D-Day - Part One

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"That chap right there, I just plain don't like him." Gen. BRO discussing tactics with his Field Generals. The Americans plan was basically get up the beach and work the rest out later. 

One of the advantages of Memoir '44 is the wealth of scenarios that are available and the fact there have been so many battle reports recorded.  This allows you to work out roughly how slanted the scenarios are one way or the other.  I have had a hankering to do a D-Day game for quite a while and while our much ambitious ideas haven't come to fruition, nor are they likely to, I was glad that we managed to tackle it to some extent. 

Troops wading through the surf at Omaha beach

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We played three game on the day.  Omaha Beach, followed by Sword Beach and concluding with St. Lo.  This made it much easier to organise as I didn't have to write any scenarios and I had a good idea of what the win/loss percentages are. 

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A spot of Robert Capa style camera shake as the lads dash up the beach. 

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I was lucky enough to get a lucky eBay from a chap who was disposing of a large collection of landing craft. These are I think Airfix and aren't waterline models, but seem to work fairly well just plonked on the mat. 

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The venerable Airfix D-Day beach defences looking out over the seawall. 

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Another shot of the Airfix D-Day defences, Conflix pill box in the middle distance. 

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The American Commanders ponder their options.

 Note the shell craters in the foreground indicate hexes that are out of play. 

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General Clint Fatzenberg discusses the utility of using the seawall as cover. 

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We also had some very special visitors. Boomerowski Junior's clenched fist and gimlet eye were exactly the sort of thing that the Americans needed to give them some backbone. 

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The Americans are making some progress, but are taking casualties. 

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The landing craft don't actually have a game function in this scenario. They were mainly used for set dressing. We used them to count victory points. Each time an American unit was killed, we placed an explosion marker on one of the landing craft to keep score. 

A Frenchman awaiting liberation

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This chap might look a bit familiar to some of the more sharp eyed amongst you. I was given this figures as a gift several years ago by my good pal Mr. E. We used them to keep score during the game. Each time a German unit was killed, we added a French civilian to the cafe. 

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Having discussed their strategy upstairs the German team descended to view the flotilla facing them. 

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General GT Boomerowski orders the troops ashore, cigar clenched between his teeth, while Fatzenberg's DD Shermans take the sea wall. 

I didn't actually take any more pictures of this game as the whole thing was fast moving. Omaha Beach is a very tough scenario for the Americans and they lose 80% of the time.  The result was about on par with previous games, but hard fought none the less. If the Americans can get armour off the beach things can get very dicey for the defenders, but alas it was not to be. 

To be continued with Part Two: Sword Beach.