Ardennes Defensive – The Missions in Bulge: American

November 12, 2021 | Richard Steer | Flames of War

By Richard Steer

 is the newest Late-War supplement for , covering the US forces in Europe from September 1944 through to the end of the war. While are the main feature, the book also contains three new missions, a linked campaign themed on the Battle of the Bulge, and a set of optional rules for winter weather that, while not recommended for competitive play, are a welcome addition to the game for use in scenarios.

Roadblock

The first new mission is Roadblock. It is a lengthways mission, with the Defender having Deep Immediate Reserves, one Minefield per 50pts, and deploying in a 12″/30cm band behind the centreline. There are two Objectives located in No Mans Land behind the Defender’s deployment area. The Objectives are live immediately, and the Defender wins at the end of their Turn 6 if the Attacker is not within 8″/20cm of either Objective.

This is an incredibly difficult mission for the Attacker, with the defender’s deployment being too dense and the time limit too short for this to be a balanced mission. There is a potential 8″/20cm Spearhead, but with the Defender deploying first it’s likely that they will close this off with their own Spearhead units. The Attacker has to try to bypass the deployed units and travel the length of the board in six turns – requiring an average move of 8″/20cm per turn, so there is no margin for being delayed. By the time they reach the Objectives, they will have been Ambushed from behind, and all of the Defender’s Reserves will be sitting on the objectives.

I feel this could play very well on a double width (8-foot wide) table, creating gaps between the defending platoons for the Attacker to infiltrate through. As it is on a 4-foot wide table, the Defender’s deployment can effectively block the full width of the table even at relatively low point levels, and it should be an easy win for them at the end of Turn 6.

Elastic Defence

Elastic Defence is a similar concept to Roadblock, with a forward screen of units that the Attacker has to punch through to reach the objectives, but there are a number of differences which make it a more balanced mission. The Attacker deploys 4″/10cm further forward, and the Objectives are 8″/20cm closer as well, so there is significantly less ground to cover. The Defender has two deployment areas with up to half of their deployed units in the forward band (note that this is units, not points, with the mission text explicitly saying “remaining Units”, as counted after having set one aside as an Ambush), with Immediate Reserves, no Minefields, and No Spearhead (Defender).

The Attacker is still running up against a six turn time limit for contesting the Objectives, and the mission still favors the defender, but with a shorter distance to cover, and a forward screen that comprises a smaller number of units, the attacker has a much better chance of making a game of it. The key is to find the gaps to push mobile units through as quickly as possible, while other units try to close off potential Ambush locations in the forward screen.

Nuts!

This mission is very similar to the old Surrounded mission from the Flames of War 3rd Edition rulebook. The Attacker splits their force between the two short table edges, with the Defender deploying in a band across the middle of the table.

Unlike the first two missions, this one seems to give both sides a reasonable shot at winning. Any tanks that the Defender deploys will have their Side Armour exposed, and their Immediate Scattered Reserves have a 50/50 chance of arriving in the wrong place. On the other hand, those reserves can arrive anywhere along the long table edge, so the Attacker’s tanks can end up similarly exposed, and the Objectives do not go live until Turn 6.

Linked Campaign

The three new missions are incorporated into a basic linear linked campaign of five missions. Playing through a campaign is a different experience to normal one-off games, as the results of the completed missions modify the starting conditions for the next mission in the sequence, for example changing the number of Minefields used, or modifying the deployment areas.

The progression of missions makes sense in the historical context of the Ardennes Offensive. Elastic Defence and Nuts! hit the right note for the theme of the book, but I am in two minds about Roadblock. On the one hand, it can be argued that the Germans’ intended timetable for the campaign was always going to be impossible to keep, so it should take a special effort by the Attacker to be successful in this opening mission. On the other hand, this book is about the US forces in the Bulge, and as such the focus of the campaign should be on the American player, which isn’t served by the first mission giving them an easy win. With this in mind, having a greater risk of the Defender’s deployed units being overwhelmed or outflanked might have better reflected the early days of the offensive.

Fog and Snow Rules

The book includes a set of optional rules for fighting in fog and winter weather, largely based on the Night rules. The effects of fog, snow, and ice on movement and shooting, crossing frozen waterways, and blizzards are all covered. These are a great addition for scenario play that, in addition to the Ardennes and Alsace, can equally be applied to games set in other theaters.

Closing Thoughts

Scenarios do not need to be balanced to be enjoyable, and both Roadblock and Elastic Defence provide a very different challenge for the Attacker compared to the standard missions in the Flames of War Missions Pack. I would not be surprised to see a variant of them included in the Missions Pack at some point in the future. I do think that Roadblock misses the mark slightly as the first mission in the linked campaign, but on the whole the campaign, and the new missions it contains, provides a good framework for players to put their new American forces through their paces.