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• Europa Series Briefing, Issue 1
• News: 12 February 2026
• News: 13 January 2026
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• The Europa Foundation
News Release
Bloomington, IL. January 13, 2026 — To clarify and expand our news release of January 8th, here’s further information about what’s going on.Summary:
Rich Banner, owner of the trademark and copyrights, has authorized Europa Series Wargames (ESW) to handle all aspects of that intellectual property under the day-to-day management of Marc Miller with assistance from John Astell and Bill Stone. ESW and its licensees will produce reprinted, updated, and new games and modules. Rich will be assigning ownership of the IP to a separate Europa Series Wargames Foundation in order to ensure long-term viability and stability for the series under the guidance of directors who are also experienced Europa enthusiasts.
Details:
Europa Series Wargames (ESW) is the name of the business entity in place to handle operations related to the use of Rich Banner’s Europa trademark and copyrights. Rich is the owner of the intellectual property, but he is not currently in a position to run day-to-day operations. That job falls to Marc Miller as interim executive officer of ESW.
Marc is currently supported by John Astell as Chief Designer and Bill Stone as Chief Resources Officer. We anticipate a couple of other long-time Europa enthusiasts coming on board soon. Stay tuned.
ESW has the rights and ability to reprint, update, and produce Europa games, modules, and other products in both print and digital format. ESW also has the ability to license other game companies and hobbyists to do the same. To encourage a wide range of non-commercial products, enthusiasts will find a very liberal Fair Use Policy (to be presented here soon).
As to specific games, John has already mapped out the basic plan — always subject to change — for new and updated games and modules.
Right now, Barbarossa Unleashed (working title) is in the works as the official new edition of Fire in the East, and it currently takes priority over all research, design, development, and production resources.
At this point we should mention that ESW is not involved with Total War, which remains in the hands of HMS, and is subject to the decisions of HMS.
There is no specific timeline for release of Barbarossa Unleashed. ESW absolutely does not and will not have a business department pressuring the creative team to hurry up and release a game before it’s ready in order to meet a deadline or pay bills.
Likewise, although it is possible that at some point ESW might utilize Kickstarter or a similar tool to facilitate production, we don’t intend to take money from players for vaporware. We don’t like being ripped off, and we won’t be ripping off anyone.
We are currently experimenting with a variety of avenues for making products available (especially digital products; see Wargame Vault). For the most part we anticipate ESW will be a direct-to-consumer operation, cutting out middle men such as wholesalers, sales reps, and retailers.
We plan to soon launch the ESW Briefing: a magazine much along the lines of the old TEM, published at irregular intervals as circumstances permit. We don’t expect to take money for subscriptions. Individual PDFs will be available for free or at a very moderate price. Hard copies can be purchased via print-on-demand.
A few words about the trademark and copyrights for Europa and the individual games are also in order. At this moment Rich Banner owns all that intellectual property. He has generously agreed to hand over the IP to a non-profit foundation designed to oversee the future of Europa. The Europa Series Wargames Foundation (separate from the ESW business entity) is being set up even as we write this, and should be in place by the end of February.
The Foundation’s initial directors will be Marc, John, and Bill, with more to come if and when appropriate. They will be tasked with making decisions about Europa to keep it alive and growing via ESW, licensed products, and an expanding ecosystem of Fair Use material.
Marc, John, and Bill are old, mostly retired, and don’t require income based on Europa’s intellectual property. For the time being, all profits generated by that IP will flow to Rich Banner in order to assist him as he faces his medical challenges. Upon Rich’s passing, all proceeds will accrue to the Foundation and be used to further its mission.
We can’t promise miracles, but we strive to ensure this rebirth of the series means more and better Europa games and modules, more Europa players, and a little help for Rich, who was instrumental in bringing the system to life more than 50 years ago. ⬣
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