Saturday, July 10, 2004

Memoir '44

Alan, Todd, and I played a couple of games this afternoon at Cafe Francisco. One was Java, which Todd will be reviewing. The other was Memoir '44, a game in which you recreate battles from the Allied invasion of Normandy.

The game is played on a hex board, with tiles such as woods, villages, rivers, and bridges, that are arranged in different ways for the various battles. We played the battle for Pegasus bridge, which took place shortly after midnight on June 6, 1944. Players command units, which consist of plastic army men, very similar to the ones we all played with as children. (There are also armored units, but there are no armored units in the Pegasus bridge scenario.)

Players may order the units based on the cards they have in their hands. A card may say something like "order two units on the left flank," or "order one unit in each section of the board (left, right, and center)." One order consists of attacking, moving one hex then attacking, or moving two hexes. The cards are one random element of the game. The other random element is the dice rolled to make attacks. Up to four dice are rolled to attack, depending on how far the target is from the attacker, and what sort of cover (such as forests, sandbags, or wire) the defender has.

Each side scores points based on battle objectives, such as capturing the bridges over the Orne River and the Caen canal, and by eliminating enemy units. The first side to score a fixed number of points (which I believe is scenario-dependant), wins. Since one side may well have a distinct advantage over the other in a scenario, you're supposed to replay the scenario with the players switching sides. We only played the Pegasus bridge scenario once, however.

Unfortunately, unlike in history, the Allies, played by Alan and me, lost to the Axis, played by Todd. We made a bold rush on the machine gun nest near the Caen canal bridge, and our units were quickly gunned down.

The rules are easy to learn, and playing a single scenario only takes about 30 minutes. There's more randomness to the game than I really like. The gameboard and pieces are well-designed, and the historical information makes the game very educational.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

85 Comments:

At July 12, 2004 at 9:31 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

A you play memoir 44, you will find there is not as much randomness as may appear in the first few playings. The game system very properly rewards a focus on mission objectives, which are scenario dependent.

for example, in Pegasus Bridge, the British/Allied forces must be careful not to lose whole units, so must move depleted units back while pushing the attack with fresh units. I have now played a dozen Pegauss Bridge scenarios and have won with both sides. Since I am lettign teh new players play the Brisish side, I have found an experienced player can make the Brits very nervous in every game. On the surface, it looks like an easy Allied win ... but, the subtleties of the game (not any randmomness) can make it a tough battle for the VBrits when faced with a knowledgable opponent.

The WOW folks have posted rules for large multi-player games, which Todd and I hope to try out soon.

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