The Longest Day (game)

The Longest Day

The Longest Day front cover, cover art by Rodger B. MacGowan
Designers	Randall C. Reed
Illustrators	Rodger B. MacGowan, Randall C. Reed
Publishers	The Avalon Hill Game Corporation
Publication	1979
Genres	Military simulation
Players	2-8
Setup time	8 hours or more
Playing time	3-15 hours for regular scenarios, 50-90 hours for campaign
Chance	High
Age range	12+

The Longest Day is a World War II board wargame published by Avalon Hill in 1980 that simulates the Allied D-Day invasion of June 1944 and the subsequent Normandy campaign.

Background

Main article: Operation Overlord

In early June 1944, Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy. Although German forces were not able to eliminate the beachhead, they were able to contain Allied forces within the Cotentin Peninsula for almost 8 weeks. The Allies finally broke out with simultaneous attacks by British and Canadian forces (Operation Goodwood) and American forces (Operation Cobra).

Description

The Longest Day is a game for two-eight players (or two teams) that covers the Allied Operation Overlord from the Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944, to the Battle of the Falaise Gap in August 1944. With more than 2600 counters, The Longest Day is a monster game (having more than 1000 counters), and has been characterized as a "complicated simulation" that takes a long time to play.

Components

The large game box is 14.25 inches x 11.25 inches x 2.5 inches, weighs nine pounds (4 kg) and contains:

• Six 14" x 22" mounted hex grid map boards and one 8"x22" mounted mapboard, scaled at 2 km (1.2 mi) per hex
• 2603 counters that use German rather than NATO symbols to differentiate infantry, armour, artillery and cavalry
• Reinforcement and unit entry tracks for both sides
• Charts for various aspects of the game

Gameplay

The game includes five regular scenarios that range in playing time from 3 to 12 hours:

1. Normandy Beachhead (6 June-8 June)
2. Fall of Cherbourg (19 June-27 June)
3. Operation Cobra (25 July-31 July)
4. Mortain Counterattack (6 August-8 August)
5. Falaise Pocket (17 August-21 August)

The game includes five training scenarios of increasing complexity for players to learn the rules.

Each turn represents one day in game time. Wargame Academy rates the game's complexity as 6 on a scale of 10 and estimates that a campaign game would take 30–50 hours to complete, while Avalon Hill rates the game's complexity as 8 on a scale of 10 and estimates that the game would take 50-90 hours to complete.

Campaign Scenario

The Campaign Scenario contains of expanded rules from all five regular scenarios to simulate a realistic experience from June 6th, 1944 to August 31st, 1944. The following text is the rules for the Campaign Scenario game.

Segments

For the five regular scenarios, including the Campaign Scenario, each turn is split into segments for each side, which is split into phases. For the campaign scenario, the sequence of play goes as follows:

Allied Player Segment

• Allied Replacement Phase - Introduce new units, supply units and replacement units into the game.
• Allied Air/Naval Phase - Position and adjust aerial and naval units on charts and map boards. Execute aerial and naval bombardment, including Railroad Interdiction.
• German Artillery Phase - Execute German coastal artillery bombardment.
• Allied Movement Phase - The Allied commander(s) may move their units as much as they want, although limited to the Movement Allowance variable, with the presence of terrain and enemy units.
• German Mechanized Movement Phase - The German commander(s) may move their undisrupted motorized divisions.
• German Defensive Fire Phase - The German commander(s) may execute artillery fire.
• Allied Combat Phase - The Allies can execute combat against the Germans. All combat is resolved via the Combat Results Table. Allied Artillery and AT units may fire in direct conjunction with Allied ground attacks.
• Allied Reset Phase - Turn all inverted German ranged-artillery units face-up, and remove all "Disrupted" markers from Allied units.

German Player Segment

• German Replacement Phase - Introduce new units, supply units and replacement units into the game. Remove "Cut" markers, and move train units from the return box to the ready box.
• German Movement Phase - The German player may move all of his units to the limit of their Movement Allowance, with the presence of terrain and enemy units.
• Allied Mechanized Movement Phase - The Allied commander(s) may move their undisrupted motorized divisions.
• Allied Defensive Fire Phase - Same as German Defensive Fire Phase.
• German Combat Phase - Same as German Combat Phase.
• German Reset Phase - Turn all inverted Allied ranged-artillery units face-up, and remove all "Disrupted" markers from German units.

Weather

At the beginning of each turn, a die is rolled and determines the weather via the Weather Table to calculate an outcome. On the June 6th turn, the weather is always fair. On turns after June 6th, turns are modified by the Weather Modification Chart to get the final outcome. When the weather is Storm-1, the next turn is automatically Storm-2 weather. On the third turn, if storm would be rolled again, it would become Storm-1, again followed by Storm-2. This cycle will repeat until it is the 6th consecutive storm turn, in which the weather would automatically become fair, or if a non-storm outcome is received. Weather effects are summarized on the Weather Effects Chart.

Replacements and Rebuilding Remnants

In the scenarios, units were reduced to inverted and remnant counter status. The following rules allow units to return to full strength:

• A replacement unit has a stacking value of "0" and may never exercise a zone-of-control. When alone in a hex, it is immediately removed from the map board whenever an enemy unit moves to a hex adjacent or into its hex.
• There are two types of replacement units, Infantry and Armor Replacements. Infantry Replacements may be used to rebuild any type of battalion or company that is non-motorized, motorized, or tracked.
• Armor replacements may be used to rebuild any type of armor unit.
• Replacement units are used to rebuild remnant units into inverted units and to rebuild inverted units into full-strength units. Replacement units are 'consumed' in the rebuilding process in a three-turn procedure:
• A remnant/inverted unit can be rebuilt if a replacement unit is two hexes away from an enemy unit, and is on the hex with the remnant/inverted unit. During a friendly replacement phase, the replacement unit is put onto the remnant/inverted unit for it to be rebuilt. During the following replacement phase, the combat unit is rebuilt by turning inverted units into full-strength units, and for remnant units to be turned into inverted units. A unit being rebuilt may not move or attack while the replacement unit remains on top of it. If an attack happens on the unit, combat ensures as normal, however, the replacement unit is removed from the map board.
• Disrupted units may not be rebuilt. A replacement unit can only turn a remnant to an inverted unit and an inverted unit to a full-strength unit before it is absorbed.
• At the end of the third consecutive replacement phase, the inverted replacement unit is removed and immediately returned to the replacement pool at which point it may be immediately redeployed to the entry track. The rebuilt combat unit may then move and attack normally in the same player segment.

Campaign Game Variations

Six "add-ons" of the campaign game were made, which are hypothetical outcomes for events that did not happen, but were considered.

Second Allied Air Drop

After the temporary stalemate in Normandy, several officers calculated and planned for a second airdrop to coincide with a massive offence. However, after Operation Goodwood and Operation Cobra happened, this airdrop was deemed "unnecessary".

The 82nd Airborne Division's Drop Zone Not Revised

During a month before Operation Overlord, May 1944, intelligence suggested that the Germans had moved the 91st Infanterie Division on top of where the 82nd Airborne Division's landing zones. On May 26th, 1944, General Omar Bradley ordered the drop zone to land next to and north of the 101st Airborne Division's drop area.

Hitler Abandons the Channel Islands

The German occupation of the Channel Islands located west of the Cotentin Peninsula, remains as a forgotten but fascinating chapter of the Second World War. Hitler demanded that a group of islands possessing little value near Cotentin would be defended for Hitler's Festung Europa. During the Wehrmacht's control of the islands, it was seen as a complete drain for Hitler's regime. The populace produced no materials, goods, or labor, but constantly required upkeep by the German Reich. During Operation Overlord, the Allies would ignore the Channel Islands altogether.

Spring Withdrawals Rescinded

On March 26th, 1944, the IIss Panzer Korps was drafted to fight on the Eastern Front after the First Panzer Army was under fierce Russian attacks on Galicia. This formation, comprising of other valuable corps units, did not return to the Western Front until Operation Overlord.

Rommel's Strategy Fully Embraced

The Commander-of-Chief of OB West was divided between Erwin Rommel and Gerd von Rundstedt. Eventually, Rundstedt was chosen as C-in-C of OB West. Rommel, fearing Allied aerial power, expressed his demand that mobile reserves be positioned very close to the beaches so that they could attack in a decisive victory in the first day of Operation Overlord.

Rommel Appointed Commander in Chief of OB West

A more decisive and reactionary scenario of Scenario 5 is Rommel being assigned as C-in-C of OB West. Hitler, wanting a more "dynamic" leader for the inevitable Battle of France, chooses Rommel to become C-in-C of OB West. In this scenario, Rommel would adjust his forces until the final week before the invasion, moving stronger units behind Normandy.

Publication history

The Longest Day was published by Avalon Hill in 1980, with cover art by Rodger B. MacGowan. It was designed by Randall C. Reed, who also designed the counters and maps. Reed was the head of Avalon Hill's research and development staff in the late 1970s, and was one of the first new Avalon Hill employees after the Charles S. Roberts era. He later left Avalon Hill to work with wargames for the U.S. Marine Corps.

After the game was published, it was discovered that some counters were missing. These were included in The General, Vol. 28, No. 6.

Reception

A review published in Phoenix magazine in 1981 examined the historicity of the game and found that it was inaccurate in several areas. This included geographical errors – 9 of 11 British/Canadian landing beaches were incorrectly named – rules that do not accurately represent possible actions, and strategic errors. Barnard nevertheless concluded, "It is worth playing and, even more so, it is worth studying [...] The game is, I feel, a valuable contribution to the advance of game design, even if just because it sets out to be, or at least seem, historically serious."

Other reviews

• Casus Belli, No. 6 (Dec 1981)
• Campaign, No. 94 & No. 103
• Fire & Movement, No. 65
• The Grenadier, No. 13
• PanzerFaust, No. 63
• Richard Berg's Review of Games, No. 4 & No. 6

External links

• The Longest Day at BoardGameGeek
• The Longest Day at Wargame Academy (wargame)