54 - Monty’s D-Day

British General Sir Miles Christopher Dempsey, GBE, KCB, DSO, MC, served in both world wars and with considerable competence as brigade, corps, and then army commander in the European theater. Liked and respected, he managed to get along with Montgomery and was highly regarded by him. In fact, it was DEMPSEY in command of the three Anglo-Canadian beaches at Normandy. Technically, all FIVE of the Normandy beaches were "Montgomery's," since he was the commander of the entire army group, with Omar Bradley commanding the American contingents on 2 beaches and Miles Dempsey commanding the three Anglo-Canadian beaches. But can anyone imagine calling this game "Dempsey's D-Day?"

Monty’s D-Day was first published in 1985 and well received, but not widely distributed due to a production error that limited the number of salable copies. Now, four decades later, designer John Prados smoothed and polished the system, added rules for parachute and amphibious landings, Hobart's "funnies", plus new options for German alternative responses. ATO did publish Bradley's D-Day covering the US landings at Utah and Omaha beaches in its Campaign Study #3. Of course, everyone would like Monty’s D-Day to get a similar upgrade. The wild blue yonder hope would be that the two games could combine.

Now it's happening.

The companion game to Bradley's D-Day, Monty’s D-Day will complete the Normandy Invasion vision by adding the D-Day assault frontage that was targeted by the British Commonwealth forces under Miles Dempsey which -- likely -- got much more of overall commander General Bernard L. Montgomery's attention. Most certainly, the objectives for the Anglo-Canadian beaches sound like Montgomery talking. The city of Caen, nine miles inland, was targeted for capture on D-Day itself. It actually fell in late July, and only after the city had been leveled by bombing. Was it a "city too far?"

Monty’s D-Day will bring the design fully in-sync and up to the standards set by Bradley's D-Day. And the same wonderful Mark Mahaffey graphics.

And, Monty’s D-Day links to Bradley's D-Day to permit the player to investigate the possibilities of the full panoply of the D-Day invasion, but works perfectly as a stand-alone game on the Anglo-Canadian D-Day landings.

Monty's D-Day and issue #54 of ATO:

Map - One full color 22" x 34" hex mapsheet
Counters - 280 full color 1/2" die-cut playing pieces
Rules length - 14 pages
Charts and tables - 2 pages
Complexity - Medium
Playing time - Up to 4 hours for the scenarios, 12 to 15 hours for the full campaign game
How challenging is it solitaire? - Good

Design - John Prados
Development - Lembit Tohver
Graphic Design - Mark Mahaffey

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