Designed by David McElhannon for Decision Games Nuts! (Decision Games) is a big card game covering the Ardennes offensive. However, due to an excess of something or other the game comes in two sections (a north and south pack). Each half of the field can be played independently, and when (as you may) you buy both and play them together they interact hardly at all. Card games are very popular at the moment (see the irresistible rise of Blue vs Gray) but the medium is not, I think enough to save Nuts!. Each pack comes complete with German and American packs. The cards come in a variety of types: terrain, units and event cards. The game is played on an imaginary grid of locations six rows deep and three columns wide. Each of these locations exists even before the terrain cards are drawn and played, but the second row (called row one because the Germans inhabit row 0, yes its that sort of game) has its entire terrain placed at the beginning of the game. The rest of the game does not have terrain until drawn. This leads to an interesting rationalisation matter (and rationalisation is important for many gamers) when you move through the empty grid cell C3 which could (but does not currently) contain Bastogne how did you miss it? Perhaps the placing of the terrain indicates its effective use, so before the river is placed you move freely, no blown bridges. Placing a bridge card implies the Americans have blown all the bridges and their units (if units there be) are deployed to interdict crossing. It would have been interesting after paying all this money to have this issue addressed. Terrain types are effective at giving the feel of the thing. Towns and Cities can shelter units (the smaller locations can usually only shelter "leg" units) and absorb hits. However, by showing the roadnet they can also lead to armoured breakthroughs. Ridges hurt German artillery fire, reduce armour and improve Cohesion; attacking ridges is not a wise procedure. Rivers reduce infantry fire and prevent mechanised units entering the cell without engineers. All terrain must be played when drawn. The feel is simple but it is also good. Unit counters are the strong suit (oops) of the game. Each includes a very good period photo. Apart from General Bayerlin still in Afrika Korps garb these are usually very appropriate. Some great shots of Sdkfz 251s for example [writes our Man with the Resin Kits], and these really do add a lot to the game. The units are regiments with the occasional smaller unit. The German units come with a map column assignment, while Americans units have a range of grid cells for arrival (which are pressed back down the columns by German capture). Each unit card is rated for four matters (Infantry, Armour, Artillery and Cohesion). Cohesion is the measure of training used to determine the effect of losses. Volksgrenadiers will tend to melt before the Panzers do so. In addition some jolly little icons tell you if the unit is mechanised or a nebelwerfer (which may not fire counter-battery). In many cases unit patches are given on the counter. A regiment of Volksgrenadiers may have 2 Infantry Points and a Cohesion of 2 (most useful against ridges), but 3rd Panzer Regiment has 2 Infantry, 4 armour, 1 artillery and a Cohesion of 5. US strength resides in infantry and a few powerful artillery units. Their Cohesion is generally better than most German units with some notable exceptions (they are better on the south flank than the North). Without special cards this is not an army that will break easily, though it may be outnumbered. And if things get rough the Brits may turn up to add tone to the vulgar brawl! And did I mention you got the Von der Heydte para-troop drop? Is this the Bulge or is this the Bulge? Event Cards Event cards all have a very useful summary of when they can be played and they cover an enormous range of topics. Their importance being manifest in ensuring replayability. The whole aspect of the weather is covered here. The game opens in Foul Weather. Cards can cause the weather to improve (and others to revert to Foul Weather). Once the weather has lifted the airforces of both sides can attack. For the Germans the real problem is the Mud card that forces their mechanised units to use only grid cells with towns in them (the roads you see). General Patton can show up with a quick prayer to the Almighty getting the air forces off the ground. Fogs can arrive and rise suddenly with a result on cohesion and the value of defensive terrain. Bridges are blown up, and engineers arrive to build pontoons. Skorzeny's men drop in misdirecting US units, capturing bridges or occupying the defenders time. US engineer groups can build road-blocks to halt advancing Germans. Tank battalions arrive to add to other units as can rearguard forces (to cover ad hoc formations). Reconstitution cards (and Team Cherry for the US) permit units to be withdrawn from the dead pile and reformed on the map. Famous generals appear improving Cohesion and allowing coordinated attacks, though the US may find theirs delayed by suspicious MPs (no-one delays George Patton!), and Peiper can magick POL out of thin air. Traffic jams bung up cells. Supply drops can aid the Cohesion of units that are cut-off. US retreats can become bug-outs, either causing cohesion tests or allowing the Germans to run in on their coat-tails. Mass Surrenders can occur where Blitz attacks are made (see below) and Panzer Scare can cause Cohesion checks in the leg infantry. The Americans can trigger fuel shortages in one division, but the Germans may discover a fuel dump. General McAuliffe pops up to improve Cohesion by saying "Nuts!". Fortified positions, ammo shortages, propaganda leaflets, coordinated attacks, inflitatraion tactics (infantry in woods), SS Fanaticism, SS scares, the Malmedy Massacre, looting, Friendly fire, Boundary Confusion, Bypass routes and Screamin' Meemies all contribute to the fun. All the little events that so often are missing from World War Two games are here. These cards are excellent for atmosphere but, as is usually the case, their application with a few notes can cause interpretation problems. I found them less than helpful here. The Germans select five units from their available forces for each column (usually one whole division – they get combat benefits if together – plus artillery and a heavy tank unit) and the Americans set up the marked units. Both then fill their hands and play these out as stated. One is ready for play. The two hands are constructed differently. The German starts with 13 cards and gets three a turn until his pack depletes (game end unless otherwise ended). The American gets seven and if he has four or less cards he fills his hand to seven, if five or more he gets two. The American should thus aim to use up as many cards as possible to pull through more reinforcements. Each turn opens with the German checking Cohesion on units with hits marked. If the score adjusted for losses exceeds Cohesion (or is a straight 6) then the card is lost. The game can be pretty savage with losses and a German who loses two panzer regiments each with one hit on sixes can be morally shattered. The German then fills his hand and places his reinforcements. The German then moves and fights if he wishes. The American then repeats the process of the four stages. Cohesion is clearly important for it is the route to elimination. Occupying towns with tough units can mean that the scenery absorbs hits leaving the score of six alone able to winkle them. The hits reduce Cohesion (after the first hit) pro rata. Lots of event cards improve or reduce Cohesion, and these can often be clustered on what is a very narrow "board" at choke points like Bastogne. Movement by leg-units is one area. Mechanised units can go two areas but cannot attack. Where Armour attacks score a six then one mechanised unit may move through the target (if in a town or city) to an adjacent location (which must be empty) – a Blitz move. In addition, where defenders are holed up in towns then enemy units may enter the area to encircle them. This can give supply problems (for both sides, the defenders in their town, the attackers pushing on down the road) but also ties up troops. Combat Combat consists of three rounds. Firstly, one can commit artillery (which mostly hits on 5s and 6s but not if German fire into ridges or woods) giving the defender the ability to respond with counter-battery fire (not nebelwerfers). The Armour phase (where Blitz moves can occur) follows the same pattern, once again with 5s and 6s hitting. The Infantry Phase hits only on 6, but can be useful for winkling defenders (except across rivers). Hits are marked with dice, which means there are a lot of dice on the map. You can have fun as you try to move cards covered in dice, especially into areas with encircled enemy units – what a bleedin' mess. Supply is simply handled with Cohesion tests for units unable to trace a supply line. The game is very susceptible to untypical dicing. A few sixes can wreck a panzer division and punch a hole in the Allied line, though there is nothing wrong with that. Drawing a famous general or Mud can shatter one side, but such events did happen. The attacks can also grind to a halt and once breakthroughs start it is a real slalom race and American forces seek to fix the Germans who aim to exit three mechanised units off row five. The ungainly rules (lots of clarification is needed) and the mess on the table will annoy many gamers. My complaint is perhaps different. The card draw can mean that units that were ready to move behind the front line are never seen in combat. Rationalisation comes to the fore once more. Perhaps they are there, perhaps they never get into combat (and perhaps it is a dopey use of the card system). For the Americans it feels even worse with vast holes in the rear areas plugged by a shambolic mixture of units. Disregarding the titles of the units it may not be too bad, but it feels odd. There is also the possibility (for example) of Bastogne vanishing without trace. There is Chaos and there is plastic Geography. I felt we visited the latter. The overall feel of Bizarro-Bulge was quite strong as units never appeared and the invading Germans did not notice entire populations (with their roads). However, if you can overcome this "weird" feeling things can be exciting, most folks will find marking up a big grid helps, but it will always be messy. I cannot quite decide whether it succeeds or fails, but most people will not enjoy its free-wheeling style. Back to Perfidious Albion #100 Table of Contents Back to Perfidious Albion List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by Charles and Teresa Vasey. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com