Wacht am Rhein (game)

In December 1944, in an operation codenamed "Wacht am Rhein" ("Watch on the Rhine"), the German army tried to repeat its triumph of 1940 by breaking through the lightly guarded Ardennes Forest sector in an attempt to drive a wedge through the Allied armies, take the port of Antwerp and force a separate negotiated peace with the British, French and American allies.

[1] Wacht am Rhein is a simulation of that conflict, a grand tactical two-player wargame set at the battalion and company level.

Both boxes included: Two smaller scenarios use limited counters and only one of the four maps, and are designed to allow the players to learn the rules.

[1] SPI had previously published two small board wargames about the "Battle of the Bulge": The Ardennes Offensive (1973), and Bastogne: The Desperate Defense (1976).

Wacht am Rhein, considerably larger and more complex than either of its predecessors, was designed by Jim Dunnigan, with cartography and artwork by Redmond Simonsen, and was published by SPI in 1977.

In Issue 40 of Moves, Jim Govostes liked some of the innovative rules such as the Night Bonus Game Turn, and overall found the scenarios to be balanced, and the effects of the terrain and limited roads equally as frustrating for both players.

Govostes thought that leader counters should have been included, as they were in SPI's Highway to the Reich (1977), pointing out that "There were several prominent men who affected the outcome of the battle."

"[1] In his 1977 book The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming, Nick Palmer called this "a real feast for the expert, ghastly for beginners.

[2] In The Guide to Simulations/Games for Education and Training, Martin Campion called this "an excellent game for history and playability and gives the feel of real tactics though its rules.

"[7] The website SPI Wargame Resources believes that Wacht am Rhein "has stood the test of time to become one of the top 5 monster games in history.