When this adventure started around six years ago I had no idea of how much this passion would ”devour” my private life. Those who know me personally will know how many hours I dedicate to Operation Overlord every month, every day. Over the years I have chosen my team, a core of enthusiasts that follow every change as play testers and/or as historical consultants. These great friends know all about my paranoia and how I want everything to be perfect, and stoically put up with my “difficult” character... especially when they criticise my ideas. I wish to take this opportunity to thank them all. Without their incredible support, none of this would have been possible.

Writing a set of rules is like having a child, but there is one big difference… everyone wants to teach you how to be a father. I could have chosen isolation, like many do, shutting myself inside a golden cage, self congratulating myself for my work. I preferred to listen to criticism, talk with the public and answer the mails directly. It is not an easy task. Often people don’t see the implications that a “little change” can have for the general structure of the game. Other times people base their claims on mistaken concepts or fragmentary information that has been collected without checking the reliability of their sources. Visitors to my home will know how many books I have purchased in order to check every piece of information, cross-referencing them all to reduce errors to a minimum. The act of transforming a real situation into a game-mechanism isn’t an easy task. If the game is too realistic then it becomes too slow and convoluted; if it is too simple then the game becomes banal. A lot has been written about the card system that I have chosen to use in this game… four years after the publication one certainty remains: it works. And players like it.

In this new version, the breakdown of the cards has been changed slightly to reflect the increasing number of vehicles used. By gathering all of the supplements published to date I have been able to rationalise tables and points systems as well as correct a few incongruities that inevitably arose with the publication in instalments.
The new version is finished. You can download it free from this site in the “un-polished” version or buy it later as a published book. The printed version will have photos, markers, templates and the new packs of cards… the choice of whether to buy it or not is up to you.

I must go.. I’m about to begin an even harder task: the Africa supplement.