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Battle for Normandy

Sad but true, I spent a night in my Denver hotel room last week playing a 2-player wargame by myself. Last year I scoured ebay to snap up copies of all the Attactix wargames from the early 1980s. They're all low complexity, fast-playing systems with modest but decent components. The counters are plain & functional, but the map boards are nicely done. I've been wanting to make a web page, detailed Geeklist, Games Journal article, or something to showcase these games, as well as the Avalon Hill Smithsonian series.
(Trouble is, I've played too few of them to make valuable comments.) I should also compare this particular Attactix game to the new Axis & Allies:D-Day.

The solo outing was good. A regular 2-player game would be much preferable, but for the overall experience. Nothing about the game's mechanics is lost without an opponent, and even the strategies remain the same.

The map board comes in two sections totaling 17x22. There are less than 100 single-sided counters in the entire game, and never that many on the board at once. Similar to the other Attactix game I tried last year (also first with a solo play, hmm...), Victory at Waterloo, counter-stacking is severely limited, and combat is is based on die roll+differential, not an odds table. The map shows the five famous D-Day landing beaches, the Cherbourg peninsula, and inland a bit past St. Lo. The game starts with a special invasion turn, then continues for 8 normal turns. At the end, the Allies must've taken sufficient key locations (beaches & cities), otherwise the Germans win. Timescale feels kind of like 1 day/turn to me, but it isn't specified. German reinforcements stream in from map-edge roads according to a fixed schedule, just as the Allies come ashore at the beaches.

The combat results generate a lot of falling back (2 hexes) until the retreat paths are cut off by opposing units. After a while this is pretty easy to do, since retreating to a hex NEXT to an opponent's piece isn't allowed. As few as two attacking units can "surround" a defender in this way, though in practice you usually need more firepower than that. Similar to the Waterloo game, defending units in cities get to ignore most retreat results, making their removal difficult. The combat systems gives two results that give the attacking player the option of interpreting it as a retreat or exchange result. That simple, little rule has big tactical implications: do you fight a battle of attrition/take the objective/defend the ground at all costs, or do you preserve your own units at the expense of giving up ground. I really admire the design elegance of this nuance.

The game is so simple there's no reason to avoid the optional rules for naval bombardment and recall of the offmap German garrison in the Channel Islands. Allied air superiority is reflected in the weather rules: when the die roll says it's clear, German movement is limited and ALL Allied attacks enjoy a modest +1 fire support. During overcast turns (1/6th chance) the Germans get more movement (still not as much as the Allies) and the Allies only get three +1 support counters. A storm (another 1/6th chance) is real windfall for the Germans, finally giving them full movement, no Allied air support, and best of all: German reinforcements move up one game turn in their arrival schedule, while the Allies delay a turn. There can only be one storm per game, and you'll see that it matters greatly when it occurs during the game.

Throughout the game the Allies will have as much as double the combat strength of the Germans on the board, but the burden of attack is on them.
Moreover, the victory conditions require them to really sweep most of the board in just eight turns. There are a lot of small roads around the help movement, but sometimes you just have to cross bocage and that's sloooow.

Here's a record of the game I played:

INVASION TURN (Turn 0)

The Germans start with what feels like very little strength on the board, just 24 combat factors compared to the Allies' 38 (plus 15 that make their landing on this initial turn). Only Cherbourg feels reasonably defended, and that's where the invaders AREN'T. Using die rolls on the special invasion turn table, I find that the Allies have great success at Utah and Gold beaches, pretty good at Sword and Juno, but trouble at Omaha. (The table is rigged for a mostly historical opening.)

TURN 1 (Clear weather, as always on Turn 1)

Germans get some good reinforcements that move quickly through the road net to take some defensive positions (towns). The coastal defenders have to hold their own another turn, except outside Caen where German armor moves out to drive the Brits back to the sea. It works, and the Germans make an aggressive pursuit to isolate Sword beach. The British bring up tanks to punish the spearheading German SS armor, resulting in a bloodbath for both sides. (This was one of those defender retreat OR exchange choices.) Nothing good comes at Omaha, where strong units are still pinned on the beach by a lone German defender in bocage. At Utah it goes better, as landing units sync up with some of the Airborne (which starts the game already on the map, scattered historically) to take the first city, Carentan.

TURN 2 (Overcast)

The weather helps the slow German infantry reinforcements make up more ground. Now fighting for survival, the Germans outside Caen strike the Canadian troops, wiping them out and reestablishing a defensible position.
But it's costing them tanks they can't afford to lose. The Americans at Omaha finally break out, and connect to Utah troops ranging south near the coast.

TURN 3 (Overcast)

Now that the German troop reinforcements have arrived at the combat zone, the first pinned down American Airborne unit is eliminated. This will continue. The Allies make their first big push to take Caen. They fail, but do manage to sweep aside a nearby garrison force. That's one of two preventing the encirclement of Caen. They'll need to do the same at Bayeux, where the defenders are benefiting from the city rule (ignoring retreats).

TURN 4 (Clear)

The ratio of German to Allied combat points on the map is 36:69. Germans are now mostly sitting tight in defensive positions, holding out as long as possible except for a few opportunistic strikes at lone infantry units (like the still-scattered Airborne). Bayeux still holds, but the other garrison protecting Caen does not. With enough units to take the city next turn, some Allied units are freed up to push toward St. Lo.

TURN 5 (Overcast)

The Channel Islands garrison is released by Hitler, arriving in Cherbourg.
Feels like too little, too late, but it's a respectable unit and every bit helps. Especially since ANOTHER Airborne unit is picked off. In fact, the Germans almost threaten to retake Carentan, but just then American tanks arrive at nearby Utah beach. The Allies now take both Bayeux and half of Caen (the only 2-hex city)

TURN 6 (Clear)

The last good-sized German reinforcements arrive, SS Panzer divisions that race in and actually punch a hole in the Caen encirclement. The city couldn't possibly be retaken by the Germans, but perhaps its defenders could break out? In the west, the last surviving Airborne unit fights off its attackers, sending them back and opening up some movement possibilities.

TURN 7 (Storm)

A welcome storm, but too late to do the Germans much good. The German armor abandons Caen, driving quickly west with no Allied planes around to stabilize the situation around St. Lo, possibly even retake Carentan? The Allies mop up Caen and pursue.

TURN 8 (Clear)

The Germans' last ditch effort to retake Carentan fails, as does their defense of St. Lo. Final combat strength ratio for on-map units is 34:63.

When the Victory Points are added up I find that the Allies are only barely squeaked out a victory. They need 16 points to win, otherwise it's a German victory (no wishy-washy outcomes here!) The Allies have 6 points for the 6 hexes of landing beach, 5 for both hexes of Caen, and 2 points each for the cities of Bayeux, Carentan, and St. Lo. That's 17. Had they failed to take St. Lo on the final turn, or lost Carentan near the end, it would've been a German victory. Wow, I didn't sense that it was that close. I'd considered Cherbourg a needless distraction for the Allies, but it's the other 5-point city, so shouldn't be so readily ignored. Especially since the Allies can probably take the smaller city of Valognes along the way.

Overall, I enjoyed the game. Had I played it last year I would've loved it. It would've instantly become my must-have D-Day game. However, A&A:D-Day fills a similar role, and does it with nicer pieces. I usually prefer hexmap games to ones with areas--I get a better feel for the critical land features. But those plastic pieces, card-driven turn order, and simple-but-effective air combat system are really nice. I'll keep both, but I think I give the nod to A&A:D-Day.

Posted by MarkJohnson at September 9, 2004 09:47 PM | TrackBack