Best 3 Games with…Battle of the Bulge!

The Battle of the Bulge was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. The battle lasted for five weeks from December 16, 1944 through January 28, 1945. The offensive was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region located between Belgium and Luxembourg. The primary objectives of this last ditch effort were to deny the Allies further use of the Belgian Port located at Antwerp and to split the Allied lines, which potentially could have allowed the Germans to encircle and destroy the Allied forces.

When I hear the word Bulge game, I immediately think of a huge monstrous wargame with 3+ maps and literally thousands of counters (see A Time for Trumpets from GMT Games). They take days to play, have stacks that are 6″ high and require large tweezers and good lighting. Don’t get me wrong. That is great but not always realistic for gamers like us who have kids and lack the table space to play anything above a 1-2 mapper. A game covering this topic, namely the last ditch effort for the dying Nazi war machine to strike back at the advancing Allies as they approached the Rhine and German territory, has to by its very nature and topic be a monster. Or does it? Not all of the Bulge games I have played are huge monsters. Some are very approachable, good games and tell the story sufficiently for any fan of history. In this post, I want to share my Best 3 Games with…Battle of the Bulge.

3. 1944 Battle of the Bulge from Worthington Publishing

Over the years, we have played our share of Bulge games, but I want to point out that we are not experts nor have we played every game on the subject. But when we played 2021’s 1944 Battle of the Bulge from Worthington Publishing, I initially was unsure about what to expect as the game was marketed as a Bulge game that played in under 2 hours. But, after our initial play, what I would say is that we really enjoyed the overall experience and actually found it was very captivating and engaging, for a game that really only had about 30 counters on the board at any given time.

At the start of the game at setup, the Germans have a total of 18 counters on the board, in addition to 4 off board assets in the form of Artillery units and one Leader (Manteuffel). Among the starting German units there are 3 different Armies, including the 7th Army, 5th Panzer and 6th Panzer. These are made up of 11 Infantry units, 2 Airborne units and 5 Armor units. On the other side of the line, the Allies have just 12 units defending the Bulge at the start with units from the American 1st Army and American 3rd Army/VIII Corps. These are made up of 7 Infantry units, 3 Armor units and 2 Mechanized Cavalry units. Later in the game, the Allies will receive Artillery units and Air units which can be used to increase the number of dice in combats. That is not a lot of counters and frankly it simplifies the decisions from turn to turn. Many of these units are multi-step units and have their breakdown counters stored off board on the OOB Cards and when they are hit and take losses, you simple replace those counters with their breakdown counters until they are eliminated. The great thing about the low counter density is that it allows the players to actually plan their attacks, by being able to see their units quickly and what is arrayed against them and then make decisions about how best to go about doing what they need to do. As opposed to hunching over those large stacks in typical Bulge games desperately looking for a few more Combat Factors to get to the next odds column on the CRT. This keeps the game play moving along and that was palpable as we actually got the feeling of tension as we were trying to break through and push ahead.

One of the most interesting parts of the game is the simple combat system. This game doesn’t use a CRT and the dice you roll are not looking for a specific number but rather a combination of symbols shown on them. First, you need to understand the information found on the counters and how that translates to the combat system. Across the bottom of each counter, appears 3 numbers. Left to right the numbers stand for Dice Rolled in Combat (DRC), Strength Points or unit steps (SP) and Movement Points (MP). For example, an Armor unit will have 2 to 5 dice that are rolled in combat, 1 to 6 steps and 5 or 6 movement. The important number to know for combat through is the DRC.

The next thing you need to understand is about the dice. The dice are 6-side dice but they only have 2 results on each die, a NATO symbol for Infantry and one for Armor. The other 4 sides on the die are blank. Yeah, you read that right, a 6-sided die with only 2 results. There are lots of opportunities for those dice to roll nothing for you and that is both a blessing and curse as you want them to roll well for you but not for your opponent as each combat is simultaneous and both sides get to attack.

The real problem with lots of simulation style wargames is that they always typically play the same. Same set up. Same objectives. Same victory conditions. Anything that can make the game imminently repayable is a good thing and welcomed. In 1944 Battle of the Bulge, there are several different ways to create different variable objectives to effect the scoring and outcome of the game. There are 4 variable German Objective Cards that the German player will draw secretly at the beginning of the game and which they will keep secret from the Allied player. These include Hitler’s Autumn Mist (standard victory conditions), Rundstedt’s Plan Martin (a “small solution” plan) and Spoiling Attack (victory based on attrition—units eliminated). This creates a great deal of realistic uncertainty for the Allied player, and provides great re-playability. We found this to be one of the best parts of the design and reminded us of another Worthington Publishing game in Dunkirk: France 1940 designed by Doug Bryant.

I have played several Bulge games and this one is definitely up there for me, mainly due to its short playtime, interesting modeling of various elements and very different combat system. But don’t think that this will compete with the likes of A Time for Trumpets from GMT Games, Deadly Woods from Revolution Games or Enemy Action: Ardennes from Compass Games. Those games are in a different class and simulate the game in a more traditional style of wargame. But if you are looking for a game that can be played quickly, and even multiple times in a day or evening, and that is variable with changing objectives, then 1944 Battle of the Bulge is for you. The game also takes a step up in the production realm for Worthington as the map is simply gorgeous, and doesn’t just use the earth tone grey, lighter grey and brown for the various hexes but now has well drawn forests, rivers, bridges and roads to adorn the playing surface.

If you are interested, I wrote a full First Impression style post on the blog and you can read that at the following link embedded in the picture below.

2. Winter Thunder: The Battle of the Bulge from Tiny Battle Publishing

Winter Thunder: The Battle of the Bulge is a substantial revision of a previous design from Brian Train called Autumn Mist: The Battle of the Bulge published in 2004 by Fiery Dragon Productions. The new updated version includes many changes to that original game, including a newly researched Order of Battle, with revised counter values and reinforcement schedule; cleaned-up rules including a solitaire play system; and a drastically revised map (the former map was literally contained on a post card) with a different ground scale and treatment of terrain.

This game is a historical simulation of one of the most famous battles of the European Theater of World War II, the Battle of the Bulge. The same as the historic conflict, the Germans catch the Allies off guard in this game and at first have them outclassed and overmatched. The game is intended to play out as a see-saw affair, with the first 3-4 rounds of the game swaying to the German side, as their mighty Panzer divisions simply roll over the weaker American units. Then, as the Allies recover from the initial shock and awe of the campaign, and begin to finally receive their better reinforcements over the course of the game (check out what they get in round 3!), the worm will turn and the Germans will be at a disadvantage and will begin to see their forces weakened through continual attrition after attack after attack. The key to the game is about effectively using the Mission Matrix Table to your benefit to get the results that works best for your situation, whether that is the Germans or the Allies.

For the Americans/Allies, this means strategically falling back to more defensible positions from which to counter attack in future rounds, while at the same time, taking advantage of occasional situational favorable odds to deal decisive blows to the attacking Germans causing unit losses that they cannot afford to replace. In the early rounds, as the Americans, I will gladly trade a step for a step or two. For the Germans, this mostly means attacking consistently with favorable odds and overpowering the Allies. Blitzing through openings using the advantage of Exploitation movement whenever possible to cause havoc and to force the Allies to react. Just understand, as the Americans/Allies, your first few rounds will be a little bit depressing as you are beaten in each attack and can’t seem to muster enough power to do anything. Don’t worry though, this is what the design intended. Just continue to prepare for the inevitable counterattack when the weather clears, slow down the advance of the bulge using Road Blocks and Improved Positions when possible, and you will have more assets such as Air Points at your disposal to turn the battle in your favor.

When a combat is initiated from an adjacent hex, each player will secretly choose a chit from among those aligning with their posture, either from the red colored Attack Mission chits or the blue Defend Mission chits. The Attack Mission chits include actions such as Balanced Attack, Infiltrate, Blitz and Frontal Attack. The Defend Mission chits include actions such as Stand Fast, Balanced Defense, Defend in Depth, Counter Attack, Delay and Withdraw. These drawn chits are revealed and then located on the Mission Matrix Table and DRMs are given for attack and defend actions and whether one side or both will take casualties. Notice that sometimes, neither side will take casualties. This is very strategic as you must choose an action that has a realm of outcomes that you can live with after your attack. The worst thing is to choose an action chit only to find out that you chose poorly and lost a few steps, that you will be unable to recover only to gain one hex. Choose wisely!

This system is really neat and took us a few rounds to really figure out. Each action chosen should be chosen for a specific purpose in mind and can go along with the strategy needed to win the game. During the early rounds as the Americans/Allies, I found myself choosing Delay or Withdraw often as I didn’t have the powerful units to stand up to the mighty German forces. This meant I was able to retreat without taking casualties in order to delay the German advance until my more powerful units, such as the 82nd Airborne and 101st Airborne units, would appear in round 3. Or I could even choose a Balanced Defense if I wanted to force the Germans to take casualties if I only had one step units defending, as their loss didn’t count toward Victory Points in the end but would hurt the Germans if they happened to lose a 2 step unit.

Overall, Winter Thunder is a very unique take on the Battle of the Bulge and is an enjoyable play experience. I really found that the meat of the game, and the element that held my attention the most, was the Mission Matrix. This is a very unique and well designed element to handle the outcome of combat, and frankly, I don’t know that I have ever played a game with such a system. I really liked this part of the design and found that I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what actions made the most sense for the situation while also trying to anticipate what my opponent would do so I could capitalize on his errors. This design is very tight and there isn’t a lot of wasted motion or effort on elements that don’t add to the playability of the system. I really like that the game didn’t seem fiddly at all and all elements worked well together and were very easy to pick up, at least for their utility. 

1. SCS Ardennes II from Multi-Man Publishing

The Standard Combat Series is quickly becoming one of my favorite WWII systems and for good reason as the mechanics make sense but are also very playable. I really love the push your luck nature of playing the Germans in Ardennes II and the many decisions forced upon players about how to best use their limited artillery and where to fall back and defend. I really like the addition of the retreat before combat rule and the ZOC Bonds as they created a very interesting puzzle for both sides.

The change in Zones of Control in this volume was very interesting as the ZOC’s were not sticky and players can simply pay an additional +1 Movement Point to move one hex adjacent to an enemy unit to another such hex. But, this change was dwarfed by the addition of the ZOC Bonds. A ZOC Bond can form between two different 2 step infantry units. The hex between the units will become a ZOC Bond and will add a required additional +4 Movement Points for enemy units wishing to move into that space. These can be used to keep attacking units at bay and will be best used to slow the German overall advance. Another element that is unique here is that retreating units that are required to move through a ZOC Bond because of CRT results will be unable to retreat through and will have to stick and take step losses for each remaining required retreat space.

The ZOC Bonds also will block supply for units caught behind them and this is an important aspect of the game in many regards as being out of supply has significant combat effects. If a friendly unit is in the hex it will negate the blockage of supply and this is another aspect that both sides need to consider.

The addition of these ZOC Bonds was a good one in my opinion as the map is very difficult to get moving on because of the thick forests and terrible terrain and the punitive requirement for +2 or +4 Movement Points to even get into combat with a unit would have made the game that much more difficult for the German player. That is another thing that I really liked about this game was the attention to detail of these type of things in the overall focus of the simulation. Very well done!

Another new addition to the system was the defender option to retreat before odds are calculated for combat. This game enforces a strict no peaking into stacks rule and you are not allowed to necessarily know what the odds coming against you are before you get a choice to retreat or stand and fight. If retreat is chosen, the player must retreat that unit a full 5 hexes worth of Movement Points but this is sometimes better than losing a decent unit just because they was out of position or not protected by other friendly units. Once the retreat before combat option is chosen the attacking unit is to have been considered to win and can then advance after combat into that vacated hex.

There is no choice to retreat before combat however if the unit is located in a city hex or under a Barrage Marker. In this instance, the unit must stand and fight and will most likely pay the price. I really liked this option as not that many games provide it in their mechanics. We all have been told to not start a fight we can’t finish and this is a really good representation of that maxim.

This was a really great look at the Battle of the Bulge. Ardennes II was a fun game with some really interesting and new mechanics for the Standard Combat Series that created a very unique and interesting experience. I really was drawn to this title for several reasons but I am glad that we spent some time with it and highly recommend this game to anyone interested in the subject.

If you are interested, I wrote a full First Impression style post on the blog and you can read that at the following link embedded in the picture below.

So those were my 3 Best Games with…Battle of the Bulge! and I hope that you enjoyed what I shared and also got into the spirit of the post and started thinking about games that do this key historic battle well. What are your favorite Battle of the Bulge wargames?

-Grant