About the Mod

BotB brings Company of Heroes to this Battle.

What has been changed?
You will notice lots of changes, big efforts have been made in units appearance.
Each squadmember has a different skin, each vehicle looks different, even wrecks now
resemble their unit. Our mappers provide you with 18 exclusive BotB Maps, reflecting the original battlegrounds.

Other changes include but are not limited to:

- The Gameplay is very doctrine based, affecting the types of units you can use, and so your tactics rely even more on the chosen doctrine than in vCoH.
-A lot of new units and Infantry types have been added, most of them are doctrine specific (view the BotB manual in the Download for a walkthrough).
-Infantry squad sizes are larger, Weapons and abilities have been altered.
-Tank , AT, and Artilery Gun ranges and damage have been increased, so be careful
- Vehicle repair abilities for pioneers/engineers are gone. You either have to build repair stations ( which allied engineers can build now, too ) or call in repair trucks.
- German units now gain veterancy through combat, like allies did before.
- New vehicle types are introduced. In most cases the Models didnt exist, or do exist and no animattion is available due to the lack of proper modding tools.
So some vehicles have new models, based on a model mix. Those are only units, whose combat abilities dont necessarily need animations.
(i.e. german Jagpanzer IV, Panzerwerfer 42 and Sturmtiger.)
All others are represented by original CoH models with changed skins.
We eventually want to have ALL units proper models, but thats a big step ahead.

Be sure to check this site and the forums often to get the latest news on BotB.

The Battle

BotB 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 most Allied / US troopers thought they would be home by Christmas. Instead, it would turn into the hardest and bloodiest Christmas of their young lives.

Since the failure of "Operation Market Garden“, the frontlines in Western Europe were at quite a stand still. Allied supply routes were overstretched and the Rhine River and german Westwall proved to be hard obstacles. As a last desperate measure to break the Allied lines, 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.

The operation was doomed to be a failure, Germany lacked fuel and resources, allied air superiority ruled the battlefields. Nevertheless they bet all on this card, and secretly pepared a massive attack. During a period of bad weather, which denied allied Air Operations, the Offensive began. On December the 16th 1944 at 5.30 p.m , 1900 Artillery pieces opened fire. After that, 26 German Divisions penetrated the thin US Lines. At first, the Attackers made good progress, but soon the Defenders recoverd from the surprise and offered stiff resistance that slowed the advance and seriuosly delayed the timetable, so US High Commmand could bring in reinforcements.

Around Christmas 44, the weather cleared up, and allied planes flooded the skies. By that time, German Divisions had already reached their peak, many were out of fuel and ammo or badly mauled. In January 45, the Allies launched their own counteroffensives, pushing the Germans back to their starting position.The aftermath was quite a draw, almost 80.000 casualties for each side, dead, wounded or captured. But Germany had wasted their last reserves, now both fronts, East and West, lay wide open, and within a few months the war was lost.