First to Fight

About this board game

First To Fight is a two-player historical wargame of the 1939 German invasion of Poland, with an advertised playing time of approximately 240 minutes. One player represents the German high command, while the other commands the Polish high command during the opening campaign of World War II.

Germany must use a lightning campaign of combined arms, panzers, and air power to crush Poland. Speed is central to the German objective: after finishing the battle, German forces must shift back to the western front to forestall an Anglo-French offensive. The Polish player faces the challenge of resisting this rapid advance.

As an Europa game, First To Fight presents Poland and its neighbors across two maps, with a scale of 16 miles per hex. The maps feature varied Eastern European terrain, including mountains, marshes, open plains, and dense forest. Turns represent three days, while the counters depict German, Polish, and Soviet forces.

• Unit scale: divisions, brigades, regiments, and battalions, with air units representing groups of 40 to 60 aircraft.
• Core contents: two maps, a rules book, chart set, Boot Camp rules, and more than 1,000 die-cut counters.
• Boot Camp: an eight-page introductory rules set designed to get beginners into the Europa System quickly.
• Grand Europa: additional material featuring the German Army of 1939 for the broader Europa framework.

Designed by John M. Astell and developed by Rick Gayler, First To Fight includes the state-of-the-art rules of its edition for the Europa System. The game was first released in 1991 and later received a second edition and a 1999 refit kit with updated rules, orders of battle, charts, and counters.