Atlantic Wall, subtitled "The Invasion of Europe June 1944", is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1978 that simulates Operation Overlord during World War II, when Allied forces landed on Normandy beaches and attempted to break out into open country.
After the United States entered World War II in 1941, Germany knew the Allies would eventually attempt a major amphibious assault somewhere along the European coast, and created a series of strong beach defenses from Norway to the French-Spanish border dubbed the Atlantic Wall. In June 1944, the Allied forces attempted to breach this wall at the Normandy beaches. [1]
Atlantic Wall is a two-player (or two-team) monster wargame (having more than 1000 counters) with an enormous five-piece map. One player or team controls the Allied forces trying to land and break out into open country, and the other player or team controls the German forces trying to contain and destroy the Allies. It is a highly complex game — one reviewer estimated that the entire Campaign Game would take 100 hours to complete. [2]
The game includes: [3]
Atlantic Wall uses a rules system based on SPI's Wacht am Rhein published the previous year. A turn consists of the following phases: [3]
This completes one game turn, which represents 4.5 hours in game time.
The game features ranged artillery (i.e. firing more than one hex) and column shifts (i.e. changes to the odds) for combined arms combat and armor superiority. Units defeated in combat may suffer dIsruption and demoralisation as well as the losses and retreats from the Wacht Am Rhien system. [2]
In addition, the players or teams can choose to incorporate a number of optional rules: Mechanized Infantry Movement, Saturation Bombardments, Alternate Final Protective Fire, Alternate June 6 Weather, German E-Boats, and Varying Corps Attachments. [3]
The game comes with six shorter scenarios that use a single map, and one long scenario that uses all five maps. [3] The shorter scenarios are:
The long scenario, the Campaign Game, combines all six scenarios and in 104 turns covers the entire operation from the parachute drops and amphibious assaults of 6 June until the attempted Allied breakout into open countryside 26 days later. [3]
The victory conditions for the Campaign Game are dependent on the choices made by the Allied player or team, who must secretly choose a strategic plan before the start of the game. [2]
In 1977, SPI published the monster game Wacht am Rhein about the Battle of the Bulge, and followed this up in 1978 with the equally complex Atlantic Wall using the same rules system. The game was designed by Joseph Balkoski, with graphic design by Redmond A. Simonsen, and was packaged in a double "flatpack" box. This was quickly changed to a large "soap box" . The game proved popular: it rose to #5 on SPI's Top Ten Bestseller list as soon as it was published, and remained on the list for the next eight months.
After the demise of SPI, Hobby Japan acquired the game rights and published a Japanese-language edition, 大西洋の壁 (Atlantic Wall), in 1987. [4]
In 2014, Decision Games released an updated and expanded edition titled Atlantic Wall: D-Day to Falaise. [5]
In the 1980 book The Best of Board Wargaming , Geoff Barnard liked the counters and rules but was ambivalent about the maps, saying they "have been heavily edited, and only the most important terrain features and very few towns have been shown, so they seem rather bare." He also pointed out that the three invasion scenarios "are essentially solitaire, as the German has little to do while the Allied player completes the detailed landing procedures including parachute drops, sea bombardments, commandos, DD tanks, engineering activities and infantry assaults." He concluded by giving the game an average "Excitement" grade of 60%. [2]
In Issue 31 of the UK wargaming magazine Phoenix , Ken Walten liked the game system, saying, "the sequence of play is readily learnt, flows easily, and is thus highly playable, whilst still remaining a highly realistic simulation." Given the complexity of the game and the different tactics required for each scenario, Walten recommended that players try each of the invasion scenarios first before attempting to play the Campaign game. [6]
In The Guide to Simulations/Games for Education and Training, Richard Rydzel called this "a very accurate simulation of the Normandy campaign." He found "The short invasion scenarios are exciting but are usually just a matter of die rolling for a few hours." He questioned the pro-Allied tilt of the game, saying, "The campaign is a long and tedious but fun exercise on how many different ways the German player can be beaten." [7]
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.
Battle of the Bulge is a board wargame published by Avalon Hill (AH) in 1965 that simulates the World War II battle of the same name. General Anthony McAuliffe (ret.), who had been commanding officer at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, was a consultant during the game's development. The game proved popular and sold more than 120,000 copies, but was dogged by criticisms of historical inaccuracies, and was finally replaced by a completely new edition in 1981. A third edition in 1991 was released as part of the Smithsonian American History Series.
D-Day is a board wargame published by Avalon Hill in 1961 that simulates the six months of the European Campaign of World War II from the Normandy Invasion to the crossing of the Rhine. It was the first wargame to feature the now ubiquitous hex grid map and cardboard counters, and was revised and re-released in 1962, 1965, 1971, 1977 and 1991.
The Next War: Modern Conflict in Europe is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in 1978 that simulates a hypothetical Warsaw Pact invasion of Western Europe.
War in Europe is a grand strategic "monster" board wargame published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1976 that attempts to simulate the entirety of the European theatre of World War II from 1939 to 1945. One of the largest wargames ever produced, War in Europe features 4000 counters, four rulebooks, and nine maps that when placed together cover an area of 38.5 ft2. The game is nominally a three-player game, but each side can be represented by teams of players. SPI estimated the full game would take at least 180 hours.
Wacht am Rhein is a grand tactical monster board wargame published by Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in 1977 that simulates Germany's Battle of the Bulge offensive in late 1944 during World War II.
Cobra: Game of the Normandy Breakout, originally titled Cobra: Patton's 1944 Summer offensive in France, is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1977 that simulates the 1944 breakout of Allied forces from Normandy following D-Day.
Narvik: The Campaign in Norway, 1940 is a board wargame published by Game Designers' Workshop (GDW) in 1974 that simulates Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Denmark and Norway during World War II. The game was one of the first in the Europa series of twenty interlocking games envisioned by GDW that would cover the entire European and North African theatres from the start to the end of World War II, using identical map scales and similar rules.
Patton's 3rd Army, subtitled "The Lorraine Campaign", is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1980 that simulates the Battle of Metz, a portion of the U.S. Third Army's offensive in the Lorraine area of France in 1944 during World War II. It was the first game in SPI's "Victory in the West" series.
Dieppe, subtitled "An Operational Game of the Allied Raid on Fortress Europe, August 1942", is a board wargame published by Simulations Canada in 1977 that is a simulation of Operation Jubilee, the disastrous Dieppe Raid made by Canadian and British forces during World War II.
The Marne: Home Before the Leaves Fall is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1972 that is a strategic simulation of the First Battle of the Marne during World War I. The subtitle is attributed to Wilhelm II, who supposedly told German soldiers in August 1914 "You will be home before the leaves fall from the trees."
Combined Arms, subtitled "Combat Operations in the 20th Century", is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1974 that simulates various combat engagements in the mid-twentieth century
El Alamein: Battles in North Africa, 1942 is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1973 that simulates the final four months of the North African campaign during World War II.
Frederick the Great, subtitled "The Campaigns of The Soldier King 1756–1759", is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1975 that simulates several of the campaigns of Frederick the Great in Central Europe during the Seven Years' War. When SPI ran into financial difficulties, they sold the rights to the game to Avalon Hill, who produced a second edition in 1982.
Global War, subtitled "The War Against Germany and Japan, 1939–45", is a grand strategic and economic board wargame published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1975 that simulates the entire extent of World War II.
Overlord, subtitled "The Normandy Invasion", is a board wargame published by Conflict Games in 1973 that simulates the Normandy landings and the subsequent attempt by the Germans to prevent the Allies from breaking out of Normandy during World War II.
Leipzig: The Battle of Nations, subtitled "Napoleon vs. Europe", is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1969 that simulates the 1813 campaign of Napoleon in central Europe, including the Battle of Leipzig. The game was one of the first Napoleonic board wargames, and a number of innovative rules such as the effect of individual leaders on combat were adopted by other wargame publishers.
The Moscow Campaign, subtitled "Strike and Counterstrike Russia", is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1972 that simulates combat near Moscow during World War II.
Arnhem, subtitled "Operation Market-Garden, September 1944" and also published as A Bridge Too Far: Arnhem, is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1976 that simulates Operation Market Garden during World War II, when Allied forces attempted to create a salient in the Netherlands, using paratroopers to take strategic bridges over the Rhine. Arnhem was originally published in the WestWall "quadrigame", but was also packaged for sale as an individual game.
Normandy: The Invasion of Europe 1944 is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1969 that simulates the D-Day landings on the beaches of Normandy, and the six days that followed as the German forces tried to prevent an Allied break-out. A second revised edition was published in 1971