Last week we did a overview of the evolution of Axis and Allies. This week we start looking in depth at the Battle of the Bulge, player objectives and victory points.
Wacht am Rhein (Watch on the Rhein) was the German code name for this counteroffensive. “Watch on the Rhein”, certainly sounds benign. “Watch on the Rhein - Wow, sounds like the Germans are watching our every move.” That was just one of the many elaborate details that helped make this attack such a surprise.
The Germans were off, next stop: Antwerp! The objective of the German army was the capture of the port city of Antwerp. The German thinking, or should I say Hitler’s thinking at the time, was that the capture of Antwerp would disrupt the Allied flow of supplies into the continent and perhaps even do serious damage to the Anglo-American alliance itself. If Wacht am Rhein was successful, Hitler reasoned, he could buy enough time for his “miracle weapons” to come on line. He was sure this would reverse the fortunes of war. It was a desperate plan from a desperate man.
After some renewed study of several battle maps, and I had become reacquainted with the units that were historically engaged in this huge battle, I suddenly realized that capturing Antwerp was impossible. I must admit, this was the first time it became clear to me that the stated historical German objective could never have been achieved. Until you really look at the situation, you assume that the Germans knew what was within the realm of possibility and what was just wishful thinking.
From a gaming point of view it was clear that if the object of the game for the German player was to capture Antwerp, it would become very difficult to find players willing to play the German side at the next Axis & Allies Battle of the Bulge tournament, hosted by our good friend Greg Smorey. There would be very few if any Axis victories chalked up.
Capturing Antwerp was an impossibility! There were simply too many miles to travel. Too many rivers to cross and too many Allied divisions to confront. Top all this off with the devastation that the overwhelming Allied air forces could bring down on the German army, and there was clearly no hope for this objective to be reached. I of course have the advantage of 20/20 hindsight but still I can’t help but wonder what the heck Hitler was thinking! Perhaps he considered his successes in the Ardennes in 1940 a miracle that could be repeated four years later?
From a game design point of view, how should I address this important issue? What would be the stated game objectives? Any cursory review of any map about this great battle would clearly demonstrate a West to East bulge. A bulge that extends across Luxemburg and gradually tapers away once deep inside Belgium. This bulge clearly outlined the advance of three German armies during the 1944 winter counteroffensive. Thus the name of the battle – Battle of the Bulge.
With further observation, I began to wonder if I could have achieved what the Germans historically achieved. With the German objective being nothing less then the capture of Antwerp their “bulge” appears to be rather modest to put it kindly. Nonetheless, I began to wonder if I could have done as well had I been the commander of this counteroffensive. That’s when it hit me – The objective of the Axis & Allies – Battle of the Bulge game, for the German player, was to slightly exceed what the historic German army had managed to do during the actual battle.
If this was to be the German game objective, the Allied game objective would be academic. The Allied player had to prevent the Germans from reaching their stated objective. Timing had to be a factor as well. I wanted the game to begin on its historical date (16 December, 1944) and end sometime around the 1st of January, 1945. This would represent the two most critical weeks of the battle. It was during this time that the Germans had established their furthest push to the West. With the German player’s objective being to slightly exceed the actual historical advance, the German player would have 8 game turns to reach his objective. Granted, by the end of January the battle was still going on. However, most of that month was spent with the Americans retaking the ground they had lost. There had been no German advances for over a month. On January 28th, Field Marshal Model’s armies had been forced back to their original starting positions prior to the counteroffensive.
Can you exceed what the Germans did? Can you advance further west or capture more towns than they historically did? Can you do it within the 8 turn time limit? If you can exceed the historical accomplishments of the German advance then you will win the game as the German player. You’ve got two weeks to do it or 8 game turns. After that point there will be no hope. Too many allied units would have congregated in front of you and too many allied fighters and bombers would have filled the sky above you.
In time it became clear to me that it was not only how far west the Germans could go that should be measured or compared. Perhaps they might even cross the Meuse. There had to be something more to measure the success of failure of the compared efforts. This something “else” had to be something that could be measured and make sense from a game theme point of view. The game needed to have victory points that could be won and/or lost. Victory points were fine in theory, but for what actions or objectives should they be awarded? What on the game board (map) could be precisely measured and or counted. This measured and or counted element had to have meaning and importance to real-world values. I quickly realized that towns and cities were the answer I was looking for.
So how many victory points should each town be worth? Without getting too deep into the lunatic mental processing maze of yours truly, I will tell you what I came up with as the victory point formula. Each town west of the starting frontline would be worth a certain number of victory points. The amount of these victory points would be loosely based on two things. The number of roads leading into and out of a town would contribute to the number of victory points the town would be worth. History is full of crossroad towns. Gettysburg, Verdun and Bastogne come to mind. With their many intersecting roads they inevitably take on strategic importance in history. Towns would also receive additional points based on how far west they were on the map. Being further west would make them more valuable. This would encourage the German player to always push westward.
When designing I always allow myself some flexibility and room for exceptions. You can’t be too rigid or the game will look and feel too mechanical. This is especially true when dealing with the design of Axis & Allies games. The town of Malmedy and it’s victory point numbers is an example of such an exception. In spite of its 4 intersecting roads and being even further west, Malmedy is only worth 2 victory points while St. Vith is worth 4 victory points. What was I thinking? I had to make St. Vith more valuable because I knew how historically important that particular road junction town was. After all it was at St Vith where my old 82nd Airborne division made it’s stand and held a very narrow escape route open for the almost totally surrounded defenders of St. Vith. The 82nd then went on to hold off a determined German assault that lasted 6 days. The German timetable never recovered from this extraordinary defense. It could be argued that this “other” airborne division should get its just popular acclaim and deserved recognition. What rhymes with St. Vith? The Vattered Vastards of St. Vith - no, I don’t think that works. In any case I had to once again make allowances for that pesky thing called history. The problem was, I certainly did not want two neighboring towns to both be worth 4 victory points. I had to make some adjustments. Even Bastogne, being in the middle of 6 intersecting roads and very much west of the starting front line is only worth 4 victory points. The maximum value I could allow any town was 4 victory points. I didn’t want the game to become “The Battle for Bastogne” because it had an extremely high victory point level.
Being able to conclude what the player’s game objectives were, I could finally begin work on the map layout. With the stated objective being the German player must acquire 24 victory points. This is 1 more point than what the map shows the historical German forces had acquired.
I now knew what the boundaries of the game board were. With this information I even had a handle on the number of turns the game would need. The game was beginning to come together and to make sense. I could now focus on the placement of both the German and Allied units on this map. I could decide which towns and cities I wanted featured. Which of them had enough relevance, strategically and historically, to be included in the game.
In the next article I will talk about the set up of the game. I’ll explain my thinking in regards to the initial unit disposition. The who, how’s and when’s of reinforcements. I’ll even touch on those strange looking things – the Combat Strips. We’ll go over the map in detail and talk about why, for the first time, an Axis & Allies game has hexes.
Until then talk about this article and Axis and Allies Battle of the Bulge on our message boards, or check out Larry's own web site.
