The Longest Day (game)

The Longest Day is a World War II board wargame published by Avalon Hill in 1980 that simulates the Allied D-Day invasion of June 1944 and the subsequent Normandy campaign.

Background
In early June 1944, Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy. Although German forces were not able to eliminate the beachhead, they were able to contain Allied forces within the Contentin Peninsula for almost 8 weeks. The Allies finally broke out with simultaneous attacks by British and Canadian forces (Operation Goodwood) and American forces (Operation Cobra).

Description
The Longest Day is a game for two players (or two teams) that covers the Allied Operation Overlord from the Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944, to the Battle of the Falaise Gap in August 1944. With more than 2600 counters, The Longest Day is a monster game (having more than 1000 counters), and has been characterized as a "complicated simulation" that takes a long time to play.

Components
The large game box weighs nine pounds (4 kg) and contains:
 * Six 14" x 22" mounted hex grid map boards and one 8"x22" mounted mapboard, scaled at 2 km (1.2 mi) per hex
 * 2603 counters that use German rather than NATO symbols to differentiate infantry, armour, artillery and cavalry
 * Reinforcement and unit entry tracks for both sides
 * Charts for various aspects of the game

Gameplay
The game includes five scenarios that range in playing time from 3 to 12 hours:
 * 1) Normandy Invasion
 * 2) Attack on Cherbourg
 * 3) Operation Cobra
 * 4) Mortain Counterattack
 * 5) Falaise Pocket

The game includes five training scenarios of increasing complexity for players to learn the rules.

Each turn represents one day in game time. Wargame Academy rates the game's complexity as 6 on a scale of 10, and estimates that a campaign game would take 30–50 hours to complete.

Publication history
The Longest Day was published by Avalon Hill in 1980, with cover art by Rodger B. MacGowan. It was designed by Randall C. Reed, who also designed the counters and maps. Reed was the head of Avalon Hill's research and development staff in the late 1970s, and was one of the first new Avalon Hill employees after the Charles S. Roberts era. He later left Avalon Hill to work with wargames for the U.S. Marine Corps.

After the game was published, it was discovered that some counters were missing. These were included in The General, Vol. 28, No. 6.

Reception
A review published in Phoenix magazine in 1981 examined the historicity of the game and found that it was inaccurate in several areas. This included geographical errors – 9 of 11 British/Canadian landing beaches were incorrectly named – rules that do not accurately represent possible actions, and strategic errors. Barnard nevertheless concluded, "It is worth playing and, even more so, it is worth studying [...] The game is, I feel, a valuable contribution to the advance of game design, even if just because it sets out to be, or at least seem, historically serious."

Other reviews

 * Casus Belli, No. 6 (Dec 1981)
 * Campaign, No. 94 & No. 103
 * Fire & Movement, No. 65
 * The Grenadier, No. 13
 * PanzerFaust, No. 63
 * Richard Berg's Review of Games, No. 4 & No. 6