Beyond Normandy
From: Avalanche Press, Ltd.
Reviewed by: Ron McClung
Beyond Normandy is a new War Game from Avalanche Press, Ltd.
The June 6, 1944 – D-Day. Everyone knows that famous battle and its overwhelming success. But what about afterward? The drive inland would be slow and hard, even with the constant flow of men and materiel on the beachhead of Normandy.
From the website:
“There was growing concern that the bloody fighting of the First World War might be repeated.”
Beyond Normandy is a platoon-level war game that is part of the Panzer Grenadier series of games. It covers the British combat operations immediately following D-Day all the way to the middle of July as well as the German counter-operations. I had not been familiar with the Panzer Grenadier series before. Contained within the box are three maps (two 22″ x 34″ and one 22″ x 17″) depicting the actual battlefield at 200 meters a hex, 583 playing pieces representing leaders, infantry, tank platoons, and artillery batteries, and a scenario book that contains 39 scenarios and 5 “super” scenarios.
The Panzer Grenadier rules are a moderate level set of rules not unlike many other games of its kind. The turn sequence is as follows: Initiative Determination Phase, Action Phase, Marker Removal Phase. The first phase, Initiative Determination, not only determines who goes first, but it also determines how many actions the player with initiative does initially. After that, each player alternates, performing an action, until neither can perform actions. Then a new turn begins. Interestingly, getting initiative really only effects the start of the turn, only giving the player a slight and not overwhelming advantage.
Action Phase is just that – where all the action happens. During this phase, the active player activates one unit, leader or group. The active player must announce all actions before executing them. They are either Move or Fire. Movement includes moving, digging-in, limbering or unlimbering, and attempting to recover from demoralization or disruption. Firing includes most forms of attack that you would expect like bombardment, anti-tank fire, and assault. Once a unit has taken an action, they are marked as so and can not take another one (unless directed to by a Random Event). Actions also include any off-board artillery and air support. The inactive player does have an opportunity fire option during his opponent’s turn.
From the website:
“Although Montgomery in the end did not force the Germans to abandon Caen itself, he did draw the German armor onto the British Army, who both tied it up and ground it down.”
Also during the action phase, Leaders may activate subordinates. Leaders play a major role in this game. In most cases, the are picked randomly at the beginning of the game. There are varying ranks of leaders for both sides, ranging from Corporal to Colonel. Each have a different Morale value. Also Armored Fighting Vehicles (AFVs) have separate leaders called tank leaders. These leaders affect what can and can not advance as well as morale of units in combat.
Movement is fairly simple. Everything activated can move once (except the unit the leader has activated which can move twice), and once moved the units is marked as moved. All units have a movement allowance. There are four basic types of movement: mechanized, motorized, towed, and foot. Of course, position, terrain and whether the unit is activated by a friendly leader effects what can move.
Other specialized rules include direct fire attacks, bombardment (indirect fire), anti-tank fire, assault, and opportunity fire. As previously mentioned, there are morale check rules as well as rules for digging in, disruption, wrecking, and minefields.
From the website:
“British troops battle the fearsome Waffen SS behind the beachheads, on ‘historical terrain’ maps.”
The Map quality is exceptional. It includes individual bridges, villages, tracks, roads, hedgerows and church steeples, as well as varying terrain contour lines. The chits are also nice and include the weapons used by infantry and armored brigades of both sides. They are detailed down to the tank types which include British tank types like the Churchill, Cromwell and Firefly tanks, the flame-throwing Crocodile, and the bomb-throwing AVR as well as the Germans like the SS grenadiers, Panther tanks and more. The chits are well illustrated and understandable.
The second book (the larger of the two) opens with special rules for this particular campaign, like special terrain, aircraft, and rules for star shell round for night attacks. Then several scenarios follow. Starting with the attack on Cheux in 1944, the game follows the British push into France from village to village and the Germans’ attempts to slow that progress. There are a total of 43 scenarios. Talk about replayability!
In conclusion, this game seemed fairly complex on the outset, but it is fairly detailed and is smaller scale then the games I have reviewed in the past. I like the way initiative is handled, giving the initiative-winning player an initial advantage, but nothing overly devastating. The game flow was not as complex as I initially thought. It does add considerable detail to the strategy including night attacks, church steeples, and formation cohesion and morale. This is mostly because of the scale of the game. At this scale, a player can take advantage of more.
Overall, I liked the game, but I can see it taking a considerable amount of time, depending on the scenario. There would also be a considerable learning time for the game. There is a lot to consider in this game. This is not for the novice player, in my opinion, but it is not too advanced for the moderate player.
For more details on Avalanche Press, Ltd. and their new War Game “Beyond Normandy” check them out at their website http://www.avalanchepress.com, and at all of your local game stores.
Beyond Normandy
From: Avalanche Press, Ltd.
Type of Game: War Game
Game Design by: Brian L. Knipple, Mike Bennighof, Doug McNair
Layout by: Peggy Coleman
Number of Pages: 15 (rulebook), 72 (scenario book)
Game Components Included:
Retail Price: $ 64.99 (US)
Number of Players: 2
Player Ages: 14+
Play Time: 30 minutes to many hours
Item Number: APL0308
Website: www.avalanchepress.com
Reviewed by: Ron McClung