Firestorm: Overlord The Invasion Of Normandy From Down Under with Ken Snell The invasion has come and gone – again! A great weekend of gaming capped off 14 months of planning and development to deliver the Canberra-designed Firestorm Overlord. Firestorm: Overlord Campaign Rules...

With 26 players, including two new friends from Townsville who travelled down for this event, a great time was had by all. Some time ago a plan was hatched along the lines of "...wouldn’t a Firestorm campaign based on Operation Overlord be fun!" While this campaign was based on Battlefront’s Firestorm system, little did we realise how involved the process was from taking the initial idea to a fully developed campaign!

On 22 September, the Invasion fleet and Airborne armada headed for Normandy for a series of Hit The Beach and Seize and Hold missions. Some mixed results for the Allies meant they were only in possession of two of the five beach sectors and having to fight off the beach on three of them for the duration of the first round. In the Airborne sectors, one of three Drop Zones (or DZs) was turned over to the Germans, which allowed much-needed Firestorm reinforcements to move towards the coast.

We gathered again at Good Games Canberra for our main tournament on 19 - 20 October to play five rounds that covered the period from D-Day +1 to D-Day +40. The Allies found the going tough from the beginning, with Omaha Beach sector changing hands several time until finally being secured during round three, with Gold Beach never being secured. Meanwhile, US forces were pressing towards Cherbourg with the intent of opening up the port. In the British Sector, the Airborne made an early (during round one) grab for South Caen. It took the Germans until round three to recover, sending in the Tigers in shades of Arnhem. Caen didn’t look too flash after that. A constant feature of the terrain was the high occurrences of bocage, which caused no end of grief with next to no recovery vehicles or hedgerow cutters to be found anywhere!

About this time, German tanks started arriving in numbers in the British sector, with some finding their way into the US sector. Artillery and Bocage…same as death and taxes, two of the constants of this campaign!

The continual fight for possession of Caen continues.

After 65 games, the campaign ended up a strategic German victory, with our players changing the course the remainder of the North-Western European campaign! A special mention to one of our British commanders, Tom McGoram, who managed to lose two Warriors in two battles in a row. Quite a feat!

The Best Table award went to Craig Storen for the table above. Overall, a great weekend hotly contested by all those who participated. The overall results can be seen below:

Name Company BP Awards Robert Mun Schwere SS-Panzer 27 Best German General (British Sector) Marty Carrick US Parachute Infantry 26 Best US General Dru Moore Canadian Infantry 24 Best British General Larry Wood Panzer Company 24   Andy Glover Grenadier Company 22 Best German General (US Sector) Chris Wood SS-Panzergrenadier 19   Phil Chappell US Medium Tank 18   Andreas Cooper Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier 18 Best Junior (Under 18) General Rudi Spennemann Grenadier Company 18 Best Army (German) Dennis Lorenz Fallschirmjäger Company 17   Lachlan Czaplinski British 7th Armoured Divison 16   Mark Maskell Fallschirmjäger Company 16   Peter Gillard US Medium Tank 15   Paul Wood British Armoured Recce 14 Key Terrain Award (Best Objective) Brad Scott US Light Tank 14   Christian Snell Fortified Grenadier 14   Ben Staughton/John Crispin British Infantry 13   Craig Storen US Parachute Infantry 13 Lay of the Land Award (Best Table) John McGarry US Infantry 13 Best Army (Allied) Garrett Gepp Panzergrenadier 13 Generals Award (German) Tom McGoram British Infantry 12 Generals Award (Allied) Craig Jones British Infantry 12   Jason Mazanov Grenadier 12   David Kendall British Parachute 10   Scott Cooper Beute StuG Batterie 10 Die Hard Award Nim Frankcombe SS-Paznergrenadier 6 Left Out of Battle (Withdrew Early)

I would like to express my gratitude to the following: Jökull Gislason: Who provided much advice and inspiration over the last few months. Phil Yates: Provided sagelike advice and ongoing support around the game concepts and map, which ended up causing the British forces trying to gain entry to Caen no end of grief. Larry Wood: One of our senior statesmen who is always positive about facing overwhelming odds! Scott Cooper: First time out as a German Field Commander and was able to hold the US forces at bay and keep them from the cafés of St Lo. Craig Jones: Our British General who, despite finding the grind towards Caen exceedingly tough while watching more German tanks advance from the south, managed a smile despite the loss of his Mulberry harbour. John McGarry: Another of our senior statesmen who provided much sagelike advice and took command of the US sector, finally taking Cherbourg in Round 5 and gaining access to 12 more supply points that he couldn’t use. Brad Scott: Manager of Good Games Canberra, who also took his Light Tank Company out for a spin, in hosting the event and providing a very green TO with much-needed advice. The players, who make these tournaments so much fun! I salute you. And finally, Robert Mun who, with me, has enjoyed the whole journey through the various iterations of the map, countless tweaking of supply rules, Firestorm lists, and game mechanics just to find another situation that needed further amendment. Would we do this again? Hell YES! ~ Ken.