Heroes of Normandie is a board game inspired not by Sun Tzu or dry post-battle analyses, but the derring-do of old Hollywood war movies. Unflappable heroes whose upper lips could carry all of the Allies to victory, if necessary, but not before they’d had a smoke.
A “miniatures game without miniatures”, the analogue version presented its soldiers and machines as tiles on a board made up of flat French hedgerows. The digital version, developed by Cat Rabbit, published by Slitherine and out today, looks much the same – a game of six-sided dice and secret strategies.
Slitherine reckon that Normandie has always had the “feel of a videogame”, however, with fast turns, clear rules and a battalion’s worth of units with individual weapons and abilities. Cat Rabbit have endeavoured to turn their three factions – USA, Germany and the Commonwealth – into “crazy characters”, and assembled new game modes to fit the faithful mechanics.
Expect no less than six campaigns, two extra-challenging Rogue campaigns and a skirmish mode. Multiplayer can be played with pre-set forces or squads pieced together by hand.
Normandie will unlock on Steam this evening, following a couple of release date delays. Is board game bravura your sort of thing?