Europa (wargame) - Expansion From Trilogy To Europa

Expansion From Trilogy To Europa

The originally conceived trilogy began its expansion to cover the entire European theater when the developers published a game on the German invasion of Norway in 1940, Narvik, in 1974. They then started working on a game to cover Germany's unplanned 1941 Balkans Campaign to overthrow the governments of Yugoslavia and Greece, which some say delayed the onset of Operation Barbarossa by several weeks and may have contributed to its failure. The game was finally published in 1979 as Marita-Merkur, after German operations Marita and Merkur carried out during that campaign. However, it was published as a stand-alone game; by this time the Europa concept of covering the entire European Theater had evolved, and the plan called for publishing a series stand-alone games that provided Europa material, but concentrated on a single campaign and left most of the link-up issues to be addressed by future publications. The series also grew to cover such topics as the Spanish Civil War, which, though not strictly part of World War II, helped with the map coverage and provided a basis for what-if scenarios, had World War II gone differently.

The plans for the series have evolved somewhat over the three decades of its existence, but can be approximated as follows. The various games traditionally been identified as "Europa Game X", where X is a Roman numeral. Since some of the games have been published under different names for their various editions, the list given here describes the subject matter for each game and breaks out the individual titles as bullets. Many titles have unofficial but commonly used acronyms, given in parentheses after the title. Acronyms for the games' publishers are given as well.

Several of the games listed here have had separately published "refit kits" for corrections and minor upgrades, and in some cases those have been included in later printings of the games. Their Finest Hour is the most extreme example of this, with both defective maps and numbers of counters needing to be reprinted. Some games have also been reprinted with new box art. Such details are not shown here.

Europa I - The German invasion of the USSR and the Soviet riposte, 1941-1942.

• Drang nach Osten (DNO), GDW 1973. Primarily used German sources for OB information, and had rudimentary maps (by later standards).
• Fire in the East (FitE), GDW 1984. OBs and maps were thoroughly revised, utilizing more recently-published material on Soviet forces.

Europa II - The Eastern Front, 1942–1944

• Unentschieden, GDW 1973.
• Scorched Earth, (SE) GDW 1987.

Europa III - The Balkans Campaign, 1941.

• Marita-Merkur, (MM) GDW 1979.
• Balkan Front, (BF) GRD 1990.

Europa IV - The Norwegian campaign, 1940.

• Narvik, GDW 1974.
• Storm Over Scandinavia (SoS) GRD 1998.

Europa V - The Battle of Britain and planned German invasion, 1940.

• Their Finest Hour (TFH), GDW 1976.

Europa VI - The Western Desert Campaign in North Africa, 1940-1942.

• Western Desert, (WD) GDW 1982.
• War in the Desert (WitD), GRD 1995. (see below)

Europa VII - The German Invasion of Poland, 1939.

• Case White (CW), GDW 1977.
• First to Fight (FtF), GRD 1991.

Europa VIII - The Western Campaign in the Netherlands, Belgium, and France, 1940.

• The Fall of France (FoF), GDW, 1981.

Europa IX - Operations in the Near East.

• The Near East (NE or TNE), GDW 1983.
• War in the Desert (WitD), GRD 1995. (see below)

Europa X - Potential involvement of Spain and Portugal in World War II, including the planned German assault on Gibraltar.

• Spain and Portugal (S&P), GDW 1984.
• For Whom the Bell Tolls (FWtBT), GR/D 1995. (Covers the Spanish Civil War as well.)

Europa XI - The Allied invasion of French North Africa, 1942-1943.

• Torch, GDW 1985.
• War in the Desert (WitD), GRD 1995. (see below)

Europa XII - The Allied invasion of France, 1944.

• Second Front (SF), GRD 1994.

Europa XIII - Expansion module giving a bigger picture of the Soviet war effort, plus updates and play aids for FitE/SE, and a scenario for the 1943 campaign.

• The Urals, GRD 1989.

Europa XIV - The Winter War between Finland and the USSR, 1939-1940.

• A Winter War (WW or AWW), GR/D 1992.

Material included in Balkan Front and First to Fight, published in 1990 and 1991 respectively, agreed with the above (excepting titles not yet released), and proposed the following extensions to wrap up the series, though none of them have been published:

Europa XV - The naval campaigns in the Mediterranean Sea and around the shores of Europe, 1939-1945.

• The Naval War

Europa XVI - Rules for integrating the individual games into a single game covering the entire war in the European Theater, 1939-1945.

• Grand Europa

Europa XVII - Czechoslovakia fights rather than surrendering to appeasement in 1938.

• Peace in our Time

However, material included with War in the Desert, published in 1995, introduced substantial changes to the plan. It included all the material previously distributed over Europa VI/IX/XI in a single publication, now officially Europa VI but billed as "Europa VI/IX/XI" on the game box. It also offered the following changes to the earlier numbering scheme, though none of the proposed new material has been published:

Europa V (a combination of the earlier V & VIII)

• Blitzkrieg in the West

Europa VIII - The partisan/anti-partisan campaign in southeastern Europe, 1941-1945.

• Partisan War

Europa IX (previously XVII)

• Peace in our Time

Europa XI (previously XV)

• The Naval War

Europa XV (previously XVI)

• Grand Europa

Material included with Storm Over Scandinavia, published in 1998, retained the same scheme, but proposed some new titles:

• Total War would be a third edition of Europa I.
• Total Victory would be a third edition of Europa II, and would apparently also cover material originally planned for the unpublished Die Götterdämmerung.
• The proposed but unpublished Blitzkrieg in the West would be retitled Lightning War.

Much of this planning apparently became moot when GR/D's assets were picked up by Mill Creek Ventures in 2001. Work on an Europa-style game covering the campaign in East Africa had already been underway by a group calling itself "The East Africa Map Company", and it now became an official Europa project to be published as Wavell's War, covering all of World War II not only in East Africa, but in North Africa and the Mediterranean as well. It was offered for preorder in 2002, and was published in November 2005. No Europa series number has been announced for it. Mill Creek Ventures also began development of Total War, the third edition of Europa I, and has offered it for preorder since 2003. Though development of the series continues, no formal plan for its completion has been announced since the one given in Storm Over Scandinavia in 1998.