Against the Odds Annual 2014: Set Europe Ablaze

Against the Odds Annual 2014: Set Europe Ablaze is a magazine-annual wargame on the SOE, the Resistance, and the shadow war in occupied Western Europe during the Second World War.

Product Type: Annual magazine issue with included wargame.

Designed by John Prados, Set Europe Ablaze focuses on France, Belgium, and the Netherlands under Axis occupation. Rather than presenting a conventional battlefield game of units moving and fighting across a front line, it explores the political, economic, and intelligence struggle behind the war.

The Axis player attempts to extract resources, mobilize labour, suppress resistance networks, and keep occupied Europe productive for the German war effort. The Allied player uses infiltration, sabotage, interdiction, intelligence gathering, and special units such as SAS, Jedburgh, and OSS teams to disrupt that system.

The game is card-driven, with each turn representing roughly six months. Actions are resolved through contests, uncertainty, and escalating countermeasures rather than traditional combat. The Annual also includes a bonus solitaire game on the H. L. Hunley’s 1864 submarine attack against the Union blockade at Charleston.

Contents include: one full-color 22” x 34” point-to-point map, 176 large 5/8” die-cut counters, 48 cards, 20 pages of rules, 8 pages of charts and tables, the bonus solitaire game, and the 2014 Against the Odds Annual.