Author: chef (Page 1 of 28)

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”.

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.

Cover Basic Field Manual Vol III — Part of the cover of the US Army Basic Field Manual Vol III from 1935

US Army Field Manuals – A Collection

April 27, 2025 / chef / 3 Comments

Full Disclosure: This is me advertising one of my own side projects
Over the years I’ve collected quite and amount of the publicly available US Field Manuals that set down doctrine and guidelines for the way the US Army trains, organizes, and operates. The collection is still woefully incomplete, but contains now ~1900 files of US Army Field manuals from 1930 to 2024. I hope it will be a useful resource for anyone interested in the US Army and its history.

URL: https://sites.google.com/view/fieldmanuals/

VDV Manuals – A collection

March 19, 2025 / chef / 0 Comments

Keeping it up with military manuals, in 2021 some friendly reseacher posted a huge cache of military manuals and publications from the academy of the Russian Airborne Forces, the Воздушно-десантные войска России (ВДВ), or VDV. Again a translation is necessary, which fortunately can be done for free with a range of tools online these days. But the files deserve their mention, especially since the site is virtually invisible on search engines these days, and not everone as the stomach to go Ex to view the sites Twitter account.

URL: http://russianairbornetroops.info

Publications by the Austro-Hungarian Kriegsarchiv

March 1, 2025 / chef / 0 Comments

The Austro-Hungarian Kriegsarchiv in Vienna traces its roots back to the foundation of the “Ständiger Kriegs-Rath” by German Emperor Maximilian II. With the advent of historism and mass printing, the Kriegsarchiv started to produce a remarkable amount of publications about the military history of Austria-Hungary. These volumes, while certainly biased and not up to modern scientific standards, contain a wealth of information dug from the imperial archives, and will continue to searve as valuable sources for German military history.

Das Kriegsjahr 1683

nach Acten und anderen authentischen Quellen dargestellt in der Abteilung für Kriegsgeschichte des K. K. Kriegs-Archivs, 1883

Feldzüge des Prinzen Eugen von Savoyen

Österreichischer Erbfolge-Krieg 1740-1748

Nach Feldakten und anderen authentischen Quellen bearbeitet in der kriegsgeschichtlichen Abteilung des k.u.k Kriegsarchivs von Aurel von le Beau und Rudolf von Hödl

Volume I. Part1, Wien 1896
Volume I, Part 2, Wien 1896
Volume II, Wien 1897
Volume III, Wien 1898
Volume IV, Wien 1914
Volume V, Wien 1904
Volume VI, Wien 1905
Volume VII, Wien 1905
Volume VIII, Wien 1905

Geschichte der Kämpfe Österreichs. Kriege unter der Regierung des Kaisers Franz

Im Auftrag des K. und K. Chefs des Generalstabes herausgegeben von der Direktion des K. und K. Kriegsarchivs ·

Teil 1: Der Krieg gegen die Französische Revolution, 1792-1797
Band 1: Einleitung, Wien 1905
Band 2: Der Feldzug 1792, Wien 1905

Teil 2: Der Krieg 1809
Band I: Regensburg, Wien 1905
Band II: Italien, Wien 1905
Band III:

Kriegs-Chronik Österreich-Ungarns

Militärischer Führer auf den Kriegsschauplätzen der Monarchie (all volumes have been scanned into one file)

I. Theil : Der (nordwestliche) Kriegsschauplatz : Böhmen, Mähren, Schlesien. Wien 1885
II. Theil: Der südwestliche Kriegsschauplatz im Donauthale und in den österreichischen Alpenländern. Wien 1886
III. Theil: Der südöstliche Kriegsschauplatz in den Ländern der ungarischen Krone, in Dalmatien und Bosnien. Wien 1887
IV. Theil: Der nordöstliche Kriegsschauplatz in Galizien und der Bukowina. Wien 1891

Österreichs Kämpfe im Jahre 1866

1. Band. Die Kriegsvorbereitungen, Wien 1869, 352 pages
2. Band. Der Krieg in Italien. Wien 1869,
3. Band, Der Krieg in Böhmen 1: Vom Beginn der Feindseligkeiten bis nach der Schlacht von Königgrätz. Wien 1869,
4. Band. Der Krieg in Böhmen 2: Vom 4. Juli bis zum Friedenschluss im Norden und Süden. Wien 1869, 294 pages
5. Band. Der Krieg auf dem Adriatischen Meere. Wien 1869, 426 pages

Various

Biografien K.K. Heerführer und Generale, Wien 1888

Der Krieg in Italien, Nach den Feld-Acten und anderen authentischen Quellen bearbeitet durch die Abtheilung für Kriegsgeschichte des K.K. Kriegsarchivs
3 Band: 1876, 490 pages

Die Occupation Bosniens und der Hercegovina durch K. K. Truppen im Jahre 1878, Wien 1879
Der Aufstand in der Hercegovina, Süd-Bosnien und SüdDalmatien 1881-1882, Wien 1883

Mitteilungen des K und K. Kriegsarchivs

Mittheilungen des K.K. Kriegs-Archivs 1. (Neue Folge, 1887)
Mittheilungen des K.K. Kriegs-Archivs 2. (Neue Folge, 1888)
Mittheilungen des K.K. Kriegs-Archivs 3. (Neue Folge, 1889)
Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs 4. (Neue Folge, 1889)
Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs 5. (Neue Folge, 1891)
Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs 6. (Neue Folge, 1892)
Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs – Supplement (1892)
Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs 7. (Neue Folge, 1893)
Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs 8. (Neue Folge, 1894)
Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs 9. (Neue Folge, 1895)
Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs 10. (Neue Folge, 1898)

Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs – Supplement. Geschichte K. und K. Wehrmacht 1. (1898)
Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs – Supplement. Geschichte K. und K. Wehrmacht 2. (1898)

Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs 11. (Neue Folge, 1899)
Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs 12. (Neue Folge, 1900)
Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs – Supplement. Geschichte K. und K. Wehrmacht 3/1. (1901)
Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs – Supplement. Geschichte K. und K. Wehrmacht 3/2. (1901)

Catalogues and Bibliographies

Katalog der Bibliothek-Abteilung des K und K. Kriegsarchivs

Band I, Erster Teil, Wien 1896 – Kriegswissenschaften und Heerwesen im Allgemeinen, Truppenkunde, Heeresorganisation ; Heeres-Ergänzung und Verwaltung, Personalvorschriften ; Truppenausbildung, Dienst und Exercieren ; Kriegskunst ; Waffenwesen und Artillerie

Band II, Zweiter Teil, Wien 1896 – Kriegs- und allgemeine Baukunst ; Technologie und Verkehrswesen, Militär-, Train- und Pferdewesen ; Terrainkunde ; Seewesen ; Mathematik ; Naturwissenschaften ; Sanitätswesen ; Geographie, Statistik, Volkswirtschaft, Reisen

Band II, Erster Teil, Wien 1897 – Kriegsgeschichte ; Heeres- und Truppen-Geschichte ; Militär-Schemata

Band II, Zweiter Teil, Wien 1897 – Allgemeine und Staatengeschichte

Band II, Dritter Teil, Wien 1897 – Biographien, Mémoires und Correspondenzen ; Staats- und Rechtswissenschaft, Culturgeschichte und Religionswesen ; Philosophie, Unterrichtswesen ; Sprachwissenschaft, Literatur und Kunst ; Encyklopädie ; Bibliothekswissenschaft, Bücherkunde und Archivwesen

1. Nachtrag, Erster Teil, Wien 1905 – 1, Nachtr. 1 / Von 1897 bis Ende 1904

1. Nachtrag, Zweiter Teil, Wien 1905, 2, Nachtr. 1 / Von 1897 bis Ende 1904

1. Nachtrag, Autorenverzeichnis, Wien 1905, Nachtr. 1 / Von 1897 bis Ende 1904

Screenshot of Ukrainian Field Manuals - https://sprotyvg7.com.ua/vijskovi-publikacii

Ukrainian Field Manuals – A Collection

February 28, 2025 / chef / 0 Comments

The Ukrainian people were forced into a brutal war by Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, and had to adapt quickly and creatively to stand against the numerical superiority of the Russian Army. Support from the West was often lackluster and unreliable, many NATO states themselves torn between rising nationalist sentiments, pacifist traditions, and the desire to help a democratic European nation to defend itself.

The Training Department (G7) of the Headquarters of the Territorial Defense Forces Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine follows the example of the US Army and has made most of its manuals available online to the public. With a bit of automated translations, a lot of knowledge about the Ukrainian Army is available in these documents.

As of this writing, the war is neither decided nor over, and we sincerely hope the West can find its way back and be a staunch defender of democracy and freedom.

URL: https://sprotyvg7.com.ua/vijskovi-publikacii

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.

Das Kriegsjahr 1683

Feldzüge des Prinzen Eugen von Savoyen

Österreichischer Erbfolge-Krieg 1740-1748

Geschichte der Kämpfe Österreichs. Kriege unter der Regierung des Kaisers Franz

Kriegs-Chronik Österreich-Ungarns

Österreichs Kämpfe im Jahre 1866

Various

Mitteilungen des K und K. Kriegsarchivs

Catalogues and Bibliographies

Katalog der Bibliothek-Abteilung des K und K. Kriegsarchivs

The Library

The Europa Magazine

The Grenadier

Executing the Schlieffenplan

The Nisei

Alexander Alexandrovich Novikov

Parachuting the Netherlands

Anglo-Greek Relations and British Strategy in the Aegean

Defending Sicily in Second Front

The Axis Allies in WW2

Notes on the Italian Army

Links

A Winter War – Game Report No 1

Balkan Front – Game Report No 1

Balkan Front – Game Report No 2

Fall of France – Game Report No 1

Fire in the East – Game Report

For Whom The Bell Tolls – Game Report No 1

For Whom The Bell Tolls – Game Report No 2

For Whom the Bell Tolls – Game Report No 4

For Whom the Bell Tolls – Game Report No 5

For Whom the Bell Tolls – Game Report No 6

For Whom the Bell Tolls – Game Report No 7

The Invasion of Spain

March to Victory No. 4

Over There – Game Report No 1

Over There – Game Report No 2

Scorched Earth Game Report

Second Front “Baby Grand”

Second Front from WitD

Second Front – Accountant Style Game Report

Second Front AAR No 5

SF 42 – starting NOV II 42

Storm over Scandinavia: Arctic Thunderbolt

Storm over Scandinavia: Northern Theater of Operations

Northern Theatre of Operations

Storm over Skandinavia: Campaign for Norway

The Damned Die Harder

War in the Desert AAR 1

War in the Desert – Mini Wavell

War in the Desert AAR 3

Wavell`s War – Desert Cauldron Scenario

WitD/GE Test Game #2

Wavell’s War – ME/ER Scenario Game Report

Iraqi Campaign Game Report

Wavell’s War – Game Report No. 3

War of Resistance – Game Report No 1

War of Resistance – Game Report No 2

War of Resistance AAR 3

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