Day of Days! (Avalon Hill's D-Day)

[Crossroads]

Monday marked the 72th anniversary of D-Day. So while I was browsing through Boardgamegeek entries and spotted this for a mere twenty bucks, it was written I'd need to buy it. I never owned Avalon Hill's D-Day, but it is such a game changer (pun intended) that I thought I'd need to add it to my stock of games.

Did you know? D-Day, in 1961, was the first game to use a hex layout over the map 

[mirth]

Nice score. I picked up an unpunched copy of AH's Submarine for $20 a few months back.

[GJK]

Nice - it's a classic, that's for sure.  I remember enjoying my copy of the game many, many years ago.  And then my brother got Fortress Europa for his birthday.  I wanted to break out colored pencils to color in my D-Day map.... 

[Crossroads]

My first wargame at this scale was The Rise and Fall of Third Reich, by Avalon Hill as well. I still view the boardgames as whether their mapping follows the similar style. FE is very similar to that in its map art

[Jack Nastyface]

AH's D-Day was the very first wargame I ever played.  I was maybe 12 ('77 or '78)?  My cousin brought this to our grand-mother's house in St. Paul, Alberta at Thanksgiving, and we set this up on a table in the spare bedroom.  Not long after, I bought Midway.  I just recently gifted my copy of Midway to a friend's son who took an interest in WWII Pacific Theatre. 

[mirth]

Many of the AH games from that era are real gems and still very playable if you can get past the dated maps and counters.

[Crossroads]

Boy oh boy oh boy, the parcel arrived today and turns out the box is of the original 1961a print! 



I will definitively need to bribe either of my sons to have a game with me. Will cost me dear, but will be totally worth it!

[Crossroads]

I will definitively need to bribe either of my sons to have a game with me. Will cost me dear, but will be totally worth it!

OK, that sounds like I need to quote this here next

I imagine that getting out and playing it, regardless of ownership, counts...it's sort of social...

 

[GJK]

 Edit: nevermind...thought they had different boxes.

[Crossroads]

This is what the BGG D-Day forum said about the versions:

First, the question:

I'm thinking about picking up a copy of this game, but I'd like to be able to tell from looking at pictures or asking a potential seller some questions exactly what version of the game I'm looking at.  The 1977 one is obvious, but the older editions are less so to my untrained eye.

1961A/B - I assume both of these have 1961 copyrights on the board and rules.  If that's true, what key differences would I be needing to ask about in the rules to differentiate them?

1965 - I've seen pictures of boards with a 1965 copyright.  I assume that the matching rulebook also has a 1965 date?

Thanks for your help.

Then, the answer:

DD61A -

#1. 4-page Rules:  Title page says:

"D-Day" (in letters about 1-inch tall),then
"Instructions" followed by

"This Instruction Manual contains the entire rules of play. You do not have to read the Reference Folder to play D-DAY. Refer to it only for diagrammatic clarification of play."

Incidentally, that statement is not true.  You need to read the rules, portions of the Reference folder and the "Combat Factors Card" and finally, I think there's a minor detail or two on the Combat Results Table that is missing or hard to find elsewhere.
 
The Instruction folder says (c) 1961 at bottom of first page

#2 - 8 page Reference Folder has the large-font "D-Day" followed by "Reference folder", (c) 1961 on the last page.

DD61B - 

#1 - 4-page Rules have a smaller font title (about 3/8 inch), saying

"D-DAY  -  INSTRUCTIONS- READ FIRST"
At the bottom of the first page is (c) 1961

#2- 8 page Reference Folder has the large-font "D-Day" followed by "Reference folder", (c) 1962 on the last page.


For both versions, most of the rules are in the Instruction Folder, but some details are not mentioned there and are only to be read in or deduced in the Reference folder (victory conditions, for one).  Yet other rules are on the Combat Factors Card which looks merely like an examples of play sheet but actually has rules not stated in the main rulebook.(a single 8.5x11 cardstock sheet with examples of play, including terrain and combat odds calculation details not found in the rules.

DD65

#1 4-page Rules cover page says

"D-DAY"  (in giant font) then

INSTRUCTIONS- READ FIRST"

then , in a box, "BASIC GAME"

and (c) 1965 at the bottom.

#2 Battle Manual - 12 page, half-size folder with optional rules and examples of play.

(c) 1965 on page 2.


As far as the other components go, there's only one map difference that affects play between the 1961 and 1965 versions.  The units are the same (but for possible differences in ink shading and a few unit IDs, none of which are consequential to play).

[Crossroads]

Edit: nevermind...thought they had different boxes.

So maybe the newest boxes were different, as the question mentions 1977 box as obviously different.

I wasn't too bothered at all when making the order, but was curious and checked it, only to find it is of the original print.

 

[Crossroads]

Slow day at the office, so thought I'd take a little coffee break and look a bit deeper.

Found this from BGG, under D-Day (2nd ed):

At the time of this writing, BGG lists D-Day as having two versions, the 1961 and the 1977.  However, this is a bit odd.  Here is what I have gleaned:

Here is the cover of the original 1961 game:


This game had two versions, the original release of 1961, and a revision in 1962.  Charles S. Roberts was the original author, although it is less clear if he authored the revisions of 1962.

Then in 1965 a major revision was released.  Here is the cover to that version:


While very similar to the original release(s), the cover is slightly different.  Note that the words INVASION GAME are now prominent.  Larry Pinsky is credited as the author of this version.

In 1977, D-Day was redesigned, and the cover changed again:



In my opinion, the 1977 edition of D-Day should be called the 3rd edition.

Now we know 

[Crossroads]

D-Day - Roll Call!

What better to do on a rainy Saturday than to set up a boardgame and have few boardgamegeeks come over for some nice action.

In my case that means a solo play, but hey at least I am playing an opponent I know well.

Preparing for battle; roll call results in an absolute 100% availability of men and armour! How nice 

[Crossroads]

German Set-up

BGG forum suggested a historical set-up for the Germans, so I tried to replicate that to my best. How cool, that already in 1961 the game designer included unit markings for both Allied and Axis chits. To their places they went. The mapboard I have doesn't have Lettering / Numbering available though, so I sort of winged it when it comes to those units which were not set-up in any of the many cities in the map.

Blimey, forgot to add the picture. Here goes:

[Crossroads]

D-Day Calais!

To try out something different, I thought I'd see what happens if I invade the coast of Calais, instead of Normandy. Dieppe, here we come!