Avalon Hill has has only provided a small taste of the upcoming A&A Battle of the Bulge game so we'll get things rolling here at Axis & Allies.org. Here are some details, spoilers, and picutres of the game that have been gathered from various sources. Discuss this article in the forums. Update: The new Axis & Allies Battle of the Bulge product page is up at Avalon Hill.

Release Date

November 17, 2006.

Game Length

8 rounds. It is hypothesized that this will take approximately 2 hours.

Objective

Germany must reach a certain number of victory points before the end of turn 3 otherwise the Allies win the game. Victory points are achieved by capturing particular cities on the map. 

Game Pieces

So far: American duce-and-a half, a German Opel truck, a ME-109 fighter, and a revised Panther

The folowing is a quote from Lary Harris, the creator of Axis & Allies, about the A&A Battle of the Bulge Game pieces:

The number of pieces has little to actually do with the quality of the game itself. In spite of what some say, Axis & Allies is not a box of toys. It’s supposed to be a game. A game with plastic pieces. There are enough pieces to play the game. The piece count is based on the game play requirements of the game. They are really pretty cool pieces if you ask me. Battle of the Bulge has 4 new pieces. An American duce-and-a half, a German Opel truck, a 109 fighter and one hell of a cool revised Panther. By the way, this stuff isn’t cheap! I look around and try to see who else is manufacturing this kind of game. Manufacturing these kinds of games and is still in business!

Game Concepts

Based on some of the pictures and reports from Gen Con Indy, A&A Battle of the Bulge should include:

• Tokens for ammo and fuel - there will be supply depots and you will need supplies to move and attack.
• The front line is represented by markers on the map
• New combat system that uses combat strips instead of the battle board
• Read the article on Boardgamenews.com to find out more
• 12-sided dice will be used for the game

Q&A with Larry Harris

Our very own Imperious Leader asked a few questions of Larry Harris about the game.

IL: Can we get picture of back of box?
LH: I have no pictures. Any pictures that become available will be released by Avalon Hill, not me.

IL: Can AH actually begin some process of TELLING people about this game?
LH: I’ll be demoing it all day Thursday and some on Friday at Gencon.

IL: Can you tell us about combat "strips?"
LH: Yes. In a nut shell these are pulled out from under the board. You only pull out the same number of unit types as you have targets. These pulled downed images become the targets. Their position on the columns assigns them an “Address” per si. If the attack dice (12-sided) are rolled and share the same address, the target takes a HIT. One hit forces a retreat, two or more eliminates the target.

IL: Does the game end by dec 25th? jan 31st?
LH: I’m not sure an exact end date was established in the final draft of the game. In my mind it ends January 1st. The German player has to match what the real German army did by that date and better it by one town or actually a certain number of points.

IL: Any optional rules?
LH: Yes, but limited (intentionally). One, for example, is the Custom Set up.. That’s kind of self explanatory . This has more to do with the German Army set up than the other way around.

IL: Are the british colored revised green?
LH: Brits are a light-tan. Probably more like in Pacific than anything else.

IL: Do the Germans have any SS troops?
LH: They are recognized from an historical point of view as being SS.

Sources

The information gathered from this article came from a variety of sources:

• Axis & Allies.org Battle of the Bulge Forums
• Boardgamenews.com Convention Report: GenCon 2006: August 10
• Boardgamenews.com Convention Report: GenCon 2006: August 11

Old News

Here is a link to the old A&A.org article about th eBattle of the Bulge announcement.