Battle of the Bulge

The Battle of the Bulge, though a popular theme for WW2 strategy games, isn't one I'm terribly familiar with. First released as a mobile game, Battle of the Bulge has recently had a PC release that finally allowed me to try it out. I'd read about it being a well made and accessible piece of strategy gaming, and I'm always keen on accessible strategy games. The question is whether they can balance ease of play with the necessary level of complexity to keep your attention. Battle of the Bulge has entertained me for four hours so far, but will I be coming back for much more?

A damaged SS panzer division doesn't have enough infantry support to even think about taking on the full strength 10th Armored who have moved into Bastogne, given the bonuses enjoyed by defenders.

It's a very slick game. In contrast to a lot of war games, the fiddliness is kept to a minimum and the limited scope of the battle gives you space to manoeuvre without being overwhelmed with choice. The map in particular portrays the important terrain elements (towns, forests, rivers and roads) in a pleasantly organic yet very readable manner. The unit counters are clear, and there's plenty of variation in units despite only three types (infantry, mechanized and armoured) thanks to the elite unit badges and different strength numbers on units - in combat each unit fires once per point of strength it has left. One armoured unit with only two strength points is clearly different to a six point tank unit with an elite badge. You can only have three units per region, and while this can be awkward due to an inability to swap units (you'd have to move a unit out, then move the new unit in) it makes you think carefully about how you compose your forces. There are also a number of smart, clear rules covering things like Axis commando operations, air cover, and German fuel shortages which gradually come into play over the course of the battle.

A strong German force of tanks and mechanized infantry east of Trois Ponts, but the river means they can't bring their strength to bear in any of the adjacent Allied territories.

I've found the AI to be fairly solid, but not amazing. Certainly while I was learning the rules it was a good opponent, and playing as the Allies against the Axis AI gave me a good indication of where I should be focusing my efforts when I had been uncertain before. Unfortunately, while the Axis AI seems to understand that the north is the quickest route to the Meuse, the Allied AI seemed rather keen to just give up that area in my experience, focusing instead on Bastogne. I've seen it move good troops out of Liege, giving my elite panzer groups free reign to enter and capture the town in my next move. Once over there, you just need to maintain a supply line (generally not hard when they often abandon Verviers as well) and the game is in the bag. Bastogne seems to be a sideshow given the distance from there to the Meuse - I'm perfectly happy for the AI to hold some good units there while I worry about the north of the map.

That elite infantry unit in Ouffet was defending Liege - and they could have stopped an attack from either of my panzer units there - only one could attack at a time due to the river. But instead they just gave up the town...

I've only played a couple of games against the Axis AI, and while they can be aggressive and quite bold, they simultaneously seem to let their troops get cut off too easily, and then suddenly take a more cautious approach instead of attempting to force a breakthrough to relieve their forward elements. While I find their unwillingness to sacrifice troops in what might be suicidal efforts commendable, they don't manage to organize a solid attack force anywhere even across multiple days. It's important to note that I don't think this necessarily reflects badly on the AI - although the game is relatively simple compared to some more in-depth war games, there are plenty of tricky terrain issues that can stymie the Axis advance. 

If the Allies manage to get decent troops organized behind river borders (which mean only one Axis unit can attack into the territory per turn) the fact that you can only activate one section at a time pretty much spells the end of the German attack. To make things worse, if you want to add a unit to a region where your units have already fought, all the enemy units will fight again, but only your new unit will be doing so. If the enemy have more than say 4-5 strength points in a region, that's going to result in unacceptable losses, so you'll have no choice but to wait for a new day so that you can move in reinforcements and have all the units in the region fight together. Without knowing enough about the battle, I'm not sure if this is reflecting some historic truth about how units found it difficult to support each other once in combat, or if it's just a quirk of the design.

This is exactly where you don't want to be as the Axis. I've got my troops cutting off any hope of rescue for the Panzers in Herve and Stoumont, and without supply they can't move themselves at all. At this point, after a turn of not supply, the yellow arrows indicate they can't even fight back anymore.

When I first read about the game, the variable turn lengths (each turn can count as anything from zero minutes to two hours, with each day lasting twelve hours) sounded like a very innovative feature, but my experience in the game hasn't been especially changed by it. It certainly works, and makes you prioritize carefully which units to move first - but often you'd be doing that anyway since after you move the enemy will react, and so for every opportunity you exploit, the enemy will get a chance to close off a different opportunity. This is often when the game is at its best: giving you hard choices about whether you should cut off those enemy tanks before they move to block a vital crossroads, or if you need to move in and attack a town before reinforcements are brought in that could make it impossible to capture without unacceptable losses. The variable turn lengths add to this, but generally I've found that you often get enough time to move everything anyway. There was a point where I had a suspicion that when playing against the Axis AI they would get a disproportionate amount of short turns to give them a better chance, but after a few more games I'm starting to think that you just tend to get a lot of time. This seems reasonable, since too many long turns early on can cripple the Axis attack before it even gets going.

You can see here a slow day, with a lot of turns. I've been passing for the last few, while the Axis shuffle their units around. It won't help them break through now that my defences are prepared, though.

It's definitely the kind of game you can play in (relatively) short sessions and complete a battle, and the simplicity makes it easy to dive into the meat of the game without having to remind yourself how everything works each time. But I'm not sure if the AI can provide me a solid enough challenge in the face of my preferred strategy. Random elements like time and unexpectedly good/bad combat results make each game involving, but they aren't enough on their own to really force me to change tactics. I do want to try some unorthodox plans - like a big push through Bastogne and going for a long route to the Meuse - but without solid AI there isn't enough space on the map to try too many different approaches. Again, I don't think this reflects badly on the game's design - it's intended to be a tight experience, and against a human opponent that limited space should serve to make for an  intense fight where every piece of ground matters. 


There are a few different scenarios, with my favourite so far being the shuffled standard game - no special rules, but the starting units of each side are swapped out in random configurations. Maybe you get a perfect concentration of elite armour in the north, or perhaps it ends up awkwardly spread out in all the wrong places. It gives the game a bit of a puzzle feel as you try to make the best out of whatever hand you've been dealt - which of course doesn't rely on perfect AI play, since basic positioning and organization of your troops is the first order of business. I'll certainly be playing more Battle of the Bulge, but maybe not that much more. It does seem the kind of thing I'll notice in my Steam library from time to time and load up for a few games, though. Given the low price, certainly a good purchase in my opinion, if you're in the market for a simple but compelling strategy game.