Almost fourteen years of design and development have gone into the making of Europe Engulfed (EE), which is GMT Games' first offering to the block-game enthusiast, focusing on the European Theatre of Operations (WW II) and covering the entire war, from September 1939 to the end of 1945.
EE plays fast, with its focus on playability and making the players feel the pressures their historical counterparts were under. Once the systems are mastered, the entire campaign is playable in a single 10-14 hour day.
Europe Engulfed Game System highlights
Wooden Block Units: Wooden blocks for land units provide a realistic fog of war as only the controlling player can see if their units are armor or infantry, weak or strong, until combat is engaged. The inability to know the precise strength of your opponent ensures that even the most experienced player will make their fair share of tactical and strategic errors. A total of 284 wood blocks are used to represent the corps and armies of the major and minor powers.
Map: Two full-size mapsheets are included to make the 34" x 44" Mark Simonitch map, which stretches from Portugal to the Urals, and from Trondheim to North Africa. The map pioneered the GMT cardboard "Deluxemap" type. It may be used with or without plexiglass, and lies perfectly flat with a little backbending.
Production and Strategic Sub-systems: Production and strategic warfare takes place during each of Europe Engulfed's two-month turns. Production levels are easy to calculate and production decisions are varied, with choices including special actions, fleets, u-boats, strategic fighter and bomber assets, ground-support units, flak, V-weapons, and of course, lots and lots of armor and infantry and the odd paratrooper or cavalry unit to choose from. The U-boat and bombing campaigns are also represented.
Special Actions System: Special Action Chits are used to account for the large historical territorial gains that occurred over the course of a two-month game-turn, without bogging the game down with multiple player-turns. Using Special Actions, players can purchase additional movement phases and combat rounds, amphibious and airborne assaults, and even to take actions during the opponent's combat phase (retreat before combat, reinforce the battle, & counterattack).
Victory Conditions: The Axis player achieves decisive victory by conquering France and either Britain or the Soviet Union. Failure to achieve total victory results in lower levels depending on his success at avoiding being conquered. Allied victory hinges on conquering Germany as quickly as possible.
Europe Engulfed plays quickly and with a very historical feel. We know of no other European Theater of Operations game that plays this fast and with this much historical value.
Second edition differences
The second edition is marked 0307-06 on the box side, and has minor updates to the map (all air routes are now explicitly marked), and includes some additional fleet counters & markers, as well as a sturdier box.
The general consensus is that it is not necessary to upgrade to the new edition, other than download the living rules from GMT. Two additional markers used by a new variant for bookkeeping are included in Asia Engulfed.
Additional scenarios
An official one map tournament scenario is available for download from GMT.
The GMT support magazine C3i #16 contains a new 1944 two-map, two player scenario, 'Ruin of the Reich', by game designer Rick Young. In it the Western allied and Soviet players control, in addition to their own forces, the German units facing their opponent on the east and west map, respectively.
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