Europa: 1945-2030

[avram]

So I decided to be social and go to Games Club, which this week was held at Gaylord’s apartment. Only six or seven people showed up, which was just as well, since that’s just about the right number of that apartment. We only played one game: Europa: 1945-2030, a nifty political boardgame about building the European Union. (Note: There’s a whole series of “Europa” wargames from Game Research and Design, none of which I’ve ever played. This game, from Eurogames Descartes, doesn’t seem related to those others.) The voting mechanic encourages a kind of coalition-building (with back-stabbing growing more common as the game progresses) that seemed very evocative (to this American) of European parliamentary political maneuvering. I came in second, and would probably have won if I hadn’t made what turned out to be one terribly bad decision late in the game.

Comments

Hooray! Europa

[(Anonymous)]

BSD Here.

Europa's fun, though it can get REALLY irritating if the balkans plunge all of Eastern Europe into war on the last two turns.

Interestingly, from what I was able to figure of Doge (One of GC's pre-exile purchases, now in storage), it's by the same people and a very similar mechanic, though perhaps more refine. I really want to play it, but, unfortunately, GC has that problem.

Re: Hooray! Europa

[avram]

I got really hosed in both wars. First war, I misunderstood that the points we lost were victory points rather than political points, and lost four of them when I only had five. But at least that left me as the 800-pound gorilla of voting rights for the rest of the turn. Second war, I gambled half my voting tokens and got nothing for it.