I went back to Omaha mostly because deep down, I still love the game. More practically, people still play it, and we get a lot of questions as gamers try to juxtapose the 3.1 series rules with the game's 2.0 rules base. I have set out the actual changes and clarifications first, so that players can refer to all of them without the extra clutter that these design notes entail. These notes exist to let me explain (rationalize?) my choices in public.

The Defensive Zone and the Shingle represent new and unique terrain types, not fully covered by existing series rules. The old rules were worse in this regard, since too many types in the hex could be cumulative, and open terrain had a way of negating Defensive Zone benefits that I was never happy with. Now, with each type clearly defined as one type, Defensive Zones are much more realistic. Further, I can model specific effects to achieve more reasonable results as well.

For instance, Defensive Zones do not shelter attacking units trying to make AT rolls--they have to do it the hard way, using the other terrain in the hex, which usually means out in the open. Another example is in treating the Shingle as open for spotting, yet partly protective for fire. This clearly shows the less-than-ideal nature of the cover the Shingle (and seawall, in places) represents.

Next up is a big change: the beach boat restrictions. In my original design of the game, I did not realize what a significant advantage simply landing everyone at one beach would be. It minimizes scatter and concentrates all available force on one small segment of the beach defenses. In reality, the D-Day planners felt that a much wider and deeper beachhead would result from a broad-front landing and that this kind of a dagger-thrust landing was extremely dangerous.

More practically, there is no way the amount of boat traffic resulting from landing on just one beach would become anything but hopelessly snarled. In short, it was impossible. Hence realistic traffic limits have been imposed on our American friends. Astute players will note that the historical landing plan actually violates this rule. I intentionally kept the rule simple for ease of play, and it is slightly more restrictive than what would be strictly historical. Sticklers can use the same numbers and types of boats for each beach as given in the historical plan, if they so desire.

A number of small changes have been made to pillboxes, how to kill them, and naval gunfire. Some accounts dismiss the gunfire as not really helpful, while at least one veteran stated that the destroyer support saved the invasion. I suspect the truth is somewhere in between. The real key is in how to knock out pillboxes and get off the beach. As it now stands, AT guns and tanks will get a few, and the new "button up" and AT roll rules will enable the ground troops to get a lot more than they did in the original game.

Finally, if you're really stuck, the destroyers start coming in at 0940 with perhaps the best chance of all to kill a pillbox. Given the fast fire modifier, the destroyers can kill a pillbox on a roll of 9 or more. This should ensure that if all else fails, the Americans should be able to punch at least one hole in the beach defenses by the late morning of June 6th.

Historically

Historically, the destroyers were not supposed to engage directly over the beach, nor use up so much ammo on ground targets. However, by around 10 am individual skippers, worried about the mess ashore they were observing from their bridges, decided to come in close and lend a hand. A number of destroyers closed to several hundred yards (and risked running aground) to pound what targets they could see. Targeting was a real problem, but numbers of enemy positions were sighted and hit. Also, given the rate of fire of a naval 5-inch gun and the ammo available aboard, readily at hand, the DDs more than qualify for fast fire.

Version 3.1 eliminated TRPs. Why, then, did they come back? Mostly because, even without spotters, the Germans knew where the enemy was, and more importantly, that he'd likely use the draws to advance inland. Under 3.1, without a close spotter, artillery is helpless. It became apparent that all too soon the US player would become invulnerable to enemy cannon by killing just a few spotters in a zone. Hence the TRPs.

The Germans now have the ability to dump arty (as long as their ammo, which isn't all that plentiful, holds out) on sensitive sites and keep US advances in check. This is as it should be. Historically, the initial US advances were made inland directly over the bluffs between draws, and there were good reasons why that was so. The Germans knew those draws were the best way off the beach and turned them into deathtraps.

Overwatch fires made the original system crash. Omaha just overloaded the engine. The 3.1 rules returned to unlimited overwatch, but that was partially offset by allowing units to move in stacks and be attacked as one group rather than 3-4 individual attacks. Even so, there are so many targets on the beach that the firing units would in reality just get overwhelmed, and be unable to engage them all. Hence, I added back the small chance that if you fire overwatch at the US troops on the beach, you may not be able to do it indefinitely.

Overall, the numbers work pretty well, and at least the US player gets some small consolation for the German rolling that 66 and killing his best stack.

The US Command Prep Ratings were changed to return the original orders difficulty to the process. Version 3.1 radically revised the size modifier effects and added a staff modifier as well, all good things in most games. Here, however, there really are no effective staffs (they're huddled behind the Shingle just like everyone else) and the original size modifiers [i.e. per company, not per battalion] were more appropriate to the confusion ashore. These new numbers just restore the original balance to the game.

Another Victory Condition

Finally, I added another victory condition. Too many players avoid the western end of the map like the plague. This will now be partially offset by the boat density restriction, but still there will be a tendency to abandon the rest of the 116th regiment (off map just to the west) to the slaughter. Requiring the US player to control St. Laurent in effect forces him to restore integrity to the whole beachhead, or suffer the consequences. You can still land anywhere you want to, but beware of having to drive laterally all the way across the board on June 6th or lose the game.

[Ed. note: Maybe some of you have decided you prefer Omaha with the 2nd edition rules. I advise you to try the revisions here, since they let you apply the new rules set without distorting play balance. But if you insist on being retro, you should still consider using the landing craft traffic restriction and the St. Laurent sur Mer victory condition.]

Omaha Lives! (Game rules errata)