I would like to offer alternative to the lower odds (TEM #40) overrun gaining acceptance as an alternative rule. Let me start by observing that movement points in Europa to a great extent represent units of time. In the current lower odds system oven-uns cost up to 9 MPs. Oven-uns that use this much time are not overruns anymore, they are combat. Let me add that I have always disliked Europa's oven-uns because they don't involve any chance, they don't include AEC, they don't provide the defensive benefits of forts and most terrain, the defender isn't allowed to retreat or form cadres, and the attacker never suffer casualties. In short,. they are inconsistent with the standards in the rest of Europa.

Now that I've alienated everyone who thinks Europa's oven-uns need no improvement, I do have an alternative:

Use 50 percent of the combat strength of the overrunning units and roll on the CRT using all armor, antitank, and terrain modifiers. A stack with full AECA at 10:1 odds, for example, would now conduct an overrun at 5:1 odds with a die roll modifier of +3. Of course, that same stack trying to overrun a defender with full ATEC in a fort in wooded rough terrain might now think twice. Both the defending stack and the overrunning stack would lose their zones of control at the instant of overrun, allowing either stack or its cadres to retreat. Thus the attacking stack may have to overrun again, eventually spending the same number of MPs the current lower odds system, but in a more interesting and variable fashion. Counting every terrain benefit makes artificial NODLs marching across the map in straight lines less attractive.

For those who think using 50 percent of the attacker's strength makes oven-uns too easy or too hard, try using 40 or 60 percent of the attacker's strength (although this adds some extra mathematical burden). Use whatever proportion best fits history, but put some chance back into overruns. They should not be as automatic as Europa currently makes them.

One concession I would make to the current system is to keep the cost of conducting oven-uns the same: 2 MPs for German combat/motorized units and 3 MPs for everyone else, but with the provision that everyone can lower their cost of overrun by 1 MP by accepting an additional -1 modifier on the die roll. Keeping the MP cost low, and therefore the time being represented short, justifies the exclusion of air support, an exclusion I feel is questionable for overruns using 5, 7 and especially 9 MPs.