Introduction

When I moved to a new home last year I appropriated a small room for my gaming collection. Slowly but surely I put together some bookcases, moved a small desk and eventually acquired a combination table-bookcase so I could set up games long-term. Everything was ready, so all I needed was to pick a game to play. I could have gone for one of many in my collection, but I wanted to try out one game in particular that had caught my eye for some time. That game was Normandy ’44.

The Game

Normandy ’44 is a wargame designed by Mark Simonitch and published by GMT Games. It portrays the first 3 weeks of the Normandy Campaign from D-Day up till nearly the end of June. Normandy ’44 is a one map game of 22” x 34” in size with units at the regimental scale with some battalions thrown in. I was curious about this series, often called Mark’s ‘4X series. At first, I looked for used but good condition copies in the secondary game market, but I was fortunate that a friend of mind loaned me his copy so I could play the game and explore what it had to offer.

I have played games of all kinds for well over 30 years, so I wasn’t a stranger to diving deep into a wargame for my first foray into the bocage. I read the rules and took out the game, then set it up for the campaign game. I figured I would initially follow the extended example of play but I would roll my own die results while following the moves.

June 6th

Because the game simulates both the invasion and subsequent operations to gain a foothold on the shore, it has a special first turn invasion move that involves rolling for the results of the air drops for the three paratrooper divisions (British 6^th Airborne, US 82^nd and 101^st Divisions). After that, you get to roll for the initial waves on the assault beaches at UTAH, OMAHA, GOLD, SWORD and JUNO. Once you finish the invasion waves, you get to start the game proper. In my case, the airdrops more or less achieved historical results and my beach landings were quite successful for the most part with few casualties. The game has a separate table for these invasion waves. They have different columns for the various beaches and OMAHA can get hairy if you roll wrong. Instead, I rolled extremely well and the US forces just punched through the beach defenses.

Because I was a complete novice, I followed the moves outlined by the extended example of play for the German and Allied turns with only minimal variation. This is a case where the example helps you hit the ground running and you’re off! I took many pictures and moved both sides to the best of my ability.

Each turn of the game is one day. I found it natural to split up my plays and reports in this fashion. The Allies advanced across the beaches in strength and, as you can see in the picture above, the US 4^th Division linked up with the paratroopers.

June 7th

I didn’t have a grand strategy in mind to execute. I know a little history and for the most part let the victory conditions guide me to the proper game actions. I needed to balance how much armor vs infantry the Allied forces would land and help push deep into German held France. For the most part, I knew that as the Germans I didn’t want to just sit back and play defensively. If I could counter-attack and push the Allied forces into the sea, I would try to accomplish that.

Initially, it seems almost impossible for the Germans to hold back the Allies; they have very few forces on hand and most of them are troops of low quality and strength. Yet every time it seemed like the Axis were doomed, a timely reinforcement would make it on board the map to shore up the line. In the following picture, you can see the Canadian forces struggle to move hex by hex towards the important city objective of Caen. For quite some time, 3^rd Canadian and the 21^st Panzer Division traded blows in an effort to dominate the geography in this sector.

One important objective for the Allies is clearing out and taking the vital hexes for building the Mulberry ports. This allows the allies to increase their supply of artillery and exchange reinforcement points for more supplies. It might not seem like a big deal. Wouldn’t you want more troops instead of supplies? There’s a balance though, because this game puts a limit on how many attack factors can engage the enemy at any one combat. This limit is 18. What is the impact? Let me explain. No, there’s too much. Let me sum up.

The Combat Results Table is ratio based. If the defender can put 10 factors of defense into one hex (which isn’t too difficult since terrain can add anywhere from 2 to 5 extra points), many strongly defended areas will always be a 1-1 fight. You will require column shift modifiers (like troop quality, armored support, naval gunfire, artillery and air support) to really gain the upper hand in a battle, and turn those 1-1 combats into 3-1 or better to punch a hole in the enemy line.

At Omaha, the 1^st Infantry Division pushes towards Bayeux, reaching the river line. Stubborn Axis defense prevents 29^th Division from clearing the Route Nationale 13 to start Mulberry construction. By the end of the day, three major areas were seeing action: UTAH, OMAHA and the CAEN sectors. This arrangement would dominate my thinking in terms of theatres of operation in the game while playing for the first few turns.

At this point, it’s fairly clear that the Germans don’t really have the strength to push back the Allies into the sea. The attempt by the 21^st Panzer Division would be the only serious counter attack into the beaches. As Rommel famously predicted, if you don’t throw back the invaders into the sea in the first 24 hours, they will be here to stay. For my next part we’ll see how the Allies deal with pushing into the interior.

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Next Article in this Series: Normandy ’44 Campaign AAR Part II: June 8th-10th