Normandy '44 - Turn by Turn Pictures

I took a picture after each turn and decided to stitch them together into a video.  It's fun to see the advance of each of the beaches.

Normandy '44 June 25th GAME END!

Crazy, just realized I never typed up a follow up to end of my game.  I was so excited and posted videos, etc, that I forgot to put up a post.

Fun game, just long.  I don't think I would want to play it one day at a time again.  However, I was, pretty much taking up all my playing time for each turn.  I wasn't purposefully only playing one turn, it was genuinely taking this long to make things happen.  Over 20 hours of play if not 30.  8-10 is expected.

More charts need to be made.  For Disruption effects, Out of Supply effects, what a reinforcement/replacement can do.  What happens with IPs and SPs, etc.

Allied Victory by Auto victory, taking ST LO and Cutting off Cherbourg.

Normandy '44 June 24th AAR

The Penisnsula is nearly cut off.  Though, there are a few German units rushing up to fill the gap.  At a minimum disrupt the operation to cut it off.  If the next turn ended as is, the Germans would be cut off and the Allies would secure an Auto Victory!  However, these are really strong units coming on.

Now the question becomes, do I attack the Amis that are sitting there or do I simply try to build up a line of units to keep supply open.  I don't have the map in front of me to see if this is possible.

Normandy '44 June 23rd AAR

Tigers are back and strong German units are on their way. Utah is making more progress.

Normandy '44 June 22nd AAR

Villlers Bocage is liberated!  Nice, from the Allied perspective to see this kind of progress made.  Though, it will be mighty tough to see an Allied victory at this point.  Though Utah is finally appearing to breakthrough.

Normandy '44 June 21st Video AAR

Not much to say, attacks are getting better.  So, here you go:

Normandy '44 June 19th AAR

Small Allied victories here and there.

Normandy '44 June 18th AAR

I'm approaching a time where we'll have guests and I'm afraid I won't be able to update this daily 'cause I won't be able to get any gaming in.

Blast you allies not being able to take Caen...cue music...CAAAAAEEEEEEEN!

Normandy '44 June 17th AAR

I really should take better notes so I could give you some more detail:

Normandy '44 June 16th AAR

Continuing the battle on Father's Day:

Normandy '44 June 15th AAR

I hate to say more of the same, but let's see what's going on here:

Normandy '44 June 14th AAR

Not much to say here so, enjoy the video. The challenge when going through these by myself.  My gaming tendencies really come out.  What I mean is my play style, even though I try to do something different for each side, means it's going to end  up being a slogfest.  I should write my next 3-5 turns worth of orders (like TCS, I think) and generally stick with them.  A

Also, I should come up with some different styles of playing and try learning to play in those styles.

Normandy '44 June 13th AAR

Caen is 3/4 in the Allies' hands.  I don't think it will last (actually it doesn't, June 14th is under way and...oh we'll save that for the next update.)

Anyway, battle this turn was brutal for the attackers.  Two A1/DRs (Attacker lose a step and Defender retreat) and a couple EX (Exchanges).  And on both DRs, the defender Determined Defensed and caused the attackers to lose another step (AL result.)  It was crazy and somewhat demoralizing...and I'm playing both sides.

Carentan is a mess - the allies are racking up the Cadre units here. (if the Germans can accumulate up to 7 US or 5 CW dead 3-step units, auto victory.  US has two dead and 5 out there.  CW have 3 dead and 2-3 out there.  Must reinforce them.



I would call this a "poor man's mini monster".  It's a one mapper and there aren't tons of counters.  And the rules are fairly short.  What makes it a monster is the amount of exceptions, the number of turns, and the amount of decisions and forward thinking that is necessary. I'm not saying all these items mean something is a monster, it's just a big game to me.

And it's still taking me 1.5 hours a turn and I'm not sure why.  I should be cranking through them in 30-40 minutes.  One reason is that I'm always having to remind myself of the rules for the following:

Disrupted effects
Replacement effects
Regroup effects
When is the armor shift available and when not (not in cities - doh)
IP effects
Strongpoint effects (no armor shift there either I don't believe)
Mechanized get 1/3 movement on primary roads in overcast days (not just 1/2 as in clear days)
Where are reinforcements able to come on
Can't figure out the use of Reserves - and this is after reading the designer notes.  So I mean how to use it effectively, not how to use them rule-wise. Rules are clear enough.
and on

The good thing - I feel all is explained in the rulebook well and you can find it.  It's just a lot of flipping.  Another good thing: not a lot of markers.  It's a small pile and they're not used all that often.

Anyway, I shall plug away.

Normandy '44 June 12th AAR

St Lo falls to the Allies!  Caen has 2 out of 4 city hexes taken by Allies. Carentan is brutal. One FJ unit lost but also a step lost for the Allies. I need to keep flooding it with troops to take it and then move beyond it.  The Omaha front is weak and the Germans have some good units coming.

As the German  I will move the Tiger into the streets of Caen to root out the Allies otherwise they will be a bear to get out.  I also have to hope for Overcast weather because it allows the Germans to move more quickly on the roads as well as not risking left hand column shifts because of the Jabo table.

If I can get two more city hexes and hold St Lo, it's an auto victory for the Allies.

Normandy '44 June 11th AAR

6th Airborne loses 2/3 of their force, Carentan is becoming a nasty siege fight, St Lo is threatened by the US, but the lines are weak on the side of the attack. The mini bulge created is collapsing. Caen is a slog.

Turns are taking me way longer than I thought they would as I got into it. But I'm still having fun making this GMT game happen.

Normandy '44 June 10th AAR

Got the video and pics posted in time but was unable to get this blog post up.  Which won't be much of a post and more of a, "here's the video, enjoy."

So, without further ado, here's the video, enjoy:

Normandy '44 June 9th AAR

Turn 4 is complete and I feel ok with the progress of the Allies.

Caen is precarious. I've got units in there, but the Germans are strong in there and getting stronger.  I think it's interesting that the allies original plan called for Caen to fall in the first day.  I'm going to state it here: in Normandy '44, there's no way that would happen. No way.  Of course, until it happens.

Frankly, I'm not clear what I should be doing there. I'm trying to strengthen up the Brits there while providing some units to go around the West flank to hopefully hit them from the side as well...

Without exposing the beaches or flank from German reinforcements.

Omaha "sector" is looking okay and getting thicker with troops and can now support an attack on Carentan.  Which would be nice before more of the FJ reinforcements come into play. (Next turn.)

They have the widest front and it's somewhat shaky.

Utah is a slugfest and a mess.  I've started putting new units into there to bulk it up.



Regarding reinforcements: I changed my strategy of bringing in the absolute strongest units to bringing in quantity, Tank Destroyers and I suppose weaker or depleted divisions.  My thought is that this may help cover the expanding front line.  Thus freeing up the stronger divisions to attack.

Rereading the rules has clarified the armor rules, I may have too liberal.  Advance in bocage is only one, but I think I've been doing that by accident.  There are times I could've advanced twice and haven't been in other areas.

Reserve - I just didn't understand it.  I read the designer notes and have a better picture of what they can be used for.  Though I don't think I've had enough units to do this.  Though I'll need to remember this for the next turn.

The Germans are going to get tougher now because they can build IPs. This denies armor shift and is a column in the Determined defense chart.  Determined defense has been a tough one for the Allies. It's slowed down their advances.

Out of supply.  I perhaps shouldn't be too concerned with this if I have some follow up troops that can assist them in getting supply in the next turn. Perhaps I need to not worry about this so much in order to make progress.

But I've known all along that I can be somewhat patient with this game because there are a lot of turns and I can build up an appropriate attack force to make things happen.

From the German perspective I need to build up a force fairly quickly to make a counter attack into the soft Southern flank.  I'm going to use what I believe is the Lehr division to become the main unit to do this with.  The FJ coming in may be used in support if Carentan falls before they get there.  I have ST Division units heading to ST Lo to make it an IP and it's surrounding fields.

The Ranges and British 4SS will be leaving at the beginning of the Allied turn 5.  They are needed elsewhere and will no longer be needed here.  Says who?

The Airborne units are also withdrawn if there are no German units next to them, and they are in supply.  That won't happen for awhile...

 Though, could the German exploit this and back his troops away from them, causing them to withdraw?

Normandy '44 June 8th AAR

This turn felt more enjoyable as the Allied player because there were 4 battles that went well.  It was strange, I don't know if I just had the right numbers or what, but it was nice to see some good D1 and DR results to kick some of the Germans Back.

As the German player, I come from the perspective that CAEN is going to TOUGH to crack. Now, I just hav to decide how many resources I want to devote to shoring up Caen vs. pushing many of those other troops to the softer areas to make a breakthrough to get to the beaches.  Though I'm not sure if it's not better to set up lines of defense and let the AMIs come to me unless I see a great opening.

With no further ado, the video:

Normandy '44 June 7th AAR

Many of the rules are starting to click. But there's a lot here to think about, which is good. But at 2:00 AM, I think I'm getting a little tired.

The allies are very slow in getting reinforcements.  I'll need to double check that I'm getting these correct.  Also, the CRT is pretty tough. Very tough, especially if attacking a city/town, bocage, whatever.

Here's the June 7th video.

Normandy '44 June 6th AAR

The great crusade is truly underway now and this first turn took me at least 2-2.5 hours. For some reason I'm really struggling with the exceptions. Maybe its not the exceptions. Seemed like I was doing a lot of flipping around the rule book to find stuff that should be together or reference the other areas it might be in. I'm thinking of HQ rules.

First of all, I'm only in Turn 1 and I expect it to take 2-5 turns before I really get into it and the rules become closer to second nature. Also, the first turn isn't a good indication because there are several things that don't happen/not allowed in turn one that become available in turn 2 that will add another learning curve.

 All that whining aside - let's get to what happened in the first turn.