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Game Info
Year
2022
Collection
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Description
Lanzerath Ridge is a solitaire wargame that takes places on the first day of the Battle of the Bulge, during the Second World War. In the game, you take control of a small group of American soldiers. Under your command, the Americans must fend off the relentless attacks from German paratroopers and fusiliers. Your goal is to recreate the incredible historic accomplishment of the American soldiers by defending the town of Lanzerath, Belgium and delaying the advance of an entire SS Panzer Division.
Lanzerath Ridge is the next design in the Valiant Defense series, following the critically acclaimed Pavlov's House (2018), Castle Itter (2019), and Soldiers in Postmen's Uniforms (2021). The Valiant Defense series allows you to play amazing stories of courage, with small forces holding the line against unimaginable odds. Games in the series focus on the individual defenders and are deeply rooted in history, while providing a quick play experience with a light complexity rule set.
Lanzerath Ridge is divided into four attack periods, each of which is represented by a deck of enemy cards. Each attack period is divided into a number of turns, and each turn consists of two phases:
The game ends immediately if the defenders’ morale drops to 0 or if a German attacker takes over an American defensive position. Otherwise, the game ends after the last attack. Your level of success is based on the Americans’ morale, intelligence gained during the defense, and any objectives you accomplish.
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Lanzerath Ridge | Review
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All mentions
Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 2
This page: 2
Sentiment:
pos 2 ·
mix 0 ·
neu 0 ·
neg 0
Showing 1–2 of 2
Video UKLtxdnm2Zw
Review at 0:24 sentiment: positive
video_pk 69203 · mention_pk 165615
Click to watch at 0:24 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Really enjoyed it
- Good production value and clear rulebook
- Engaging use of named historical figures
- Interesting strategic arc balancing immediate needs with long-term goals
- Tactics cards add welcomed spice and difficulty
- Offers different scenarios and ways to adjust difficulty
- Marries theme with mechanics well
Cons
- First few rounds can feel too easy if not playing with advanced rules
- Might be overwhelming for a first game without Tactics cards
Thematic elements
- The beginnings of the Battle of the Bulge
- Battle of the Bulge during World War II
Comparison games
- States of Siege
- Phantom Leader
- Undaunted series
- B17
- The Enemy Within
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Action Point Allowance — Players have a limited number of action markers (cubes) to perform actions each turn.
- Ambidexterity (variant) — Optional rules like Tactics cards add layers of complexity and replayability.
- Card-driven actions — Enemy actions are driven by flipping cards from decks representing different rounds, dictating their behavior.
- Combat modification — Machine guns can fire multiple shots, with subsequent shots in the same action becoming more difficult but potentially hitting multiple targets.
- Dice rolling — Combat and other actions often involve rolling dice (D6, D8, D10, D12) to determine success.
- Intelligence tracking — Intelligence can be gathered and radioed back, contributing to the final score.
- Morale tracking — Player morale is a key track that, if it reaches zero, results in losing the game.
- Objective Completion — Optional objectives are present in later rounds that can provide bonus points if completed.
- Overheating weapons — Firing too many shots with a machine gun can lead to it overheating and being removed from the game.
- Resource management — Players need to manage resources like machine gun ammunition and conserve them for critical moments.
- Solitaire — The game is primarily designed as a solitaire experience, with rules for two players also included.
- states of siege — The game is compared to States of Siege games, but with additional nuances that differentiate it.
- tower defense — The game shares similarities with tower defense mechanics, where players defend a location against incoming enemy waves.
- Variable player powers — Named characters have different stats (e.g., D8 for shooting) and abilities, with leaders and commanders providing inspiration or reactivation.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- And what it is is a solitire game. Although in this one there are rules for two-player. I'd not tried it. I've just played solitaire.
- The rule book is great. I think it's a good production. nice illustrations, very clear, all that stuff.
- So, you're going to flip three cards, take five actions, flip three cards, take five actions.
- So, you've really got to start to watch how, you know, these sort of u different attack sort of styles, if you will, uh work through the game, and you you'll kind of learn that as you go.
- So, I really really enjoyed it.
- To me, that adds a little bit of that spice to it and it makes those earlier rounds a little bit more dangerous and a little bit more interesting in that way.
- And I really like that part of this where it's not just like, you know, artillery guy X and Private Zero and all these different things. You've got these guys and so you kind of get to know like, oh, this guy's really good at the machine gun. You know, Jenkins is is a dead eyee with the machine gun and so and so it's like he's very very inspirational and that kind of thing. So it just in theme-wise, it really kind of pulls you in.
References (from this video)
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Video pVXJisxXZmA
Beyond Solitaire Review at 0:23 sentiment: positive
video_pk 5170 · mention_pk 86270
Click to watch at 0:23 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- high tension and dramatic pacing
- diverse terrain/design with multiple lanes
- beautiful art by Niels Johansson and an aesthetically improved board
- clear sense of narrative and historical context
- larger strategic space with resource manipulation (intelligence, tokens)
Cons
- still demands careful, heavy management; not as accessible to absolute beginners
- some actions pay off only later, which can feel punishing
- reliance on dice for overheating introduces luck elements
Thematic elements
- valiant defense under pressure, strategic improvisation, narrative of resilience
- Battle of Windsor-Ethridge, first day of the Battle of the Bulge, Western Europe WWII winter frontline
- historic, campaign-driven, tense
Comparison games
- Pavlov's House
- Castle Itter
- Soldiers and Postman's Uniforms
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- artillery and radio calls — Minor actions add tokens to artillery or radio vehicles; major actions can remove attacker cards and raise intelligence.
- attacker deck — Germans resolve three attack cards per turn, advancing forces with four rounds of escalating difficulty.
- board lanes and grenades — The board presents multiple lanes; grenades influence assault timing and defense pressure.
- Combat: Deck/Hand — Germans resolve three attack cards per turn, advancing forces with four rounds of escalating difficulty.
- exhaustion and command — Exhausted units must be unexhausted by a commander, creating careful sequencing.
- grenades and reprieve — Grenades arrive as assaults progress, offering a temporary reprieve before pressure mounts.
- Line of sight — Long-range shots are possible with line-of-sight considerations and terrain.
- line of sight and long-range — Long-range shots are possible with line-of-sight considerations and terrain.
- major vs minor actions — Defenders perform up to five actions per turn; minor actions don’t exhaust, major actions exhaust the acting unit.
- Morale tracking — Morale decreases with disruptions and casualties; running out ends the game.
- player elimination — Morale decreases with disruptions and casualties; running out ends the game.
- weapons and overheating — Powerful weapons can overheat based on rounds fired, potentially removing the weapon from play.
- win condition framing — Win by surviving four attacker rounds; loss by German reach into defender spaces or morale collapse.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- this is a game that is very tense where things can turn very quickly
- it's the fourth value defense game
- it's a very different landscape and it feels like a new flavor
- the aesthetically pleasing board does enhance the experience
- you really are going to have to fight it out to stay alive until the end of the game
- Lanzareth Ridge does freshen up the system and adds a new flavor within the Valiant Defense series
- on the anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge this game really lives up to its promise of being tense but fun
- I think it's actually the best one yet in the series
- if you already like these games then you'll still like Lanzareth Ridge because it's got different variations on the theme
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
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