Europe Aflame (1989)

Europe Aflame is a game of the land, sea, and air combat fought in Europe and the Middle East during World War II. Each player commands one of the major alliances of the war... choosing strategies, building forces, and conducting campaigns as supreme commander.

Rules are included for movement, combat, special units, supply, industry, invasion and conquest. It should be noted that the units are all placed in small plastic holders so that they stand up on the map... all markers lie flat.

Three short scenarios and a complete Campaign game are included. Victory conditions depend on the scenario chosen, but in most cases in depends on control of industrial points.

The Europe Aflame campaign game scenario is particularly demanding of the Axis player. The opening turn of the war, if the Axis is tempted to follow the standard opening of most WWII campaign-type games (attacking Poland, Denmark, and the low countries simultaneously), it is easy to get into trouble. The limited panzers available turn one must attack Poland to have any hope of reaching Lodz the first turn to take Poland out, but then are needed immediately on the Western front to attack Belgium and France. Often, it takes two turns to conquer Poland, giving France a chance to build itself up, and if Germany has bypassed Poland temporarily in order to focus on the West, there is danger of early Soviet entry into the war.
In the West, Belgium in particular is vulnerable to counterinvasion by a French army that is unusually strong for a WWII campaign game. Because of the game's combat system, a large counterattacking French force that is lucky enough to roll a "1" can throw entire German army groups back into Germany on a single die roll, with near-fatal loss of momentum for the Axis. France's main vulnerability, the border hex with Essen, can be secured by a large enough army group. The combination of factors makes conquest of France possible only by precise use of Axis forces that may take several games for Axis players to discover, no bad dice rolling on the part of Germany, and no lucky dice rolling by France (e.g., no French "1" rolls except after several rounds of combat have already reduced the size of French forces), which can be a tall order.
The Allies can also put pressure on the Axis by attempting numerous coup rolls on minor countries in the early turns. The Axis must spend its discretionary build points on panzers or it won't be strong enough to take out France, which means it can't afford to counter Allied attempts to activate countries such as Yugoslavia, which can create an early and serious distraction by entering the war and invading Southern Germany. Such strategies, along with quick British aid to France, can make the "given" of knocking France out of the war early surprisingly difficult. And of course, failing to KO France leads to an early two-front war for Germany, a strategically losing position.