Europe in Turmoil II: The Interbellum Years

The Great War is over. The Versailles treaty has been signed and ratified, and life in Europe is slowly normalizing. While some states encounter economic difficulties, overall prosperity is up. The civilized world enters the Roaring Twenties. The League of Nations, although not joined by the United States, ensures collective security and eventually even admits the losers of the War and the Soviet outcasts. Eternal peace seems within reach. Until the pieces start falling down, and tensions that were only overgrown and not buried pop up again.

The Stock Exchange collapse of 1929 sets off a worldwide Depression, and soon nationalism, protectionism, and anti-Semitism are once again the populist recipes for right-wing extremism. On the other side of the political aisle, Communist Russia is divided between Stalinists trying to protect isolated Russia and Internationalists itching to spread the Revolution throughout the Capitalist world.

Europe is, once again, In Turmoil.

Europe in Turmoil II: The Interrbellum Years, 1920-1939 is a two-player card-driven game simulating the political events in Europe between the First and Second World Wars. Players assume the role of respectively the moderate Left Wing and moderate Right Wing politicians in the Nation-states of Europe, striving with their counterparts for political dominance while simultaneously using and ignoring their own extreme wings. Players will alternate playing event cards trying to influence the various nations of Europe. Events refer to the rise of power of Facism in Italy and Germany, political instability in the successor states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Disarmament and Rearmament, the ineffective League of Nations, the influence of Communist Russia on events in Western and Central Europe, the Spanish Civil War and various other historical events.

Will Communism spread into Europe? Will Fascism take hold following the harsh peace treaties ending the Great War? What will cause the inevitable outbreak of the Second World War? You decide!

Product Information:

• Complexity: Medium (5 out of 10)
• Playing time: 3-4 hours
• Solitaire Suitability: Low
• Players: Two
• Time Scale: 2 years per turn
• Game design: Kris Van Beurden
• Graphic Design: Bill Morgal
• Card Design: Kris Van Beurden, Bill Morgal

Game Components:

• 22” x 34” MOUNTED map
• Four counter sheets
• Events Chart
• Rearmament Chart
• Two Player Aids
• 110 Strategy cards
• 15 Blue Cubes
• 15 Red Cubes
• Rules booklet
• Two 6-sided dice
• Box and Lid