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John Tiller's Normandy '44 is the second volume of HPS's splendid Panzer Campaigns series, and it will warm the hearts of grognards everywhere. Every segment of the Normandy campaign is given its due. From the chaotic slaughter on Omaha Beach to Montgomery's elephantine assaults on Caen, from the bitter stalemate in the hedgerows to the siege of Cherbourg, it's all here. And I do mean all including a 750-turn monster that covers every hour between June 6 and August 19. Even Tiller admits it's virtually unplayable, but, like Mt. Everest, it is there if you want to dedicate a significant portion of your adult life to playing it.
Wargamers seeking fast-paced, cut and thrust Panzer action would be well-advised to stick to Smolensk '41, because the Normandy campaign was a grinding, agonizingly slow slugfest of pure attrition, and the game faithfully reflects that quality. Even the smaller scenarios (10 turns or so) require patience and a lot of tactical micro-management.
Unit-scale is purely tactical: platoon, company, and individual batteries. You will quickly notice that casualty figures for most firefights seem remarkably small compared to the amount of firepower involved. As Tiller points out in his design notes, however, this too is a matter of realistic scale. If a platoon loses an average of one man every hour, its combat effectiveness vanishes after a day or two. And in the claustrophobic, seemingly endless bocage fighting, fatigue and disruption burned out units at a terrible rate (more than 100 American company commanders were relieved of duty in June alone because they simply could not order their men into the meat grinder one more time). The game takes into account this brutal reality: any player who pushes his units without ample time for rest and refit will pay a heavy price.
There are a lot of nice creative touches under the hood. For example, artillery units that have lots of ammo and good communications are designated as being stockpiled and have a commensurately higher rating. Tactical air support is nicely integrated into the overall balance, and field fortifications are very effective force multipliers for the Germans. In addition to the historical scenarios, Tiller also includes several hypothetical variations on The Rommel Option. Rommel wanted to keep powerful armor close to the beaches for rapid counterattacks; Hitler overruled him. By following Rommel's strategy, the German player actually can drive the Allies back into the sea.
Production values throughout are first-rate; so is the online manual. HPS has even included a separate folder so that roll-your-own designers can print out all the maps. Now that's service. Normandy '44 belongs in the library of every gamer who's interested in this campaign.