Category: News (Page 1 of 13)

Europa in new old hands

November 6, 2025 / chef / 0 Comments

News, actual news, actually news about Europa – who would have thought. John Astell posted on the Europa-Mailing-List: After two decades of HMS sitting on Europa and getting nothing done, something is moving – Arthur Goodwin and Gar Olmsted have handed the rights to Europa back to John Banner, the original creator of the trademark. At this point it is unclear what that means, but in case of Europa, currently any news are good news.

Here is the press release in full:

For Immediate Release

The Europa Series

The Europa Series of division level-military operations in World War II in Europe was, and is, a staggering undertaking. Between 1973 and 1989, the legendary GDW Game Designers’ Workshop produced eleven magnificent die-cut counter and hex grid map wargames covering every major operation in Europe: The East Front, the West Front, operations in Norway, in Poland, the Balkans, and in Africa.

Europa has provided hours of enjoyment for its fans across the decades, and we want it to continue to do that while attracting new fans. HMS Historical Military Services of Denver Colorado has been the steward of the Europa properties over the past two decades, and Gar Olmsted and Arthur Goodwin (and a host of others) have worked their hearts out on Europa and its associated concepts. But health and age have finally brought that stewardship to an end, and Europa has returned to its original series creator (and CS Roberts Hall of Fame designer) Paul R. “Rich” Banner.

Europa fandom is an important part of this game series mystique: over the decades, its players and backers have been both dedicated and supportive. For example, the readers of Campaign Magazine, in 1975, voted the first Europa title: Drang Nach Osten! Quote: “The Best Game of All Time!” We’re trying to live up to that reputation.

In every end is a beginning, and the Europa Series is now preparing to intrigue and entertain a new generation of wargamers. Watch this space.

SF 42 1944 NOV II Axis Turn situation map, north — Situation map of the nothern theater of war on Nov II 1944 Axis turn in the SF42 game

The devastation of France

October 30, 2025 / chef / 0 Comments

David Smiths game report of an alternative world where the Allied decided to land in Southern France instead of North Africa is slowly nearing its conclusion, with the Allied slowly closing in on the Reich itself, despite the desperate Nazis preventing al kinds of units from transferring to the East, thereby significantly easing the war for the Soviets. The posts up to Dec I 44 are here and will be published over the course of November Tthis not only gives you a reason to come back, but more importantly me the time to check that all the files are complete and in order. Also, most of you will have read them on the mailing list already, anyway. In December we’ll reach the grand finale and tally up the VPs.

Read the game report of “SF42”.

The Historiography of Australia’s Air Force

October 27, 2025 / chef / 0 Comments

Today’s link recommendation is a blog post by Ross Mahoney tracing the inception of the official histories of the Australian Air Force, from the first volumes written about the Royal Australian Flying Corps in World War I to the present. These research notes are part of a larger bibliography of Australian Air Power which while out of the focus of this website, definitely deserves your attention.

The Historiography of Australian Air Power: Official Histories

Return to Mini Europa

August 21, 2025 / chef / 0 Comments

More than a decade ago, on the road to Grand Europa, Allan Tibbetts and some others did enough research to connect War in the Desert with Second Front, thereby creating an extended Scenario that would enable us to play the whole of the Western Front from November 1942 and the Allied landings in Africa to the end. David Smith has taken another shot at the issue, updating the Orders of Battle, integrating modern naval rules, and playtesting the whole monster.

David has kindly agreed to us publishing his game report, and so far we’ve put the first couple of turns and initial forces online. Expect more to come in the upcoming weeks.

Read the game report of “SF42”.

Fascism

August 5, 2025 / Wolf Broszies / 0 Comments

While going through some of the pages of this website, I also re-read the “about”-section and decided to rework it. After more than 20 years it seemed no longer appropriate. At the same time, putting a statement supporting free speech, science and democracy out on a tiny little page on a strategy game and World War II seemed equally ridiculous, so I shortened the text. This left a couple of things unsaid, ergo: this post.

I recently re-watched the Inglorious Basterds. This is one of the few truly antifascist movies I know , diligently examining its protagonists and showing no matter how cunning you are, or how dutiful you might be, or how much of a star you’ve become, or how brave, or how pretty: If you are a Nazi, you deserve to be shot.

Of course there is a lot more to be said about a stellar cast, historical fiction as a narrative technique, and Tarrantino being a brilliant but problematic director. But to me, this is what it all boils down to: If you are trying to violently split humanity into the idolized and the unwanted, the masters and serfs, the believers and the heathens, I will fight you.

Downloading…

August 4, 2025 / chef / 0 Comments

Currently the Europa mailing list is pretty active, and we received a request to maybe host the JET/Jet replacement files. As a small preparation, we’ve uploaded all recent Vassal modules and all Errata sheets we could find onto a new Google drive, and updated most of the game pages with links to those files. The result is depressingly unremarkable, considering that alone took basically a days work. But such is life with WordPress, and besides, we haven’t done maintenance on the site apart from the technical updates for a while, so it was a good thing to start reviewing some pages. And the files are now up, and the system can be easily extended.

Winds of Change

February 27, 2025 / chef / 0 Comments

Most likely, if you end up on this website, you got sick of the song some three decades ago. But this is not about the Fall of the Wall, this is about my own little corner of the web, and some changes will be coming this year. I have not properly played Europa in over a decade, and I do not thing I will ever get my shipment of “Total War” I paid more than two decades ago. So all things “Europa” will be rounded out by files, and then assembled into an Europa archive for those still interested. And yes, I will continue to add game reports, but I would like to focus a bit more on military history. The library will become a place for online available sources, some of which may be a bit harder to find. There will be a new bibliography for the Austro-Hungarian military history, and some lists of available regimental histories as well, and I will structure and revisit the Link section, too.

As in the past, more important things like family and job mean I will rarely have time to create my own original content – it took me three or four months to research and write “Battle of Balakliya”, and its not even a very good essay, more of a test case. So I will do what I have done for the last thirty years: Look for cool things other people have written or done, and point you to them. Ever since I had to steer my career away from the academic work on military history, I have always been grateful to have the possibility to collect, curate, and assembling things I was no longer able to focus my work on. So if you have anything to share on the topics of the organization and equipment of military forces, I will always be grateful if you share.
Also, ask me about my other collections.

The War against

January 20, 2025 / chef / 0 Comments

… what exactly is unclear, but the shouting got too much for us. We will be deactivating the Twitter account of the Generalstab, There is not much else to say, it was fun while it lasted, but I refuse to look at the things promoted and shoved in my face on Twitter these days.

So the plan is to move to where the Sky is blueer during this year. I admit I have been lazy posting and engaging online a lot, since other projects took precedence. But I have been busy during the past years, and will actually be able to share some of the results soon, probably on the other long-term project the Ametria site. It will be more oriented towards interaction, scientific study and historic work, and sources will be king. I hope to interest some of you for it, come the time.

Thank you to the CDSG!

January 15, 2025 / chef / 0 Comments

I recently found some time to work on putting the U.S. Field Manual Collection on a more solid footing, going through the various FM 21-6 (Index of Training Publications) and other lists to see what manuals are still missing, and seeing if they are available online. All this for a bigger update at the end of this month, when I will add roughly 200 new FMs or variants thereof, and correct some spelling errors.

Sometimes, the search for missing FMs ends at the gates of a mailing list who’s owners remain unresponsive. Sometimes, the reply comes quick, and I get more than I asked for. The webmaster of the Coastal Defense Study Group was so kind as to indulge my request for a couple of FMs and instead handed me their whole repository of documents, for which I am deeply thankful. I do not take donations for this website, but if you want to support the amazing work the CDSG does for the military history of the United States, please head over there and have a look!

Southern Sector in 1944: General Soviet thrusts and Axis pockets

An Epic Ending

January 12, 2025 / chef / 0 Comments

Ken Newall’s report of his solitaire game playing Scorched Earth had been a persistant source of entertainment for many readers on the Europa mailing list as well as for me. Finally I would the time to upload the last reports from the autumn and winter of 1944, concluding this monumental spectacle, and finishing with an insightful wrap up. The posts will be published over the coming weeks and conclude on February 19th. This should give me enough time to catch up with all the other exiting reporting that happened in the past years on the Europa list. So there will be no want for game reports this year, and I think I will stick to the schedule of having a new post every week for as long as I can make it last.