The Greatest Day is very appealing to me due to the nature of the game: company level D-Day. Actually, to be more exact, the first week of the Commonwealth side of the Normandy invasion. The level of research and detail that went into the game was exceptional. Detail on the map and counters is also very high. The rules were a little bit more general though. Most of that is the writing style of the game designer. It is written more in a conversational style and less like stereo instructions. This makes the initial read of the rules very easy. However, it made (for me at least) going back and finding specifics on a certain rule for a particular situation a little more challenging. An index would have been smashing.
As for the rule system itself, I really liked it. The activation process (think initiative) was very nice. It was also a little nostalgic. As soon as I read the rule, it reminded me of some of my first historical miniature gaming 30 years ago. My local group played the venerable The Sword and the Flame miniature rules a lot....colonial period 25mm miniature rules. One of our local rule modifications was to its initiative rules. We assigned a playing card to each unit (squad level) and when its card was pulled from the deck it was allowed to move. After everything moved, reshuffle the deck, start pulling cards and that is the order all the units conducted fire combat. A random system that comes as close to a simultaneous feel as can be done and not totally bog the game down. Obviously, TGD (The Greatest Day) rules are more sophisticated than that, but just as fun. It adds in a nice nail biting element as you don't know exactly when your units are going to get to do their thing. Also, there are a number of global events that have an impact on the current situation at hand. If a global event chit is pulled before or after your activation chit, it can have a very large impact on what your units can and cannot get accomplished.
The combat system was also a plus. I very much liked that the die roll was never modified; only the different combat factors or Troop Quality Ratings get modified. While this seems minor, I think it produces more consistent results. It also made the learning curve a little easier. Occasionally, a modifier might be overlooked. But that had fewer effects than you would think because if the die roll was a "1" then it was still a "1" and the results did not change even with the addition of the forgotten modifier. The only time it changed something is if the the die roll was near to a no effects result.
Supply and command were abstracted out with the Command/Dispatch point system. I think it will produce good results, but we did not get far enough into the game to say for certain. It did "feel" as if it would and the system worked hand-in-hand with the activation system. It did take a while to get what/when you could spend your command points on down pat.
There really was only one thing that I personally felt needed revision and that was wheeled/tracked movement in woods, towns and some other terrain. The rules require the formation to be in column in that terrain which is a poor rule and not accurate. However, it might be in the rules for other reasons. When we discussed this as a group, I believe it was Mike who suggested it was to reflect other aspects. So a tank company that is in column, in clear terrain should have its attack valued lowered and its defense value raised (lower is better for defense) when compared to being in line. However, and I can say this from personal real world experience, vehicles (company size elements) do not need to be in column to negotiate in woods or towns. However, they may have less firepower and be more vulnerable similar to as if they were in column in open ground. The best we could come up with was the rules just merged it all together so there would not need to be multiple, different rules. I would like to see this revised since being in column has some other important limiting factors such as stacking and movement. There are some other issues with vehicle movement in terrain other than clear that I felt could use a little tweaking, but was very minor. Other members of the group also had issues here and there with a rule or two such as the Royal Marines and the large number die rolls that have to be made. Those are their issues, though, so I will not try to put words in their mouths Overall I got the impression everyone was happy with the system as a whole; after all it was a play test and you expect things to not always be perfectly smooth.
Due to having to work, I did not get there until the last hour or two on Friday night. When I got there they were just finishing up the Naval phase of the June 6th, 0600 turn. I was assigned Gold beach and the British 50th Infantry Division.
My inexperience with the rule system did cause a couple of issues that would cause problems with the 50th's effectiveness over the next couple of turns. The biggest was poor Gap selection. Not all gaps off the beaches are created equal. I chose poorly. This caused a slow go off the left flank and almost stopped me cold on the right flank. Now eventually all gaps were opened, but key assault forces were already committed to poorly chosen gaps.
My second mistake was not realizing how truly powerful independent units attached to my division were. This is directly tied to the activation process. Due to the compact nature of a beach landing, most of my independent units were in the command radius of all of my brigade commanders and therefore able to be activated during each of their formation activation. Sounds simple, but it's huge. This gives these independent units multiple chances to move, fire and rally.
Things started to go better after the 0700 turn. I started to get the hang of the rules and get a better understanding of the game play. I pushed an armor company out of the far left gap and took some high ground with an observation post on it. This gave that unit increased line of sight and better contact numbers to call in artillery fire on enemy positions. The Germans had little choice but to fall back with more and more units getting through the gaps while getting hammered by naval guns. I was stymied on the right with a long series of bad die rolls though.
The right flank was still an issue for me. By the time I got my head on right and got the rules sorted out in my head, I had moved the bulk of the division off of the beach through the left. Artillery fire had the desired effect in the defenders and was pushing them back.
With the exception of two pill boxes on the far right of the beach overlay, the beach was clear. When we stopped for the weekend, it was going to be a close call as to whether or not the 50th would meet its 1300 objective. It was in the hands of the Royal Marines.....
I really enjoyed the game and the camaraderie. I am seriously thinking of getting both Where Eagles Dare and The Devil's Cauldron. These two games use the same basic gaming system as TGD and cover Operation Market Garden. I have no idea what time I will have available for gaming, but a company that puts out this kind of quality product deserves the support.
What does any of this have to do with my Brummbär? Not a thing, but it was a good time none the less.
