Is the circle around Caen, Cherbourg & St Lo, just a "victory" city designation?

@The_Good_Captain Also, from page 9:

Axis & Allies: D-Day is played in a series of turns. A turn consists of one pass through the sixteen order cards, and then a check for victory.

Since victory is checked at the end of each turn, the Allies must hold the required zones until the end of turn 10.

@SS:

@Slip:

Maybe go 2 infantry if you are going to do it by amount of units not cost of units. We tried a bid of 9 (3 inf were placed) and the axis got steam rolled each time.

So your saying with fortune cards not in game Allies win 40% of the time without 2 inf but 60% with the 2 inf bid?

Negative. I am saying a bid of 6 where the allies placed 2 inf resulted in balanced matches whereas a bid of 9 where the Allies placed 3 infantry lead to strong allied victories.

Obviously, skill, dice and players use of the tactics cards all contribute to the end game result however if you are using a bid for the first time I am just making the suggestion that a bid of 6-7 is a good starting point. That way your group can play a few games and work out if you need more or less.

I’ve found that if Germany plays hard to Cherbourg and cuts off the US beach landings, then it’s the hardest to take.

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

I have aa50 and have played pac40. I still like dday and learned how to play on dday. Dday is a great beginners game and is still a good game to play everynow and again.

Yes, you do.  You control a zone only if you have at least one land unit in it and the enemy has no land units in it.  A zone that has no land units in it is controlled by no one (bottom of page 10).