From: mattb@ctron.com (Matt Brown)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: Europa
Date: 28 Aug 92 17:53:55 GMT
Reply-To: mattb@olympus.ctron.com (Matt Brown)
Organization: Cabletron Systems INc.

(Carl Fago) writes:
>I have also gotten a couple of email replies and it would seem that Europa
>is just plain incomplete and maybe just another rehash of SPI's War in the
>East and War in the West.  So if Europa isn't the definitive small scale
>war against Germany game, then what would be recommended?
>I am looking for something that is more detailed than WiF and maybe a little
>less than WiE/WiW.
>I see Europa as trying to be a game _system_ with varying theatres of operation
>such that I don't have to fill up a garage with maps to play one game but
>can link theatre scenarios together in a "campaign game" of sorts.
>This is the style I am looking for but, unfortunately, Europa is not complete
>and the promises of game companies are, in my experience, worth about as
>much as the hot air they are made of.
>It seems that all the pieces are out there, just that no one has managed to
>put them all together.
>
I agree that there is an enormous gap out there at the operational level.
There are a number of very good strategic level games around, like 3R/WiF
etc.  There are the old out of print SPI monsters, and the scattered pieces
of the Europa series.  There is the TSR ETO/PTO pair now.  There are ETO
games with no PTO counterpart, and vice versa.
I looked at the TSR pair, but the counters shown on the box were generic-
atrocious (IMO).  All that was missing was barcodes.

Here's the problem in a nutshell:
The whole war on an operational level is too big, too expensive, too long.
The strategic level games have stacks of armies sucked down into quicksand
and miraculously ressurected next build phase.  All units are always either
full strength or dead. (again, I know these are generalizations)

What is needed is a strategic game that mates to operational modules.
It would use the strategic game for production, strategic warfare, and
theatre level movement.

The modules would provide more detailed maps and units.  Breakdown counters,
if you will.  You could use them to fight out every contact, or only the
significant ones.  Picture this:

German forces lash out at a bulge in the Russian lines in 1943 Summer in
3R.  Action moves to a map of the Kursk front (with minor cities, rivers,etc)
and the German 4-6s are broken down into their component divisions.  Similarly
the Russian armies breakdown into rifle divisions, etc. Much like VGs Gulf
Strike, the operational map has megahexes marked out.  The breakdown units
are deployed by each player, and the battle begins, using the operational
rules.  After a certain number of turns, the battle stops and the remnants
are transferred back to the 3R board, and strategic play continues there.

I'm not sure 3R or A3R is the best vehicle for this type of game, as the 
3-month 3R turn doesn't marry up to the operational game that well.
You can fake it (the designer's term is "abstract") by saying that a three
month period is not all battle; that the opposing forces form up, fight, and
recoup during that period.  That is also a good excuse for not recording the
exact operational positions when you transfer back to the strategic board.
By the next "turn" the units would have reformed their lines differently
anyway.

But I'll bet that lots of gamers or clubs would buy the modules (hint to Bruce
Harper).  Think of how much fun this would be multi-player, as one Axis
commander takes on the Brit in North Africa in one room while the Axis pacific
player takes on an Ami invasion. (While the unscrupulous Russian cheats on
the strategic map; but that's another story.)

I tried something like this years ago (simple magnification of the 3R maps)
and it was fun, but I got sick of scratchmade components.

So, any masochists out there wanna collaborate on a design and work up a
proposal for AH?  They love modules, and with a PTO game in the works, this
might be an interesting offshoot.

Matt
Gee, if I put in a copyright mention, can I sue anybody who ever uses anything
close to this for a commercial product?  Nah!
Copyright (c) Matt Brown 1992