Is the circle around Caen, Cherbourg & St Lo, just a "victory" city designation?

@The_Good_Captain Also, from page 9:

Axis & Allies: D-Day is played in a series of turns. A turn consists of one pass through the sixteen order cards, and then a check for victory.

Since victory is checked at the end of each turn, the Allies must hold the required zones until the end of turn 10.

It’s often that St. Lo gets left till the end, and I find the “works” are indeed heavily gummed up by that point. That’s why I proposed the KSF (Kill St. Lo First) Strategy.

I’m also surprised that you send a “small” force to Cherbourg.  I’ve done the same and ended up not having the force needed to take it (with the 1 round of combat deal).  With a full zone (Eight Units) plus a few extra units, it’s a tough crawl. I like to gamble on my landings at least once and land upwards of Utah Beach. I’ve posted previously posted about avoiding Omaha by gambling on the “Allies Land” card.

To Cherbourg:  I like to engage my bombers for at least 3 rounds, and make sure the “Onshore Bombardment” hits when the time is right in the Peninsula. It’s easy enough to take (IMHO) if you eliminate 65% of the defenders before you get there.  Keep Axis Re-Enforcements in mind as Germany can send tonnes of units Upwards to Cherbourg up until Turn 5 before they become redundant. When attacking that “Must Have” city of Cherbourg, employ my “Great Wall of Planes”  (see D-Day Post) to stem the tide of Axis Forces.

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Cheers,
Starlight Sniper

I’ve found that if Germany plays hard to Cherbourg and cuts off the US beach landings, then it’s the hardest to take.

Our little group has played four games of D-Day so far and the axis won the first three by holding St. Lo. the fourth game was a narrow allied victory only because we added two more rounds to the game. At the end of ten rounds the axis still held St. Lo as usual. It took the two extra rounds for the allies to get it. We are now looking for ways to vary the game so that it does not play out the same every time. One idea I like is to increase the attack value of the allied airborne units to two. I am even thinking of having the two sides place their own units where they will for the starting setup. I would like to vary the unit types as well. We now have added many new types of units since this game was printed. This might require setting up a D-12 system.

@conanthelibrarian:

While I’m on here, any other of the smaller AA games (like battle of the bulge) that you guys recommend?  Im playing this with my 8 year old, and I like that he can understand and play with me.

Thanks alot.

@Krieghund:

D-Day is the easiest A&A game of all.  Battle of the Bulge and Guadalcanal are a little bit more involved.  However, if your son can handle D-Day, maybe he can handle one of those as well.  I think I’d try Bulge before Guadalcanal.  If you do, let him be the Germans, as it’s harder to play the Allies in that game.

I’d agree with this. Looking at the rules it might seem Guadalcanal is ‘simpler’ but you have to make many more “if I do this what will my opponent do,” decisions a lot faster and GCNL eliminates the reinforcement charts creating a daunting set of decisions regarding reinforcements.

If you are also new to BOTB playing the Allies will be a good handicap for you as it is tougher to play the Allies and will be easier and more interesting for him as the Axis on the attack.

I’d wait till you’re bored with D-Day though.

I have aa50 and have played pac40. I still like dday and learned how to play on dday. Dday is a great beginners game and is still a good game to play everynow and again.

What I like to do with Cherbourg is to have the units in the area defend off the invasion for as long as possible and even pull back the units that i have left into the city.  For reinforcments I dont bother sending up much because of the air cover and also teh long treck that the units would have to go.  On avarage I might send up 3-4 tanks if im doing well on the other fronts and a handfull of Inf.  But when things get sketchy down south I cut off all the units that would be headed that way.  As said before its like  a distraction for the allies to help burn time, and maby even weaken the allies.