Relive the Battle of the Bulge with Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault (hands-on preview)

Winston Churchill described the harrowing Battle of the Bulge as the “greatest American battle” of the Second World War. Adolph Hitler’s armies launched a surprise attack in the Ardennes in December 1944, creating a giant bulge in the American lines. In the middle of winter, the Americans had to close the gap and retake the forest.

Now you can relive that battle with Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault. I played a full round of the game, which Sega releases for PC on Nov. 18, in a preview that game director Quinn Duffy of Relic Entertainment narrated for me. Ardennes Assault is rare World War II real-time strategy game, and it’s the latest extension of Relic’s Company of Heroes 2, which debuted last year with a focus on the Russian front. Relic followed that up with Western Front armies for multiplayer play this summer. I have long been a fan of this series as a perfect mix of state-of-the-art graphics, fast-action real-time combat, and a nice historical fix.