In 1973 during the heyday of board wargaming a small new company called Game Designers Workshop (GDW) published a game called Drang Nach Osten (DNO). The first commercial wargame to portray the Eastern Front at the divisional level, DNO was a huge game, in fact it was the first of the so-called "monster" games. But DNO was more than just a big game, it was part of an ambitious series of games called EUROPA intended to cover all World War II at the operational level with inter-locking maps and extensive OBs. Impressive though the EUROPA series was, they were difficult and time-consuming to play, and in the case of DNO (later re-made as FIRE IN THE EAST) almost impossible to find enough room to set up (I used our ping pong table and it barely fit). With the advent of computer gaming I packed my EUROPA games away (curiously I still have them) but remember fondly the rich detail, complex combat systems and, of course, those beautiful counters. I longed for a computer game equivalent but went wanting until now.
While the scale is different (10km/2 days versus 16 miles/2 weeks) and I am certain the game systems are completely different, still WORLD WAR II IN EUROPE offers the same promise as EUROPA did so many years before. A comprehensive operational level treatment of the entire European theatre. I'm completely blown away that HPS would attempt such a massive undertaking and applaud them for the effort. My only concern is how in the world am I going to find time to play all these games!?! I feel like Hugh Hefner (well, not quite but close).
New sereis!
Forum Locked
Posted - 05/11/2005 : 07:19:02
