One of the largest wargames ever produced, War in Europe features 4000 counters, four rulebooks, and nine maps that when placed together cover an area of 38.5 ft2 (3.6 m2).

Two years later, in 1976, SPI published War in the West, which covered the Allied-German conflict in Western Europe and North Africa.

Players can either play one or the other, or can combine both games into one massive campaign covering the entire European Theater called War in Europe.

German production points are generated from industrial and resource centres (provided the Western Allies have not bombed them), with resource centres in Romania and the USSR – representing oil and other raw materials – needing to be controlled for the German economy to operate at full effectiveness (Germany also has a limited capacity to "loot" production points from conquered countries).

The result was what critic Jon Freeman called "an ungainly beast with two thousand counters and poorly written rules.

[1] Following the demise of SPI, Decision Games acquired the rights to War in Europe, and produced a new version with streamlined rules in 1999.

Quarrie concluded "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.

"[6] British critic Nicky Palmer described the game as huge but not especially complex: a “”Big and Dumb” monster like Invasion America and Objective Moscow and "the king of the playable monsters" which he had actually played through over the course of a year, with the map and counters fixed to a wall with Blu Tack, a sight which had tempted visitors to his home to try a simpler game.

"The beautiful map and varied units ... make one itch to play it" but the basic land combat system is “pretty elementary” and “sometimes monotonous” as the fronts move “ponderously” ... “armoured breakthroughs are a little harder than historically and 1943 in particular seems to have a long hiatus in which neither side has the strength to do anything in particular”.

Germany will win many victories in 1939-42 only to see "a very clear picture " of units disappearing into “fragile lines” while “half the map remains unconquered as Soviet production starts to move into top gear”.

The outcome on the Eastern Front is largely determined by geography with massive battles as the Germans try to take Leningrad and Moscow.

War in the West offers the best choice of scenarios, notably the 1940 and 1944 French campaigns whereas the Eastern Front sees “little alternative from hard grinding on the ground, after the initial shock attack [in 1941] has been absorbed”.

"[8] In Issue 50 of Moves, in a survey of wargames covering the Russian Front, Steve List called this "the biggest game of all [...] which could become a way of life."