My Take on the Ardennes ('Bulge') Campaign
Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2011 1:13 am
"Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee of Thy great goodness to restrain this immoderate weather with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee, that armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory and crush the wickedness and oppression of our enemies and establish Thy justice among men and nations. Amen." - Patton's Battle of the Bulge" Weather Prayer 
Anyway, was the 'Bulge' Campaign as tough as I'd been warned? Well, it was and it wasn't. By and large the first five defensive (mostly) missions were not that bad, but things get considerably tougher once Georgie Patton goes over to the offensive in the second half of the campaign. Here's my take on the more memorable missions:
1) Christmas Surprise - I'm assuming this one was in the Snee Eiffel sector where the US suffered its worst defeat since the fall of the Philippines in 1942. Of the defensive battles I found it the toughest, and although I won it on the first try, it was by the skin of my teeth. Of course this fight is a delaying action, and the key to the sector is the group of three houses in the center of the map. It's a wonderful defensive position and the Americans need to hold it as long as possible. Loose it too soon and the battle is probably lost.
2) Buying Time - I suspect this was the battle of St. Vith. I found it fairly easy, if not a push-over, but mention it because it was a lot of fun. The Americans have two great defensive positions, the town and the citadel, and in my experience the citadel needed my reserve forces worse than the town did.
4) Forest Fuel Dump - One of my favorites in the entire game. The player has a meeting engagement at the north central part of the map and a village defense in the south. The terrain is great for delaying actions and ambushes, and it was most satisfying sneaking up on a battered King Tiger from behind and taking it out with a Sherman. Like the 'Buying Time' battle, this one was a lot of fun and although not a 'go ahead score', it was not too stressful either. Also, the scenario harkens back to the 'Battle of the Bulge' film where Robert Shaw meets his end just short of the fuel dump.
5) Battered and Besieged - The 'battling bastards of Bastogne'????
This one was a lot of fun as well. I think the key was to have a good reserve 'fire brigade' and not to get too carried away redeploying troops, because sometimes the German attack waves will come from the same direction more than once. I would also mention you need to take care that German infantry doesn't manage to sneak into the town, as they can cause a major distraction if they do.
6) The Cavalry Arrives - Things start to get harder now that the Allies are going over to the offensive. This one was almost but not quite a ball buster. Although you will have a tough fight with Tigers and Panthers in the center of the map, what saves the day is the timely arrival of reinforcements (Deus Ex Machina sytle close to two of the objective points.
7) Sealing the Bulge and 9) Final Pursuit - These two are IMHO the toughest missions in the game by far. I lump them together because for me the strategy for winning them was exactly the same: by hook or by crook. As the Allied player you have few advantages in these battles. You don't have numerical or qualitative superiority, and what's more you have the 'shot clock' working against you. Therefore what you have to do is take a lot of risks, try to fool the AI, and look for back doors to the objective points. Also, I don't mind admitting that winning these battles occasionally took resorting to the ultimate cheat, that is, loading a previous save. Here are some examples: In 'Sealing the Bulge' I sneaked up on a heavily defended village with a scout then hit it with an artillery barrage. This suppressed the two German units guarding the VP square and I was able to sneak my scout past them and grab the VP on the last turn for the win. In 'Final Pursuit' I had four of five VP squares on the next to last turn in the game, but no troops remaining in the center of the map to delay the Tigers. I had just gotten some reinforcements, but the tanks were too slow to make it to the front in time. I did, however, have two fast moving trucks with infantry. With one of them I moved north and distracted the Tigers from retaking the VP square, and with the other I moved up next to another VP square, and although the truck was destroyed by nearby infantry, my squad got deposited on the VP square. Of course this took several attempts from a save to make it work. The end result in both battles was that I felt I had stolen rather won a victory (like some "thief in the night". Definitely not my favorite way of winning, but hey, whatever works. 
Ardennes Campaign Summary:
Highs - The early defensive battles, especially, are a lot of fun. The winter graphics (resplendent with falling snow) are beautiful, and the King Tigers look cool as hell. Also, I liked the sort of militarized version of Pachelbel's 'Canon' in the soundtrack.
Lows - The later offensive battles are considerably harder than the early defensive ones. Some minor bugs in some of the scenario endings.
Bottom Line - One of the better Battle of the Bulge games I've played, though a couple of the later scenarios take some major thinking outside the box to win.
B+
Up next I think I'm going to try the recently released demo (mini-movie???) before having a go at what I suspect will be my favorite of the five campaigns: Fall Gelb as the Germans. "In der Heimat wohnt ein blondes Mägdelein und das heißt: Erika!"
Anyway, was the 'Bulge' Campaign as tough as I'd been warned? Well, it was and it wasn't. By and large the first five defensive (mostly) missions were not that bad, but things get considerably tougher once Georgie Patton goes over to the offensive in the second half of the campaign. Here's my take on the more memorable missions:
1) Christmas Surprise - I'm assuming this one was in the Snee Eiffel sector where the US suffered its worst defeat since the fall of the Philippines in 1942. Of the defensive battles I found it the toughest, and although I won it on the first try, it was by the skin of my teeth. Of course this fight is a delaying action, and the key to the sector is the group of three houses in the center of the map. It's a wonderful defensive position and the Americans need to hold it as long as possible. Loose it too soon and the battle is probably lost.
2) Buying Time - I suspect this was the battle of St. Vith. I found it fairly easy, if not a push-over, but mention it because it was a lot of fun. The Americans have two great defensive positions, the town and the citadel, and in my experience the citadel needed my reserve forces worse than the town did.
4) Forest Fuel Dump - One of my favorites in the entire game. The player has a meeting engagement at the north central part of the map and a village defense in the south. The terrain is great for delaying actions and ambushes, and it was most satisfying sneaking up on a battered King Tiger from behind and taking it out with a Sherman. Like the 'Buying Time' battle, this one was a lot of fun and although not a 'go ahead score', it was not too stressful either. Also, the scenario harkens back to the 'Battle of the Bulge' film where Robert Shaw meets his end just short of the fuel dump.
5) Battered and Besieged - The 'battling bastards of Bastogne'????
This one was a lot of fun as well. I think the key was to have a good reserve 'fire brigade' and not to get too carried away redeploying troops, because sometimes the German attack waves will come from the same direction more than once. I would also mention you need to take care that German infantry doesn't manage to sneak into the town, as they can cause a major distraction if they do. 6) The Cavalry Arrives - Things start to get harder now that the Allies are going over to the offensive. This one was almost but not quite a ball buster. Although you will have a tough fight with Tigers and Panthers in the center of the map, what saves the day is the timely arrival of reinforcements (Deus Ex Machina sytle
close to two of the objective points. 7) Sealing the Bulge and 9) Final Pursuit - These two are IMHO the toughest missions in the game by far. I lump them together because for me the strategy for winning them was exactly the same: by hook or by crook. As the Allied player you have few advantages in these battles. You don't have numerical or qualitative superiority, and what's more you have the 'shot clock' working against you. Therefore what you have to do is take a lot of risks, try to fool the AI, and look for back doors to the objective points. Also, I don't mind admitting that winning these battles occasionally took resorting to the ultimate cheat, that is, loading a previous save. Here are some examples: In 'Sealing the Bulge' I sneaked up on a heavily defended village with a scout then hit it with an artillery barrage. This suppressed the two German units guarding the VP square and I was able to sneak my scout past them and grab the VP on the last turn for the win. In 'Final Pursuit' I had four of five VP squares on the next to last turn in the game, but no troops remaining in the center of the map to delay the Tigers. I had just gotten some reinforcements, but the tanks were too slow to make it to the front in time. I did, however, have two fast moving trucks with infantry. With one of them I moved north and distracted the Tigers from retaking the VP square, and with the other I moved up next to another VP square, and although the truck was destroyed by nearby infantry, my squad got deposited on the VP square. Of course this took several attempts from a save to make it work. The end result in both battles was that I felt I had stolen rather won a victory (like some "thief in the night".
Definitely not my favorite way of winning, but hey, whatever works. Ardennes Campaign Summary:
Highs - The early defensive battles, especially, are a lot of fun. The winter graphics (resplendent with falling snow) are beautiful, and the King Tigers look cool as hell. Also, I liked the sort of militarized version of Pachelbel's 'Canon' in the soundtrack.
Lows - The later offensive battles are considerably harder than the early defensive ones. Some minor bugs in some of the scenario endings.
Bottom Line - One of the better Battle of the Bulge games I've played, though a couple of the later scenarios take some major thinking outside the box to win.
B+
Up next I think I'm going to try the recently released demo (mini-movie???) before having a go at what I suspect will be my favorite of the five campaigns: Fall Gelb as the Germans. "In der Heimat wohnt ein blondes Mägdelein und das heißt: Erika!"
I hope I didn't lead you in to thinking that I resort to a save all the time. Most of the time if I run in to serious trouble I restart from scratch. The final 'Bulge' mission, however, was one of the exceptions. It was such a long and frustrating fight and I didn't feel like restarting it again. Still though, I felt I was being at least a little clever in 'stealing' a victory, sort of like how Captain Kirk beat the unbeatable 'Kobayashi Maru' scenario.