Ardennes is the latest Standard Combat Series opus out of Homer (the town, not the poet). And yes, it is yet another game on the Bulge, that hurdy-gurdy WWII battle that won't go away. The relative simplicity of the SCS series, the near-hopelessness of a real German victory, and the plethora of Bulge games already published -- many of them good -- scarcely recommend the purchase of this game. But wait! Designer Dean Essig actually may have succeeded in reinventing the wheel. Guderian's Blitzkrieg this ain't, but Dean and company still have managed to breathe new life into these old systems and situations. Any wargamers with at least a passing interest in the battle could do far worse than Ardennes.
As usual, the graphic production is top-drawer, readable and visually attractive, up to par with everything else the Boys of Homer have done recently. The scale is daily game-turns (in historical, not real play time), one mile per hex, and units ranging from battalion to brigade. Infantry divisions are broken down into regiments and divisional artillery, with attached tank destroyers and battalions for the Americans. Armored divisions are combat commands plus divarty for the Americans and "demi-kampfgruppen" for the Germans.
Essig portrays the conditions of the Bulge very nicely by adding some small (but vital) changes to the SCS basic rules, the most significant of which is that motorized and mechanized units do not automatically get to move again during the Exploitation Phase. They have to remain in place during the Movement Phase and then be assigned to one of a deliberately limited number of "Reserve" markers. Makes you think twice about what units you move, when, and it also gives the game a little of the flavor of the more-detailed OCS series. Furthermore, overruns have to be performed by individual units rather than stacks.
German ammo shortages and superior American artillery organization are simulated by allowing the American a barrage phase preceding combat both in the American and the German player turns, while the Germans can fire their big guns only once, in their own turn. A lot of German attacks are thus disrupted before combat can be resolved.
To show the miserable communications network of the area, no stacking is allowed on roads, nor can units stack for overruns. A unit moving through another unit on a road pays the full terrain cost of that hex. Then there are the Traffic Jam hexes, marked on the map, and usually comprised of crossroads near the front line at the start of the game. This means that on game-turns 1 and 2, no unit gets the road benefit for that hex. All of the road restrictions give the German player a tremendous headache, as his overwhelming force is frustratingly channeled over a totally insufficient and constricted road net. Americans get a lot of grief in their road movement from the German "Greif"teams, those lovable, gum-chewing, Ami-slang speaking German-speaking infiltration units that are get to misdirect reinforcing American columns. Granted, the American player can see them on the board, but, in avoiding them he creates the same sort of misdirection they would probably accomplish anyway. The only curious design decision I see here is assigning the same movement rate for both primary and secondary roads, which hardly seems realistic. [Ed. Dean informs me, when queried on this subject, that, pragmatically, there was little difference between the two.]
Armor for both sides is penalized by negative column shifts for attacking into forest, town or city hexes. However, as with other SCS games, even apparently futile or overwhelming attacks may succeed (or fail) because dierolls at the extreme ends of the CRT produce "freak" results.
Supply is quite simple for the Americans: three hexes to a road that leads of the north, south, or west mapedge. For the Germans, though, it is, seemingly, harder: they must either be within five hexes of their Start Line or 10 Movement Points -- complete with frustrating traffic jam problems -- of one of their six mobile supply units (or a captured American dump). Unfortunately, and rather peculiarly, Essig has given each German mobile supply unit unlimited capacity. And then he exacerbates that curious choice by eliminating any requirement for the Germans to maintain a Line of Communications with Germany! In theory, the German player could clump his entire army together around one supply unit, like some armored rugby scrim, and waddle west across the Meuse, forsaking forever, the Vaterland for the beer and bordellos of Antwerp! By the same token, the American counterattack that comes later in the game could conceivably cut off every German unit from the eastern mapedge (Stalingrad Redux!) with no ill effects if they have a mobile supply unit! Tangentially, the victory conditions that give the Germans points for exiting the western edge of the map en masse, or for holding certain towns, do not require any LOC's, regardless of the strategic situation. You can trade Berlin for Bastogne and Namur and win the game! This is a play simplification which begs the entire issue of logistics.
Another omission, and again a curious one, is the lack of American "green" units to surrender or any "surprise attack" movement restrictions for the Americans. It's almost as if the instant the Germans cross their start line they trip a buzzer which lights up the "Bulge Indicator" in all US unit HQ's.
These two flaws aside (easily repairable by House rules), Ardennes is still a fine game, maybe the best in the SCS. It has much more personality, sound and fury than either of its two predecessors, especially the somewhat arid Afrika. The Germans enjoy their beloved Panzers at nearly full, roaring strength, somewhat less than ably accompanied by their 98-pound weakling Volksgrenadier units. The Amis, for their part, start the game overwhelmed, battered and as nervous as nuns at a Tailhook convention. But, with two maps to play out all sorts of delaying tactics, and a sure and constant stream of reinforcements, the "Good Guys" will almost certainly prevail. [Ed. Not if you play like I do ….]
One might ask why the world needs another Bulge game. The answer is that "need" is not synonymous with "want", a proposition with which any father of a teenager is familiar. Even after so many incarnations, the battle still has marvelous "gameworthy" aspects and interesting problems. It's Invasion Fun versus the Joy of the Pay-Back, a situation wherein both sides get to chortle and cry. Not many games can say that, and not many games do it as well as Ardennes.
CAPSULE COMMENTS
Graphic Presentation: Sharp, clear and attractive, with good map charts.
Playability: Familiar mechanics make for good accessibility. Size means a long - but definitely not boring - game. Good solitaire.
Replayability: Depends on how interested you are in the situation and its problems. Amis highly favored between even players.
Wristage: Moderate.
Creativity: SCS, standard WWII mechanics, but some nice fringe rules. New wine in old bottles, as it were.
Historicity: Good Bulge feel, but the supply rules and American supply/green unit omissions make this area a mite suspect.
Comparisons: Reminiscent of Danny Parker's old, SPI Battles for the Ardennes, but more fun. Holds its own in a large crowd.
Overall: Even with flaws, best of the SCS so far.
from THE GAMERS
Two 22" x 33" maps, 560 counters, Basic Rules booklet, Game Rules book; boxed.
The Gamers, 500 W. 4th St, Homer IL 61849. $32
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© Copyright 1993 by Richard Berg
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