‘Crowbar!: The Rangers at Pointe Du Hoc’ is Now Available for Preorder

Following a successful Kickstarter run, Flying Pig Games is now taking preorders for my buddy Hermann Luttmann’s solitaire WWII game Crowbar!: The Rangers at Pointe Du Hoc. In the game the player is tasked with recreating the near impossible as companies of the 2nd Ranger Battalion scaled 100′ cliffs and then proceeded to assault German positions on June 6th, 1944. The game does have variants to add additional players as well. Crowbar: The Rangers at Pointe Du Hoc is mainly a solitaire game, for ages 10+, plays in around 90 minutes to two hours, and carries an MSRP of $99.00. Right now you can score the game at a discounted preorder price of $75.00.

From Flying Pig:

June 6, 1944 – 7:09 am

A commanding voice shouts “Crowbar!” from the carefully monitored radios of Ranger Flotilla headquarters aboard the LSI command ship St. James. With that signal, the 225 men of Dog, Easy and Fox Companies of Force “A” of the 2nd Ranger Battalion launched one of the most incredible and seemingly impossible assaults of military history.

Tasked with landing on the beaches of Normandy, France and scaling the towering 100-foot cliffs at Pointe Du Hoc in the face of determined German defenders, the Rangers were the only force that could possibly meet this challenge. Despite initially heading in the wrong direction and landing in jumbled order, the elite Rangers were eager to begin their ascent. Their mission was to find and destroy the six huge 150mm artillery pieces that were deployed in the area.

Crowbar!: The Rangers at Pointe Du Hoc is a solitaire wargame (with two-player and cooperative variants) which abstractly simulates the ebb, flow and risk of the Pointe du Hoc assault, with you playing the attacking Rangers. The game system traces its parentage to the popular In Magnificent Style game and mirrors its speed of play, tough decision-making and heart-pounding push-your-luck excitement. But Crowbar! has been updated to allow for an even smoother gameplay experience. For example, instead of the old “dice matrix” system to determine unit movement results, the game now utilizes four custom Movement Dice. Each die is made up of different results, escalating the possible risk/reward ratio. Dice are thrown one at a time and can be read instantly to determine what happens to the unit.

The system also challenges you with even more events, including constant German counterattacks, ammunition shortages, artillery bombardments, booby traps and other surprises. Your goal is to meet your various objectives as quickly as possible, before the German defenders can dig in even deeper and before they can organize effective counterattacks. Ultimate success or failure in the game is measured by how well you do as compared to the actual heroic accomplishments of the Rangers on that historic day. Are you up to the challenge?

• Author
• Recent Posts

Jeff McAleer

Founder/Editor-in-chief of The Gaming Gang website and host of The Gaming Gang Dispatch and other TGG media, Jeff tackles any and all sorts of games but has a special fondness for strategy, conflict sims, and roleplaying games. Plus, he's certainly never at a loss for an opinion...

Latest posts by Jeff McAleer (see all)

• Chivalry & Sorcery Fifth Edition Reviewed - Nov 3, 2024
• Campaign Builder: Castles & Crowns Reviewed - Nov 2, 2024
• The Roleplaying Game of the Planet of the Apes Quickstart | First Look and Page-Through - Nov 1, 2024