Kris Hall: Michael Tan and Sturm Europa!

Not all of the interesting developments in the gaming world come from professional game designers and publishers.  The gaming hobby is still small enough and open enough for gifted or dedicated amateurs to have an impact.  Recently I saw an entry on Boardgamegeek for a WWII block game called Sturm Europa!  What I saw intrigued me enough to inspire me to contact Michael Tan, the game’s designer.  Mr. Tan agreed to answer some questions about his game.

Kris :When gamers want to play a block game about the European theater of World War II, they can turn to Europe Engulfed from GMT Games, or Columbia Games series of interlocking WWII games.  Why does the gaming world need another European theater block game?  What will Sturm Europa! offer that these other games do not?

Michael: The Front series of games is more of a scenario based system that excels in simulating warfare at the corps operational level.  The inclusion of expanded air, naval, and political rules with the expansions has always felt like a bit of an afterthought to me.  Europe Engulfed feels like a direct progression of the Front series, in which the designers quite successfully modified the scale of the game so that the entire conflict could be played out in one full day session.  They did this by creating a heavily scripted game however which has also lost some of the operational detail that made East Front so great. 

Both those games are very good in their own right, and though Sturm Europa! will have obvious similarities in that it uses a block system, it is going to offer a very fresh take and totally different feel than those other games.  The unit density in SE is much lower than Europe Engulfed because the map is divided into more territories and blocks represent army rather than corps level units.  This not only speeds game play but allows for much more maneuver; thus discouraging clumping or the creation of the infamous “stack of doom” common to games with a less “granular” scale.  Essentially, my goal is to offer the tactical realism that makes East Front so enjoyable but at a scale similar to Europe Engulfed. 

Where SE will really set itself apart from other games in the genre though will be in its treatment of political, historical, and technological developments.  Virtually nothing in the game will be scripted because those nasty aspects of conflict not directly influenced by generals will be handled by event cards.  Players will still have a great deal of influence as to how these external events affect them because cards are drawn randomly but played voluntarily.  The uncertainty from turn to turn will recreate the true “fog of war” that affected virtually every decision that leaders made during the real war.

Kris: How long have you been working on this design?

Michael: It started almost two years ago with an extensive rewrite of Axis & Allies for a group of local gamers in an attempt to turn them on to more “realistic” World War II games.  Ultimately I decided that a block system was far more conducive to what I was trying to do and that resulted in a total rewrite that began about one year ago.  It was off and on since then until the past three months when I’ve definitely made a concerted effort to complete the game.

Kris: The photos of Sturm Europa! on Boardgamegeek show a game board that looks professionally printed rather than a rough prototype.  How far along are you in the development process?

Michael: The map is actually from a different game that I worked on but was never commercially published so it is currently being redesigned specifically for Sturm Europa!  Many hours have already been spent on the aesthetics which we are very happy with so at this time the focus is on functionality such as tweaking map layout or updating game data on the map board.  It gets quite expensive to print high quality maps every time I make rule changes so we’re holding off on reprints until the project is nearing completion.  Incidentally, the map was designed by Anthony Jaffe, who is also a major contributor to the project.

As for a completion date, the core game system is nearing completion and is currently being play tested without the full use of event cards.  There will undoubtedly be slight modifications to the core rule set but I don’t foresee any major rewrites.  The event cards are presently being brought into play in historical sequence and without player influence to ensure that the core game system allows for a fairly balanced and historical result.  Once I am confident that this has been achieved, player control of randomly drawn event cards will be introduced as an “overlay” to the basic wargame.  By their very nature, events cards are a major wild card, so I expect a lot of play testing to be necessary to achieve proper game balance.  No promises, but my best guess is that a downloadable and fully playable version of the rules, map, and play aids should be available by the end of this year.

Kris: Compared with other games, how complex do you expect Sturm Europa! to be?

Michael: I don’t want to draw frequent comparisons to other games in the genre but I suppose it offers a frame of reference for gamers who are interested in learning more about SE.  I would describe the complexity of the rules to be somewhere between Axis and Allies and Europe Engulfed.  I’m trying to keep the rulebook under 20 pages.  My goal is to have a game that offers a depth in strategy and simulation that is greater than anything out there that has that size rulebook.  Much of the complexity in the game will be taken out of the rulebook and integrated directly into the blocks, play aids, and event cards.  There will be no multiplication, division, fractions or other complicated arithmetic.  Experienced players will be able to perform all calculations in their head and need only record net results on paper or with counters.  The game will hopefully be easy to learn but hard to master.

Kris: I was fascinated by the photos of the Sturm Europa! game cards on BGG, particularly the one that dealt with the Venlo Incident and its impact on relations between Britain and the Anti-Hitler German conspirators who ultimately tried to kill him. This card implies that the game has a fairly granular espionage/assassination system.  Can you comment on that?

(Historical note:  In October of 1939, two British intelligent agents working with Dutch intelligence conducted talks in Holland with two men who the British believed were members of a German anti-Hitler conspiracy.  In fact, the two Germans were SS agents who were trying to pump the British for information about real anti-Hitler conspiracies.  When a bomb exploded in Munich and nearly killed Hitler during the Nazi celebration of the anniversary of Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch, the top Nazis immediately assumed that British intelligence was behind the assassination attempt.  In fact, the ingenious bomb was the work of Georg Elser, a German furniture maker who was working alone.  The SS was ordered to kidnap the British agents in Holland.  The British agents were lured to a spot near the German border in the town of Venlo.  A team of SS agents broke through the border, captured the British agents while murdering a Dutch intelligent agent in a shoot-out, and spirited the Brits into Germany.  As a result of the Venlo Incident, all during the war British intelligence remained suspicious of many Germans who claimed to have anti-Nazi sympathies.)

Michael: Many event cards like the Venlo Incident are espionage related.  They may have an immediate effect on the political or strategic situation but some even directly influence victory conditions.  The Axis player can achieve Total Victory through the military conquest of the Soviet Union or United Kingdom, but my personal feeling is that this was an incredibly daunting task, and thus it will be fairly uncommon if players are of approximately equivalent skill levels.  As the game progresses, the Axis player may realize that Total Victory is unattainable and that he should play for a Marginal Victory (which should not be viewed as an empty win).  This is usually achieved by building a “Fortress Europe” that will cost not only the Russians but the Western Allies dearly to conquer Berlin.  In this scenario, there may be an opportunity for the Germans to negotiate a conditional surrender which constitutes a Marginal Victory for the Axis player. 

There are all sorts of event cards that increase or decrease the likelihood of the Allies accepting a conditional surrender.  A successful Hitler coup or assassination, for instance, goes a long way towards improving their chances.  At the same time, many event cards are double edged swords.  The Axis player will often benefit from their short term impact but the long term effect may be to force an all or nothing strategy.  In a sense, the Axis player plays the collective role of Germany’s leaders who positioned Hitler as an instrument to attain their own goals, but with each of his early successes, they increasingly risked losing all control of the situation.  In most games that play late in to the war, the Axis player will actually want a Hitler coup.

Kris: How many cards do you think the game will have when it is complete?

Michael: The exact number is still undecided though I have a pretty good idea of the approximate total.  The full game lasts approximately 18 turns and players will draw about 20 cards per game on average.  Some cards are duplicated to increase the frequency of appearance so I’d estimate about 40 cards per side for a total of 120.  There is a possibility I will alter game mechanics to allow an increase to 45 or 50 cards per side as I don’t seem to have a shortage of source material – play testers have been constantly providing me with great suggestions…

Kris: Some cards affect the stability rating of the nations of the war.  This sounds like something new to this genre of game.  How do stability ratings work in the game?

Michael: A nation’s stability is rated from 1 to 5 and represents national morale, strength of the ruling regime, and its resistance to outside influence.  Stability can affect both player and non-player controlled nations in many ways.  Some examples:

- Iraq and Yugoslavia are both initially neutral, but have a low stability so it doesn’t take much for a successful pro-Axis or pro-Allied coup.
- Italy is very vulnerable to a coup of Mussolini and resulting switch to the Allies if its stability drops too low.
- During the Phony War period, the Allied players are prevented from conducting total warfare because their national stability is too high!  Their governments instead opt for a policy of appeasement because nobody wants total war if they can avoid it.  As Germany is allowed to conquer continental Europe virtually uncontested, the stability of the major Allied powers drops which allows the Allied player to play event cards which remove restrictions on attacks.
- The Axis player is not allowed to play the Totaler Krieg card that calls for total mobilization until its stability drops as the German people realize that they are losing the war.  Near the end of the war, a low stability may be critical to successfully assassinating Hitler and negotiating peace with the Allies.

Kris: Many grand strategic WWII games deal with both the air war and the U-Boat conflict in an abstract manner to avoid complexity.  How does Sturm Europa! handle these aspects of the war?

Michael: The U-boat conflict will abstracted in a fashion similar to other games because I feel the additional detail adds to the complexity and length of game play without really offering a whole lot.  My main concern with the Battle of the Atlantic is to depict the net effect that German U-boats and convoy raiding had on UK production, Lend Lease, and US troop transport.

Air and surface naval combat are not abstracted out but they also aren’t covered in as much detail as the land war.  The primary difference is that air and naval blocks are assigned to operate in regions that encompass much larger areas than the land territories.  Combat is resolved in a very similar manner as with land units, but the aggregate effect of having air or naval superiority is distributed across the entire Mediterranean or entire Eastern Front, not dozens of territories within those regions.  Once again this was a concession made to speed game play but at the same time present players with enough options so that they must make tough and meaningful decisions.

Kris: I tend to like grand strategic WWII games that let players create alternate diplomatic/political events as well as change the military history.  How does Sturm Europa! deal with things like Spanish or Turkish neutrality, the creation of Vichy France, or America’s entry into the war?

Michael: All those sorts of events are controlled by event cards that are drawn at random but played voluntarily.  All three sides have “good”, “bad”, and “mixed” cards.  The downside to holding and not playing “bad” cards is that it prevents you from drawing more cards and getting deeper into the deck.  This is critical later in the war because the cards gradually become more powerful, especially the cards related to technological developments.  As with CDGs, hand management is a combination of luck of the draw, mitigating damage from bad cards, and timely usage of good cards.  The more powerful political cards such as Spain entering the side of the Axis have several pre-requisites that must be fulfilled in order for them to be played.  So the Axis player would probably have to spend several turns “wooing” Franco and that may not even guarantee Spain joining the Axis unless the event card is also drawn.  Please note also that Sturm Europa! is NOT a CDG but rather a traditional wargame that uses cards to enhance the overall game play.  Units are not deployed and battles are not fought by card driven activations.

Kris: Will there be more than one scenario in the game?

Michael: Yes.  The full 8-12 hour game will start in September 1939 and continue until either the Axis achieve total victory, Berlin is conquered, or the Allied players are “forced” to accept a conditional Axis surrender.  A shorter 6-8 hour game that starts in June 1941 allows players to get right into the intense land combat of the Eastern Front without the gradual early war buildup, potential for alternate histories, or quick victory games because either France holds or England doesn’t.  For even shorter sessions or tournament play, an Eastern Front only scenario is playable in 2-4 hours.

Kris: What aspect of the game are you most proud of?

Michael: I believe my event card approach for political, historical, and technological developments is going to create a game dynamic that is totally unprecedented for a game that plays so quickly.  Also I’m quite pleased with my implementation of the ABCD ranking system which I’ve seen in some Columbia Games, but I don’t think has been done in the context of World War II.  If you look at the force pool of armor units in most games, you’d think that Germany had better tanks and in greater numbers than both the Russians and French, but if anything, the opposite was true.  The initiative system allows me to portray that is was Germany’s superior operational doctrine and troop quality that was responsible for all their successes.  The Germans had an elite but undersized fighting force that was really undone by attrition and their opponents adopting improved doctrines, which I’m hoping SE will recreate.

Kris: Are you planning to market Sturm Europa! to professional game companies or will you self publish?  When can gamers expect copies of the game to go on sale?

Michael: I haven’t really looked into what is involved with producing the game through a professional company.  When I set out on this project, my goal was to develop a playable simulation of the Word War II European Theater which was up to my own very high personal standards.  I thought as long as the game developed a regular following amongst my local group of players I’d be content.  In the least the game rules and play aids will be available as a free download and I’ll self-publish some copies of the game - that would likely occur late this year.  If the demand is there and a game company is interested in publishing the product, I will definitely explore that possibility.

Kris: I see from your Boardgamegeek postings that you brought your prototype to Strategicon.  At what other events can gamers expect to find you?

Michael: I expect to be at Gamex and Gateway at LAX over Memorial Day and Labor Day Weekend.  It may be possible that I may attend one of the larger national events but I don’t have any firm plans at this time.

Kris: Thanks for the interview.

© 2008 Kris Hall

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Great article. Added this one to my BGG wishlist [;-) Posted by David Knepper on Feb 29, 2008 at 12:04 PM | #

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