The Commander Series Forum

I am thinking about trying out this scenario, however, a couple of thoughts appeared.

a. Minefields and obstacles: Theoretically the defender can place them anywhere on the table, even forward of their deployment zone (Fair enough). For this scenario, I reckon that they should be restricted to no further than the high water mark. This would allow the attacker some beach to be able to land on - on the assumption that they land at low tide.

b. Hidden minefields. Given the thorough reconnaissance of the landing areas, these should not be allowed.

c. Artillery for the attacker. It would seem that the attacker should be restricted to Naval artillery only, up to a maximum of three. I can see the defender having more artillery available.

d. With only naval artillery, the attacker cannot carry out any counter battery missions. They should not be able to lay smoke either.

I think that I shall try to keep the defences relatively simple to start with, and build up from there.

Does anyone else have any thoughts about a Normandy Amphibious assault scenario.

Steve

Greetings

If you are addressing the actual beach landing then the fire support will include extensive scheduled fire (from NGS and potentially artillery mounted on landing craft). Getting a naval artillery liaison team onshore is a must for anything else.

Regards

Edward

I think the 'up to a maximum of three' misses the lessons learnt in previous operations and applied in Normandy. Landing craft with rockets, tanks firing on their way in, massive preparatory bombardments (right up to the landing craft hitting the beach). The use of medium and heavy bombers and the support of ground attack aircraft all add up to a pretty impressive weight of fire. It may be more accurate to have naval gunfire conducting scheduled firing that you can only deviate from once you have a NGFS control team on the beach.

Landmines don't last underwater so I would suggest the defender not be permitted to place minefields on the actual beach or single bank.
Letting the defender have hidden minefields seems okay if you're using points for the forces but you'll need to limit them in a historical scenario.
Also, for a historical scenario, given the level of intelligence available ahead of the normandy landings, you may require the defender to deploy his field defences and any units within them before the allied player plans his scheduled artillery.
By chance we're playing this scenario for a points based game on Friday as the start to a small campaign. I'll try to remember to write up what we agree and how it goes.