Overlord and Atlantik Wall - Spoilers and Book Overview

Hello All,

With the new D-Day books turning up on my door set on Friday morning, I thought it would be a good idea to write a little review and quick overview of the books. This is not going to be the most detailed overview of the lists as the books are massive and I'm sure there will be a load of little gems and changes that we will find as we use the books over the next few months.

So a quick review of the books. Firstly as I have said able they are massive! Overlord is 300 pages and Atlankic Wall is 240 pages, this compares 240 and 216 pages that the previous two were. Secondly I was surprised by how different the books looked from the old two, I was expecting the core of the books to look the same with a few pages added in, not the case at all. Yes a few pictures and background pieces are copied and pasted from Earth and Steel, Turning Tide or even the older individual books, but a lot of it has changed and looks new and fresh.
The books themselves are very well presented and push the high standard of the original books to a new level. There are a lot of options in the book even if only a slight changed you can take the same list and by using a different unit symbol have a force with a very different play style.

So now on to the lists themselves. As I said above I'm not going to put down very change, if there is something you want to know about please ask below and we'll try to enlighten you. I will point out we're not going to fill out the whole book with points and everything, but we will try to give you as much juice stuff as possible.

Overlord - British

• Firstly of all 6 Pounders are Anti Tank 11 and all 17 Pounders are Anti Tank 14. Personally I think this is better than Anti Tank 15 as your a fair bit cheaper and Anti Tank 15 is a bit overkill!
• British Airbourne are now join by a Canadian version of the Parachute Company, just what the British Paras needed, a list that can night attack and re roll to unpin!
• There's now an Armoured Recon Para list with Tetrarch and Cromwells, well cool!
• Commandos have had the You Are Not Alone Rule Changed, you now ignore the first platoon lost for Company Moral Checks
• Two Commando lists, the Beach List has Auto Attack.
• The new British Assault Company (basically just the Beach Landing Infantry Company), has 3 options to be either Confident Trained British or Canadian 3rd Divisions or the Confident Veteran British 50th Division.
• Assault Company has more Tank Support Options than a normal British Infantry Company.
• The Breaching Groups have changed to be inline with Market Garden, but are Confident Trained.
• 7th Armoured Division has gone up in points, partly as the 17 pounder is now Anti Tank 14 and partly as Reluctant tanks have gone up in points.
• Up to half of the Fireflies in a 7th Armoured list can be (early) Challengers.
• Armoured Recon list has options for Confident Trained Guards and 11th Armoured or Reluctant Veteran 7th Armoured.
• All Armoured Recon Cromwells have Cautions Movement and Disengage special rules like the Canadian Armoured list from Market Garden also a Sherman Canadian Recce list with the same rule and is Confident Trained.
• The Armoured List has Confident Trained Guards, 11th Armoured and 4th Canadians and Confident Veteran 4th Armoured Brigade.
• Has the option to run a platoon of 3 or 4 Fireflies, but if you take this option you can't have Fireflies in your normal Sherman Platoons.
• The Motor Company counts as Infantry which is interesting as it gives the British an infantry MG list.
• The Tank Squadron (Churchill List) now gets Churchill Crocodiles, and far expanded options.
• The Infantry Company can be either Confident Trained, Confident Veteran or Reluctant Veterans.
• Crocodiles are now as Market Garden, so Range 6 inches and FoR 5, but are trained.
• Navel Gunfire has changed a lot. Now you get the option for Destroyer AT 4 FP 4+ counts as 4 guns, Light Cruiser AT 6 FP 1+, counts as 8 guns or Heavy Cruiser AT 6 FP 1+, counts as 12 guns! They must always use the smallest template and they can either have an AOP or a rifle observer but have no staff team.

So thats the British. They have a lot of option, almost every list as 3 different ratings and the option to be Canadian. Also the amount options each list gets is far bigger, but at the same time unlike the Grey Wolf lists that in my option feel a bit characterless in places these lists still feel very themed. If you play British I think you'll find a fair number of interesting and competitive lists in this book.

Overlord - US 

• The US Paras and Glider lists look largely unchanged. The only real change of note is the 82nd and 101st Airbourne lists are now the same.
• The Assault Company now has the option for the 4th Infantry Division who have a lot of different support options from the 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions.
• The Assault Company also has a new Support Boat Platoon which has a mix of Rifle, HMG and Mortar Platoons.
• The Rangers have had a bit of a boast as they now hit on a 3+ in assault and have the same Bonus Moral rule as the British Commandos.
• The US Armoured lists you get 4 options, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th Armoured. 2nd and 4th are Confident Veteran while 3rd and 6th are Confident Trained. 2nd and 3rd get the 76mm Shermans, Auto Attack and Spearhead Moves. While 4th and 6th don't get any of that. 
• There are Sherman, Stuart and Armoured Rifle versions of all the Armoured Divisions.
• You get 4 Rifle Companies with the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 29th Division lists they are all Confident Trained bar the 1st Division which is Confident Veteran.
• The 2nd Division has a different Winter Training rule from Devil's Charge, they lose Truscott Trot so only double 12 inches through terrain, maybe a sign of things to come for the Devil's Charge version?
• The 2nd Division can also have their Towed Tank Destroyer platoons fire bombardments.
• A new Tank Destroyer list which can be either Trained or Veteran, but can only have M10's.
• The US get the same Naval Artillery options as the British.

The big thing that struck me with the US lists is that there is a lot less of them than the British. I think this is mainly as the US had very standardised equipment whereas the British have lots of funky different tanks and armoured car. Also the US seems to have a lot more special rules within the list which need to be dug through but also either give you better options or interesting options. While the infantry list might not take over from the 2nd ID so the favoured infantry list for US players I think the other list might be good options.

Atlantik Wall - German

• The beach forces have changed massively to bring them inline with the newer fortified lists like the ones in Hellfire and Back or Devils Charge.
• There are different options for the British Invasion Beaches or the US Beaches.
• I can't even begin to describe the standard platoons but lets just say full upgraded there can be 10 sets of Barbed Wire, 4 HMG Nests, 2 Mortar Nests, 5 Trenches, 5 MG Bases, a Turret Bunker and a normal Bunker!
• There is also options for lots of area Fortifications with Minefields, Barbed Wire and Anti-Tank Obstacles.
• All the 21st Panzer, Fallschirmjagers and Luftwaffe Field Troops look largely unchanged as does the non Beach 352nd and 709th Infantry Divisions.
• The Field Fortifications have had a complete redo. No larger can you buy 2 40pts HMG Nests and auto defend. Now you have you spend 250pts of  Minefields to do it. 
• You can also buy Dug-In Panzer IV's with the Field Fortifications.
• Now included in with the Panzer Lehr is the 2nd and 9th Panzer Divisions. The main difference is the Armoured and non Armoured infantry support they get. 
• A lot of the other Panzer Lehr lists like the Punas now get the Panzer Lehr Armoured Infantry platoon.
• The short Panzer Lehr Platoon is now 20pts more expensive, while the full platoon is the same cost. No more undercosted short platoons.
• Most of the Armoured Infantry have the option to remove their half tracks for -10 points, but only if you take the Field Fortification options.
• The 654th Schwere Panzerjager now have to have 2 platoons of Jagdpanthers instead of one as before.
• A new Confident Trained Infantry company list and Pioneer List to cover the 20 or so normal Infantry Divisions in Normandy. Lots of different Armoured options for the Company.
• There are 5 SS Divisions to choose from, but bar the 2 special rules Instant Readiness (1st and 2nd SS) and One-Way Trip to Heaven (9th, 10th and 12th SS), there doesn't seem to be much difference between them.
• The Brittany Lists have a fortified Fallschirmjager and Infantry list.
• Their fortified lists have as much in the way of options as the Beach Landing lists and also have the Graf Spee Battery, it only gets one try to range in and is Trained.
• The 30cm Rocket Artillery has been added to the Corp Support.

Most of the German lists are what you'd expect from Earth and Steel but with the Medium tank points reductions. The fortified list have changed out of all recognition, but mostly for the best. Like the British and US lists the briefings all look massively expanded with a load of more options.

Overall these books are great! I think they have done a good job of making the lists balanced with the newer Battle of the Bugle and Market Garden lists. I was worried that the books were just going to small changes and I would be spending more money on books I already own, this could not be further from the truth! I can't speak more highly of the books! They are well made, well laid out and look great. I will say the Allied book does feel like a better buy than the German book, partly as it has changed the most and partly as I feel there are more options for lists.

I would give Overlord 10 Mulberry Harbours out of 10 and Atlantik Wall 9 Graf Spee Batteries out of 10.

Well Thank for reading and if you want to know anything else please feel free to message below.

Ben