TITLE: Battles for the Ardennes (BA)
PRICE: $14.00
DESIGNER: Danny S. Parker
PUBLISHER: Simulations Publications, Inc., 257 Park Avenue South, New York, N.Y. 10010
SUBJECT AND SCALE: BA is an operational level treatment of both the 1940 and 1944 German attacks in the Ardennes Forest. Each turn represents twelve hours of real time, and each hexagon on the map is equal to about two miles (3.2 kilometers) of real terrain. During play units tend to move and attack in divisional aggregates, but the individual counters mostly portray units of battalion and regimental size.
COMPONENTS: BA's packaging is the current standard for SPI's quadrigames series. The box is a two-piece, all-cardboard construction, measuring 9 x l2 x 2", and inside there is a plastic storage tray, a little over 1/2" in depth, with 20 compartments to hold the units. The single tray is not nearly adequate to sort the 800 standard-sized, backprinted counters that come in the game, and experience has shown that only about two out of three of these new trays can be depended on to keep their lids firmly in place without the aid of some tape. (Owners of BA will find that best use is made of the tray when it is utilized to sort and store the game's 200+ informational markers, optional variant combat units and blank counters. The rest of the units store best in zip lock bags; since all the combat formations have their entry hex or turn of arrival printed on their fronts, detailed segregation schemes are not necessary for storage.)

Each of the four game maps measures l7" x 22" and is printed in five colors. One mini-game is playable on each single map (see below), but when the four are placed together for use in either of the campaign-length games the resultant megaboard measures only 38" x 33", since there is considerable overlap between the eastern and western maps.

Two 11" x 8 1/2" rules booklets are included, containing 24 and 27 pages; plus two pages of. game tables are center-stapled into one of them and should be removed before play begins. One booklet contains the game system rules common to all versions of BA, along with the peculiar scenario rules for each of the minigames, while the other holds the rules for playing the '40 and '44 campaign games, along with a module-style historical article on the battles (you've probably already read it in S&T #71).

The units are standard SPI modern-flat coloration (and yes, you guessed it, the Waffen SS is white on black), and display a wealth of information clearly and neatly. All but the weakest are backprinted, showing reduced combat strengths on their flipsides, and since each hexagon measures 3/4 "to the units' 1/2", stacking is easily handled.

MAP AREA: The map, when its four sections are joined, shows the Ardennes Forest area, from roughly around Luxembourg City in the southeast to Sedan in the southwest, and from the headwaters of the Roer River in the northeast to Namur in the northwest, an area that measures about 250 square miles.

GAME VERSIONS/SCENARIOS: Eight distinct games are available in the BA package. The 1940 campaign game ("Blitzkrieg to the Meus") utilizes all four boards and is twelve turns long, while the 1944 campaign game ("The battle of the Bulge") also uses the mega-board and is 36 turns long. "St. Vith," the minigame played on the northeast map quadrant, is twelve turns long and simulates Sixth Panzer Army's attack from the battle's start to 22 December when the last American units were driven from the "fortified goose-egg" area. "Clervaux," played on the southeast quadrant map, gives the same time treatment to Fifth Panzer Army's initial assault in another twelve turn game. "Celles," played on the northwest map, is only seven turns long, and concerns the Germans' last desperate attempts to breakout to the Meuse between 23 and 26 December. "Sedan," played on the remaining map, is ten turns long and covers Guderian's drive to and beyond that fort-city in May, 1940. Rules for two other shorter versions of the '44 campaign game are also provided: "Angriefen!" which is ten turns long and is played on the Clervaux and St. Vith boards, is basically a melding of those two mini-games into one, and "22 December" a thirteen turn mid-game treatment (which has its own historic set-up), covering the battle's secondary 'crisis' phase from the isolation of Piper at Staumont to Christmas Day. And last, if one counts the numerous "what-if" rules modifications presented. total game versions available approaches twenty'

COMPLEXITY: On an ascending scale of 'one to nine, BA, using all optional rules, rates about 6.0. If you can handle and enjoy such titles as Kharkov, and others of the Panzer Gruppe Guderian ilk, this game set will present no difficulties to you.

SET-UP TIME: Each of the mini-games takes no more than about 20 to 25 minutes to set-up, while the campaign versions need about 45 minutes. (The "22 December" game takes somewhat longer since the setup for that game is not printed on the map or the counters and must be read out of the rules folder.)

PLAYING TIME: The mini-games can be played in about one to three hours and the 1940 campaign game takes about four to five hours. The 1944 campaign game takes two people about twenty hours to play to a decision point. That is, in that time you won't reach the 2 January 1945 final termination date, but, then, you won't have to; one side or the other can always "see the handwriting on the wall" by turn twenty (Christmas Day). The two shorter '44 campaign versions are both four to five hour contests.

Another note here - in all of its ad copy for this game, SPI emphasizes a fifteen hour playing time for the '44 campaign game using two commanders per side, and they seem to hint that this is the preferred way to play the game. Perhaps so, but all of my games have so far been one-on-one matches, and the grand total of around 200 combat units used in that version have in no way proved cumbersome for just two opponents to deal with.

RULES COMPREHENSION TIME: If you are already familiar with operational-level, modern-era battle games, it will take you about ninety minutes to read the rules and be ready to begin your first game of BA. The game is not suitable for novices.

RULES CLARITY AND COMPLETENESS: These rules are excellent, not perfect, but excellent. It's obvious that a lot of thought went into their writing and organization, and that effort was well worth it. To be as critical as possible here, I will say that there are one or two slightly hazy areas, but they are minor and won't in any way impede your getting into the game. Hurray!

PLAY BALANCE: BA's play balance, in all games and all versions of those games, is, again, excellent. (However, see further discussion of this in the "EVALUATION" section below.)

DESCRIPTION OF PLAY: As you would expect, the German player takes first move in all versions of BA. Weather, always sunny and mild in the 1940 scenarios, can, in the 1944 games, either be determined using a die roll or by letting it follow its historic flow. Conditions can be clear, foggy or overcast - all of which determines the availability of American airpower. Weather also makes its effects felt in the '44 games, beginning 24 December (turn 17), by causing a ground-freeze which affects terrain entry costs for ground units.

After the weather is determined (when it must be determined at all), both players participate in a "supply determination phase," during which all the units on the board, of both sides, are determined to be either supplied, out-of-supply or isolated. Markers are provided to place atop units falling into these last two categories. Once determined in this phase, a unit's supply state remains unalterable until the next supply determination phase of the next player turn. Thus the system lends itself easily to attack techniques involving the use of deep mechanized penetrations, since units starting their turn fully supplied are assured of remaining in that state throughout their movement and combat phases. (Of course, conversely, the system also lends itself to defensive techniques involving the use of recently by-passed units in flank counter-attacks aimed at pinching off deep mechanized penetrations!)

At this point, if the phasing player has any air power factors available to him he may attempt air interdiction attacks with them. (Air power availability varies between zero and four factors per turn, as dictated by weather or special scenario rules, and usually only one factor may be allocated to any single operation in any single hex on each game turn. Though, again, special rules allow for massive German air attacks in the 1940 games.) Interdiction attacks are rolled against road hexes only, on a special attack table, and can result in nullification of that road hex for a game turn, a step loss to any enemy units there, and their "dispersion," a state similar to being out of supply (see below). Air factors not used in this phase may be used to assist in later defensive or offensive ground battles by shifting the odds one column in favor of the using side. In the '44 campaign game, the American player may also use air factors to improve the supply state of his cut off units.

The movement phase follows, but there are three turn-segments which are worked through before any units actually begin marching. The first of these is the "building segment," in which players initiate construction of bridges and improved positions. Next comes the "battery segment," in which artillery units are positioned either "in" or "out of battery" (units in battery may participate in combat but not movement, units out the opposite). Last is the "mode adjustment segment," during which unstacked units on road hexes may be placed into "march mode," a type of formation allowing for much more rapid road movement, (And I think this new term comes off the tongue a lot better than the old "Road Mode" used to!)

The units which the players start moving at this point consist of armor, armored infantry, armored reconnaissance, artillery, rocket artillery, infantry, armored engineer, glider infantry, parachute infantry, cavalry, fortress infantry, engineer and mountain infantry. Fortunately, only the broad distinction of whether a unit is mechanized or non-mechanized has any bearing on the game system. Stacking is allowed uniformly for both sides to a limit of any three units per hex. Even divisions made up of four units may not exceed this stricture.

The map depicts ten kinds of terrain. There are clear, broken, light woods, heavy woods, town, city, westwall, river, ford and bridge hexes and hex sides. The range of movement factors of units in the game varies from one to eight, and with this allowance they pay terrain costs varying from one movement point per clear hex, to four points per each hex of heavy woods traversed. Mechanized units pay higher costs to move over fords, broken and woods hexes than do non-mechanized outfits. During the 1940 games, and during the latter portions of the 1944 battles, mechanized units have some of their movement point costs reduced. The first instance represents the increased mobility allowed by dry, summer ground and weather, and the second simulates the effect of a total ground freeze.

The road and bridge net that criss-crosses the board is extensive and critical to play of all the games. Road movement provides no intrinsic speed bonus, instead, all terrain costs are absorbed by units traveling along roads at the uniform rate of one movement point per hex. Units earlier placed in "march mode" still pay this same cost, but have their movement allowance multiplied by factors of between two and six, depending on unit type and nationality. Such "march mode" units may only travel on connected road hexes, they may not stack or end their turn next to other units in that game mode, they participate in combat at half strength, they exert their zones of control only into adjacent road hexes, and they have to pay normal terrain costs to bypass non-march-mode units which they may come across along the road.

Rivers run along hexsides in BA, and each place where a road crosses them there is a bridge. Players may attempt to blow these bridges at the end of each turn, and many unit types also have the capacity for bridge repair. (Though in the '44 games, on the German side, only engineer units may construct bridges.)

Supply lines are also dependent on the road/bridge net. Units must trace their lines over no more than four hexes to a road, and from there the road must run unblocked by enemy ZOCS, units and interdiction attacks to a friendly board edge (west for the German, and the remaining three for the Allied player in both the '40 and '44 games). Units which cannot trace such a line are "out of supply," and suffer halved movement and attack factors. (Any fractions resulting in factor halving are always rounded up in BA.) Units which are out of supply, surrounded on all adjacent hexes by enemy units or ZOCS, and are further than three hexes from a supplied friendly unit are "isolated." Such units lose their ZOC and attack and movement factors, and are halved on defense. Units are never removed from play solely due to the effects of being out of supply or isolated. (Though it's in the nature of the situation that isolated units don't tend to stay around very long.)

All non-isolated units, except armored and recon units of battalion size and all German engineer units, exert ZOCS. ZOCS extend through all types of terrain and hexsides, and enemy units must cease moving upon entering enemy controlled hexes. Attacking is voluntary. The presence of friendly units negates enemy ZOCS for purposes of retreats and supply line tracing, but not for movement. Units are guaranteed a minimum movement of one hex per turn, except when that movement would be from one zone of control to another (no infiltration, in other words).

The units which the players take to war in BA vary in size from 1944's behemoth Kampfgruppe Piper Panzer Regiment and Fuhrer Begleit Panzer Brigade, weighing in at 12-8 and 14-5 respectively, down to French 1940 1-1 fortress infantry.

Combat is resolved on the 'integrated' style of combat results table first used in the West Wall Quadrigame. That is, to be able to use what would be the 1-1 column against a defending unit in clear terrain, you would have to obtain 2-1 odds against the same unit in broken terrain, 3-1 in light woods and 4-1 in heavy woods or a city. Battles can end in step losses, retreats or wholesale unit eliminations (a la PGG). Rivers halve attackers, rather than double defenders, and mechanized units, which may not move across an unbridged or unforded river hexside, may participate in attacks made across them. Victorious units may advance after combat, with mechanized units, pure armor in particular, being allowed greater penetration and freedom of movement in such post-combat lunges.

Artillery units "in-battery" may participate in normal adjacent-hex combat or, if no enemy units are in neighboring hexes, they may lend offensive and defensive fire support to friendly units within three hexes. Usually only one artillery unit may be committed to any single clash, but special rules do allow for German artillery concentration throughout the 1940 games and at the beginning of the 1944 versions. Artillery is also allowed to bombard alone, but its effectiveness is greatly reduced in such cases.

During the combat phase, if any of the players possess any air factors that turn they may be applied in a ground support role to a maximum of one factor per battle. The air factor causes a CRT odds column shift of one in favor of the employing side (i.e., if the attacker is using air in a 2-1 battle, it becomes a 3-1). If both sides use air in the same battle, the effects are mutually canceling.

Entering a battle with units having "divisional integrity" also causes the same bonus. For attacking units to have divisional integrity, all units of at least one division must participate in the attack, though not necessarily from the same hex. Defending units receive the shift if all the units of a division are in the same or adjacent hexes when attacked. (The few four-unit divisions in the game receive the bonus if any three of their units meet these criteria, the fourth unit having only to be on the board, anywhere, at the time of the attack.) <

At the end of each player turn, commanders may have their units attempt to blow nearby bridges, and previously begun construction efforts may be completed.

Other special rules provide for: the infiltration capabilities of Otto Skorzeny's 150th Panzer Brigade (a 5-7); the tenacity of both sides' paratroopers and the German SS on the defense even when isolated; French and Belgian fear of panzers; "dismounted" armored infantry movement; forced marching along roads; Belgian refusal to attempt a serious defense of the Ardennes; extra time necessary to muster American infantry truck pools; German paradrops; British and American deployment restrictions; German "strategic initiative" combat bonuses; and replacements.

In all games, it's the German who must actively pursue victory, winning on a point basis by capturing towns and exiting, (and maintaining in supply their exit hexes) various amounts of mechanized units from the mapboard. The Allied player wins by preventing, or holding below a certain level, these German captures and exits.

A review of Battles for the Ardennes, Part 2