World's Bloodiest Tennis Court
Omaha Beach - Panzer Leader - Map and Counter Construction
So after the success of last week’s Gold Beach game (Gold Beach is one of the British invasion beach zones during the D-Day landings of June 6, 1944), I thought I would create a new scenario for Omaha Beach, the big American beach depicted in Saving Private Ryan.
The system will be Avalon Hill’s Panzer Leader.
This will be a monster game, play-tested solitaire (not live … it would literally take days). But the ambition here is to run all of Omaha Beach, in true scale, no shortcuts, no gimmicks.
So far I have the map mostly complete – with the American units built.
The map in its entirety. Each hex is 150 meters, so the map overall is just short of 6 miles wide (10 km)
A detail of the Dog Green and the Vierville draw, one the bloodiest sectors of Omaha, by far the bloodiest part of D-Day. This was the setting for Saving Private Ryan, but only a small slice of what we'll be recreating with this game.
American units for use in the web game. Each piece is a platoon of 5 tanks or about 50 men. We're looking at all the unit TYPES here, there will be hundreds of counters in all on the map. I should say these counters are the start of a complete library for US forces in ETO 1944-45, not all of it will be used on OMAHA BEACH specifically.
That is an impressive project.
I’ll be bookmarking this project!
Thanks very much @templar007 – I’ve got the map now finished and Additional research on American landing units, specific composition (did SP AAW battalions have M15A1s or M16 anti-aircraft halftracks, etc) … which battalions had the dozer-equipped Shermans, which had the DD shermans, which had the “wading skirt” Shermans launched from LCTs, etc … Also a four-hour historical phased landing plan for both 16th and 116th Regimental Combat Teams – we’ll see if my landings turn out as chaotic as the real event!
Just putting it out there, I’d still happy to take the role of the Jarmans! ??
@brucelea , I hear you loud and clear … but this game is getting to the point where I barely know if I want to run it even solitaire. Historical recreation of the full “first four hours” of the American assault of Omaha now has them at a conservative 400 counters.
I’m literally going to be running a turn a night for 20 nights.
If you want I can carve off a slice of this, say the Dog Green Sector at Vierville (Saving Private Ryan) and we can do the first two hours of the attack (10 turns)?
Sounds good, I’ll have a look at my calendar and let you know my availability. ?
Thanks, @brucelea – as we’ve discussed on web calls, there is no “points system” for Panzer Leader, when you’re building a scenario it’s all in your gut and your experience with the system. Well, my gut feels queasy on this one. It’s just the sheer size of it, I honestly don’t know if it will work or be balanced. The map we had for Gold Beach is literally 1/4 this one, and here we have AT LEAST x4 the forces (probably more) and x2 turns. So in total gaming volume, we looking at 9.5 hours x4 (map size/units) x2 (turns)… Read more »
Hi Oriskany, I just happen to see your D-Day scenario today (although you posted this a year ago or so). I cover art for Avalon Hill’s games from time to time as I majored in it in college. Also, since D-Day is the subject, I crafted a silhouette that matches your series of AFVs perfectly. It is of the M4A1/76 Sherman. The M4A1/76 Sherman is special because it was the first 76mm Sherman to see action. And it was available for D-Day as America had shipped about 100 to Great Britain right before Operation Overlord. But after much consultation, this… Read more »