Battles in Normandy

"Wargaming is finally easy and fun for newbs!"

Battles in Normandy (BIN), like it predecessor (Korsun Pocket), is really only one battle. However, don't let this turn you away from the game as there is much more going on here than meets the eye.

For those of you already into your wargaming habit, I'm simply going to recommend you point yourself over to Matrix Games' website and download BIN right away. You will NOT be disappointed.

For the rest of us, wargaming is either extremely daunting or something not worth considering. BIN (or Korsun Pocket) might just change your mind about that. SSG and the infamous Roger Keating (among others) have worked hard to refine the Decisive Battles system to welcome both newbs and grognards alike. Again, this may only be one particular campaign, but that doesn't mean you'll only play the game once.

Taking your seat as the commander of either the Axis or the Allies, you'll be either defending or invading France respectively against some extremely tough AI or an unpredictable human opponent. At the operative level of warfare, BIN allows you to organize and move your regiments and battalions (as well as some ad hoc units here and there) strategically around the map in order to gain the upper hand against your opponent. Not only that, you'll have to worry about supply lines, interdiction (air units strafing supply lines), terrain, weather, defensive structures, etc. Like any respectable wargame before it, BIN is incredibly deep, yet although it sounds daunting at first, SSG has really gone the extra mile to make things easy for newbs while allowing long-time grognards to think up some of their deepest strategies yet.

While every move you make and combat you're involved in requires some extremely tedious calculations, all of it is easily handled for you by the computer. That's not to say, however, that you'll have absolutely no idea what's going on (you may at first, but once grasped, the system is intuitive). Every detail can be brought up for a thorough look. If you're wondering why your unit isn't moving as far as it ought to, you can easily click on terrain hexes and relate them to the Terrain table to see how exhorbitant some movement costs are. If, for example, you're piling up a serious amount of force against a single dug-in unit and you still can't get the combat odds you're looking for, everything that goes into the combat calculation is right there for you to peruse in the combat window.

It's really all about the combat odds and how well you manipulate them. BIN is, after all, a wargame and its entire focus is on combat and how you use it to gain advantages on your opponent. Think of the map as a gigantic board game laid out on your dining room table, divided neatly into tiny hexes. When your pieces end up next to enemy pieces, you can initiate combat, roll some dice, and hope for the best. Of course, in BIN, you have the distinct advantage of knowing what the possible results are, and furthermore, you can exert some control to manipulate the results to your favor.

Combat is entirely resolved by the Combat Results Table (CRT). This is a table of odds you can achieve in terms of attack strength vs. defense strength, divided into columns of dice roll results. For every terrain type, there is a basic CRT and the column you use is determined by the forces involved in combat. Sounds simple, right? From this base column, you can bump the 6 possible outcomes to more favorable results (there are 8 rows, one represeting each side of the die, meaning you can bump off the lower possibilities in favor of better ones). Moreover, adding certain elements like artillery, leadership, and even adding more units into the fray can give you what is known as a tactical shift (or, if you're efficient, multiple shifts). This basically means the column you use shifts either left (worse) or right (better) on the CRT meaning even better (or worse) results. Through this is initially confusing, master tacticians will easily be able to control the odds to ensure some positive victories.

Yet, if all of that seems too involving for the first-timer or even well-seasoned wargamers, SSG provides you with the ultimate ease-of-use tool: the combat advisor. With a single click, every possible combat is displayed to you right over enemy units with the maximum possible odds you can achieve for that particular battle. A single click on an enemy unit with the combat advisor turned on will highlight all the units you'll need to commit to the combat (that are in range, of course) to achieve those odds. The question is whether or not it's tactically sound to do so and that is completely up to you.

Now, with all of that going on behind the scenes, you're left with worrying only about a few things: what the enemy is doing and how your own troops are doing. Keeping your units well-supplied and cutting off the supply lines of the enemy is paramount to your success in battles. While BIN isn't entirely combat, what lies outside of it contributes to it. That is to say, supplies, weather, roads, bridges, etc. all contribute to how your future combats are going to turn out and if you fail to learn how to control these elements of warfare, the brutal AI, or even worse a sly human enemy commander will put you in your place.

That being said, you must not be afraid to fail your first few times out. The beauty of BIN and the Decisive Battles system is that it doesn't always play exactly the same. You can painstakingly recreate all historical situations (many of which were not tactically sound decisions, mind you) or play it differently every time. However, the more you play, the more you learn. You can start off with smaller, more concentrated scenarios out of the whole campaign and work your way up to the full invasion or you can jump right in and learn the lessons the hard way. Either way, if you take joy in strategy, nothing comes close to the Decisive Battles system (at least on the PC).

BIN comes equipped with a full campaign editor as well as an updated classic scenario of SSG's famous Ardennes Offensive (a treatment on the Battle of the Bulge). This means that you're not limited to just the Normandy Invasion. Fan-made as well as official FREE scenarios are popping up all over the place.

The unfortunate truth, however, lies in that BIN is only available through the Internet (via Matrix Games' website) at an incredibly steep price. This is one game you won't see in stores and that means a complete lack of a printed manual (although there is an extensive manual available in pdf format). However, if you're a newb and all of this has intrigued you, yet you still can't bear to take an expensive gamble, you can still find the amazing Korsun Pocket out in stores everywhere. You won't be able to use some of the new features of BIN like bombardment from the sea or carpet bombing, but it still remains a great introduction to the Decisive Battles system.

For those of you willing to fork over your hard-earned cash, you can be guaranteed to expect an incredibly deep, fun, yet accessible wargame from some of the greatest minds in the industry.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/08/05