This segment will cover the Europa treatment of German security units on the eastern front. There are 18 security divisions, 9 security brigades, and 44 separate security-type regiments (including one German-Arab legion) represented in Fire in the East/ Scorched Earth. The accurate simulation of the actual German security force--while keeping the counter density within reason--represents a littleknown triumph of Europa craftsmanship.

The German security campaign in Russia was incredibly complex and included a truly bizarre (horrific?) mix of units. Most of these elements were fielded at battalion level on myriad assignments. Security divisions and regiments existed, but in order to cover vast eastern-front distances many security assets were parceled out in a welter of guard posts and minuscule detachments spread out along the various lines of communication. Larger security forces were sometimes assembled to strike partisan targets in specific area operations, but the German security effort was normally executed at a low level (no pun intended).

Obviously, the most accurate depiction of German security in Russia would have been to create gigantic maps sufficient to display long railroad lines or widely scattered depots, complete with individual bridges and whistle stops, deep forests, and interminable tracks of marshland. German reaction companies could race to the aid of threatened way stations or toppled telegraph poles; battalions could be assembled to hold key junctions or hunt down positive parachute sightings; and every now and then--just for the hell of it--the Russian player could tear up entire rear-area zones, or the Germans could mount multidivision security mop-ups. Obviously, this was beyond even the scope of Europa (at least most of it!).

Fortunately, the German zeal for organizational hierarchy gave the designers an alternative foundation for counting all German security forces, while cutting down drastically on the number of necessary counters. The regiment could be used as the building block for the German security structure instead of the battalion. This idea was based on the observation that two- battalion security regiments (the norm) barely justified a "1" combat strength, and individual security battalions warranted no strength at all. However, adding an extra battalion to a security regiment justified a regimental combat strength and gave every battalion the chance for intrinsic game representation.

Once regiments were chosen as the basis of the German security force for Europa-scale combat in Russia (this decision was reached in May 1980), it was necessary to show most German security units as regiments. This was done in two stages. First, all Germanic SS-Polizei regiments were left separate, giving the SS-Polizei branch the independence and scope of operations that it actually possessed, but without the combat power that the army could muster with its security divisions.

After the SS-Polizei regiments were separated out in June 1980, the Army's security-type regiments were examined for incorporation into divi- sions. The security divisions were fi- nally standardized at three reinforced regiments each by slightly altering their actual compositions (see German Security Division Status chart). Painstaking research was used to subordinate regiments to divisions based on the following priorities: (a) Was the regiment actually entitled by assignment to be part of the division? (b) If the regiment was not so as- signed, was it ever attached to the di- vision or did it serve in the same gen- eral area? (c) If no known connection between division and regiment could German Security Division . be made, did the regiment's arrival fit in a timely manner with the division's arrival in the occupied zone? The added regiments enabled John Astell to justify security divisions at 3-5 levels.

The appropriate division choices were made and a resolution was made in the case of two German security divisions (201, 203) that initially arrived as brigades. These were both given divisional status upon game arrival because of their modified internal regimental allocations, saving a later counter switch. The only division that created trouble between games was the 707th, which the Germans officially classified as Infanterie Division (bodenstandige)--a static infantry division--but actually utilized as security. The 707th appears as a static formation in Fire in the East, but John Astell later reconsidered this classification and ruled on June 5, 1986, that "the 707th Division will have its unit type changed to security from static." The 707th now appears, quite properly, as a security division in both games.

The remaining army security regiments not fitted into divisions were identified for game inclusion as separate counters. This process left the Europa system with a total of 44 separate German security regiments for the Russian front, a healthy number that allows the German player to duplicate the historical dispersal of his security forces. The final regimental "count" includes one German-Arab legion (by the way, at 2-8 the strongest security regiment), three army bicycle security regiments (2nd, 3rd, 7th), twenty-one army regular security regiments, and nineteen SS-Polizei regiments (including one mountainqualified, the 18th).

Although regimental and divisional absorptions were used to eliminate all separate security battalions during 1941- 1943, another batch showed up in early 1944. During this stage of Scorched Earth development, in July 1986, it was decided to utilize SS Polizei brigades to resolve the problem. These were not fixed combat organizations but rather administrative staffs. Five SS-Polizei group headquarters (Eckhardt, General von Gottberg, Pruetzmann, Riga, and von der Bach) were selected as being the most suitable, considering their size and location. These were used to corral separate security battalions, both SS and army, which floated in during the first part of 1944. After in-house playtesting, the five brigades were formally announced in Scorched Earth Playtest Newsletter No. 7 of January 14, 1987.

By the way, the four other security brigades in the game (Dirlewanger, Druzhina, Kaminski, and the Russkaya Nationalnaya Narodnaya Armiya) were infamous organizations with their own fixed internal compositions and appear without organizational modification.

The final result of this Europa programming gives the German player a wide range of security forces with many contrasting sizes and types. Intensive playtesting verified that the available German security array has the optimal "right number" of counters. The resulting mix of German scurity divisions, brigades, and regiments proved perfectly suited to both the scale of the simulation and counter- sheet economy considerations.