Omaha 1944
By ReFLeX ch33f

On June 6th, 1944, American, Canadian and British armies began an invasion of Nazi-occupied France. Five thousand ships were to carry 130,000 men and 20,000 vehicles, supported by 700 warships and 8,000 aircraft. These were all to converge along an 80-kilometre stretch of the Normandy coast. Five beaches had been selected for the landings, and had all been given code names. Juno beach was to be taken by the Canadians, Sword and Gold were to be taken by the British, and Omaha and Utah by the Americans. Omaha beach, however, was unlike any of the others. The pre-invasion bombings had left the German forces intact, resulting in a complete massacre as soon as the troops arrived. These brave soldiers, however, kept pushing forward and eventually took the beachhead. They then proceeded to liberate Normandy from Nazi tyranny.

This map is pretty much a reenactment of the Omaha landings. Its canvas map is Forgeworld, and it utilizes a custom Territories gametype.

The attacking soldiers spawn in the landing crafts/Higgins boats at the beginning of the game, and proceed to storm the beach. After the first 'beach' territory is captured, they can ascend around the cliffs to capture the remaining two more, while at the same time clear out the German machinegun pillboxes that may be wreaking havoc on the beaches below...

I'd recommend a full lobby (16 players), or at least a minimum of 9, but you can experiment as you wish. Red team are the Defenders (Germans), and blue team are the Attackers (Americans). It's best to try to stick to an Attacker-Defender ratio of about 4:1 or 3:1. (For example, if you have a party of 16 players, 12 should be attacking and 4 should be defending). I'm still not positive which works best, so play around with it, and if you can, let me know what the optimal game experience is in terms of team balance :P.

No matter what, however, there should never be more than 4 defenders. Having more than 4 will result in a complete massacre, leaving no hope whatsoever in even getting close to the actual beach. This will, obviously, result in a very lousy experience for the attacking team. Don't do it.

In terms of weapons, both sides spawn with shotguns. This is so that the attackers won't be sniping the defenders as soon as the game begins, and vice versa. The defenders' machineguns aren't very accurate, but they still pack a punch. Over the course of the game, more weapons will start spawning (nothing too overpowered or anything that will unbalance the game, though). For the defenders, it will gradually get harder and harder, so good luck...

Other Pictures

The view from the landing craft; Attacker spawn

Inside a German pillbox

"For the defenders, it will gradually get harder and harder, so good luck..."

An overall view of the beach

Final Notes
One small problem that I've had is that I could only set the custom gametype to have one round. There's no real way of setting it so that defenders and attackers swap out, and even if I could, it would mean the next round would consist of a stacked defender team and a mere two or three people attacking. Sorry guys :(

Anyway, let me know how it is. Be sure to tell me about problems and glitches that arise (which I'm sure will)... If you have any suggestions, please tell me. Thanks!

Btw, here's a much easier way of downloading this map and gametype, and many others (in my opinion):
1. In Halo Reach, press the 'START' button on the controller.
2. Go to the File Browser menu.
3. Select 'New Custom Search'
4. Select 'File Share Seach'
5. Type in 'ReFLeX ch33f'. Download Omaha 1944 and Operation Overlord gametype.