Normandy Campaign Mat & PDF

I am working on a redo of our colorful D-Day map (below) that shows details like the contours of the whole area of Normandy, the beaches south past Caen, and the Cotentin Peninsula. The new map is called the Normandy Campaign (above) and deemphasizes contours since large-scale games like Sam Mustafa's Eisenhower do not require them, so the land area is green. The sea area is a more realistic dark blue (see featured image at the top of the post).

The first version will have a grid with 2-mile squares. Next will be a hex grid version, although Eisenhower doesn't have a hexagon variant yet. Finally, a "no-grid" version will arrive for rulesets where movement and ranges are measured with a ruler.

This project started when Little Wars TV released a video of their game of the first two days of the invasion, June 6-7, 1944. Back then, they used a variant of Rommel where each company stand was upgraded to a battalion. That's Eisenhower's scale, and three battalions are allowed per square. But I felt that Rommel was too intricate for a longer-term campaign. Eisenhower looks to be "just right."

I created a PDF that can be enlarged without limit, and I am releasing pre-printed cloth mats of the entire area of Normandy or specific parts. (See updates)

You can see more on the Bits page of this website or my personal Wargame Campaign blog.

UPDATE 11/16/24: You can buy a PDF of the Normandy Campaign and print your game mat at WargameVault, or wait until December when we expect to have some game mats that you can order "off the shelf."

Below is a one-kilometer hex grid (with each hex numbered) from the D-Day series of maps. The maps come in hex and square grids with 600 to 6,000 yards per space. The featured Normandy Campaign image at the top of the page has a two-mile square grid.

UPDATE 6/6/25: You can buy a custom preprinted mat of the Normandy Campaign made to order. The parameters are as follows:

• Grid cell: square, hex, or no-grid.

• Each grid cell: common requests are 2 miles high to work with Eisenhower. Each can be made smaller or larger.

• Height of each grid square or hex: common requests 3" to 4" (or precise amounts like 3.3". This sets the size of the overall mat, which has 18x44 squares, so a 4" grid would mean 72x176" (a whopping 6x14.67 feet). A hex grid is slightly narrower than its height.*

You do not need to figure all this out before inquiring. Just click here to contact Bill Owen for a no-obligation quote. For example, you could start with just the maximum area you have for tables.

*Most people set up the table in an "L" shape so the invading players can more easily reach the beaches.