Bought D Day Sealed, but there is no UK Blonde Units

Shouldn’t it read:

Don’t be such a Gargantuan Contrarion?

Just saying.  :P

Nice use of sacrasm here…

You are right little boots the game is horribly unbalanced in the axis favour. It is so unbalanced you were able to notice it after only your first play. Th#e more you play it the more you realize how unbalanced it is.

Hey all,

This forum doesn’t seem to get much love lately so I’ll keep populating with new D-Day experiences.  Our last game was particularly wild because we threw in the forture cards and tactic cards.  The tactics didn’t hurt as much as the fortune cards did.  In reality, my bad fortune probably won me the game in the end.

On the first turn the allies bombardment missed all the block houses and his bombers concentrated on some lone panthers, which were destroyed.  My blockhouses did some major damage across the beaches, removing a sherman and hurting Omaha’s landing forces badly.  My German forces at Omaha beach would end up holding their position the entire game and repel all landings.  His U.S. forces came in slow enough he kept to Utah, and when he did have a few on Omaha they managed to land adjacent to my units because he got the positive effect from a fortune card.

I thought hard about bringing a notepad and counting out the times we would roll to see if his fighters were as inconsistant as I thought mine were.  This way I could do the math and say my fighters really did suck wind, but alas I neglected to bring one.  With the way I rolled for some fortune cards, I was kicking myself for not tallying the rolls.  Quite a few times allies rolled a 6 for shore bombardment and his six dice had to hit blockhouses on 1’s.  At least four times when I rolled for the movement phase fortune card, I rolled a 6 and received “fuel shortage” meaning I could only move units from two zones!  This completely crippled my movement from the reinforcement areas and pretty soon Caen was swimming in a huge army of Brits due to my lack of counter attack.  I picked some off where I could, but I was severely slowed.  My reinforcements were coming in quickly and soon the bottom and east side of the map was saturated with zones stacked 8 high.

Around turn 7 Caen was still out of my control, Cherbourg was close to being taken, but St Lo had the bulk of a fueless German front languishing around it.  I realized that it would be difficult for him to swing his U.K. army to take St Lo, while protecting Caen from the two German armies I had massed to the east of it.  The U.S. army that managed to reach Cherbourg was so far removed from St Lo it couldn’t pressure it and I moved Germans towards Cherbourg to prevent any ease of travel south.  The game ended on turn 10 with St Lo still in my control.  I knew I’d win even if I didn’t press for Caen or Cherbourg, but I went for it anyway.

Caen was still contested by the end of turn 10 with Germans and Brits fighting it out on the streets.  Cherbourgs fighter defenses strafed my stack to oblivion, leaving panther left to swing and miss at the defenders… it died in the return fire.  I faced a lot of fighter cover attacking Cherbourg, no one in their right mind would face that volley.  Last turn, I hoped the odds would be with them, they were entirely in his court.  The 1’s popped up everywhere.

So it ended in a German victory by holding St Lo.  Here were some funny occurances due to the cards.

Allies once rolled a 6 for fighter coverage and on a 4+ roll for each fighter would ground it for that turn.  He rolled 8 dice, and at the end only 1 fighter could provide strafing coverage for that turn.  Of course on that turn I also rolled a 6 for my movement and only 2 zones could move so no benefit for me.

The Axis and Allies have a card where artillery can make a targeted attack againsted an enemy unit in the zone adjacent to it.  I used this card and got over 7 shots at allies and managed to take out a few units to include 2 shermans.

I once rolled a 1 for the blockhouses firing to sea and needed to hit on a 5 or less, on the other hand he devastated a unit of tanks when he rolled a 1 for his bombers, allowing them to hit on a 5 or less, and then compounded the pain by using the tactic which allowed his bombers to roll an additional die.

Once we went a few turns with the cards it became pretty easy to know what was coming next and the gameplay accelerated.  Again we had a good time with this game, a few beers, some pizza, and famous tank battles going on in the background!

Played my first D-Day game last Thurday with a work friend.  I usually play Revised/Anniversary/Some new Pacific/Global.  First let me say, it was nice not to have to decide what units to purchase with IPCs.  Well to the battle…

I did a scant bit of research on what the game might involve, glossed over the rules, and printed out the FAQ.  We flipped a coin and I got allies.  I knew that blockhouses were bad because they could pick the unit to remove so I made it a point to try to kick those in the teeth near the Brits so they couldn’t pluck my shermans out of the water.  The ones that did survive to shoot, missed everything.  I had a good UK landing and pushed Caen hard, taking it turn 2.  When placing my airpower I tried putting them in reinforcement zones and cut quick approaches to my stacks.  I’ll say that positioning the strafing helped steer his units, but the ones that walked through the strafing were probably safer, because my planes could not hit the broad side of Caen.

I rushed into Caen so then turned my sights toward St Lo, while trying to clear out units around Cherbourg.  We traded units pretty steadily outside of St Lo and I couldn’t seem to muster my way inside.  I reinforced Caen landing zones once with units to help against reinforcements, but then prioritized capturing St Lo.  An error to almost lose my the game later.  My units near Cherbourg took some heavy losses and I needed to start pushing more US that direction, while focusing on St. Lo.  Reinforcements started massing around Caen and I realized I needed to shift units toward it to either intercept the Germans outside of Caen or to retake it if it was lost.

Turn 8 I took St Lo and flung 3 UK shermans towards Cherbourg that would make it to attack on turn 10 (with other US forces).  I piled aircraft around Caen to protect it to no avail.

Turn 9 my UK forces attack blocks of Germans around Caen and score victories, but Germans still remain.  My attack into Cherbourg is practically obliterated, leaving 5 German units still on the city.  The follow-up US forces combined with the 3 shermans need to clear it turn 10.

Turn 10 two Spitfires decimate 3 Axis units out of a sizeable force that move to attack Caen and UK forces finish off the rest.  The attack on Cherbourg finished the remaining units.

I wish I kept track of my shots taking by fighters and bombers, because their hitrate was horrendous, even by 17% standards.  Bombers are better at needing 3’s, but I am sure their rate fell below 50% in the last few turns.  My UK reinforcement rolls had my last reinforcements hitting the beach on turn 7, while the US finished landing on turn 9.

The game was fun and different, which made it a cool experience.  Next time we’ll try the fortune cards or maybe hit up Guadalcanal.  I think what was a real shocker was having the game only take a few hours, where Anniversary can take much much longer.

@Albert:

The terms D-Day and H-Hour are used for the day and hour on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. They designate the day and hour of the operation when the day and hour have not yet been determined, or where secrecy is essential. For a given operation, the same D-Day and H-Hour apply for all units participating in it. When used in combination with numbers, and plus or minus signs, these terms indicate the point of time preceding or following a specific action. Thus, H−3 means 3 hours before H-Hour, and D+3 means 3 days after D-Day. (By extension, H+75 minutes is used for H-Hour plus 1 hour and 15 minutes.) Planning papers for large-scale operations are made up in detail long before specific dates are set. Thus, orders are issued for the various steps to be carried out on the D-Day or H-Hour minus or plus a certain number of days, hours, or minutes. At the appropriate time, a subsequent order is issued that states the actual day and times.

Correct.  Good explanation.  WWII had many “D-Days”, but the one on June 6 1944 became so famous that it has tended to overshadow the rest, and to occupy a category by itself.

Coordinated Landing simply allows you to land units in any of that country’s landing zones regardless of which Beachhead they’re in.  Of course, you must still observe stacking limits.

cant u have the german fighters strafe when the axis attack u could resolve fighter combat like reg combat but have it 3 or less

great.  thanks a lot.

Here are the major differences…

1. The Turn order is determined by a sequential action of cards that give orders to one side or the other…

2. There is no production… Instead Troops come in via a reinforcement chart that you roll for to determine what comes ashore (or from Rouen and Rennes)

3. The Objective (for the Allies) is to seize 3 VC (Cherbourg, St. Lo, Caen) by turn nine and hold them for a turn… otherwise the Germans win…

4. There is now a limit of 8 Land Units for one side or the other (so The Allies can only have 8 units in a zone and no more, the germans can not have any more either)…

5. Allies can only have Aircraft… German Artillery are AA capable… The Germans now get Blockhouses that get to target Allied units coming ashore… Plus all German defends on 3 instead of the allied 2  :wink:

6. Fortune Cards (optional) can give one side or the other an advantage brought on by bombings, shortages, Weather etc.

7. Tactic Cards (optional) give a one time use advantage to one side or the other…

8. Battles only last one cycle, so you have to be selective to not tie units down…

here is the rulebook: http://www.wizards.com/avalonhill/rules/axisdday.pdf

Overall it is more of a training game to teach the mechanic of fighting to new players imo… but it is a great short game… Although it can get boring with the same strats that usually get played… IF you want blockhouse pieces though get it…

GG