In Europa #40, Rick Gayler wrote about the difficulty of getting play articles from expert players. He gave several reasons for this: the best players may not write such articles, these articles are difficult to write, these experts may be self- effacing and loath to "instruct" others. Another reason may be that good players are reluctant to set themselves up as experts. You are really blowing your own horn when you claim expert status by writing an article describing how you think others should play!

Although willing to claim "veteran" status (based on years of playing Europa), I do not claim to be one of The Best. Still, I do have some ideas that might be of use to less experienced players.

There appear to be two main types of Europa player: the gifted, fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants gamer, and the Damned Accountant. I have never been naturally good enough to be one of the former, so since I want to play well, I have adopted the Way of the Accountant. This article focuses on good play based on the accountant method; someone more qualified will have to address good play from the "gifted gamer" perspective.

Damned Accountants get poor press in most gaming circles, but especially in the Europa community. This is strange, since there is no other game system so well suited to the accountant style of play; indeed, the size of the games and their design make the fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants style difficult to implement. Still, while some may sneer at the number crunching of a Harald Hansen, many FitE/SE players have benefited from reading his seminal "accountant" analysis of the 1941 Soviet set up ("Fire in the West," The Grenadier #25).

The concept of a Hansen Line is to calculate the exact amount of force needed to deny overrun possibilities based on terrain and enemy capabilities. It is as much a part of our hobby as the gutsy 2:1 -1 attack.

Rule 1: Know Thy Rules

For the average player, good play will mean careful play. This does not mean taking no risks. It means being aware of your own and your opponents' capabilities. Knowledge is power, in Europa as in real life. Know the rules! That seems self-evident, but it is so important that it bears repeating. Do not assume that something you learned in FitE still applies in SF, or is even still legal! The same goes for any other game. Rules from Torch may be fine for that game but they may not be for other games. Europa is constantly growing, changing and being refined. While appreciated and desired, these changes do lead to confusion if players do not pay attention to details. How many people missed the fact, when first reading the SF rules, that tactical bombing factors are now halved for DAS?

Our first rule then is: "Read the Rules." Play Rules as Written (RAW) and assume nothing. Generate surprise through imaginative play, not through a new interpretation of how some house rule impacts upon the third bullet of the ninth paragraph of Rule 72B3a2! The system is complex enough without misreadings, misunderstandings, and mis-rememberings adding to the confusion.

To digress for a moment, anyone using decimal dice, limited intelligence, averaging dice or any other "add-on" is not playing Europa. What they are playing may be great fun and good history, but it is not Europa. Those MG battalions are in the OB with the idea that they WILL punch up that 3.99:1 to a 4:1.

Playing Europa includes the idea of getting the maximum bang for your buck out of every Reserve Mine Dog Brigade you have. Perhaps someday we will all maneuver faceless corps counters around the map and roll for their "effective" strengths before each combat but I am not holding my breath.

Rule II: Know Thy Units

Europa features THE best unit differentiation and specialization rules for any game of its scale. There is a wealth of data associated with special units, their capabilities, and uses. All this information and attention to detail is wasted if a player either does not understand these capabilities or misuses them.

Our second rule is "Know Thy Units" which might be better said, "Understand Your Units' Strengths and Weaknesses." Get some index cards and write out the special rules associated with each unit type on individual cards. Make up cards for unusual or complex combats, such as for each terrain type or for amphibious invasions. Make check lists for particular phases or operations and follow them. You can even make something as simple as combat easier to play well (and correctly) if you do not have to rely too heavily on memory during the heat of battle.

Did you roll for the Surprise Attack? When does AA fire in this game? Are all DRMs calculated and applied? Even the best players can be overwhelmed when confronted with an amphibious invasion with GS, DAS, and NGS, aided by an airdrop and a commando attack, to say nothing of the associated engineer effects, terrain, and armor effects. Just calculating the final ground strength of units variously eighthed, quartered, halved, doubled, and at face value can be a pain for the most experienced players.

Just as an example, the NGS that provided support to your amphibiously invading units in your combat phase will not provide support during the enemy player turn if those, units advance inland after combat. Things like this are easy to miss or forget, but have a big effect on play.

Rule III: Know Thy Opponent's Units

Obviously, the flip side of understanding the capabilities of your units is understanding the capabilities of your opponent's units. This stands as our third rule. How many airborne units can drop this turn, and where can they reach? Trace out 34 hexes from North Africa in Second Front. C-47s can get to many interesting places, can they not? How many landing craft are available? Where are the big naval task forces? Is the main front armor-heavy or are a few mountain divisions lurking around?

A good player has to know these things and more every turn. Not only must you know the theoretical capabilities - the rules - but the actual capabilities as well. Pay attention to where new air bases appear, where the engineers move, how many commandos are sitting in ports or in a holding box.

This is a game with no intelligence rules, no hidden counters or untried units; make use of this. Anyone who expects you to rush through a turn without knowing what you are up against is not playing Europa.

Rule IV - First Things First

So now you know the rules, you have looked at your OB and that of your opponent. You have your 3x5 cards detailing when assault engineers are doubled on the attack, when heavy fighters get a -1 DRM, and who is halved when attacking a swamp hex during mud weather.

Time for a game turn. Get out that Master Sequence of Play and follow it! It makes a difference. For example, in SF you place new air units BEFORE you build air bases, but you flip inoperative air units to operative AFTER you build air bases or augment them. Naval movement, including the transport of ground units, happens before you get to break down units. You must prepare the turn BEFORE you want to launch the Big Red One on an amphibious landing. Our Fourth Rule is "First Things First."

If any of your ground units are in corps counters, the initial phase is the time to put them all back on the map. Put any cadres that are in cities on the top of the stack so you will not forget to rebuild them or forget where they are. After reinforcements and replacements, move all of your engineers to the top of each stack, again so you will know where they are. Make up "Half MP" counters to place on construction units that have performed quick construction during the initial phase. Remember that you have to do construction of airbases and forts during the initial phase even if you do use quick construction.

Rule V: Use Play Aids

Create your own play aids. Make up a chart of your ports, and mark off port capacity as you use it. Remember that both incoming and outgoing units count against capacity in a turn. Once you are in the exploitation phase, it is easy to forget if you used some or all of the capacity of some backwater minor port during the movement phase. Mark it down! As you move your units, alter their facing in the hex as a visual reminder that they have moved.

Plan out your turn, in broad outline, BEFORE you begin executing your movement. Play with "Touch move" rules. That is, once a unit has stopped moving, it can move no more; nothing bogs down a game as much as spending half an hour each turn trying to remember where 25 or 30 units started the movement phase. Figure out where you want to end up and move accordingly. Do not try to think on the fly. Plan your attacks before you move. Know how much strength you need to get to hex xxxx and then move there. Move your slowest units first and progress through the movement phase moving each faster group in turn.

In this way your troops that can get just about anywhere will be the last to move, giving you a kind of reserve and some insurance against mistakes in planning. Again, alter the facing of each unit as you go. This prevents moving units twice (or more often), and serves a visual reminder of what you have left to fill that yawning hole near Salerno. As units finish moving, you can put them back into Corps Counters (although I prefer waiting until I have finished moving everyone before doing so).

Since you planned out your attacks in the movement phase and have moved your units in discrete blocks adjacent to the enemy, you can record your attack strengths as you move. After movement you will have a clear picture of who is attacking whom and should already know the total ground factors in each attack. Have your opponent check the calculations of each attack you make, and check his during his turn. For particularly difficult attacks, write out the units involved and the various effects upon their strength. Refer to this written record to calculate the odds.

Remember that it is both players' responsibility to remember such things as AA, AEC, terrain effects and all of the other little things associated with each combat. Help each other out. Cooperate during each combat phase, so that no one gets any advantage from forgotten rules or other mistakes. The object is to have a good time, not to win through some oversight concerning unsupported artillery units on turn 27.

Do not neglect housekeeping. Record losses for special replacements as they occur. Mark the extent of Danger Zones on the map, with counters or strips of index card paper and adjust them each turn as they change. Use separate air wing markers to differentiate air units flying different missions or to show which ones are available for Naval Patrol. Place eliminated units affected by replacement limits on the turn record track of the turn when they become eligible for replacement. Show such things as Coastal Defense strength explicitly.

Make a record of current strength or use those nifty CD Hit markers to show what the strength actually is, instead of how many hits there are. Keep a written record of you opponent's replacements, as well as your own. You never know, his dog might eat his. Make a listing of important ports and air bases and keep a running record of CD and especially AA factors available at each. Make your own play aids as you find a need for them -- anything that streamlines play will speed up the game and make it more enjoyable for all concerned. Clip your counters. Build a bigger table.

Summary? Organize!

Command and Control are half of 3CI and should be used to the utmost in any game of Europa. By knowing what you CAN do, you will be better able to know what you should do. Once you know what you want to do, it is much easier to figure out how to do it. Perhaps my most important piece of advice to less experienced players is: be organized.

Careful organization will make the game more enjoyable, make it a better learning experience for everyone, and reduce wasted time to a minimum. Each Europa game offers untold hours of fascinating play and study. Invest some time and effort into getting as much out of each game as you can.