D-Day Wargames?

[SgtRock]

Old V for Victory: D-Day Utah Beach game.

That was a good one!

[bbmike]

Old V for Victory: D-Day Utah Beach game.

That was a good one!

I bought that on day one. The problem is I was using a laptop in those days. The laptop refused to run it citing the graphics card (or lack of really). To this day I've never played it (don't even think I have it anymore). Since that time I have always referred to it as V for Videocard.

[agathosdaimon]

Impressions, DDay the Beginning of the End - amusing game, the strategic map level was fine but the tactical battles were bizarre to try and play - just a spasmodic fly around of like figures with no rhyme or reason - reminded me of ET on Atari - all their games had this same design and i am not sure it worked fr any of their games.

[Michael Dorosh]

Combat Mission: Beyond Normandy

I think you mean Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy. :)

Have to agree.

Except for the fact there are no paratroopers, landing craft, amphibious vehicles, DD tanks, gliders, German beach fortifications, purpose-built bunkers (see list), anti-invasion obstacles (Rommel's asparagus, Belgian Gates, tetrahedra), bangalore torpedoes, AVsRE, cliff scaling, commando and Ranger units, Osttruppen, and captured French armour in German service, CM:BN brilliantly captures every signficant aspect of the air and sea landings on D-Day.

[GDS_Starfury]

You can grab the Gold, Juno, Sword mod for cc4 at the CSO website.

[bbmike]

Combat Mission: Beyond Normandy

I think you mean Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy. :)

Have to agree.

Except for the fact there are no paratroopers, landing craft, amphibious vehicles, DD tanks, gliders, German beach fortifications, purpose-built bunkers (see list), anti-invasion obstacles (Rommel's asparagus, Belgian Gates, tetrahedra), bangalore torpedoes, AVsRE, cliff scaling, commando and Ranger units, Osttruppen, and captured French armour in German service, CM:BN brilliantly captures every signficant aspect of the air and sea landings on D-Day.

Not sure I understand you. Is that sarcasm or do you actually like Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy?  ???

[Boggit]

Combat Mission: Beyond Normandy

I think you mean Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy. :)

Have to agree.

Except for the fact there are no paratroopers, landing craft, amphibious vehicles, DD tanks, gliders, German beach fortifications, purpose-built bunkers (see list), anti-invasion obstacles (Rommel's asparagus, Belgian Gates, tetrahedra), bangalore torpedoes, AVsRE, cliff scaling, commando and Ranger units, Osttruppen, and captured French armour in German service, CM:BN brilliantly captures every signficant aspect of the air and sea landings on D-Day.

Not sure I understand you. Is that sarcasm or do you actually like Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy?  ???

I think he does, as he's done a fair few scenarios and mods for it. But he is right. In many ways Combat Mission does a fine job as a tactical game for D-Day, but it does miss out all the things he says. Hopefully, they'll expand/update to include these issues, but I suspect it isn't a priority given all the other stuff they're trying to do.

My biggest gripe playing AI in Quick Battle mode is the usual predictable artillery barrage on turn 1 with any of the CM games. You don't move on turn 1 but turn 2. That way you avoid advancing into a barrage. Usually, but not always, that uses up all the enemy indirect artillery for the rest of the game... ??? Apart from that the game is pretty good, and the AI has received a big boost with the v3.0 upgrade in Red Thunder.

[Staggerwing]

Combat Mission: Beyond Normandy

I think you mean Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy. :)

Or Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord.  :D

[Philippe]

HPS/JTS Panzer Campaigns: Normandy.

I still prefer the V for Victory system, but with this game you can (if you really want to) play the entire D-Day event on all five invasion  beaches.  My failing memory is that  V for Victory didn't include the landings, which are surprisingly interesting. 

The graphics are, of course, horrible, but there are mods (including one of my own) that improve things in the 2D views.

[eyebiter]

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[bayonetbrant]

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/06/06/storm_the_beaches_from_your_living_room_d_day_normandy_board_games

[Michael Dorosh]

Combat Mission: Beyond Normandy

I think you mean Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy. :)

Have to agree.

Except for the fact there are no paratroopers, landing craft, amphibious vehicles, DD tanks, gliders, German beach fortifications, purpose-built bunkers (see list), anti-invasion obstacles (Rommel's asparagus, Belgian Gates, tetrahedra), bangalore torpedoes, AVsRE, cliff scaling, commando and Ranger units, Osttruppen, and captured French armour in German service, CM:BN brilliantly captures every signficant aspect of the air and sea landings on D-Day.

Not sure I understand you. Is that sarcasm or do you actually like Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy?  ???

I think he does, as he's done a fair few scenarios and mods for it. But he is right. In many ways Combat Mission does a fine job as a tactical game for D-Day, but it does miss out all the things he says. Hopefully, they'll expand/update to include these issues, but I suspect it isn't a priority given all the other stuff they're trying to do.

I forgot to mention gliders.

It is easy to equate "D-Day" with "Normandy" but they are not the same thing. The Battle of Normandy lasted from 6 June 1944 to 24 July 1944 (for the Americans) or 1 September 1944 (for the British and Canadians, according to the Official Histories of the armies that participated). As big an event as D-Day was, it was just one day in a long and gruelling campaign, and as interesting as the tactical situations and especially the purpose-built equipment and fortifications might be, I expect that game developers like battlefront realize there is a huge investment of resources in modelling all of that. Particularly with the realization that the majority of the stuff you model wasn't used from 12:00 on June 6th to the end of the campaign.

Even the tactical match-ups may not be as interesting as one might think at first blush. UTAH Beach was anti-climactic, OMAHA Beach features the initial waves floundering in the face of heavy gunfire, and the British/Canadian beaches had a mostly outclassed German division mopped up on the shoreline. The latter actions were the most like "balanced" as the tank support often had to duel with concrete gun emplacements and there was much fighting to be done. But I suppose there would be a lot of effort in modelling these actions and little chance of user-made scenarios featuring beach landing stuff after that, since the focus of the campaign was on the bocage and fighting around Caen, which you see in the CM:BN/Commonwealth Forces games now.

[eyebiter]

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[GJK]

Fortress Europa using Wargame Processor

[Michael Dorosh]

Just noticing this now. I went to the webpage for Wargame Processor, and it doesn't seem to tell me what it is about - is it like VASSAL?