Company of Heroes - Battle of the Bulge

Company of Heroes - Battle of the Bulge

BotB modification, and takes you to the desperate fighting in the dense forests of Belgium and Luxemburg in December44 / January45. It's aim is to present you a mixture more of historical approach, but still retain the exciting and entertaining gameplay that you are used to from CoH.

The Battle of the Bulge Mod is, in its core, is based on CoH Gameplay; You have to build base structures, capture fuel, munitions and manpower points and research for upgrades. You gain command points and can use them for further options, depending on the doctrine you choose.

You have the following Doctrines available to you:

* Allies:

o Infantry Division:

+ Relies on special Infantry units, and buildable and movable artillery. You can call in support by other units, like Armored Cavalry Groups and Armor Divisions.

o Airborne Division:

+ No more parachuting!! The Airborn units must be produced and reinforced like any other infantry squad, but they are still tough fighters. This is due to the fact, that in the "real" Battle of Bulge the Airborn Divisions ( 82nd,101st) were rushed to the battlefield by truck and the weather in the beginning was too bad to paradrop. Bombing and Strafing runs will be available in later game, like Armor reinforcements.

o Armor Division:

+ You now have plenty of tank options and can also call in strong offmap battlegroups.

* Axis:

o 7th Army:

+ This army was composed out of 5th Fallschirmjagerdivision and several infantry divisions. Good defensive options and some offmap Tank reinforcements, but no battetanks ( Pz IV, Panther) available to build, but Jagdpanzers like Hetzer or Jagdpanzer IV.

o 5th Panzerarmy:

One of the two striking armies.Consisted mostly of Wehrmacht tank divisions. Good tanks, Panzergrenadiere and light Artillery support, but has also some defensive options like pak 38.

o 6th SS Panzerarmy:

+ This was planned to be the main strikeforce. In this tree, you can build the famous Kingtiger tank, Waffen SS Infantry and much more. You can also call in "Operation Griffon" sabotage teams in American uniforms, which can operate behind enemy lines and later on may rout enemies by giving false commands.

For those of you that have a shaky sense of this event, the historical, and well known 'Battle of the Bulge' covers the time and area of one of the most famous battles of WW2, the so-called Ardennes Offensive or Wacht am Rhein or Operation Herbstnebel. In late 1944 the German Wehrmacht appeared to be beaten, and a lot of Allied / US Troopers thought they would be home by Christmas. Instead, it would become the hardest and bloodiest Christmas they had to celebrate. Since the failure of Operation Market Garden, the frontlines in Western Europe were quite at a stand still.

Allied supply routes were overstretched and the Rhine River and the german Westwall proofed to be hard obstacles. Since then, Germany planned a counterattack on the Western Front and gathered three Armies to strike through the Ardennes Forest , to cross the Meuse River, move through Belgium, capture the important port of Antwerp and divide US and the British.

Not only offmap units, even the ones you can build in your base structure, are influenced by the doctrine you choose. As long as you haven't decided for a special doctrine, you will only be able to build simple infantry buildings, Wehrmacht Quarters or Barracks. Other base structures will only e available after choosing a doctrine.

Doctrines , especially German ones, have been altered, towards a more historical approach.

You have the following doctrines available to choose between:

Allies

--------

Infantry Division: relies on special Infantry units, and buildable and movable artillery. You can call in support by other units, like Armored Cavalry Groups and Armor Divisions.

Airborne Division: No more parachuting!! The Airborn units must be produced and reinforced like any other infantry squad, but they are still tough fighters. This is due to the fact, that in the "real" Battle of Bulge the Airborn Divisions ( 82nd,101st) were rushed to the battlefield by truck and the weather in the beginning was too bad to paradrop. Bombing and Strafing runs will be available in later game, like Armor reinforcements.

Armor Division: You now have plenty of tank options and can also call in strong offmap battlegroups.

Axis

------

7th Army: This army was composed out of 5th Fallschirmjagerdivision and several infantry divisions. Good defensive options and some offmap Tank reinforcements, but no battetanks ( Pz IV, Panther) available to build, but Jagdpanzers like Hetzer or Jagdpanzer IV.

5th Panzerarmy: One of the two striking armies.Consisted mostly of Wehrmacht tank divisions. Good tanks, Panzergrenadiere and light Artillery support, but has also some defensive options like pak 38.

6th SS Panzerarmy: This was planned to be the main strikeforce. In this tree, you can build the famous Kingtiger tank, Waffen SS Infantry and much more. You can also call in "Operation Griffon" sabotage teams in American uniforms, which can operate behind enemy lines and later on may rout enemies by giving false commands.