From: George Pearson Subject: TSR/SPI WWII/ETO Don't you loooove acronyms? This is a brief play report on the rather obscure WWII game by Doug Niles, European Theatre of Operations. It's a corps level, 50 odd mile per hex, 2 mapper that covers, well, the war in Europe. Similar to World in Flames, but, IMHO, a better product. Anyhow, our group just completed a playthrough, with a rather startling finish. Thought you all might like to hear how the game plays... My Axis partner and I put ourselves in a deep hole, forgetting that we started with 80 Economic Points (EPs) in the bank. We remembered them about 9 months later, but by then, we were in quite a hole. The battle for France was a nightmare, as we barely had air parity, and were actually outnumbered on the ground. This was due in part to the missing 80 EPs, but also the disasterous invasion of Sweden, which became a quagmire that lasted the entire game. France took 6 months to hammer down, leaving us little time to do much else than prepare for Barbarossa. Meanwhile, England had swollen to disproportionate size, as our U-Boat war, due to the bloody 80 EP shortage, never got cranked up (we were too busy trying to buy planes and tanks for France!). Fortunately, the French player bungled when we declared Vichy. After Vichy is declared, each stack of French ships is rolled for. odds are that the ships will be removed, but the Brits have a decent chance to get them (2-5 on 2d6, if I recall). Only on a 10-12 (maybe 11-12; I forget) do the Italians get them. Well, the Allied player was greedy, and he put ALL of the French boats in one hex. We got lucky, and suddenly, italy was dominating the Med. The Brits were cleaning up in Lybia, after a grueling seige at Benghazi, but the Italians had malta, and threatened to land anywhere they wanted in the Med. But all of this seemed a sideshow when April '41 rolled around. The Russians had left Finland alone, freeing up the normal 4-6 corps garrison for use on the main front. The Brits sent a garrison to Murmansk, just in case the Finns rolled a 1 and entered the war. We on the axis side thought this a bit tacky, history wise, but even worse was stationing the Russian fleet in Britain! This sort of historical chicanary usually doesn't arise in our group, but one of the players is a real loophole man, so I guess we will need some house rules next time. Sigh... Anyhow, Barbarossa was a real flop. We were too prolifigate with our armor, and the huge EP reserves of Britain served to keep the Russkies in the pink, so to speak. We had crossed the Dneper by August, but were too exhausted to continue. Looking at the balance sheet, September of '41 presagged a grim winter. Fortunately, my partner Brad is a real bitter ender, and we rejected the offer of a surrender by the gloating allies. In the words of Sylvester the Cat, How Humiliatin'. During the weekly break, we pondered our situation. We did have 2 advantages: air superiority, and central position. Russia was a bust, so we looked around for something else. The Middle East was ours for the taking, but so what? Not enough to stop the Anglo-American-Soviet Juggernaut that would be rolling our way in 43. But Britain was frightfully open, only two corps there, with about 1/3 of the air, and almost 1/2 of the battle fleet in the Med. So, we gambled on good weather, and shifted our air from the east. Also slipped the fleet into French ports; oddly, the Brit did not intercept them. When he realized what was up, every English speaker in Europe hot footed it for the homelands. In an effort to lure out the Home Fleet, we sent out the Kriegsmarine on a decoy death ride. He intercepted it, and sent all but two battleships to the bottom. But he paid, as the Luftwaffe whittled down the RAF, then turned on the Brit Fleet. The Brits had lost heavilly in the Med, and now the last of 9 (!) aircraft carriers went down. On the next turn, we finished off the RAF and invaded, leading with the paratroops, and shipping in armor and infantry. Again, our rolls were good, no, great; luck played a big part. We had about half of England subdued, and the rest was on the menu. The Home Fleet, bereft of air cover, was taking a beating, and hung back. We had stalemate in the Esat (with no more gravey train to russia from England), victory in Britain, and were ready to reduce the Med. The Allies threw in the towel, figuring we could hold on in what was essentially a one front war. The game is quite a bit of fun, and usually follows a more historical course (despite our rather loopy game). WWII/ETO is out of print, but can be had on the auction block for a song (I got a copy for Brad, the mastermind of Seelowe, for $20 mint off the Net). Brad and I are gearing up for a one-on-one game, with me as the Axis. Promise i'll remember the 80 EP's this time! GP