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jaugusto72 — 2008-11-19T16:34:50+00:00

map detail - road system in the area of Bastogne - WaW 3

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romerj — 2008-11-15T23:22:15+00:00

View of the game components and magazine cover of the WAW #3 edition

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Xookliba — 2008-05-29T14:29:03+00:00

cyberboard gamebox

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riks — 2008-03-30T23:33:17+00:00

New edition map

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riks — 2008-03-30T23:26:35+00:00

Magazine cover for 2008 edition

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gvchief — 2007-04-22T13:34:40+00:00

In play after first couple of turns

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gvchief — 2007-04-22T13:33:12+00:00

Initial set up of game

Thread: Review and experience playing Big Red One

cratex — 2005-12-20T02:30:42+00:00

Big Red One

(also published by SPI as Bulge). This is a simple game (~5 pages of rules) and a small map, 11x17 I think. The sequence of play is:

* Weather determination
* First combat (units are not required to attack)
* Movement (ZOC are hard and sticky)
* Second combat (units in enemy ZOC are required to attack)

Each turn is one day.

There is NO stacking. Units range from battalions to divisions. Counter density is very low.

Each and every unit has a movement allowance of 5. Mechanized units can 'mech move', giving them 5 times the movement rate along roads, and the Allies can mechanize three infantry units each turn to so move. A unit using mech move must start on a road and may not move adjacent to an enemy unit while using mech move, though it could finish its move in regular movement and move adjacent. This gives units a lot of speed across the small map which was to prove decisive for the Allies.

Attacking units may only attack a single unit, even if adjacent to more than one enemy unit - they just must attack somebody in the second combat phase if adjacent.

There are two combat result tables. One is more assault oriented while the other is more 'skirmish' oriented, but you can only use the second table if you attack the strongest enemy unit you are adjacent to.

Exchanges are interesting in that the defender loses his unit and then the attacker loses a unit only if one of his units has a combat value equal to or less than the defending unit's combat value.

Each turn there is a victory point schedule. The German wins automatically if the difference between his VP count and the Allied VP count is >= the higher number, and loses automatically if it is <= the lower number. Victory points are awarded for combat strength points eliminated and exit of German units from the northern and western board edges.

In our game right out of the gate the game seemed odd. For the first couple of turns Gary, as the Germans, hovered right on automatic defeat, even while he blew wide holes in my line. The Allied northern front collapsed when on turn two a few units from the center of the German line swung north to envelope the defenders there, through somehow I managed to sneak a division into St. Vith anyway -- that really held him up. Given the low unit count a loss of a single Allied unit could unhinge an entire section of the line. On the other hand, results of "contact" were common and the southern portion of the line held on for several days.

At one point, turn 6 I think, I had, I kid you not, 3 units on the map at the end of Gary's turn. Despite this the victory point schedule implied a loss of a couple of German units would give me an automatic victory. There were a couple of times Gary should have exited a unit just to bump up his victory point rating, though doing this with to many units would seriously reduce his on-map strength (he needed weak units to close off the flank map board Allied reinforcement entry hexes).

On turn 8 (December 24) Gary made a big push for a major victory point exit hex, getting a unit adjacent to it. However, this left his line thin in other areas. Noting that killing just a single 2 strength point unit would give me the game I used one of my two reinforcements and two on map units to get a high odds attack against a weak German unit, killed it, and 'won' the game.

Gary was barely half way across the board, and wasn't even threatening places like Bastonge. Very unsatisfying...

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Kevin Moody — 2005-02-14T02:29:04+00:00

The Big Red One -- embarrasingly poor cover art

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Kevin Moody — 2005-02-14T02:29:04+00:00

The Big Red One. Note that rules and map are still named 'Bulge'.

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citizen k — 2004-09-22T00:57:58+00:00

The re-released version's box art

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djlg — 2004-05-06T04:22:43+00:00

I believe this was also released as "The Big Red One" in late 1980 to capitalise on the movie of the same name.

Game: Bulge

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Thread: Review and experience playing Big Red One

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