Marita-Merkur. What will Europa fans have to talk about now that Marita-Merkur has been published? One subject is the many things that can be done with the game. In addition to the scenarios and campaign game in the rules, there are two new sceanrios in this Grenadier. The Plan Y game has been played several times with great success, and the Fall Merkur scenario is an excellent teaching aid for Germans trying to prepare an air assault in the campaign game. Map 14 fills the gaping hole in Europe and allows the Russian front to roll west in 44- 45; players should be able to construct scenarios for the eastern half of the Battle for Germany. A far-fetched but pleasurable exercise in progress locally involves the hypothesis of a peaceful, non-Nazi Germany and, instead, a Soviet invasion of Eastern Europe. For players seeking a change of pace, there is always the opportunity of pitting the Yugoslavs against the Greeks.

Since 1973, the Workshop has published six Europa games: Drang Nach Osten!, Unentschieden, Narvik, Their Finest Hour, Case White, and Marita-Merkur. TFH is out of print, pending a second edition, and the first three titles are in line for revision work necessitated by the evolution of the game system and improvements in graphic techniques. Preliminary revision work for the older games and development for future games is now in progress.

DNO/UNT has been scheduled for an overhaul for quite some time, but it is a massive project that threatens to consume many, many hours in order to see that it is done right. Nonetheless, testing should be getting under way later this summer for the second edition.

While the game system will be fundamentally unaltered, there are many adjustments being considered to reflect the Europa state of art: Marita-Merkur ZOCs, cavalry movement in either the regular or exploitation phase, a re-vamped supply rule, air rules based on the draft edition that has been circulating about for a number of years, TFH format for naval units, revised orders of appearances, armor effects updated a la Marita-Merkur, rail gauge conversion, upgraded maps, and more. While it is impossible to respond to every letter, the developers and designers are always pleased to hear suggestions from players. It is still impossible to fix a date for the completion of this project.

TFH will eventually be re-joining the Europa line as two separate games. One will be the air battle; the other will be the hypothetical cross-channel invasion of England. Each will be mateable with the other and with Europa. On the other hand, a recent suggestion proposes to split the squadron level air game from the Europa level air game. The Sea Lion material would be modified to be played with (and at) Europa scale and included with the group level air game.

Case Yellow, Fall of France, Blitzkreig in the West: whatever title is finally selected, this is expected to be the next Europa game. As of right now, it looks like it will have two maps (in line with Map 13) and will have the French, Belgian, Dutch, and Swiss armed forces, the BEF, the German invaders, and the Italian "jackals".

There is a chance that, in addition to the historical package, there will be OAs for French mobilization and German transfers from the east so that the game can start any time after the invasion of Poland. Repeating the warning of last issue: Don't hold your breath, but this could be available by Origins 1980.

Summer 1943: Festung Europa.

The Allies have reconquered all of Africa and are accumulating the resources needed for the invasions that will liberate western Europe. The forces of Germany and Italy can only guess where the first troops will storm ashore. This tentatively planned Europa game would present players with four maps and thousands of counters with which to fight the campaign that begins on the beaches of Europe and ends in the fall of Berlin. This game is still in the distant future.

Last issue, the Europa Forum, a players' newsletter dedicated to Europa games, was announced. Like too many good intentions, the Forum never quite made it off the ground. Those of you who responded to the notice in Grenadier issue 6 have probably received a letter indicating that the newsletter has ceased publication before it was begun.

One of the intended services of the Forum was organizing and reporting postal Europa games. That function now falls on this column. Anyone interested in organizing multi- commander DN0/UNT by mail should contact this column with a short statement of credentials and experience: each side will need a commander/organizer who is very familiar with DN0/UNT, experienced in postal play (of any kind), and willing to devote the considerable time and effort the project requires. If any qualified leaders can be found, next issue will announce sign up procedures for the players.

Unofficial has returned!

The following items have recently been submitted to us for inclusion in the Unofficial column. They are modifications and/or variants to the various Europa games; they are presented here for the enjoyment of the Europa fans. However, their appearance in print does not mean that they are GDW sanctioned changes to the Europa games.

1. Europa. Units of less than divisional size exert a ZOC only in the hex they occupy (as in Marita-Merkur). A division sized stack (3 or more regimental equivalents) exerts a normal ZOC if the stack is supported.

2. DN0/UNT. The performance of the Finnish fighter squadrons was significantly better than could be expected given the quality of their aircraft. To simulate the actual performance, allow Finnish fighter units to use the same die roll modifications given to the German fighters.

3. DN0/UNT. Under present rules, units using supplies to sustain themselves from isolation are eliminated when the supplies are exhausted. This is true even when the units would have been in play had supplies not been used on the previous turn. Thus, the use of supplies for isolated units is only a last resort measure, for, once use of the supplies has begun, they become a target for bombing to destroy the supplies and thus the unit.

As an alternative, when supplies sustain a unit, the unsupplied effects are delayed one turn for each turn of supplies used. For example, on the second turn of isolation during mud weather, sustaining supplies would delay the second turn effect until the next turn of isolation unless additional supplies were then expended.