, given the plethora of (sometimes almost meaningless) AA rolls required in the playtest version of the game. This table was tested in a recent playtest of A Winter War at the GR/D company meeting in Dallas at the end of February.

The AA fire was rolled using the one-at-a-time method of fire from the SF playtest, and then the one-roll method now in testing. The new method received enthusiastic endorsement from the players, who found it simple to implement, while yielding results remarkably similar to those obtained using the "long-hand" method. This looks to be a real step forward for enhanced playability.

Playtesting of the 1944 scenario has demonstrated that the basic design of the game is sound: the standard Europa ground combat and movement rules work just fine for Second Front. Furthermore, the overall system design has greatly benefitted from the attention lavished upon it during the design and development of Balkan Front, First to Fight, and A Winter War. Nonetheless, many minor tweaks remain to be hammered out-after all, the Second Front rules are intended to provide the ultimate core rules for the Europa system.

The preliminary work necessary to accomplish this task has fallen to me. I am using the Balkan Front standard rules set as my base, and then overlaying the various playtest rules from Second Front. Where appropriate and necessary, other rule segments from First to Fight, A Winter War, and Scorched Earth are being spliced in. This will create a full-length draft document which can subsequently be edited to create the final rules set. While a daunting amount of work remains to be done, putting a final SF rules package together in the time remaining between now and late summer is achievable.

Of the few thorny issues remaining which demand additional R&D time, the foremost is the SF supply system. Reports from the 1944 scenario disclosed that this topic required substantial design analysis, and John has accordingly assigned it a high priority. Arthur Goodwin has also been asked to probe his fertile mind for alternate methods of modeling Allied supply difficulties.

The problem for the Allies is not the amount of resources they possess (indeed, their resources are almost limitless), but rather getting them to the front. The general Europa logistical design concept now under consideration would focus on the creation and maintenance of friendly "supply nets". Within a supply net there might also be supply depots and/or supply terminals. For example, the Germans might establish supply nets in North Africa, Norway, the Arctic, the Soviet Union, the Balkans, and western Europe. Within the framework of Second Front, the Allied supply net might use army headquarters as conduits. It is also deemed critical for the Allies to link up a great port on the continent with Britain (i.e., as a supply terminal). The role of trucks in this design mix is still under examination (John currently would like to squeeze these out).

There are lots and lots of charts planned. Allied player charts will be green, German player charts blue, and neutral informational charts white.

The maps should be ready to go in June. The counter artwork will follow on the heels of the maps. This will leave the box, the rules, the orders of battle, and the charts-quite a formidable challenge!

The tentative retail selling price of the game has been pegged at $80-90.