Europa (wargame)

Europa is a series of board wargames planned to cover combat over the entire European Theater of World War II at a scale that represents units as divisions and game turns that represent two weeks of time. The series was launched in 1973, and is still in production as of 2005, with over a dozen titles published and several more still in production or planning. Most of the titles qualify as "monster games", a sub-genre of wargames featuring extensive orders of battle, complex rules, and usually large game maps with detailed representation of the terrain they cover.

Publishers and related publications

Games

The Europa series has been produced by four different publishers, as follows:

• Game Designers Workshop (GDW), 1973–1987
• Game Research/Design (GRD), 1989–2000
• Mill Creek Ventures, 2001–2003
• Historical Military Services (HMS), 2004–present

GRD began publishing play aids for Europa under a license from GDW while GDW was still publishing the games. In 1989 they acquired use of the Europa trademark and began publishing the games, both new titles and "Deluxe Edition" revisions of previously published titles.

When GRD's Winston Hamilton died in March 2001, Mill Creek Ventures (principal owner Carl Kleihege) bought the rights and took over production of Europa. They continued using the terms "Game Research/Design", "GRD", and "GRD Games" alongside "Mill Creek Ventures" in their publications. They never...
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