Kris Hall: The 2nd Michael Tan Interview

Last week I interviewed Dan Holte about his upcoming grand strategic World War II in Europe game.  This week I interview for the second time Michael Tan whose game Sturm Europa! is also an upcoming grand strategic WWII in Europe game.

Kris: Sturm Europa! is now going to be published by Academy Games.  Congratulations! How did that happy event come about? When is SE likely to be published? When is it likely to be available for pre-order? Does Academy Games even do pre-orders?

Michael: I was contacted directly by Uwe Eickert at Academy Games who saw my design on boardgamegeek.com.  A TON of interest was generated by previewing game components such as event cards and block labels.  I was very fortunate to receive offers from three major publishers.  I felt each would have done a fine job publishing my design but the clincher was Academy’s commitment to a large print run with no P500 contingency and the assurance that Sturm would have the same first rate production value as Conflict of Heroes.

SE is likely to be published by the end of this year.  The original target was in time for Essen, but Uwe and I both agree it is better to wait until I am thoroughly satisfied with the design than to rush something off to the printers.

Academy Games does pre-orders but the timetable has not been set.  One thing that has been discussed is a limited edition bonus item to ship with pre-orders like custom dice or optional cards.

Kris: What aspects of the game have evolved since last we talked? From what I read on Comsimworld it seems that maybe the production and tech tree mechanisms of the game have changed or improved.

Michael: I’m excited about both the production and technology rules because I believe they offer a fresh and unique approach for the WWII genre.  The production system is reminiscent of a “euro” as players collect colored cubes representing cadre, capital, manpower, steel, and oil and spend them to produce units.  It’s a distinct departure from the traditional Third Reich / Axis & Allies style system that emphasizes the accumulation of huge production point totals through territorial expansion – to me that’s just not a very realistic model.  It was often the case that vast territorial expansion created more of a strain than a boon for the Nazi war economy.  The real life shortages in manpower for the Brits, oil for the Germans, and cadre for the Soviets, present unique challenges for players to overcome that can’t be simulated with generic production points.

Technology played a very important role in World War II, and it will also in SE.  Tech cards are played face down with development often taking years.  There is a great deal of suspense because opposing players don’t get to see what you are researching and you don’t even know if it will work until it hits the battlefield.  With sufficient investment every new technology will be successful, but the temptation to rush new designs into production may result in delays, teething problems, or even total disaster.  Events cards can also force your opponent to reveal his tech research, allowing you to copy his designs or even strategically bomb his research.  The latter can be critical in games where a two-way race for the a-bomb develops.

Also of particular note is that the Battle of the Atlantic really hinges on the technology race.  The Axis have a decided advantage early on but the convergence of ASW efforts, ULTRA code breaking, RADAR, and the long range B-24 Liberator usually lead to the demise of the U-boat fleets unless Germany offsets Allied technologies with their own developments like Triton Enigma code changes, Schnorkel technology, and the Type XXI u-boat.

Kris:  How has the card play aspect of the game changed? What numbers of cards are you dealing with now? Does each player have his own deck?  Are the decks divided into early war, middle war, and late war sections?

Michael: Players used to draw from 3 separate decks representing military, political, and tech events but that has been eliminated.  Each side now draws from their own dedicated deck of 55 cards but the military, political, and tech cards are all mixed in.  With 3 sides, there are 165 cards in total.  Each deck is divided into 30 early, 15 mid, and 10 late war cards.  After experimenting with many alternative systems, I eventually settled on the CDG ops or event mechanic which is really an excellent system.

Kris: The Sturm Europa! page on the Academy Games site says the game board will likely be made of two mounted 22” x 33” mounted maps. As a fan of large maps I approve. Academy Games was often commended for the physical production of Conflict of Heroes, and I assume that Sturm Europa! will have the same quality physical production. But I also assume the quality comes at a price. Is it too early to know roughly what the game will cost?

Michael: As I mentioned previously, the production quality of CoH was one of the critical factors in my decision to have Academy publish my design.  It will absolutely have that level of physical production if not better.  Price has not been set but it should be right in line with Awakening the Bear or Storms of Steel.

Kris: One of the things that makes the card system of SE sound attractive is the ability of players to change of the course of political, economic, or technological history through the use of cards. Can you list some of the alternative events players can create in the game?

Michael: I’ve made every effort to design SE to be as open ended and unscripted as possible.  It’s conceivable that the Germans and Soviets never go to war.  Given the right circumstances, a successful Sea Lion invasion is possible.  Spain can join the Axis and although unlikely, even Turkey might.  It is feasible for Germany to develop the a-bomb if the Allies ignore Axis research.  The Soviets can build a sizeable navy and develop advanced technologies if they are never invaded.  There are many fringe strategies and outlier results that aren’t possible without the correct combination of cards but one of my design intents is to keep players “honest” by allowing for their possibility.  Just the mere threat discourages players from employing extreme strategies like emptying the West and overloading on the Eastern Front or ignoring tech or politics altogether.  For example, in a recent play test the Allied player redeployed the British forces normally stationed in the Middle East to North Africa to shift the balance against the Afrika Korps in his favor.  When the Axis player played the Muslim Uprising event, there were no British forces to suppress the Golden Square coup in Iraq.  By the subsequent season Axis influence spread to unoccupied Egypt as well and all the British forces in the North Africa were cut out of supply.  One unit left in the Middle East would have prevented all the mayhem.

Many event cards were very specific in nature when I first conceived of them and were inspired by a particular historical event that I wanted to pay homage to.  Over time, most of those cards have become much more generic in nature.  For instance, there used to be a Gran Sasso Raid and Operation Panzerfaust event to allow Germany to retain control of Italy and Hungary after Allied and Soviet coups respectively.  Now those events have been combined into a single replayable Otto Skorzeny card that allows the Axis player to retain control of ANY ally nation if played after a coup.  That way if Turkey or Sweden join the Axis, even those nations can be protected against Allied coups.

Kris: Thanks for the interview.  Sturm Europa! may be available this Fall.

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