The Longest Day (game)

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Cover art by Rodger B. MacGowan

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[]

In early June 1944, Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy. Although German forces were not able to eliminate the beachead, they were able to contain Allied forces within the Contentin 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 players (or two teams) that covers the Allied Operation Overlord from the Normandy invasion on 6 June 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.[1][2]

Components[]

The large game box weighs nine pounds (4 kg) and contains:[3]

  • 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 scenarios that range in playing time from 3 to 12 hours:

  1. Normandy Invasion
  2. Attack on Cherbourg
  3. Operation Cobra
  4. Mortain Counterattack
  5. Falaise Pocket

The game uses "Programmed Instruction" to teach the rules: The first scenario uses basic rules, and each succeeding scenario introduces more complexities. Once the five scenarios have been completed, players have learned all of the rules and are ready to play the complete campaign game.[3]

Each turn represents one day in game time. Wargame Academy rates the game's complexity as 6 on a scale of 10, and estimates a campaign game would take 30–50 hours to complete.[4]

Publication history[]

The Longest Day was designed by Randall C. Reed, who also designed the counters and maps. The game was published by Avalon Hill in 1980, with cover art by Rodger B. MacGowan.[3]

After the game was published, it was discovered that some counters were missing. These were included in The General, Vol. 28, #6.[3]

Reception[]

In Issue 33 of Phoenix, G. Barnard carefully examined the historicity of this game and found it was inaccurate in several areas, including actual units and equipment involved in combat, geographical errors — for example, 9 of 11 British/Canadian landing beaches were incorrectly named — rules that don't accurately represent possible actions, and strategic errors. Despite this litany of mistakes, Barnard 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."[5]

Other reviews[]

References[]

  1. ^ R. B. McArthur (December 1980). "Is It Just a Game?". Washingtonian. 16 (3): 86–97.
  2. ^ Michael Dolski (2016). D-Day Remembered: The Normandy Landings in American Collective Memory. University of Tennessee Press. p. 258. ISBN 9781621902188.
  3. ^ a b c d "The Longest Day (1979)". boardgamegeek.com. Retrieved 2021-12-11.
  4. ^ "TLD - The Longest Day". War Game Academy. 2015-06-24. Retrieved 2021-12-11.
  5. ^ Barnard, G. (September–October 1981). "The Longest Day: New Standards of Historicity". Phoenix. No. 33. pp. 5–8.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
  6. ^ https://www.rpggeek.com/rpgissuearticle/139615/longuest-day

External links[]

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