new version of War in the East with the newly published War in the West, which covered the western front of World War II, to produce War in Europe. All three games featured cartography and graphic design by Redmond A. Simonsen. Although War in the West stayed in SPI's Top Ten list for four months following its publication War in Europe never entered the Top Ten. In 1977, SPI released a game extension called The First World War designed by Frank Davis, that used the War in Europe maps. Hobby Japan published a licensed Japanese version in 1979. Following the demise of SPI, Decision Games acquired the rights to War in Europe, and produced a new version with streamlined rules in 1999. Decision also published a computer version of the game. Reception In the five years following the publication of War in Europe, over two dozen articles containing in-depth analyses, variants and game replays appeared in Battle Plan, Moves, Fire & Movement, JagdPanther, Adventure Gaming, Battleplan, Boardgame Journal, American Wargamer, and Wargame News. In the October 1976 edition of Airfix Magazine, Bruce Quarrie reviewed War in the West, and commented on the game's physical size, saying, "The big problem is the game's sheer unwieldiness. The playing area is composed of no fewer than nine maps [that] occupies practically the whole of any normal room's floor! Similarly, there a no fewer than 2,400 game counters [...] while to replay the entire war in the West requires some 300 game turns. For the average board wargamer, this is far too much to cope with." Quarrie concluded "However, if the basic space and time is available, War in the West could undoubtedly be one of the most absorbing and challenging board games yet produced." In The Guide to Simulations/Games for Education and Training, Martin Campion commented on the difficulties of using this game in a college setting, saying, "The only way to play the game properly in a classroom situation would be to devote almost all the classroom time for a semester to it. It would also require its own room, which could not be used by any other classes." However, he pointed out that "The possibilities for role assignments are almost endless. [...] individual rules could be taught only to those people whose roles require the knowledge. The German production chief, for example, would learn about production but would not have to