Spending a long-awaited vacation away from city in calm nature surroundings does not necessarily mean you cannot enjoy your favorite boardgames 🙂 True, you are not able to take all of them with you but there is always a laptop and Vassal which will enable you to play at least some of them. With that in mind I prepared for another adventure with fantastic D-Day at Omaha Beach from Decisiongames – a game which is definitely among my favorite solitaire wargames.

D-Day at Omaha Beach – “Easy Fox” scenario
D-Day at Omaha Beach – “The First Waves” scenario
My Passion for History – World War II (Operation Overlord & D-Day)
Solitaire Wargames – my 3 favorite

As you probably know, this is first title in D-Day series by John H. Butterfield and undoubtedly the best, allowing us to simulate the fateful day of June 6th 1944 on the bloodiest beach. In my opinion, a great replayability, couple of interesting scenarios, plus extended variants – and very, very difficult victory to achieve.

The Report

My idea was to have an one-evening game thus I opted for quickest scenario – “Easy Fox“. This is a pretty short set-up as we have only half of the beach here and only first 16 turns (compared to full game with 32 turns and both parts of the beach). So like quarter of the full game. Still, by no means this is easy scenario as you face very difficult dilemmas being pinned between Colleville (E-3) and St. Laurent (E-1) Draws. Let us see how it went this time!

TURN 0
The initial set-up of the Easy Fox  scenario – only the eastern part of the beach is in play – first four tanks ready to land (click to enlarge)

Turn 1-8 (0600-0800 AM)

As picture is worth thousand words, I am presenting animated version of the session report, with initial 8 turns first, and the rest of the scenario. I hope you will enjoy such approach.

TURN 1-8
Detailed maneuvers of Turns 1-8 – EAST (1st Division) (click to enlarge)

Main actions turns 1-8 – EAST (1st Division):

  • The first landings were really bad – 2 tanks destroyed fully, 2 delayed one turn.
  • I was very lucky to get hero already on Second Turn; but another one will not appear till the end of game 😦 That brave man enabled quick progression towards WN62 – northern part is being dealt with in first part of scenario.
  • The things look much worse in case of second Widerstandsnest – I am lacking weapons to tackle WN61 and new Heroes are not arriving.
  • During initial 8 turns two Tactical Reinforcements appear – in C1 and D2; especially C1 would be very, very painful obstacle.
  • The causalities for first 8 turns are moderate – 20 steps flipped; two infantry units lost in action against maximum eight as far disastrous losses are concerned.

Turn 9-16 (0800-1000 AM)

TURN 9-16
Detailed maneuvers of Turns 9-16 – EAST (1st Division) (click to enlarge)

Main actions turns 9-16 – EAST (1st Division):

  • WN62 is quickly cleared and my troops focus now on C1 which in the meantime gets Depth. A grand battle soon will occur there…
  • Turn 10 is bitter-sweet – first, I finally manage to get rid of WN61 – at the same time three (!) German reinforcements appear in D3, A1, A3.
  • As usually – and historically true – appearance of Gen.Wyman and HQ really changes the dynamics of game; I am able to move the whole mass of troops now.
  • My bad luck with reinforcements continues – B1, D5, A2 (divisional), D7 (divisional) arrive; this was first time in my gameplays when in initial 16 turns the German Divisional Reinforcements arrived.
  • WN60 and A1 are only scratched as I lack weapons to do more than disruption.
  • I was preparing to fight C1 for three turns and it was good decision – 6 points of strength, Artillery, Flanking on both tokens – well, that was very hard fight but won!
  • The causalities during second part of the scenario are pretty low – 8 steps flipped; one additional infantry units destroyed – in total three out of maximum eight.
TURN 16 - Status2
Situation end-of-game with marked VPs (green) and taken strong-points but in Field-of-Fire of Germans (red) (click to enlarge)

Summary

I really appreciate that game and how difficult it is. I have a feeling I was doing well, but still I achieved only 5 VPs (9 VPs are needed for victory). There was slim chance to get the Colleville Draw, but then the A4 reinforcements arrived. Another drawback was lack of weapons for WN61 and only one Hero. Anyhow, that was very enjoyable game!

PS. And that whisper in the ear after the game – try once again, one more time…