I am not really a war gamer, however when I served in the military back in 1991, another gamer asked me to try a war board game. I play lots of games, especially board games and was willing to try. It was great an enjoyed it several times! But I can't remember the name. I will try and describe it to the best of my ability. I am fairly certain it was a WW2 game. The board was Europe, and am fairly certain it was only Europe, and 1 player had to play Germany, the other player could play one of the allies. I think I remember playing Russia and enjoying it quite well. I am slightly certain it was 2 player only, but, each country maybe was playable and thus more than 2 players. Sorry I can't remember any thing else. I doubt it was heavy, because heavy war games would turn me off, and am fairly certain it played short (less than 3 hours?).
What size units did the counters represent? Do you remember if the box was about the size of a thick book?
I do not remember. I am an active member of BGG so if you throw some titles at me I can look up the game(s). Just need some titles to try, right now there are 100's of WW2 games.
What were the playing pieces like? Were they counters or small minis? Did the game have chips or did you stack counters? You'll probably have more success finding the game by describing the physicals aspects of the product rather than identifying the game mechanics. Any details even seemingly irrelevant ones might shake some memory loose in someones brain.
I asked the size of box to try to limit it to Avalon Hill games, a well-known and prodigous maker of war games in years past. They made "bookcase games" that fit into a box about the size of a thick book. I have a large number of them, such as Squad Leader, Panzer Blitz, and Fortress Europa. All will fit on a bookshelf, standing up like a book.
I am a member of a board game group on Facebook, I shared this there and am somewhat certain I played Diplomacy. But it was 2 player only, so there was no "diplomacy". Sorry I can't remember any other details with certainty. And I only slightly possibly remember turning in orders. But after seeing a picture of the board and watching a video I am over 50% sure this was the game: Diplomacy. If there are other game boards out there with a similar look, let me know, I will check it out. The time period of my play, helped narrow down many titles. 1991
The board was fairly big, not small, not huge, maybe monopoly sized but I think it was taller than wide. I do not remember pieces.
Diplomacy is/was an Avalon Hill bookcase game. I have it somewhere, although it has been a loooooong time since I played it. It was better suited for several players. Much greater potential for skullduggery and backstabbing. Online versions are available https://www.google.com/search?num=50&q=diplomacy+online&oq=diplomacy+online&gs_l=serp.3..0i67j0l9.2985.4435.0.4667.7.5.0.2.2.1.258.995.0j2j3.5.0.msedr...0...1c.1.60.serp..1.6.751.hY4s8BWY3VM
Maybe it was Rise and Decline of the 3rd Reich. I played that game a lot, much more than the other Avalon Hill games that I had back then.
I'm pretty sure that Diplomacy was one of the games that AH bought and reissued in their name. I'm not sure which company came out with it first but I think it was in the larger thiner format. SPI games are also a possiblity as they probably published more than AH by a significant margin (AH bought a few of their titles as well).
good luck finding it here: https://boardgamegeek.com/wargames/browse/boardgame 100% sure it must be there..if you remember the boxart. (you can limit search on ww2 and europe keywords..) ((diplomacy is WW1..not ww2..but you are right that you can't remember the pawns/chips)
Diplomacy was not Avalon Hill originally my copy had a large flat box that allowed the mounted map to be folded only once and it was pretty popular even amongst non hard core wargamers, But it doesn't fit the description 100% as it's loosely based on WW1 not WW2, Austria Hungary is a different player from Germany and Turkey can be a major player. You can find tons of info n Diplomacy at BGG and probably enough pictures to trigger your memory. I remember very few "whole of Europe" games and even less that would it a "not heavy" description, Third Reich was pretty complex.
