EUROPE IN FLAMES (EIF) is an interesting, if somewhat long and drawn out, board game produced a dozen or so years ago. Brian Dewitt likes it and has, on several occasions, begged us, persuaded us to play the game... and we've done so... not because the game is exciting, but because we hate to see a grown man cry.
The board represents all of Europe, and there are several scenarios, about all of which seem to focus on Germany's ability (or inability) to fight a two-front war. The game uses plastic stands in which the unit tokens are set up vertically... one side of the token, the side facing you, indicates the strength of the force; the other side, facing the enemy, shows only the nationality. In this way, strength levels are secret, even though each side is aware of the presence of enemy forces.
I think we've played about four different games, all of which go on and on and on and on... like the Duracell Bunny... as Axis forces fight the Russians in the east, and the Allies in the west. Sometime around Turn 345, the USA is supposed to enter the war... we've never even gotten up to that point. I think a good descriptive word for the game is "interminable".
My main complaint, as with other board games, centers on the size of the field. EIF is an "area" game, and the areas are just too small to contain the tokens and their holders.
In an effort to make the game more palatable, I taped together a number of large sheets of paper, and reproduced the EIF map so that the map of Europe now fills a complete ping-pong table, replacing the normally restrictive 17-inch by 22-inch board game field.
Alas! Although one could now see the forces, and actually tell within which area they were located, the game proved just as soporific as before.
A new approach was needed.
Some months ago, I generated my own modern game called EUROWAR, using the map and 15mm armor. The large, table-sized map lent itself well to the 15mm figures.
A problem arose, however, in that the participants, instead of playing a game, seemed to focus on the historic events associated with WWII... Poland should only have so many units, and England should be able to transport only so many units to France, and Russia must stand by, etc., etc. The European setting of the game seemed to make it imperative to all the tableside players (except me) that we follow the actual unfolding of the events of WWII.
And so, after trying out the rules once or twice, I packed them away. All I had wanted to do was to use the map - which happened to be of Europe - as a backdrop for a very large scale, "symbolic" armor game.
And so now I had a rather large map of Europe... what to do?? I turned to the Napoleonic era, and pulled out more 15mm troops. In a game called 1814, I set out a number of French units in and near France, and a huge number of Allied units converging on the French forces. There was a Prussian army and a Russian army and an Austrian army and a British army...
We tried the rules once or twice -- Fred Hubig made some interesting modifications -- and then I decided to go whole-hawg. Forget about historicity, and just set up a huge area game which utilized the fact that Europe was broken up into lots of little regions.
The northern part of Europe (Euronor) was allied against the south of Europe (Eurosouth). Euronor was composed of England, Ireland, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, etc., some 11 countries in all, except now I didn't call them countries, I called them the provinces of Euronor.
Eurosouth was composed of the provinces of Spain, Portugal, France, Albania, Greece... all the way east to Turkey, a total of 12 provinces.
The neutral provinces were Poland, Russia, the entire mid-east, and all of northern Africa.
Euronor was a wee bit disadvantaged in our first game. Each side was assigned 7 ships, and could define them as either warships or transports. Euronor needed transports much more than Eurosouth, for without troop transports, the units in Sweden, Norway, England and Ireland were isolated.
Commodore Jack Culberson of Eurosouth chose to have his entire initial fleet of 7 ships composed of warships. Euronor's glorious President, Bob Hurst, gave me, Admiral Simon, the Lion of the Sea, 3 warships and 4 transports.
Ouch! No contest! Commodore Culberson ruled the waves... his fleet of warships sought out and whupped our Euronor fleet faster' than y'all could say "Sail ho!" (tha's 'Navy talk'!).
When a warship entered the sea area occupied by an enemy ship, combat was not automatic. The aggressive fleet first had to locate the enemy. The chance, C, of doing so was:
- C = 40 + 10 x (number of searching ships)
With a maximum of 3 ships per side in any given sea area, the above calculation indicates that the maximum chance to locate the enemy is 70 percent. More than sufficient for Commodore Culberson.
In combat, each warship was given four 10-sided dice, and a toss of 1,2,3,4,5 was a hit. With a flotilla or two, each composed of 3 warships cruising the seas, Commodore Culberson thus tossed 12 dice each time he encountered a Euronor vessel. As I said... "Ouch!"
A warship or transport was knocked out after it took 5 hits. One could repair a ship by sailing it back to a friendly port... but, all too often, having done so, there I found the dreaded Commodore Culberson, greeting me with his 12-dice broadsides.
Due to Eurosouth's control of the sea, our Euronor troops in England never made it to the mainland. But they had company, for some 5 turns into the game, there came to the shores of the province of England a boatload... indeed, several boatloads... of invading Eurosouth units.
Commodore Culberson had used the funds he raised during the Logistics Phases to build transports. England was his first target. Sad to say, the entire British army was driven into the sea after only two battles. Yes, only two major battles, and "this precious stone set in the silver sea... this blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England", was no more (my apologies to the bard).
Land Combat
Whereas naval combat was fought when opposing units were located in the same area, land combat was fought with the opposing units in adjacent areas.
During the movement phase, the active side moved his units adjacent to the enemy, and declared his intention to attack. Combat was not automatic, however, for a dice throw decided the type of battle, as laid out in the chart below.
- Dice Throw
100 --------------------------------------------
- No encounter, but opposing artillery may fire. Each gun receives 2 Kill Dice (KD); a toss of 1,2,3,4,5 indicates that the opposition loses a stand.
- Skirmish. Each side receives 1 KD; a toss of 1,2,3,4,5 indicates that the opposition loses a stand.
- Minor battle. Each side totals the combat points, at 50% per stand, of all stands in the 2 concerned areas and receives 1 KD for each 100 point total. Note that supporting troops are not brought in. A toss of 1,2,3,4,5 indicates that the opposition loses a stand. Stands are removed, and the force with fewer stands remaining falls back 1 area.
- Major battle. A General must be present with the attacking force. The General's capability may call in supporting forces in surrounding areas.
I must note that the credit for the idea of using the above chart goes to Milton-Bradley (MB), who instituted something similar in a game some 12 years ago. When two opposing forces moved adjacent to one another, the MB game drew upon a deck of cards, which indicated the type of battle to be fought.
Note on the above chart that, 60 percent of the time, a major battle would occur. An aggressive force wanted such a major battle, for if it won, it was permitted to advance into the loser's vacated area. With a dice toss above 60, only "stand-off battles" took place, hence even if the attacker's force won, it could not advance.
Another aspect dealing with major battles concerned the full extent of the forces to be engaged. During the regular movement phase, the maximum number of stands allowed in an area was three. When the units in one area attacked those of the enemy in an adjacent area, and a major battle was to be fought, the stands in these two areas were termed the "lead units". Dice were then tossed by defender and attacker to see if the units in surrounding areas were drawn into the battle. If they were, then all the participating stands were placed in the two concerned areas, temporarily suspending the "maximum of 3" rule.
All the Generals on the field were given a Military Capability (MC) factor ranging from 50 to 70. The MC rating of the Generals was used to determine if adjacent stands would help out:
- Dice Throw
100--------------------------------------------
- 1 stand from each adjacent area may assist
MC--------------------------------------------
- 2 stands from each adjacent area may assist
1/2 MC--------------------------------------------
- All stands from adjacent areas may assist
On occasion, therefore, with a low dice throw, a huge number of stands would suddenly surge into one of the embattled areas, helping out their allies.
Another interesting ploy concerned fomenting a rebellion in the opponent's territory. One would collect a number of Resource Points (RP) during the Logistics Phase, and could devote them (in addition to raising troops, building ships, etc.) to promoting an uprising. We of Euronor were quite successful at this; we managed to arrange an uprising in Greece, forcing a number of Eurosouth units to head south to quell the revolt. The chance, C, that a rebellion took place was defined as:
- C = 40 + 5 x (Resource Points assigned)
Once a rebellion took place, the dice then told us, via a separate chart, how many rebel stands appeared.
It was important to snuff out a rebel band as soon as possible, for if left alone, the rebs would clone themselves into neighboring areas. This was the case in Greece, and I remember that we Euronorians were quite pleased with the results of the Greek rebellion. The fierce Macedonian mountain fighters, once we started them out, refused to be snuffed, and did quite well against the Eurosouth forces sent to wipe 'em out.
I should note that the dastardly Eurosouthians promoted a rebellion in our own backyard. Suddenly, backed by Eurosouthian funding, there appeared the Estonian Freedom Fighters, which diverted a number of our own units.
Hordes of the East
And, as if this wasn't enough to worry about, there were the horrible Hordes of the East, the dreaded Mongoloidian cavalry, sweeping in, now and then, from the far east edge of the map. Each Logistics Phase, we'd dice to see if Mongoloidian troops appeared. There was an initial 20% chance they'd do so, and if they didn't, an additional, cumulative, 20% was added to the probability each turn... hence we all knew that, sooner or later, the Mongoloidians would appear.
Once on the field, the Mongoloidian cavalry were programmed to set out toward the nearest enemy force... the term "enemy" being defined as either Euronor or Eurosouth.
The Mongoloidians were prone to bribery, and Euronor tossed some coins their way, and, after an appropriate dice throw, convinced two of their cavalry units to head toward the Eurosouthern forces. Eurosouth had sent troops into Syria and vicinity, neutral territory, to earn a few more Resource Points, and it was in Syria that the Mongoloidians struck. Unfortunately -- from our point of view -- the Eurosoutherners struck back more efficiently, defeating the Mongoloidian cavalry. In all, however, I think we got our money's worth, since a couple of Eurosouth stands were annihilated.
For a first-time effort, the game went surprisingly well. Given a fairly large and complex map such as Europe, it's quite difficult to get a balance between the troops and ships assigned both sides, the movement factors, the method of earning Resource Points, the cost of raising reserve units, the size and type of the built-in diversion factors (rebels, Mongoloidians, etc.), and whatever other grunge is necessary to create a table-size campaign game.
Although I hate to admit this in public, the rules are not perfect, and I anticipate at least three or four editions before we achieve nirvana.
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© Copyright 1993 Wally Simon
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