Strategic level wargaming can be a tricky proposition. In general the rule of thumb is the more historical depth and realism you desire the more complex the rules and sometimes the stiffer the game play. While I think most grognards want as much historical depth as they can get, players will of course differ on how much playability they are willing to sacrifice. Some want a relaxing low complexity game while others love to dive in as deep as it takes to get as much depth and detail as they can get. The truly great games are the ones who give you that great historical depth you desire without rules that make you feel that the game is to slow moving. Europe Engulfed is in my opinion one of the best strategic level games in respect to giving you that depth in a system that is amazingly user friendly.



Components

Europe Engulfed may be the biggest block game currently on the market. It's a big game. To put the game's size into perspective, an average GMT game map is 22x34". This game has two 22x34" cardboard maps. So playing space wise this game is twice the size as your average GMT wargame such as Sword of Rome or The Napoleonic Wars. In terms of blocks it has 283 blocks. Again to put that into perspective there are 75 in GMT's FAB:The Bulge and 56 in Columbia's Hammer of the Scots. Add to all that 244 counters. The result is you've got a big big game.

Block wise the quality of the GMT blocks are excellent. They're smaller than the Columbia blocks but still plenty big enough. Sticker wise the stickers are perfect for the blocks i.e. they aren't to small and they aren't so big as to leave no room on the edges making for much easier stickering which is very important when you'll looking at 283 blocks to sticker. The sticker sheet itself is also very well perforated so you won't have to fight to get the stickers off. So lots of stickers to put on but you won't have to worry about it being to much of a hassle.

The cardboard counters themselves are pretty much your normal GMT counters varying from your standard square counters to larger round ones for things like special actions. Art wise I think they're a touch above you normal wargame counters and are easy to read which is good for us grognards who are over 40.

Map wise the the game has a super map. Big as I said (Make sure you have plenty of table space) but also well designed. The territorial and national borders are well marked as are things like rivers. Very functional and like the counters very easy on the eyes. The map comes in two pieces and is made of thick cardboard ala GMT's deluxe maps. I like to use plexiglass to cover mine but you could do without it if you wish.



Mechanics:

Europe Engulfed for a strategic level wargame with the depth it has has surprisingly user friendly game mechanics both covering tactical combat as well as strategic. I won't go into to much detail here about how block game mechanics normally work as I will assume that you are already familiar with block games to some extent. In short tactical combat takes place in a manner very similar to many other block games. Units roll dice equal to the number of strength points a unit has. The game has unit modifiers as you would expect but not a massive amount which makes most battles go along rather fast and smooth. Most modifiers are things like armor getting a +1 versus infantry, elite units getting a +1 and things of that nature. No looking through a long list of modifiers trying to tally them all up or tables trying to get that 1 more point to get yourself over to the 2-1 column on the combat results table.

There is one very interesting mechanic that helps add a bit to the mechanics and that is the special action. Special actions in the game can be bought by players using their WERPs (Wartime Economic Resource Points). These special action represent special effort on the part of a nation to concentrate resources for certain events. They can be used for a variety of things from amphibious invasions to reinforcing battles to allowing units to launch counter attacks. Players can only purchase a few of these at a time so they have to be careful how they ise them. They add a great deal of flexability to a player's strategy however and it's never a bad idea to have one handy just in case you find yourself in a bad situation and could use some reinforcements in a critical battle.

From a strategic point of view the game has everything one would expect. U-boats, Lend Lease, strategic bombing and even V-1 and V-2 rockets are all here. Yet they are handled in a very user friendly way. U-boats strangling Britain are handled with just 2 die rolls. The British roll for anti-submarine warfare and then the Germans roll to see how many werps the British lose. Strategic bombing is handled in a different mechanic but again it's pretty painless and takes only a few rolls.



Strategic Depth:

Now comes the important question. Does this game scratch that itch you have for historical and strategic depth? The answer is yes and more than you would expect. While the game's mechanics may be more uncomplicated than you would expect for a game of this scope it plays with an extreme amount of depth both strategically and historically. For example the British player has many tough decisions to make with limited resources to do them with. Do you build fighter aircraft or try and strengthen your asw this turn. Do you try and stay on the continent and slow down the German juggernaut with France, risking the loss of valuable units or do you evacuate quickly to Britain and let the German's roll through the French to Paris? The German's meanwhile must decide to either invade Britain and risk not being prepared for a building Soviet Union or to simply put the economic squeeze to the Brits and turn it's attention to the USSR early in an attempt to hit them before they can game to much strength.

This is where the game truly gets me. The game leaves you facing the same hard strategic choices faced by the nations involved during the war. Also like any truly great game there is more than one route to victory.



Summery:

I must admit that I really like games of this type. I have always been a fan of the strategic wargames but never been one for the massive 5,000 counter monster games with chits stacked 5 high using tweezers to see what's where. That's why I truly like this game. It gives me that strategic and historical depth that I so love in a game while at the same time I am not bogged down in 5 pages of charts and tables. A new player with this game can after a good reading of the rules really dive in and enjoy their first game without being completely bogged down by the rules. At the same time players will be able to plan long term strategy and experiment with different ways to victory. If that is the kind of game you are looking for then I think this would be a perfect choice.

I rate this game a 10

you've re-ignited my interest in this game, thanks.

A superb review of a really great game. It couldn't have been worded better! Especially the following quotes are entirely true for my part:

I always wanted to buy this game, but if I look at the game aids provided here on the geek I wonder how fast and easy it can be learned/played with two pages of special rules for areas and events...

Brian, I share your enthusiasm for this game. I might have added that Special Actions are crucial to doing well in this game.

But even if there aren't 5 pages of charts and tables, there are almost as many in notes about restrictions and events (and their triggers). "Jumping in" to a first game of this is likely going to result in some "oh, crap" moments, when the player realizes he was supposed to, for example, do something two turns ago, or stop doing something 3 turns ago, or even has essentially handled something wrong since the beginning of the game. I'm not saying any of such mitigations shouldn't have been handled, but for the life of me there had to have been some better way to deal with it all, than how it was dealt with in the rules and scenario book.

I printed out a bunch of the player aid stuff from BGG for my first game and find it really helpful. The special rules aren't that hard to deal with. Of course on a first game players are going to make mistakes, but I didn't find the number of special rules to be that overwhelming at all.

Thanks for the review Brian. I find myself considering playing this game now, where as I had not previously.

Although the interface isn't the prettiest, Bruce Wigdor's internet Europe Engulfed (iEE) is a fantastic way to learn the game, because it takes care of these restrictions for you (for example, Italian production, Axis-minor free step, etc.)

Excellent review. I'm learning this one right now.

This looks too big for me to FtF. Anyone PBEM it? I wonder how the flow is?

If the game's size is to big for you table wise but you like the mechanics you might try Asia Engulfed or FAB: The Bulge. Both are also by Rick Young and use a lot of similar game mechanic concepts found in Europe Engulfed like the special actions. Bulge is about the same level in terms of rules complexity while Asia Engulfed is a bit more complex.

This is so true. While FAB: The Bulge is an operational level wargame Asia Engulfed has the same scope (strategic wargame) as Europe Engulfed but the maps are half the size of the Europe Engulfed map. The introduction of naval units in Asia Engulfed (and the bygoing rules) makes the learning curve of Asia Engulfed a bit steeper. The FAB: The Bulge rules and game mechanics differ a bit more from Europe Engulfed. All three are excellent games imho!

Well... to be honest... it's not the easiest game to learn. The rules are quite straightforward, but there are a LOT of exeptions that you WILL mis in your first few plays. And forget about playing fast: the Tournament Scenario (which I think is a different game from the two base games anyway) should be playable in about 10-12 hours for your first time (all in). After that it gets easier, but I recon it's still 45 min up to an hour per round: and there are 27 in the 1941 scenario. Despite that... I still love this game. I'm still on the fence if it should take the number 1 spot in my private collection (A&AR holds that spot). But it's getting there.