D-Day AAR

D-Day Game, a photo by The Gonk on Flickr.

So this is a very late game report, but we did actually manage to run our first big D-Day game! This was 2,375 points of Americans run by two players, and 1,345 points of Germans run by me. This still was not a lot of Germans, and I felt fairly thin across my front. However, I probably would have put up a much better fight had my artillery not gotten pinned down in the preliminary bombardment, and refused to unpin for six turns in a row!!
The first waves were infantry only. A few boats were held up, and the landing was immediately stronger on the German's right.

It took them, I think, two turns to actually kill the first AT bunker. The Amis then brought their DD and LCT Shermans in at that spot. The comment was, "reenforcing success."

Notice the flickering smoke markers! I never really got around to making the full on markers like I have discussed in the past-- but the LED under some dark grey wool roving really worked well!

Six. Turns. My artillery would not unpin for six whole turns. By that time, the Amis had killed the observer watching the beach on the right, and I had not placed them where they could direct fire at anything.

Once the Shermans got off the beach, things started to look very ugly indeed...

The Americans land their 105 battery in great order, but it's unnecessary as the Shermans break into the open!

The German CO is machine gunned down and he sprints across the board to try and spot for his artillery. The American objective is theirs to take, and the German objective is defended by a platoon in a hegedrow...directly in front of the Shermans led by one with a dozer blade. Not looking good at ALL. It was late, and we called the game.