Scorched Earth (SE)

Truly a monster of a game, and comparable in its complexity only to Second Front, Scorched Earth is the revised edition of Unentschieden and is the companion game to Fire in the East, the revised edition of Drang Nach Osten. The game enables players to continue the war between Germany and the USSR (and their respective Allies) in the East from March 1942 to the End of 1944.

Game Credits

Note: Scorched Earth contains many of the concepts and game mechanics which were presented originally in Unentschieden, which was designed in 1974 by Paul R. Banner and Frank Chadwick.

Design: John M. Astell
Research, Axis Order of Battle: Shelby Stanton, Franklyn G. Prieskop, John Astell
Research, Soviet Order of Battle: Charles S. Sharp, John Astell
Graphics: Barbie Pratt

Publisher: GDW Games, 1987

Printed: 5,000

Game Components

3840 die-cut counters (16 countersheets: Europa 6A to 10A, 46 to 56)
Three maps (Europa #7A, 8A and 9A)
One rules booklet
Two orders of battle booklets (Axis & Soviet)
One set of game charts:
- Combat Result/Terrain Effects Chart (x2)
- Unit Identification Chart/Counter Formats
- Turn Record Chart
- Soviet Game Chart/1942 Scenario Front Line Maps - North
- Axis Game Chart/1942 Scenario Front Line Maps - South
- Europa marker Display
- Master Sequence of Play/Special Dates List
- Europa Map Legend
- Map Guide

Game Reports

Ken Newall played a full game of Scorched Earth in 2018-2022, and was kind enough to let us publish his collected reports in the Archive. A truly massive game report, and an awesome read.

ETO Newsletter

Banko's BullSheet – Scorched Earth: The Debt Comes Due in '42, Rich Mikulich - ETO #21
Battlefield Bulletins: Scorched Earth (ETO #43, ETO #47 and ETO #55
Donner und Blitzkrieg – An Analysis of Weather in Fire in the East and Scorched Earth , Rich Gayler - ETO #36
Postal Scorched Earth, Victor Hauser and Rick Gayler - ETO #37 all the way up to ETO #55
General Stein Visits the Russian Front, Bill Stone with Ben Knight, A. E. Goodwin, Ken Ketterling, Jeff Millefoglie, and John Astell - ETO #30
Scorched Earth: German Surprise and Soviet Unpreparedness, Bill Stone - ETO #29
Scorched Earth: First Impressions, Readers of ETO - ETO #27
Scorched Earth: Opening the Box - ETO #26
Scorched Earth: The Fire Burns Bright, Rich “Banko” Mikulich - ETO #16
Scorched Earth: The Northwest Ohio Playtest, Russ Dumke - ETO #17
Scorched Earth Playtest Notes, John Astell - ETO #17
Scorched Earth: The 1942 Scenario at Origins '87, Victor Hausern and Rob Beyma - ETO #26 and ETO #28
Scorched Earth: The Story of Lieutenant Hans Gruen, Paul Pigulski - ETO #17
Voenno-Vozdushnye Sil: Jun II '41, Jeff Millefoglie (An analysis of the surprise air attack in Fire in the East/Scorched Earth) - ETO #21
Weather Probabilities by Zones in Scorched Earth - ETO #36

Nuts&Bolts

Fire in the East and Scorched Earth: Rules Additions, by John Astell, Nuts&Bolts #17
Panzers East: Adding more Panzers to Scorched Earth, by John M. Astell, Nuts&Bolts #19/20
Scorched Earth Demo at Origins, by Marc Mod, Nuts&Bolts #19/20
Scorched Earth Demo: SE at Milwaukee Wisconsin, Nuts&Bolts #21/22

The Europa Magazine

“A Fix for Arkhangelsk.” By Harold Andrews. TEM 19.
“Adding Soviet Destroyers to FitE/SE.” By Mark Swenholt and Jason Long. TEM 49.
“Battle for the Baltics – 1944.” By Bradley Skeen. TEM 70.
“Der Beverly Hillbillies/Mr Drysdale Forecloses.” (Point/Counterpoint) By Tom Witham and John Astell. TEM 53.
“Clash of Titans - Grand Europa 1943 Linking Scenario.” By Jason Long. TEM 43/44.
“Clipping Ants Wings.” (Point/Counterpoint) By Alan Tibbetts, Sam Dahman, and James Broshot. TEM 46.
“Diary of a Raw Recruit – the Battle for Kiev, 1943.” By Steve Bristow. TEM 70.
“The Dual Standard for Soviet Armor.” By Mark Swenholt. TEM 58.
“East Front at Europafest 1999.” By Dean Moon. TEM 72.
“East Meets West - Retrofitting the Second Front Air System to Scorched Earth.” By Victor Hauser. TEM 47.
“Fire in the East/Scorched Earth Questions and Answers.” By Rich Velay. TEM 51 and TEM 58.
“Far Our Europa: A Greatly Reinforced Barbarossa” (Variant) E. Goodwin and Randy Moffat (Scorched Earth)
“The Golden Fleece – Rommel in the Caucasus.” By Bradley Skeen. TEM 66.
“Lost Victories – the Stalingrad Counteroffensive.” By Bradley Skeen. TEM 58.
“Lunge to Stalingrad.” By Jim Arnold. TEM 34.
“Lunge to Stalingrad Battlefield Report.” By Edward Dickenson. TEM 47.
“The Magnitogorsk Campaign.” By Frank Watson. TEM 53.
“Marcks, Lossberg, Halder, Hitler, and YOU!” By Tom Johnson. TEN 4.
“Moving Towards Grand Europa: A Proposed Victory Point Schedule for Fall Barbarossa.” By Flavio Carrillo. TEM 33.
“My Solitary Pursuit of FITE/SE.” By Jeffery Turner. TEN 2.
“My Solitary War: A Few Ideas for Solitaire FitE/SE.” By Jeffery Turner. TEN 3.
“New Toys for the Winter Wonderland - Adding Revised Finns to Scorched Earth.” By Jason Long. TEM 46.
“Operation Nordlicht: the German Withdrawal from Lapland, 1944-45.” By Lars Wistedt. TEM 61.
“Operation Tanne: Axis conditional reinforcements in Scorched Earth.” By Sven-Ake Bengtsson. TEM 66.
“Rails through the Russias.” By John Astell. TEN 7.
“Rails through the Russias Regauged.” By John Astell. TEM 19.
“Russian Tactical Doctrine.” By Roy Lane. TEN 7.
“Scorched Earth Arizona Style.” By Clifford Douglas and David Tinny. TEM 51.
“Scorched Earth Australian Style.” By Michael Tapner. TEM 58.
“Scorched Earth Battlefield Report.” By Mike Pinkus. TEM 42.
“Scorched Earth Demo: Structure and Rules.” By Tom Johnson and Charlie Meyer. TEN 4.
“Scorched Eart Historical Axis Setup.” By William Russ. TEM 58.
“Scorched Earth 22 June 1941 Free Deployment.” By John Astell. TEN 5.
“Scorched Earth Marathon.” By Joe Wilkerson. TEM 38/39.
“Scorched Earth Naval System.” By Arthur Goodwin. TEM 54.
Scorched Earth Naval Variant. “Axis Order of Battle.” By Arthur Goodwin. TEM 54.
Scorched Earth Naval Variant. “Soviet Order of Battle.” By Arthur Goodwin. TEM 54.
“Scorched Earth Partisan Rule 40 Revisited.” By Victor Hauser and Rick Gayler. TEM 30.
“Scorched Earth Play Balance: the Readership Report.” TEM 13.
“Scorched Earth with Rule Modifications.” By John Madison. TEM 61.
“Scorched Earth Without the North.” By Deen Wood. TEN 3. Updated in TEM 61.
Six Scorched Earth Deployments, Part One. TEM 21.
Six Scorched Earth Deployments, Part Two. TEM 22.
“Some Thoughts About the Eastern Front.” By John Gordon. TEM 51.
“Soviet Defense of the Arctic and Karelia.” By Trey Nelson. TEM 51.
“Soviet Mountain Divisions.” By Rich Velay. TEM 35.
“Soviet Naval Operations.” By Trey Nelson. TEM 49.
“Soviet Tactical Doctrine in 1943.” By Flavio Carrillo. TEM 32.
“Suggestions for the SE Revision.” By David Tinny. TEM 51.
“A Summer War - The Soviet Offensive Against Finland.” By Lars Wistedt. TEM 46.
“Swedish Intervention in Scorched Earth.” By Sven-Äke Bengtsson. TEM 61.
“The Battle for Kiev, 1943.” By Flavio Carrillo. TEM 32.
“The Battle for Kiev, 1943 Contest Results.” By Rick Gayler. TEM 40.
“The Battle for Kiev, 1943 Overrun Contest Results.” By Rick Gayler. TEM 42.
“The Battle for Kiev, 1943 - Second Edition.” By Rick Gayler. TEM 51.
“Turkish Entry into the Russian Campaign.” By Phillip Buhler. TEN 2.
“Twelve Rules that Didn’t Make it into Scorched Earth.” In “Rules Court.” TEM 21.
“Using A Winter War Map 35 in 1941-44: Incorporating Map 35 into Fire in the East/Scorched Earth.” By Arthur Goodwin. TEM 30.
“The VVS’s One and Only: The AR-2.” By Jason Long. TEM 35.
“The War in Finland - 1944.” By Frank Watson. TEM 46.

Required losses during setup

Question:

I’m setting up the Axis for the 1942 scenario in SE and have a question that I can’t find the answer to in the rule book. For the point losses, can the German cadre a division and count the full attack strenght of the division towards the point loss requirement?…(i.e. AGN must take 20 points of losses. Can they cadre (2) 7-6 and (1) 6-6 divisions to meet the 20 point loss, or would the three divisions need to go into the replacement pool?)

Answer:

There literally is nothing in the Scorched Earth rules that say the Rule 9Es wording about losses in combat also applies to losses in setup. Therefor, cadring a 7-6 to a 3-6 only
counts for four points toward the losses the Germans had to apportion.

Source:

Posted by Arthur E. Goodwin on the Yahoo Europa Mailing list on
18.01.2013 01:02.

Air Units and Supply

Question:
In FitE/SE, what happens to air units surrounded in a
pocket, and the pocket is out of supply?
Supply rules just say units, with special supply listing an RE amount
that can be carried by aircraft, but aircraft only have an RE Equivalent
listed in the Section on German’s operating in Finland, where each air
unit counts as one RE.

Answer:
Air units didn’t need supply until an optional rule was introduced in
WW. So if using FitE/SE, just ignore them for supply calculations.
They never run out of supply.

Source:
Posted by Bill Jenman (bill.jenman@gmail.com) on the EuropaAssociation Mailing list at Yahoo, April 21st, 2015

Rule 14H2: Limits to Retreat before Combat

Question:
Is there a limit to the number of times a commando unit can retreat before combat? For example, if an SAS commando is being overrun by a panzer division, it can retreat before combat because overrun is a combat. Theoretically, however, that division could overrun more than once. And if you had multiple divisions, the commando could end up retreating several hexes from its original location.

Answer:
No, there is no limit upon the number of times a capable unit may attempt retreat before combat, or retreat before overrun.

Note also that such units can not retreat before overrun “because overrun is a combat”, an overrun is not combat! They can retreat before overrun, a totally separate concept, because the rules say they can. This is not just nit picky-ness, there is a real difference between overrun and combat and the rules attempt to portray this.

Source:
TEM 53