John Astell’s contribution to the Europa-Series is such that I would be hard pressed to find any Europa game that does not show his handwrit, be it that he designed it directly, be it that it heavily borrows from the rules canon John established over the years. Taking over from the founders of GD/W, Paul R. Banner and Frank Chadwick, John, always working in team with the relentless Europa-publisher and promoter Winston Hamilton, made Europa what it is today. In short, without John Astell, there would be no Europa-series today.
John’s “classic Europa” website is back up now after falling victim to the lamented end of “Geocities”. Of particular interest are the “Legion of Honor”, a list of people who contributed to Europa in the past, and of course the extensive designer notes, covering nearly every Europa-game ever published, and some of the game concepts and rules implemented such as abandoning equipment and “extended rage” for air units.
For more than a decade now there haven’t been any new “Europa”-games. Until and if Total War ships, John’s website is the premier source for background information on most published Europa-games.
Date: February 26th, 2013
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