Axis & Allies: Battle of the Bulge Out Now
The long-awaited Axis & Allies: Battle of the Bulge is released this week just in time for those who fancy spending Christmas hunkering down in their foxholes working out how to repel the German armoured counter-attack in the snow-covered Ardennes with little firepower, dwindling supplies and limited air support.
The Battle of the Bulge was just about the last throw of the dice by the Germans and the thing is – it could have worked. Allied forces were stretched and the Germans had mustered a huge force for the “Wacht am Rhein” counter-attack. It was down to a few poorly supplied Allied units to hold the front line long enough for reinforcements to arrive.
Axis & Allies Battle of the Bulge features detailed game components including a new truck piece, a hex-based game board with new original artwork, and original artwork commissioned exclusively for the Battle of the Bulge game box. Other elements of this new Axis & Allies variant include crucial elements that were key factors in the historical battle, such as supply shortages and late-battle air support, mechanics for overland vs. road movement and randomised casualties of war.
One player controls Germany, whose massive build up of forces have gone undetected by the Allies and are poised to unleash all their fury on the Allies. The other player controls the forces of the United Kingdom and the United States and they must stem the tide of German armour and hold their positions until reinforcements arrive.
Early indications suggest that new game mechanics (some of which actually hark back to the early days of strategy wargames) such as hex-based movement and zones of control work well.
