This article discusses German strategy in the forthcoming design, Battle Command: The Bulge. For an overview of the game, and the battle it represents, see the first article in the series: An Introduction to Battle Command: The Bulge. We also have an article on Allied strategy.

Balance

German strategy in Battle Command: The Bulge is a question of balance.

In the opening turns of the game, you will need to balance offensive manoeuvres against the need to consolidate positions, particularly securing the flanks of areas you want to exploit, and ensuring you will be able to maintain your lines of supply in the future. Remember – each Allied Division you remove from the game counts for a Victory Point, so you should be aiming to try and destroy the enemy’s fighting strength. Success in this area will also help you hold the line against the Allied counterattacks that come later in the game.

As part of this, the German player has a question at game start of how to manage their initial starting hand of assets. They begin the game with a fistful of artillery support, combat engineers, and other useful things they will need to assign to defensive battles, building bridges, and so on.

A second sense in which German strategy is about balance becomes more important as the game wears on. This is the need to balance striking for objective spaces – and/or possibly shooting for the Meuse river victory condition – with securing the victory spaces you already have.

Breaking through

At the start of the campaign, it is relatively easy for the Germans to pick appropriate spaces to apply their “schwerpunkt” tactics and blow a hole in enemy lines. The real strategic question for the Germans is how best to exploit these openings. Once the first couple of “mud” turns are over and the ground freezes sufficiently for your panzers to become more mobile, it is tempting to push through the inevitable gaps in the American lines and create large pockets of Americans who are out of supply.

Beware. Unless you can really secure a line of supply to your lead elements, it will be a fool’s errand to push too far ahead. Given the road network in the area and the numerous mechanised forces the US 1st Army fields, it can be very easy for them to cut your spearheads off from their lines of supply. And in this game, you incur a step loss on each out of supply unit immediately at the end of the turn.

This means if you get cut off, you will lose combat effectiveness before you can resupply.

However, the US player will always get a chance to reconnect their units, as they go second every turn –  representing the logistical advantages the Allies had during the campaign. Remember: unlike you, the Allies have supplies in abundance, and, if cut off, only really need to worry about being unable to reestablish a connection. That said, if you do spot an opportunity to really cut off American units – particularly if you can take advantage of free roadways to enhance your mobility – you should not hesitate to do so.

Fuel

Another area the Allies are unconcerned about is something that is vitally important to you as the German player: fuel.

The Allies don’t track fuel use –  their mechanized forces can simply move at full capacity, and the gas will keep flowing to them. The Germans don’t have this luxury. Each time you want to move a mechanized formation further than an infantry-class unit could move, you will need to spend a fuel card to do so. Each time you want your panzers to move in the breakthrough phase, you will need to spend a fuel card. Spent fuel cards are shuffled back into your available deck each turn, so the flow of gas is uncertain.

There are some event cards (Fuel Reserves) which will help, and you have reasonable odds of capturing fuel from victory spaces (rolling 7 or higher on 2d6), but you can never be certain of just how much mobility you will be able to squeeze out of your forces. This dovetails with the need for caution noted above. Don’t push so far ahead that you can’t catch yourself up, or you’ll be in real trouble!

Consolidating

This last consideration is especially important, since in this game you can trace supply through contested zones you control, but not through contested zones the enemy controls. Who controls spaces is therefore incredibly important. This means that unless a particular space behind your lead elements is too far from the enemy to be recaptured, in most circumstances you will want to maintain an unbroken line of units to them, to make sure you can keep the supplies flowing.

This is the first and most important aspect of consolidation. The second becomes more important as the campaign wears on, which is that you will need to transition from an offensive to defensive mode, and there is one key choice here.

Either: you can push for a space beyond Meuse river on the western edge of the map, to win the game immediately if you can maintain a line of supply there at the end of the turn. Or: you will need to push the Americans out of as many victory spaces as you can and make sure you can hold them to the end of the game, whilst destroying as many of their Division-sized units as possible and keeping your own in the fight. Both are a tall order, especially since the Allies have a number of ways to disrupt your plans – which will we discuss in our next article on Allied strategy.

Conclusion

To conclude, German strategy is about balance: balancing exploitation against consolidation; your use of fuel and mobility against the risk of running down your supplies; and finding the right mix of aggression to pin and destroy Allied units, with the need to conserve your own forces in the long run.

That’s the theory, anyway. And I want to close with one last comment: which is that whilst this may seem relatively simple, applying your strategy in Battle Command: The Bulge in an effective way is far from straightforward. There are enough moving parts in this game that the strategic puzzle you are presented with will reconfigure each turn, and each game, giving you plenty to think about and ample replayability.

---

Previous Article: An Introduction to Battle Command: The Bulge

Next Article: Allied Strategy in Battle Command: The Bulge