Well my intention was to play Battle for Normandy over the next few month and hit the campaign from June 10th onwards….But then COVID-19 struck and I thought rather than hoard the content for a June release, why not give all of us something to look at and maybe chat about together. So here goes.
The plan is to play Omaha beach, then transfer to the June 10th campaign. Lets get through Omaha and see how it goes!
On DDay @ Normandy 76 years ago this June the weather was rough and worse was to come, the entire operation hung on many little threads and the sacrifice and determination of all nationalities was significant. The little scenario attempts to capture just a small slice of this. I’m sure many of you have read great books on this topic but here are a few of my favorites:
OMAHA BEACH by our Designer legend Joe Balkoski , and of course the Band of Brothers book and series on TV aptly capture the drama. There are numerous great books, what are some of your favorites? I’ll share a few more in coming posts.
For my landings I’ve arranged heavy infantry orientated landings with just 1 Battalion of DD tanks split into companies as they have just a 30% chance of a successful landing. The landings process is a series of shuffling forward, getting shot at, shooting back exercises for each of the assault zones. As units land they are fired upon, with a 1 on a 1d10 being an auto hit, otherwise it is compared to the firepower of the unit and some stacking penalties for the 1st Division and the 29th Division, who bore the highest casualties of any of the landing beaches.
But not everyone lands where they should! 3/16 Bn from the Big Red One drifts into Easy Green beach assault hex as does 3/116 from the 29th into Fox. Otherwise everyone lands on target! Amazingly only 1 DD sinks.
German defensive fire phase.
From Vierville Sur Mer [sounds idyllic does it not?] eliminates a company of men, struggling ashore, Dog Green loses a step along wth its DD tanks. Germans fire into the combined stack of 1st and 29th division unites killing just one step thank goodness! Another 2 steps fall on the beach at Easy Green and Red. For a total of 8 steps lost in the first phase of landings on June 6th.
The Allies fire back! At Point Du Hoc the take out the guns, Dog Green wipes out a strong point. Easy Green and Fox take out two more! The US roll a staggering # of raw ones [auto hits].
In the movement segment of the first landing phase the Germans can move just one hex! Thank goodness. The good news is that the Yanks have cleared access to a draw, and can move up off the beach! Now the US get move as well.
On to Phase 2: