Picking up those brushes again.

Hi and welcome to the occasional mutterings of Dave Doc, a military modeller and some time gamer. Gaming and model making has given me a real education, History & Geography(obvious really), Artistry, Politics, Economics, Logistics, Project Management -you try building miniature armies without the last 3.

I will use the blog to record my creations & the odd occasion I actually do some gaming.

I have always been inspired by the aesthetic side of gaming. Playing on well constructed terrain using excellently painted units is always a joy.

Sunday 7 June 2020

Normandy 44 - Hitting the beach - Gaming


In place of this weekends planned big D Day game we took the  opportunity to run a smaller virtual set up that just covered the beach landing part. This was laid out on my 8x4 table and we used Zoom to host the virtual game. I would play the beach defenders and the usual suspects , James (west) and Martin (east) the American forces. Each would have a sector of beach to attack with continuing waves of landing forces  of different kinds.

Hit the beach!

This year the defences were more aligned to Omaha beach with tougher bunkers , more difficult sea conditions etc and higher bluffs behind the beach

I played out the advance naval and air bombardments after the guys has done me an "accuracy" roll. They didn't know the results - just where shot had been seen to land.



Western end - one platoon and 1 DD make the beach.
British Landing Craft on duty

Eastern beach - Martins carft all drifted and bunched to the far end of the beach


Lone DD drifts and lands onto the middle of beach. 

88's pick off a DD and the MG's batter the infantry in the surf

Engineering teams and Sherman dozers arrive 



More infantry reinforcements 

Wave 1 Seek cover in the various obstacles  






Eastern side make the sea wall 























The Western beach feel easily with Martin overwhelming the defences that had been initially stunned  by the pre bombardment. James stuttered to start with as the defences had not been knocked out and also only half the force landed at wave 1  . That picked up with extra waves and the gradual silencing of the defence elements,


Overall a good game . More learnt. As ever playing these out always give an immense respect for the peopel who went through this.