Advanced Battle of the Bulge game

Second play of Battle of The Bulge.

Not sure how I feel about this one.  I finally think I understand 98% of the rules but it’s so situational on things that can apply.

Overall the game is fun with some cool mechanics like the order of casualties in battle. And the supply aspect adds a level of interest.  It does appear to be very balanced if you manage recourses properly for the Germans.

But it’s so different with a poorly written manual it took me a few reads of the manual and watching a bunch of YouTube videos and 2 play throughs to get it down.

Overall fun but not worth the effort

5/10 for this game

Well…worry not. I will be buying 'em all  :-P

Try to maintain a continuous line. If you create ‘hardspots’ where the Axis can get ZOC on the hexes your units need for retreating you’ll find your tactical retreat hasn’t preserved anything.

Well, thank you all for the comments and I appreciate the good feedback. I have been looking into it more and will certainly be picking it up. Also, the fact that it is a two person game will be easier to find another available player. I am especially interested in the idea of supply tokens and only a set number of available reinforcements. It appears that Battle of the Bulge will certainly take a different skill set and ingenuity to play through than other A&A expansions. Thanks again.

I’m not advocating reckless use of your forces but this game requires player’s to take more risks than other A&A games. I think that Revised lends itself more to a “What will I lose” thinking while BOTB needs to be “What will I gain” thinking. I’ll admit that is a very subtle difference and perhaps simply one of semantics.

In BOTB things don’t have a cost measured in IPCs so a unit’s value or expendability becomes much more situational. You are buying things (ground and time) with the units and you must know when to pay the price and not be afraid to do so.

Put another way, be more concerened with the sure paths to defeat than the uncertain paths to victory. Playing in ways that only preserve your forces is more a sure path to defeat in BOTB than it is in Revised, Pacific and Europe.

I was indeed mistaken each trunk counts as 1 unit as opposed to trucks working like supplies. You are not allowed an unlimited number of trucks per hex.  :oops:

You can but it has not been playtested with the map. The ideas have been playtested and they work very well in other games. I am working on changes on the air power thing because its not historical. Both sides had limited air power for each day of the campaign and i plan on spreading out the pain of allied 3/9 planes for the last 4 turns of the game , while i feel many games will progress with the statement " if the germans dont get far by turn 4 they should resign" I want to take the same number of air allocations but spread them out over all the turns ( except no allied air allocations on turn one).

So what im saying it go ahead and post but let me email a better version first  to you with these new changes. Ill have it by tomorrow.

No I just think that if they did have Peiper in a game they should also have Meyer or Wunsche or dozens of others. 
It’s not necessary though.  There will be plenty of other ways to rethink the battle.