Heroes of Normandy Board Game Review

Are you a big fan of the latest installment of the Company of Heroes series? Well, today I have a text for you in which we will review the board game Heroes of Normandy: Big Red Edition 1, which works with nothing less than the theme of World War II and the clash of two enemy units. The following lines will tell you how things are in terms of gameplay.

• Number of players: 2
• Play time: 45-60 minutes
• Price: 1629 crowns (Alsa)
• Age: 14+

In Heroes of Normandy: Big Red Edition 1, you choose a side and go into battle.

Like in the classic RTS on PC, you first need to choose a map. It is really up to you whether you will build your own battlefield here with two different strong armies or, on the contrary, use a pre-made map or a direct campaign consisting of several expeditions. Once you understand whether you are creating a large battlefield or a place for a small skirmish, it is time to choose a side. You probably won’t be surprised, but we have the Germans on one side and the Americans on the other. Both sides bring their infantry, light vehicles, and also heavy vehicles led by tanks into the battle. There are also heroes who have the potential to do great things.

At the beginning, you take one of the units, determine the division, and also collect tokens so that their value corresponds to the value of the division you control, which has certain basic parameters. Once you are done, nothing will stop you from deploying the units on the battlefield, where the game turn consists of three phases. At the very beginning, you distribute order tokens determined by various parameters. The more stars, the more orders you will be given. The value itself can change during the game. What is interesting about this stage is that you can place tokens at the same time.

Once you have scattered the individual order tokens, there is nothing stopping you from moving the marked units and performing various actions on them during the activation phase. Once a player has completed their turn, the opposing soldier will be activated in sequence according to the value given to them by the player. With an activated unit, you can start moving a certain number of spaces, which is determined by its card. If it is a vehicle, there is nothing stopping it from running over soldiers who have nowhere to go due to its tracks or wheels. I also really like the ability to engage infantry while moving as part of a special action, or fire from them while moving, which is not exactly ideal, but can be very damaging in some cases.

The second basic form of action is shooting, which largely depends on the capabilities of the unit. In short, it is difficult to shoot a tank with regular infantry, and guys with bazookas are not very effective against infantry, but when it comes to fighting a light or heavy vehicle, they can shine. When shooting, you decide for yourself whether visibility is good and how far away your target is. If you want to evaluate whether your fire was successful or unsuccessful, you need to roll a dice and compare the resulting value with the statistics of the unit, the terrain, and the defending side. When hitting, the unit is damaged. Unless it is a light vehicle, destruction is inevitable.

The pace of the duels is decent, so you won’t be waiting for the entire fight to be over in an hour. Then, after all the actions have been evaluated, there is a supply phase, during which units that have not performed an action via an order token or have not received an activation token can implement a move or some special ability. Once this phase is over, the round ends and the next turn is played. During the game, you actively work with action cards, which add a certain amount of juice and heroic atmosphere to the gameplay. You always have to work with different effects within different evaluations, so you won’t find much when reading the rules. Compared to other war games, Heroes of Normandy is one of the more accessible.

The military adventure in Heroes of Normandy: Big Red Edition 1 is worth it.

World War II is a rewarding theme that is often targeted, at least on PC. There are also quite a few board games that deal with it, but I haven’t had my hands on many from that period. Heroes of Normandy is an interesting war game that pits two sides against each other with different vehicles and heroes willing to die for their group’s cause.

Everything is built on a very solid foundation. There are many advantages, but in my opinion the main one is the presence of formable maps, a couple of specific factions and, above all, gameplay that is not overtly demanding. If you like this theme and you are not new to turn-based strategies, you will find everything you like here.

We would like to thank Czech distributor Blackfire for providing us with a copy of Heroes of Normandy: Big Red Edition 1.