by Billy Riley, 19 November 2020 ~ #UnboxingDay
I have a solo game called RAF: Battle of Britain. It’s a cracking game. The ruleset makes the game extremely easy to pick up and play.
Somehow, in my travels to find other un-needed games, I stumbled across D-Day at Omaha Beach. It caught my eye because it was one of a series of games using the same system – and that always interests me because it means there’s less to do when switching between games.
However, on looking at a video of it and checking out images on Boardgamegeek, I couldn’t help but think it looked very daunting. It left my radar.
click images to enlarge
That was until a month or so later, I noticed it was made by Decision Games. “Hold on” I thought…“I have a game by that company”. A light went on. I went rooting through my meagre collection and found RAF:Battle of Britain. That piqued my interest in the game again.
Then I noticed that the designer of RAF:Battle of Britain (John Butterfield) was the same designer for D-Day at Omaha Beach and that was me sold. His rules for RAF were that good…even though this looked daunting, I had every faith the rules would meet my expectations.
It is now in my collection, and here it is – it’s unboxing…letting the components breathe for the first time.
Box Art
Box – Rear
Rules
There’s plenty of colour examples in the book. I don’t see any detailed example of play – but then RAF didn’t have one either and it played a treat.
There are Optional Historical Variants mentioned at the end for you to consider when playing.
Paying Cards
These are what the playing cards look like.
Dice & Baggies
Addendum Mag
What’s this? A nice little 15 page glossy booklet laying out the timeline of the Omaha landings. It lays out the invasion plan, the battleground, German defences and has a big two page map of the D-Day beaches – all of them. It then goes on to give a timeline of events for the day going from 06:25 through to 13:00 and then a small section on 13:00 – 18:00.
This is really interesting and a very nice addition.
Player Aid Cards
There are 3 double sided Player Aid Cards giving you quick access to important information. These are thin card and I will be getting them laminated as I have done with my RAF cards – because they get used – a lot.
Counter Sheets
There are two counters sheets. They’re not huge and there’s a lot of info on them – but I’ll get by.
Mounted Map Board
And the Map. It’s mounted and lays out the Omaha Beach area. You can see how it would put people off. There is a hell of a lot going on there – but I have heard it said that it really isn’t as daunting as it looks and once you understand the AI – which is by most accounts fairly sleek – you will see the map in a different light.
It has a time track along the top, places for playing cards and also some additional info.
I have to admit – even though I haven’t played this system, on the back of John Butterfield and RAF:Battle of Britain, I also bought D-Day at Peleliu and D-Day at Tarawa. I’m that confident I will enjoy it.
Thanks for joining this month’s #UnboxingDay with the Armchair Dragoons and we hope you enjoyed our recon of our recent acquisitions.
You can always leave us your feedback in our #UnboxingDay thread, or in the comment area on this article, below.
The regiment also occasionally musters on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and occasionally at a convention near you, once we’re allowed to hold them again.
