Normandy 44, Invasion Phase

 

Game starts with a special Allied phase to deal with the invasion. No many strategic decisions to be made and just a serie of die rolls.

First the Allied must roll for each Airborne unit in the map and referencing the result in a special Airborne Scatter Table. Then at each landing hex he must roll in the Invasion CRT to decide the invasion result. Losses are taken from infantry units as DD tanks must roll an independent result in its own table. Omaha and Rangers at Pointe du Hoc had special rules.

These are the results:

Utah Beach.

All the Paratroopers are scattered and had suffered heavy losses. Two of the Regiments are reduced to cadre, other three have lost one step and the only Regiment at full strength was the 501/101.  At the beaches the situation was much better without any step loss for the infantry but 70 DD Tank Battalion suffered one step loss. American paratroopers will have a few difficult turns to survive German reaction as they can not take replacements until Turn 2 and only one per Division/turn.

Omaha Beach.

Excellent invasion for the Rangers that have taken Pointe du Hoc without losses. At Charlie/Dog Omaha, the American 29th Inf Division performed a good landing with only one step lost. Things were not so good for the 1st in Division at Easy/Fox. They rolled a ‘1’ leading to Bloody Omaha results. This meant taking a step loss and rolling again. They succeeded to land in this second roll but taking more losses. At the end the result is one infantry regiment reduced to cadre and one step loss for the 743 Tank Battalion.

British Beaches.

Airborne units performed quite well with the only exception being at Pegasus Bridge were 5/6 Regiment was scattered and suffered one step loss.

At Sword British achieve to stablish a nice beachhead, aiming to connect with 6 AB Division.

At Juno, Canadiens remove the resistance at Courselles and begin to move inland. Losses are not heavy (only one inf step) in this sector but both DD tanks are reduced.

At Gold, British 50th Infantry Division found more resistance than expected and took severe damage as three of its regiments are reduced. Tanks battalions on the contrary have landed perfectly.

After this initial invasion phase, play resumes to the normal sequence and German must play his reaction turn with some restrictions on movement to simulate the reaction delay.