Gamers from all over the United States and various points around the globe assembled at the Los Angeles Airport Hilton June 29 - July 2, 1989, for the annual Origins National Gaming Convention. I had the pleasure of attending this extravaganza as a representative of GR/D, and while working the GR/D booth (which adjoined GDW's) I met Europa players from Germany, Sweden, Italy, Australia, Canada, Japan, and many of the fifty states, including even a fellow Alabamian.

It was a real treat for me to meet GDW's Marc Miller, Frank Chadwick, and Loren Wiseman. Class people all. This was also my first chance to see Winston Hamilton and John Astell in the flesh after many hours of conversation and correspondence in the past. Sharing time and trading ideas with these Europa greats was a rewarding experience I won't forget. Why, I even got to spend some time with two pals from my postal E-B-M team, Mark Sturdivant and Don McCue.

The Europa gaming area, ably manned by the congenial Bay Area Gamers, dominated the open gaming area. Quickly dubbed the "Europa Ghetto" by its admirers, at one time it boasted five separate Europa games or scenarios running simultaneously. The large number of curious passersby was a testament to the high profile given the system by Bill Stone, David Berry, Jeff Millefoglie, Joe Youst, and the other Bay Area aficionados.

There were two FitE/SE games played: a wild and woolly 1941 Campaign game and the Main Event, John Astell's 1943 Scenario from The Urals in which A.E. Goodwin demonstrated just how much impact an excellent player can have on a game by dealing out backhand blows in abundance and salvaging (at least temporarily) a seemingly hopeless situation in the Army Group South sector.

In addition to the two East Front games, there was also a contest of War in the Desert a game of Africa Orientale, a quasi-Europa game set on a scale of 32 miles per hex from the S&T gang; and a home-brewed SE scenario, "Operation Uranus Operation Saturn", from David Berry. Available for view was a snazzylooking prototype of John Gee and Jeff Millefoglie's new Europa game in development, For Whom the Bell Tolls. More than sixty Europa gamers participated at one time or another over the course of the convention.

Unfortunately, I was too busy working the GR/D booth and attending business meetings to get in on any of the action firsthand. Maybe next year in Atlanta.

As I roamed through the rest of the open gaming area, I realized just how insulated I have become in recent years through continuous play of various Europa titles. Several long tables were devoted to a game seeming (to my uninitiated eye) to consist of shoving around a couple dozen pregnant black and white marbles. From the number of participants, it was obviously very popular at the moment. It didn't look much like a wargame, as there were no dice or CRTs, so I moved on. Another game entitled Assault on Hoth caught my eye, but closer examination revealed that this was no East Front title depicting super-heavy Soviet KV model tanks slamming into an unsuspecting Third Panzer Group, but rather had something to do with the Federated Alliance of Carbon-based Lifeforms and their struggle against Kruul, the Evil Seed . . . or something like that. Anyway, it was comforting to return to the Europa tables and get down to some serious kibitzing about a game I know and love. As for the rest God bless 'em!

John Astell's Seminar

The Europa highlight for me came at John Astell's pool side chat. During a wideranging and informative two hour session John gave some thirty-five of the faithful a glimpse of things yet to come, concentrating his remarks mostly around the ongoing design of Second Front. Here are some of the more interesting facts as taken from my notes and supplemented by other conversations with John then and since:

One of the most exciting new concepts discussed at Origins '89 was the pending testing of a mega-hex concept for the Europa air system.

A mega-hex would tentatively consist of a cluster of hexes three around centered on a central "patrol" hex. Some degree of flexibility would be allowed to those units flying missions in each mega-hex; for instance, units once positioned in a patrol hex would later be able to fly interception, DAS, and the like in any regular hex within that mega-hex.

The first mega-hexes assigned would be those which would make the Battle of Britain work. The rest would then fall into place from there. It is not yet clear how the mega-hexes will be delineated. One option mentioned was to print the outline directly on the map and another to use some sort of overlay.

Also under consideration is an air system modification allowing limited use of air power to participate in overruns. This remains very experimental.

Another topic of considerable interest revolved around the new "Collectors' Series" maps. The plan is to gradually phase all the old maps out and replace them with the new state-of-the-art boards. These would show among other things:

(a) At least four types of ports (minor, standard, major, and mega) with corresponding capacities noted.

(b) Clear indication of where the weather lines cross bodies of water.

(c) Reference points such as Demyansk and Bastogne.

(d) Names of rivers, lakes, seas, and other geographical features.

(e) Corrections to the existing terrain where needed.

(f) Dual rail nets with a high and low capacity system.

The first of these maps will appear in the reissue of Marita-Merkur.

John stressed that the Second Front rules would be the new core set of rules for the entire Europa system and so he is working diligently to remove petty restrictions and reduce needless counting. He hopes to ferret out all the stuff that is useless detail, thus allowing gamers to concentrate on the important things. In this crusade for simplification John asked everyone to send in their ideas on this subject. Cited as a good example of how the system can be streamlined was Ben Knight's recent suggestions on operational rail movement in ETO #45.

In a move sure to stir some debate, John announced he felt the results of poor weather were not deleterious enough to properly discourage offensive actions during mud and snow turns. To address this, John is considering implementing overall negative modifiers of -1 for snow and -2 for mud to all attacks executed in those weather conditions.

John indicated his preliminary work on the strategic air war had revealed an extremely boring game, and he was becoming increasingly inclined to handle this abstractly. Likewise, the naval system in Second Front will probably see much abstract handling as well. Preliminary thoughts on naval rules centered around transport points and task forces. Certainly the Allies would have enough material to make multiple landings. Actual naval combat would probably be resolved at a very high "task force" level. John indicated he felt the naval rules might actually be too detailed in some existing Europa games and a step back to more abstraction was in order.

Finally, John touched on efforts being made to devise some shorter playing, highly competitive mini-games. One such effort would be to create a "Beginners Europa" game. Sort of a quick "E" game. Other projects would involve short scenarios within the framework of existing games using only part of the maps and a manageable number of counters.

Several such projects are underway, but John stressed that doing such scenarios correctly was hard work, rivaling larger design work. We hope some of these projects may one day find their way into the pages of TEN.

Combining these exciting new design proposals with the product lineup listed by Winston elsewhere in these pages, one's mouth truly has to water contemplating all these Europa goodies in our future.

Rick's Slick and Sick Tricks:

Here's an experimental feature I'm considering running in each issue of TEN. During the course of my play experience and correspondence I often run upon clever and devious tricks. Some are slicker than a greased pole at a county fair and should be used for competent play, while others fall well within the realm of rules lawyer BS and their illegality should be widely publicized lest your opponent should zing you unawares. The idea is to wrap up my editorial column each issue with two such tricks, one slick, and one sick. Here is the first installment; let me know your opinion of this.

Slick

Rule 25A states that an air-dropped unit using a glider as part or all of its transport receives a +1 modifier to the disruption roll. Many players forget the important wording of this rule, or don't realize its significance. How does an airborne unit have a glider as only part of its transport? Further reflection indicates that this is only possible if the unit is carried to the drop hex by one transport towing one glider.

This is a perfectly legal combination of transport to get an airborne regiment to the drop hex and benefit from the +1 modifier while only expending one glider in the drop. It is easy to get into the mind set of using two gliders to airdrop an airborne regiment in order to gain the modifier, perhaps because two gliders are mandatory for airdropping air landing regiments under similar circumstances. Stretch those gliders out further!

Sick

I refer to the next trick as "Oil Slick in the Baltic", obviously borrowing liberally from Jeff Millefoglie and Harald Hansen's ETO article, "Slime in the Ukraine". Here's how this evil scheme goes down:

The German player airdrops one of the Brandenburger battalions in a beach hex behind Riga, let's say 1B:1716 during the June II surprise turn. Then during the regular June II turn a large Kriegsmarine amphibious force transports an infantry division and a combat engineer regiment to this now friendly beach hex. This force cuts off the retreat of the Riga garrison while contributing a sizable attack force to help insure its demise. Great plan, yes? Has this ever happened to you? If so, you've been cruelly used! This maneuver is totally illegal. The rule law goes like this:

Rule 28B1 states that Axis naval transports must end their movement in a friendly-owned port and may not undertake any action which would prevent them from doing so.

Rule 28C1 further states that Axis naval transports must end their movement in the hex they disembark cargo (including troops).

The conclusion from these two rules is that Axis naval transports may ONLY disembark cargo (i.e. troops) in a friendly-owned port hex, which 1B:1716 IS NOT! The Kriegsmarine commando Sturm unit is the only exception to this. No other Axis unit may make an amphibious landing under any circumstances.

Class dismissed - see you Fall Quarter.