How to play

Advice from the guy who got me to start playing

• the AI plays poorly with its constant leaving of hexes (losing entrenchment) and piecemeal attacks instead of massing forces

• For a order to play, perhaps Prüm as Americans (teaches you fuel/terrain), Puffendorf (play as either, both have good cards and a plethora of units, decent weather and supply, learn to destroy enemy armor), Dinant was a slog as Germans, that’s actually one I never played through as USA cause it seems to easy, you can really crush Germans with air support even though your starting units are handicapped. Dinant or arracourt would be good ones to pvp and talk through probably. My latest playthrough is Elsenborn Ridge, played US first and it has honestly been equally fun/challenging on both sides, yet the ai still whiffs a bit on both solid offense and defense posturing.

  • Prum as US

  • Puffendorf as US

  • Dinant as US

• Germans are a bit tricky because they have detached panzer brigades, meaning some units with only armor and no/limited infantry support which can lead to quick losses of your best units if you don't know what your doing. American quantity allows for some for mistakes. other things you will want to note of course are terrain type, lots of modifers for attack, defense, hide, etc.. movement AP costs kind of is what it is, but its usually best to move units one hex at a time instead of clicking the end point. Reason being you may uncover units as you move that otherwise would have ambushed you. you usually want to keep your arty in one spot to the extent you can, moving around reduces readiness/combat effectiveness.

• Night turns: Night time is good to let units rest/regain readiness. (...) but sometimes if turns are few and objectives are many, you may need to seize the initiative at night, though attacking/movement is more difficult.

• Flak can cover 1 or 2 hexes depending what it contains. If you click on the equipment portrait it tells you range

• Tanks are often best used as massed range attacks rather than engaging in an assault (though assault is worth it if you really need an objective)

Understanding the UI

• Strategic Map:

  • The small flag means the location is worth 2 VPs

  • The colored squares are spotted units.

Basic controls

• Left click to select a unit, M to toggle movement mode, then right-click to issue a move order, then Esc to exit movement mode (to avoid accidental move orders).

• S toggles supply view

• 0 to toggle hiding counters

• Tab to toggle between the right-hand info sidebars

My notes while playing

• How does a strength point relate to a stack point? How do stack points work? A: I think the strength points on the counters in a hex are added together to create the stack points for a hex.

• I don't understand what I'm supposed to do with Flak units. The manual doesn't talk about them. Are they only effective in the hex they're present in? A: 1-2 hexes

• I don't understand what I'm supposed to do during night turns. Later: I think maybe they’re useful for moving units around without the enemy seeing them.

• In a PBEM you can cheat at recon by sending units forward to see what’s out there and then exiting and re-entering the PBEM to reset back to the start of the turn, now knowing where things are.

Thoughts on various scenarios

Arracourt

• The Germans want to establish a supply route to their forces in the south.