This came out in 1993 and is already well established amongst British gamers as a solid and hard fought game. It is (I suspect) less popular in America, but not because of anything wrong with the design. This is not a full review but some connected comments inspired by one of the few games I have played a number of times (and still not got it right yet). That makes my first point on the game. Breakout: Normandy is a game of skill - pick your opponent accordingly, flannel will not suffice. Breakout: Normandy is also a good example of a hard game and a historical game which remains uncomplicated compared to many current games (sadly not helped by tortured drafting). The first reaction on opening the box is one of coming home. This is an old fashioned Avalon Hill game. Solid counters in that lovely rounded style with tank silhouettes. A mounted map with carefully considered charts (some missing items here though - I could not spot the Casualty Points) and a good tough game without mounds of rules. Indeed the comparison with (say) the flaccid editing of GMT games and their garish counters reminds one of how much game production has been freed by technology but remains imprisoned by a lack of professional skills. In my ever so 'umble opinion. Map The map though stands comparison with any recent work. It is an excellent physical map of Normandy with Area boundaries marked on it. This game (for those of you who missed it) is in the great tradition of Courtney Allen (Storm at Arnhem) and enjoys the same closeness of game terrain and real terrain. Don Greenwood often seems to forget just who it was who thought the concepts out on which he (Don) did so much work for Stalingrad and this game, and which Peter Perla took off to Antietam (and soon to Gettysburg). In the notes to this game Don smugly asks whether or not the system has reached its full flowering in his gifted hands - no, Don, it has not. Indeed the basic system is pretty much unchanged (aside from those interesting tweaks that address differences in scale so well). But what Don should take great pride in is the application of the system to the campaign. This is a first class demonstration of how to design a game that covers many many features of the original game without a fifty pages rule book (fourteen pages suffice for the rules). Read it and weep you lesser mortals! [Just to remind you of the basic system. Units activate alternatively by Area. The Attack Factor is based on one unit's value with others contributing only an additional one point. So an infantry division backing a Sherman brigade although composed of units with a total value of over twenty points will be 6 for the Shermans plus one for div artillery, plus three for the infantry brigades, plus one for div integrity and 1 for air support - giving 12. The Defence Value depends on defender strength, supports and terrain. Bombardment uses most terrain and counter-bombardment. The numbers of impulses are limited and units are spent after activation (reduced in value and unable to activate) and from combat.] In no particular order one sees the mighty German army reduced to crawling forward under Allied aircraft interdiction scattering units behind it that then take many an activation to join together. Those of you who want to use this system should consider the 1940 campaign in France and see the French armies fissuring in the same fashion from Luftwaffe interdiction and organisational difficulties. Allies Woes The Allies are clearly seen as not having the edge in numbers of divisions, and they have to come ashore in the face of tough opposition. The temptation to secure the beach-head with all units and not withhold units for exploitation is enormous. Valuable activations are spent in clearing out coastal artillery which interdicts the arrivals instead of pushing inland. Of course those smart alecs who have the answer to why Monty was wrong get it squarely in the eyes with this game, and in confronting the choices learn much. The temptation to push into clearer terrain with the Brits is balanced by the need to join Utah with Omaha to allow the Omaha supplies to feed the breakout. Many large offensives will not see the attackers with a great enough advantage to defeat the enemy without assistance from the dice. Each player adds 1D6 to his Value and the differential indicates loss levels. In our example above of the armour supported divisional attack (four brigades) facing a German parachute regiment in bocage would give an advantage of only three. If the German throws 6 and you throw 1, then the whole offensive will flop back on its start line. Supply Points For much of the time one endeavours to attack at such a rate (as the Allies) as to ensure that one will be able to out-attrition the Germans. Of course Don is too sage to let this become obvious, if your attackers are spent and suffer a big counter-offensive involving the elimination of units this will be bad for morale. The Allied beaches can land (Storm permitting) 80 supply points, each of which can turn a Spent unit into a Fresh one (there are inefficiencies built in to this). However the British beaches have 40 of these and can usually join up quite quickly, the remainder are spread unevenly with 10 at Utah and 30 at Omaha. The Omaha forces need to drive through to join up with the Utah beachhead to power up the break-out. Sadly nasty parachute forces sit waiting in Carentan. The Germans have 60 supply points but if the weather is fine this is reduced to 30. The Allies must this keep up the pressure reducing the Germans by attack, by bombardment and by obliging them to move (which also spends troops). The Germans look forward to short turns (so that the number of Spent troops is reduced and supplies are received). Long turns leave them open to the in-depth strengths of the Allies. The Germans must develop a tactic of either holding back attacks until bad weather or getting units into areas while they are still contested so as to augment the defenders. A typical German panzer division is no more likely to be strong than an Allied division "fronted" with tanks although the Allied unit probably contains more tanks. Even if as the German Player you do terribly well the de-Spending of a lot of your units will require the use of a lot of supply. This means the strange effect of some of the British offensives (er... Goodwood?) can be simulated - that is, that the number of tanks lost exceeds the number of men, and that by the next morning the Brits had 70% replaced. You can be as undone (as German) by some successful offensives as by steadily being pushed back. Inspired, I nipped back to Six Armies in Normandy and found it illuminated by the game. The indirect accretions of strength that the system uses were brought home to me by Keegan's comment on the 51st Highland Division attack. It went in two brigades up, one back and this triangulation was echoed back until about 700 men represented the point advance of the division. The importance of depth in a formation, and the difficulty of feeding it forward clearly indicates to me that the Courtney Allen system is correct in principle (although one will always argue about precise implementation). Most bodatious! Back to Perfidious Albion #93 Table of Contents Back to Perfidious Albion List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1996 by Charles and Teresa Vasey. 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