Many years ago, I bought a copy of EUROPE IN FLAMES (EIF), an Australian boardgame of WW II which provided a wee bit of entertainment. The copy of the game has since disappeared... someone borrowed it and never returned it... but it lingers on in the sense that after playing one or two scenarios, it was my thought that, like so many other boardgames, the board was simply too small for all the tokens involved. And so I discarded the map provided in the game box, and drew up a ping-pong table-size map of Europe. On this much larger map, we played, not only EIF, but about half a dozen sets of other types of WW II grand-grand-tactical rules, using 15mm tokens for infantry and armor. We found out that, regardless of the systems we used, Germany had an almost impossible task of fighting a two-front war. About a month ago, I dug up the map of Europe and set up yet another scenario. Far different from WW II. In fact, this presentation had no relation to any particular war, nor to any particular era... it was simply a strategy game of 15mm army tokens and resources. It was a game of Euronor versus Eurosur, the north of Europe versus the south of Europe. The countries depicted on the map no longer were defined as 'countries'. They were now termed provinces. Euronor had 8 provinces, as did Eurosur: Euronor Eurosur England (capital province) Algeria (capital province) Netherlands French Morocco Sweden Italy Denmark Greece East Prussia Bulgaria Latvia Romania Belgium Turkey Of interest is the fact that the two capital provinces, England and Algeria, are both off the European mainland. It is in these provinces that, when a logistics phase occurs, new troops are raised. In this manner, I ensured that sea transportation plays a major role in the game. In addition to raising new troops, therefore, both Euronor and Eurosur will have to construct sea transports. If you look at a map of Europe, you'll see the above southern provinces are clustered along the Mediterranean, while the northern provinces lie along the Baltic Sea. The open space between them on the mainland of Europe, i.e., the provinces of Germany, France, Poland and Spain, are up for grabs. These open provinces contain a number of resource areas, which, when captured and occupied, provide Victory Points (VP). The provinces are all divided into areas for movement purposes. An "army" consists of three 15mm tokens. This is the 'stacking limit' of each area on the map. I used my 15mm figures for the game, and each army was composed of 3 stands. In all my area games, I always impose a stacking limit on the areas of the map. This comes after some sad, early experiences with area games in which there were no stacking limits... and the players simply massed as many stands as could fit into an area and moved 'em all together in one big lump. There's yet another factor on the field. While the countries of Euronor and Eurosur are having at each other, suddenly, the Hordes appear, sweeping in from the east. The Hordes are not meant to capture or conquer anything... they're fairly weak in combat... but they're thrown into the game to harass the field armies of north and south. Each bound, there's a small chance (20 percent) that a 2-stand Horde army appears in the eastern end of Russia and starts to move west at 2 areas per turn. Each country has an initial total of 10 armies (each of 3 stands). Others appear as the sides capture the resource areas, and gather Logistics Points (LP) and VP. But note that these reinforcement troops don't necessarily appear on every bound... there's only a 70 percent chance, each bound, that a logistics phase occurs, at which time, troops are purchased. If the logistics phase doesn't show up, the players simply keep their accumulated LP, and wait 'till the next bound and hope that it does contains a logistics phase. I ran through the procedures in solo fashion, trying to iron out the various parameters, and balance both the logistics points and the combat values. For a second tryout, Terry Sirk appeared as Eurosur commander, and we played a game which Eurosur won. Terry's southern forces easily took the resources of Germany and France, and went up into Belgium and the Netherlands, capturing these provinces, preventing Euronor from garnishing LP from these provinces. I, in turn, as the Big Cheese of Euronor, sent two boat-loads of troops (two armies) from England down to the Eurosur capital province, Algeria, thinking to prevent Eurosur from raising troops. My armies landed in French Morocco. When new troops were raised, they appeared in the capital province, and my thought was that if I could capture Algeria, I would put a crimp in Eurosur's troop-replenishment supply line. Not to worry... Eurosur troops poured out of French Morocco, right next to Algeria, to protect the homeland. My Moroccan Expeditionary Force disintegrated. I took some notes during the game, and modified the charts and table accordingly. Then, a day or two later, Brian Dewitt appeared to head Eurosur. With the fate of the Moroccan Expeditionary Force still fresh in my memory, I decided to concentrate solely in Europe proper. No expeditionary forces for me. But Brian surprised me. From his base in Algeria, he sent a Danish Expeditionary Force (DEF) north, all the way through the English Channel past England to land in Denmark. This one army in my backyard was enough to divert three Euronor armies, keeping them from heading south where they belonged. Since I had started with a total of 10 armies in Euronor, the Danish Expeditionary Force kept a third of my entire force busy, and Brian walked through France and western Germany, picking up VP all the way. No contest. Third Game At a PW meeting, I hosted a larger third game, consisting of two or three players per side. In the previous two games, the Hordes, appearing in the east, and moving west, while not a major factor, at least appeared often enough to divert the attention of both Euronor and Eurosur. In this larger game, however, the Hordes refused to come out, hiding somewhere in eastern Russia. Remember that for a Horde army to appear, there was only a 20 percent chance each bound that a force would materialize... and for some reason the Horde-producing dice throws failed to yield but a single Horde army throughout the entire game. Neither Euronor nor Eurosur proved adventuresome enough to send overseas expeditionary forces abroad... they both contented themselves with battles on the mainland. When two armies met, the three stands in the army were paired off. Each had a Combat Value of +3, and to this, they added a 10-sided die roll. The larger total won, and the winning stand continued to participate in combat. The losing stand stepped back, and was out of the fight. Then the next stand stepped up and the combat continued until there were stands of only one side remaining. There were few modifiers to the +3 Combat Value. One was the presence of a General, who added +2 to the total. Another was an elite stand, which added a +1 to its initial +3. Generals were fairly potent with their +2 modifier, and if a General lost a battle, he was buried with full honors. Not only did a losing General die, but a losing army split up... of its three stands: (a) One stand was destroyed (b) One stand went to the Rally Zone, and awaited a rally phase in the sequence. The stand had a 50 percent chance to survive and return to the field. (c) The third stand was "shipped home"... it was placed back in its home province (Algeria or England), and thus had to await sea transportation to get back to the mainland. Another ploy in the game was the use of a "Whoopee Chart"... or "Chance Chart', if you will. The active side diced on the chart, and there were ten 'good things' that were listed that could occur. The side could gain one or two stands, or construct a ship, or move its troops or its ships, or foment a revolution in the opposing side's capital or resource areas. The presence of the rebel force prevented the side from gathering logistics points in the affected area, and so troops had to be sent to quell the revolution. The Euronor players just couldn't hack it. Eurosur just walked all over them. In particular, Stephan Patejak, commanding the Euronor forces in the east, lost just about every encounter in which he engaged. In every game on my ping-pong table, there always seems to be one person who has a "bad dice night". And Stephan was it. His dice were rotten, and his forces were decimated. I remember that when he finally won an encounter, the players on both sides of the table cheered. Using the map of Europe as the backdrop for an ahistorical encounter proved quite entertaining. In this game, there were no cavalry or artillery... a token was simply an army token... next time out, we'll enlarge the scope of the game. Back to PW Review September 1999 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 Wally Simon This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com