SITREP: Normandy 11 June 1944 Reporter: Jeremy Tullett Back in LW16-5 (Nov/Dec 91), page 29, 1 reported on the opening moves of a PBM game being played between myself and Tony Armstrong. We were playing SPI's early boardgame Normandy, which represents the first week or so of the invasion at the rate of one day per turn. The game has a simple set of rules, which increased playability at the expense of historical realism, using brigade and battalion sized units. Air power is factored into the strength of the ground units and Allied naval support is handled somewhat abstractly. This report outlines the final position of our struggle for control of the Normandy countryside. As reported earlier, the first day landings achieved broadly historical progress at Omaha and Utah, better progress around Gold and very poor progress on Juno and Sword beaches. The map accompanying this report displays the situation as the game finished, on the evening of 11 June. Stubborn German resistance has kept the Allies well north of Caen. Bayeux and Carentan have fallen, and units have moved eastwards along the coast, northwards towards Cherbourg. Allied units have retired from St Lo, having briefly had a presence there. The position compares well with historical reality, where Carentan fell between 11 and 13 June and the Allies were well bogged down outside Caen. Progress towards St Lo was rather better in the game than the Americans achieved in reality. In terms of the games victory points, this performance rates as an Allied Provisional Victory (on the scale Decisive, Provisional, Marginal), which seems a reasonable assessment of the position. This was an enjoyable game, and I would like to thank my opponent for taking the trouble to play it through, despite increasing domestic commitments. Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior #108 Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1994 by Solo Wargamers Association. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com