No Air-Force for the Allies

It’s often that St. Lo gets left till the end, and I find the “works” are indeed heavily gummed up by that point. That’s why I proposed the KSF (Kill St. Lo First) Strategy.

I’m also surprised that you send a “small” force to Cherbourg.  I’ve done the same and ended up not having the force needed to take it (with the 1 round of combat deal).  With a full zone (Eight Units) plus a few extra units, it’s a tough crawl. I like to gamble on my landings at least once and land upwards of Utah Beach. I’ve posted previously posted about avoiding Omaha by gambling on the “Allies Land” card.

To Cherbourg:  I like to engage my bombers for at least 3 rounds, and make sure the “Onshore Bombardment” hits when the time is right in the Peninsula. It’s easy enough to take (IMHO) if you eliminate 65% of the defenders before you get there.  Keep Axis Re-Enforcements in mind as Germany can send tonnes of units Upwards to Cherbourg up until Turn 5 before they become redundant. When attacking that “Must Have” city of Cherbourg, employ my “Great Wall of Planes”  (see D-Day Post) to stem the tide of Axis Forces.

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Cheers,
Starlight Sniper

Sorry, I thought it was on Axis and Allies D-day.

@Deadeye:

In thinking about it some more I think I understand where you are coming from.  You are saying German reinforcements are subject to strafing, Allied units are not.  And I suppose that is accurate to a very limited extent.

Yes, that is my point.

Conversely, the Allies will have a tough time jamming 24 reinforcements in one turn so they have their own inherent difficulties in bring in that many units.

Yes but you have eliminated the highest values which does not bring the Allies up against ‘clogged beaches’ with a big roll (over 7) as often as it does Axis up against air power with a small roll (less than .)

Allies and Axis roll the same thing for reinforcements with the OOB rules.  They roll the same thing with this change.  It does not result in a net advantage to either side.  What it does do is remove a wide statistical variance for a smaller one, reducing the factor chance plays in the fate of the game which conversely increases the factor strategy plays in the fate of the game.

Yes. It does. I am incorrect on any change in the difference between results.

@c64:

e) The most probable difference between the two sides is 1 unit (!) regardless of the method.

I’m glad you’ve found a rule that works for you. I guess I’m just a lot more averse to house rules than I thought.

D-day is the only A&A game with cards other than setup or things like unit stats in minis. D-day is much shorter than most maybe all other games. I don’t think any of the games I’ve played have been longer than three hours and I would guess much shorter like 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 and 1 half hours.

While I’ve never played Memoir '44, I have played Battlecry which is a similar system and the cards are not really similar. There are three sets of cards: Order, Fortune and Tactics. The Order cards are the only ones you must play with and they are basically the phases of the turn. As the game progress some of the phases no longer happen and those cards can be removed from the game.

The Fortune and Tactics cards are optional. Tactics cards give you a one shot benefit to be used during a particular order. You use them once and they are removed and can’t be used again. Fortune cards ask you to roll a die. Depending on the outcome of the roll one side will gain a benefit or suffer a hinderance. Fortune cards come up everytime you come to the Order card they are associated with. If the order no longer applies then the Fortune card can be removed as well.

I think D-Day is a nice game and it is a good intro to A&A for younger players or a nice quick game if you want to play more than one.

“Did you take into consideration that the Naval Bombardment can only target the pillboxes?”

Yeah.  They just need to take out the pillboxes at Omaha(bombing is out of the question because of the 3 AA, otherwise that would work nice), taking on 7 is a lot better than 9…

"I would think that you could get yourself in trouble simply getting to Cherbourg if you do this. If your opponent is in the habit of abandoning it he can bog you down pretty good around Utah. You might try encircling St. Lo from the Cherbourg side while  concentrating your Ftrs in those reinforcement zones. That might force the Germans in on the Caen side and bring them in range of the British overrunning that city faster leaving less for the US to root out of St. Lo. Not march on St. Lo per se but march on the reinforcement zones on that side of the board. Overrun it with your tanks.

I certainly agree that clearing the Omaha beachhead is a no. 1 priority."

Personally, I like it when the Cherbourg Axis units assault the beach.  The majority of the first American units are infantry so it’s hard to get a quick start anyhow, and if the battle goes down at the beach, the Axis only have 15 units or so (plus you can bomb them), so although they may inflict some heavy damage at first eventually they die off and you only have to march one infantry (or one tank to move faster) up to Cherbourg.  And, if they get lucky at the beach you know how much you have to compensate, while when you have to march all the way to Cherbourg there is a chance that you could misestimate.

Although, maybe I just haven’t seen an Axis player handle a Utah beach well yet.

I’ll try the reinforcement rush sometime, it sounds like it could work out well…

the thing is, with how I have done this strat games so far the brits are hurting a lot more than the U.S., and I generally end up with more than sufficient in St. Lo units while Caen is in danger of being pincered by both the Rouen/Chartres reinforcements and some of the Renn/Chartres reinforcements,  so I don’t even know if I’d want Renn/Chartres going to Chartres.

This is kind of a change of subject, but Erwin Rommel is my hero.

But yes, I might just have to try that one next time I play.  (Hopefully soon.)

Here are the major differences…

1. The Turn order is determined by a sequential action of cards that give orders to one side or the other…

2. There is no production… Instead Troops come in via a reinforcement chart that you roll for to determine what comes ashore (or from Rouen and Rennes)

3. The Objective (for the Allies) is to seize 3 VC (Cherbourg, St. Lo, Caen) by turn nine and hold them for a turn… otherwise the Germans win…

4. There is now a limit of 8 Land Units for one side or the other (so The Allies can only have 8 units in a zone and no more, the germans can not have any more either)…

5. Allies can only have Aircraft… German Artillery are AA capable… The Germans now get Blockhouses that get to target Allied units coming ashore… Plus all German defends on 3 instead of the allied 2  :wink:

6. Fortune Cards (optional) can give one side or the other an advantage brought on by bombings, shortages, Weather etc.

7. Tactic Cards (optional) give a one time use advantage to one side or the other…

8. Battles only last one cycle, so you have to be selective to not tie units down…

here is the rulebook: http://www.wizards.com/avalonhill/rules/axisdday.pdf

Overall it is more of a training game to teach the mechanic of fighting to new players imo… but it is a great short game… Although it can get boring with the same strats that usually get played… IF you want blockhouse pieces though get it…

GG