Dav Vandenbroucke  - Jun 8, 2009 7:56 pm (#45102 Total: 45268)  
A good workman doesn't complain about his tools because a good workman 
picks good tools 	
 
June '44

Over D-Day weekend, I played a solitaire game of DDH's June '44. It's a
fairly small game, which was why I picked it. I wanted to be able to
learn it and sit down to play before the weekend was over. It worked out
pretty well. 

The game is a division-level treatment of the Normandy campaign, from
the invasion through early July. The components were all quite good: an
11x17 map, a sheet of die-cut counters, a rule book printed in color, a
two-sided player aid card, a deck of event cards, a 10-sided die, and a
few zip lock bags. None of the parts had a real "wow" factor, but
neither did anything seem substandard. One nice touch is that the unit
counters all feature the appropriate organizational badge. 

It's a pretty straightforward game. The play is movement and combat.
ZoCs stop movement but don't force combat. You can move from one
controlled hex to another if you are moving into a hex that is occupied
by a friendly unit. Combat is a bit nonstandard. You may attack a hex
with only one stack. However, you do get "flanking" bonuses if you have
friendly units that are adjacent to the defender but no other enemy
units. Combat is resolved by calculating a strength differential, and
then each player rolls on the CRT using the proper differential. For
example, if the attacker has a +4 differential, then he would roll on
the +4 column, and the defender would roll on the -4 column. All the
usual things: terrain, artillery, air support, etc., just add to the
side's attack or defense strength, and hence to the final differential.
Combat results are either no effect or one or two step losses. There are
no retreat results. Units can advance if the enemy is eliminated. Most
units are two steps, and it takes high differentials and good die
rolling to score two hits. So stacks (two divisions plus a brigade) can
be hard to dislodge. 

There is, of course, a special invasion turn. Before the game, the
German player puts the beach defense units (strength from 1 to 3) face
down on the invasion beaches. The allies get two combat phases to clear
the beach by eliminating the defenses. Most attackers will have a
strength of 5, and the Allies also have three naval gunfire markers (1
point each). In my solitaire game, I randomly assigned the beach markers
and wound up with both of the "3" markers at Omaha. Even so, I cleared
all the beaches in the first round. The airborne divisions land as
individual brigades. The American brigades are deployed face down, so
that you don't know what division they belong to until after they land.
(The British are deployed that way, too, but with only one division,
it's not that important.) If you can stack your brigades together, you
can replace them with a division counter, stronger than the combined
three brigades. 

The beginning of the turn sees a fair amount of chrome, but it moves
quickly. A weather die roll determines how much air and naval support
the Allies get, and whether the Germans suffer movement penalties. The
Allies have to roll for supply points, which allow them to attack. They
also get extra points if they have the mulberries. Both sides roll for
replacements, with the Allies being more likely to get some. Then both
sides enter their reinforcements, most of which enter at fixed
locations. Finally, there is the event card phase. In the two player
games, both players can hold two cards. They can play or discard them,
drawing again until they have a full hand. The cards give bonuses or
penalties, such as delaying reinforcements, changing the weather, etc.
Some can be played later to affect combat ("Busting the Bocage," "Dug-in
88s," etc.). Crucially, this is how you get the mulberries. In the
solitaire rules, you're supposed to draw just one event card per turn
and then apply it for the whole turn. In the game I played, the
mulberries never showed up, which considerably handicapped the Allies. 

The Allies win by getting seven victory points, which you get by
capturing cities. The two hexes of Caen are worth two points each until
the June 21-22 turn, after which they are worth only one. All the others
are worth only one. 

At first the Allied player is limited more by supply than the Germans.
He'll have more opportunities for good attacks than supply points to
allow them. As the Panzer divisions arrive, that changes. Basically you
have to balance fighting your way into Caen with grabbing St. Lo and the
cities on the Cotentin Peninsula. Caen is close, and the British are
pretty strong, but it's hard to fight your way in. The resistance is
lighter on the road to Cherboug, but the bocage slows you down and gives
the Germans room to maneuver. 

I had a pretty good time, on the whole, although the Allies were not
making a lot of progress when I took the game down in the June 27-28
turn. I may have expended too much supply on Caen. It's a simple,
fast-playing game, and I'll probably give it another try. DDH has a
cyberboard gamebox that they will give to purchasers who want it.