Designer David Thompson has been on a heater.
From excellent solo wargaming with the Valiant Defense Series and Resist! to the numerous Undaunted titles and video game-to-tabletop adaptations that are actually good (Sniper Elite), Thompson has been responsible for some of the most notable moments of my gaming life over the last several years. That’s why, when I came across a game from 2020 with his name on it that I had somehow missed and had gotten a lot of comparisons to one of my all-time favorites, Twilight Struggle, I jumped at the opportunity to give it a try.
Many of the blurbs that I read online espousing Europe Divided as a “shorter, simplified” version of Twilight Struggle made sense, given all of their similarities. It’s a 2-player, Cold War-themed game that uses multipurpose cards to take a variety of actions, as well as area control mechanics used to spread influence throughout various countries. It checks all the boxes. It’s Twilight Struggle, just confined to one continent, I figured. Well, not so fast. Despite the striking likenesses, what Thompson and co-designer Chris Marling have created is its own beast altogether.
Eastern Bloc Party
Europe Divided covers the post-Cold War period between 1992 and 2019, with players controlling either the Western Europe or Russia. Most of the continent is in a fragile state and both sides are looking to advance their influence (represented by sets of D6 dice) in the contested countries of Eastern Europe.
True to the period, not everything is equal from the start. Western Europe begins the game with more territory, military, and money. However, they also control the actions of two separate factions, in the forms of the EU (yellow dice) and NATO (blue dice), with each faction contributing to gain influence and create stability, but never combining their numbers for control of each area. As the European player, you may feel comfortable with EU dominance in a specific country, only to have to start from scratch if you need NATO, and their tanks, to protect that area later in the game. That massive advantage in resources erodes quickly as you decide how and when to spend them, and on which faction.
Russia, though strapped for cash, has no need to balance bureaucracy and force and presents a unified vision to spread their influence (red dice) throughout Eastern Europe. Early on, their assets are far more limited—the Russian Action card deck begins with only 7 cards, compared to Europe’s 13—but since they only have a single type of influence to concern themselves with, they can simply focus on breaking down any disorganized nations and consolidating their power. Their armies, which are the only means of both protecting your own influence and decreasing your opponent’s, start closer to the action so they might wreck a stable area in short order. Red scare, indeed.
To bloat or not to bloat?
Gameplay is surprisingly simple. Each side chooses two Action cards from a hand of four, initiative is decided based on the total of each pair, and the first player performs one action per card. Two more cards are pulled from their Action card deck and the next player goes. Turns are short and snappy. Normal Action card actions (yes, this is a thing) are straightforward: Add influence, increase influence, build armies, move armies, or get money. There are also very few restrictions where, on the map, you can do any of these things.
It’s in the deck-building element where Europe Divided separates itself from similar area-majority games. While gaining the highest influence in each contested country is key to final scoring, when you increase one of your dice to a 5 or 6 in a country, it adds another Action card to your deck. Unlike most deck-building games, however, these new cards are all much weaker than anything in your starting deck. I thought this was one of the most ingenious elements of the game. You gain more influence in the region at the expense of bloating your deck, which makes future turns much less effective. It was unquestionably the decision that caused me the most stress throughout the game, in a good way.
Wait, which card is this again?
Outside of controlling each contested country, the other primary way to score points is through Headline cards. These are smaller objectives, each achievable by a specific player. Every other round two are scored, then replaced with a new one from each player, every other round. All Headline cards are shuffled together, so you might be stuck with only Headline cards of your opponent’s color to play from your hand of 3. While this adds a bit of extra strategy, the requirements on each tend to be easy enough to reach on a single turn—for example by having the majority influence in a specific country—and they wound up being far less critical than I anticipated. Since the goals for the next two Headline scoring rounds are visible by both sides, it takes a lot of the suspense out of that aspect of the game. Since they are only worth a few points each, it became simple enough to ignore many of them. Why would I spend two turns changing my entire strategy on the map for a measly 2 points?
Far more consequential are the Advantage cards—that’s 3 different sets of cards so far, if you haven’t been keeping count—which act as a sort of “break glass in case of emergency” free action, and provide a short-term ability or power. For example, forcing an opponent to not spend any money for the upcoming turn or shedding low value cards from your deck. With a map covering such a small area and the objectives for each player being visible, it’s never too difficult to figure out your opponent’s strategy at any point. Advantage cards served up the only real surprises in each game and led to the most memorable moments.
This is the Land of Confusion
Despite each turn being straightforward, the rules (and the wording of those rules) are overly fussy. Actions cards can be used for normal actions or Special actions, which are listed as Actions, Reactions, and Effects. The fairly bland graphic design on the cards and the map don’t do it any favors, especially with colors: Europe is blue, the backs of their cards are all blue and their armies are blue, but sometimes Europe is also yellow, but their victory point marker and face-up card colors are green? You’ll spend a decent amount of time in the rulebook to decipher everything, especially if you are the Europe player.
There are also Sea cards (yes, a 4th set of cards) which let you control up to two sea spaces on the map for some extra powers, with very specific rules on when and how they can be used—if you have a certain combined influence number in specific countries surrounding them. That influence number is 4 for the Black Sea and 5 for the Baltic Sea, for some reason. I swear this is an easy game to pick up, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at its components.
A Different Kind of Struggle
Underneath the layers of garish blue, green, and yellow paint, however, the bare wood is still in good shape. There’s a lot to like in Europe Divided. The brevity is ideal and there are some interesting ideas here, especially in its deck-building mechanics and asymmetry, that you don’t see in similarly short war games. Since you remove many of the Headline and Advantage cards before each game, there is already a decent replayability factor, but I never felt the pull to immediately jump into another battle, despite having many enjoyable moments. This is a game that is begging for an expansion. Something to tighten up weaker elements and lean into the successful ones might help, such as adding higher value Headline cards to make them worth the effort of chasing or having hidden objectives that aren’t so easily spoiled by your opponent. There’s enough potential here to envision an improved experience, but it just needs a little finessing. That exposed oak needs sanding and a coat of finish—sorry, I’ve been watching a lot of “This Old House” reruns lately.
Where you fall on Europe Divided may depend on what your expectations are. If you were looking for “Twilight Struggle in an hour” you’ll probably be disappointed, but with GMT Games having released their own compressed, official version in 2022—by one of the designers of the original—you have other options to scratch that itch. But if you want a light conflict strategy game with some engaging deck-building that plays quickly, I would recommend Europe Divided, as it provides just enough tension to keep you satisfied over its short playtime, if you can overlook some of the confusing choices made with its production. Despite its flaws, it’s an interesting take on the post-Cold War period. It just felt like something got lost between design and development.
Add Comment