The idea for this variant originated in early 1990 on the back of a postcard from reader Nelson Isada who asked the question, "How about Scorched Earth without the ants?". This struck me straightaway as being a worthwhile project. FitE/SE is a huge undertaking, requiring scores of hours to play. At conventions even the most dedicated teams of players, gaming non-stop for 24 hours a day, find it almost impossible to play beyond September 1941. This is due in no small part to the immense number of counters present in the game.

Rephrasing Mr. Isada's question: If one were to strip away the smallest units and less essential play elements from FitE/SE, would the game still be satisfying? Would it increase speed of play so that two dedicated teams could complete the entire first year campaign from Jun II 41 through Mar II 42 in a single marathon session over a long weekend? Sudden Storm seeks to provide answers to these questions.

Sudden Storm should not be considered a "Boot Camp" or beginner's version of FitE/SE; it is still an advanced level undertaking in anyone's book. This "streamlined" version boasts a 22-page rules set and a playing time longer than almost every other existing wargame. The rules are shorter than those found in FitE/SE primarily due to the removal of special unit types and a shorter historical time frame. Most other changes are aimed at reducing the playing time or complexity: dispensing with patrol attacks and ignoring Group Allowances are two such simplifications.

The most palatable way to rationalize the removal of the ants in Sudden Storm is to think of them as "factored in" to the remaining units. Forces retained were:

1) Ground units with attack or defense strengths of 3 or more, and the German truck units. I also removed the German 702nd RR Art II (3-0-R). As the only rail-only, railroad artillery, siege artillery unit and battalion left in play, cutting it from the countermix saved about a page of rules. Trucks were retained because they are instrumental for making the supply system work properly; to remove them would have prompted undesirable changes to the supply rules.

2) Air units with air attack.or defense strengths of 5 or more, or tactical bombing strengths of 3 or more (using the latest ratings- thus the 4134 HeIIIH air units were excluded). This hits the Soviets especially hard; consider it a trade-off for the removal of Axis AA assets. (I should also admit that I am one of those who feels the Red air force bounces back from the surprise air attack too quickly in the standard game.)

Removing the "ants" from the order of battles results in a strength point loss of about 325 for the Axis and about 650 for the Soviets, for a 2:1 ratio. This ratio parallels the total strength points in the OBs (that is, the raw Soviet forces outnumber the Axis by about 2:1). I calculate that the two sides retain about 85% of their combat strength.

It is difficult to gauge exactly how many counters have been removed from the game. Some players prefer to clump position AA units together to protect important target hexes, while others spread 1-point AA units all over the map. My best estimate, however, is that there have been about 325 counters removed from the Axis countermix and about 600 from the Soviet countermix. This works out to about 45% less counters overall, at a cost of roughly one combat strength point per counter removed--ants indeed.

The Soviet order of battle is a special compilation of The Urals OB; errata and updates are included, but it is tailored to conform to the FitE/SE treatment of forces from the Eastern MDs,

Special unit deletions should even out. While the Soviet player has lost his precious NKVD, the German player is without combat engineers, and so hero cities still prove very tough nuts to crack. And while the Soviet player doesn't have to contend with pesky Brandenburgers, the German player need not fret over kamikaze river flotilla raids.

Leaving airborne operations out of the game was a close call. True, the historical 1941- 42 campaign was very little influenced by airborne operations. Nonetheless, some German players consider their airborne threat a key ingredient for potential success (perhaps unrealistically so). But most independent airborne units were removed due to their ant- like size.

And since almost all units now have heavy equipment, I finally decided to remove air transports (and thus all airborne capability) from the OBs. This caused a chain reaction which carried over to amphibious operations. They also weren't prominent during the 1941- 42 campaign season, and since amphibious cps required special rules for planning and so forth, they were cut out.

The absence of engineer units dictates the exclusion of demolition rules. This is obvious enough--there are no units to repair any damage! No doubt this will trouble some players; Scorched Earth is the name of the game, after all. However, consider this: in a standard game of SE demolition and repair activities take on the status of a game within a game, an extra layer of activity that is very time consuming. Competent play dictates that Soviet players completely lay waste to all rails, airbases, bridges, and (to the extent possible) ports. This in turn requires an Axis player to wring every ounce of efficiency from each construction asset to repair the damage and support the advance.

All this necessitates extensive forward planning. This may be a valid part of the standard game, but it is also a major reason why FitE/SE takes so long to play, and deleting it from Sudden Storm greatly speeds play (I estimate it plays at least twice as fast as the standard game).

What effect does deleting demolition have on play balance? Good Soviet players tear everything up, and good German players repair just enough to get by. Thus I believe carving the demolition/repair subsystem from the game, in and of itself, should have no profound impact.

A more crucial question is whether the German rail regauging allowance is a fair and accurate measurement of Axis rail conversion ability. As most FitE/SE veterans know, this area has been the subject of much tinkering over the last several years. John Astell's most recent iteration, "Rails through the Russias Regauged" from TEM #19, was used as the basis for this offering.

The true measure of Sudden Storm will be the extent to which it is played. Since most of the FitE/SE rules remain intact, veteran Europa players can get into the swing of Sudden Storm in no time at all. Try it; you'll like it-it just may be the most fun you've had since DNO!

Sudden Storm Streamlined Europa 1941-42

Table of Contents
Rules
German OOB
Soviet OOB
Designer's Notes