Breakout & Pursuit: The Battle for France, 1944
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Breakout & Pursuit: The Battle for France, 1944 is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1972 that simulates the breakout of Allied forces from Normandy during World War II, and their subsequent pursuit of retreating German forces.
In the weeks following the Allied D-Day landings in June 1944, German forces successfully contained the Allies inside Normandy. In late July 1944, the German line cracked in several places. After the Allies encircled and captured 50,000 Germans near Falaise, the remainder of the German forces retreated across France, pursued by the Allies, in a race for German border at the Rhine River. During the pursuit, the Allies were constantly hampered by supply issues — lacking a large harbor until they could capture Antwerp, all the men, fuel, food and ammunition necessary to maintain their offensive had to be landed at the Normandy beaches and transported across northern France.[1]
Description
Breakout & Pursuit is a two-player wargame in which one player controls the German forces and the other the Allied forces. The game covers the period from late July 1944 to early September in two scenarios:[2]
- Breakout: A nine-turn scenario in which the Allies try to breach the Germans' Normandy defenses.
- Pursuit: A seven-turn scenario in which the German player tries to delay the Allied advance across France long enough for German units to escape across the Rhine.
Both can be combined into a 16-turn campaign game. There are also a number of "what if?" scenarios that change the Orders of Battle and several other factors.[2]
There is an emphasis on the logistical problems faced by the Allies during the pursuit phase as they attempt to supply units racing eastward away from the coast with the massive amounts of fuel, food and ammunition needed to continue the offensive.[3]
Gameplay
This game uses the movement and combat system developed for SPI's previous publication Kursk: Operation Zitadelle,[3] The first player has three phases:
- Move all units
- Combat
- Move armored units again
The second player then has the same three phases, completing one Game Turn, which represents three days.[3]
Publication history
In 1971, while Jim Dunnigan was designing Kursk: Operation Zitadelle, he decided to customize the standard "movement/combat" sequence that had been used by board wargames for the past decade by adding an extra move for armored units following combat. Dunnigan used the Kursk mechanics to design Breakout & Pursuit, which was published by SPI in 1972.[3]