Played my first D-Day game last Thurday with a work friend. I usually play Revised/Anniversary/Some new Pacific/Global. First let me say, it was nice not to have to decide what units to purchase with IPCs. Well to the battle…
I did a scant bit of research on what the game might involve, glossed over the rules, and printed out the FAQ. We flipped a coin and I got allies. I knew that blockhouses were bad because they could pick the unit to remove so I made it a point to try to kick those in the teeth near the Brits so they couldn’t pluck my shermans out of the water. The ones that did survive to shoot, missed everything. I had a good UK landing and pushed Caen hard, taking it turn 2. When placing my airpower I tried putting them in reinforcement zones and cut quick approaches to my stacks. I’ll say that positioning the strafing helped steer his units, but the ones that walked through the strafing were probably safer, because my planes could not hit the broad side of Caen.
I rushed into Caen so then turned my sights toward St Lo, while trying to clear out units around Cherbourg. We traded units pretty steadily outside of St Lo and I couldn’t seem to muster my way inside. I reinforced Caen landing zones once with units to help against reinforcements, but then prioritized capturing St Lo. An error to almost lose my the game later. My units near Cherbourg took some heavy losses and I needed to start pushing more US that direction, while focusing on St. Lo. Reinforcements started massing around Caen and I realized I needed to shift units toward it to either intercept the Germans outside of Caen or to retake it if it was lost.
Turn 8 I took St Lo and flung 3 UK shermans towards Cherbourg that would make it to attack on turn 10 (with other US forces). I piled aircraft around Caen to protect it to no avail.
Turn 9 my UK forces attack blocks of Germans around Caen and score victories, but Germans still remain. My attack into Cherbourg is practically obliterated, leaving 5 German units still on the city. The follow-up US forces combined with the 3 shermans need to clear it turn 10.
Turn 10 two Spitfires decimate 3 Axis units out of a sizeable force that move to attack Caen and UK forces finish off the rest. The attack on Cherbourg finished the remaining units.
I wish I kept track of my shots taking by fighters and bombers, because their hitrate was horrendous, even by 17% standards. Bombers are better at needing 3’s, but I am sure their rate fell below 50% in the last few turns. My UK reinforcement rolls had my last reinforcements hitting the beach on turn 7, while the US finished landing on turn 9.
The game was fun and different, which made it a cool experience. Next time we’ll try the fortune cards or maybe hit up Guadalcanal. I think what was a real shocker was having the game only take a few hours, where Anniversary can take much much longer.
