Sturm Europa is a grand strategic wargame, currently in pre-production, that recreates the entire European conflict during World War II. Wooden blocks are used to depict army sized units that create "fog of war" by not revealing unit type and strength until committed to battle. Sturm Europa will distinguish itself from other games of the genre in these key areas:
Playability: The entire war, September 1939 to May 1945, can truly be played out in 12 hours or less (scenarios can be completed in 2-4 hours). This is achieved by employing 3 month game turns and army instead of corps sized blocks. Detail will not be sacrificed in smaller scale battles such as amphibious/airborne assaults or the Africa campaign through the use of innovative game mechanics.
Scale: The map board will feature over 150 land territories for area movement. This scale combined with lower unit density allows players to realize the full impact of mobile warfare and appreciate the daunting size of Russia without slowing game play unnecessarily. A seperate battle board allows for blitzkriegs, assaults, encirclement, feints, static defense, and defense in depth which are details normally lost in grand-strategic wargames.
Units: Units are not only rated by movement, strength (steps), and firepower but also by cohesion. High cohesion units fire first and are much more effective at breakthrough and exploitation. Cohesion introduces a dimension that makes every unit truly unique as it can be upgraded and downgraded as the war progresses to reflect varying levels of experience, training, leadership, and technology.
Production: Sturm Europa goes beyond the standard model of linking military production to a GDP estimate. Nations must mobilize to achieve full wartime production but it takes much more to wage war than just massive production lines. Scarce resources such as oil, iron ore, and even trained pilots are all represented without excessive bookkeeping that slows game play. Resources are consumed with prolonged offensives so logistics plays just as much a factor as force size.
Event Cards: Sturm Europa is card driven but plays much more like a traditional wargame than most CDGs. Randomly drawn event cards allow political, historical, and technological events to play a major role without scripting or constantly looking up "political rules". Players will be allowed to select which cards they play, but holding "bad" cards for too long may delay drawing cards deeper in the deck which are critical later in the war.
Tech Trees: Players can customize their units to fight the style of war that best suits their strategy. Germany can develop a long range strategic air force instead of a tactical one. The Americans can develop a heavy-medium tank instead of the Sherman. Tough decisions will have to be made to implement new technologies though. New tanks designs don't just start rolling off the assembly lines without causing a shortage of replacements on the front line while the factories retool...
The living rules are available on the BGG Wiki - Sturm Europa Living Rules
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