Coming soon: Memoir '44 Campaign Book

Good news for all you Memoir '44 fans out there! The Memoir '44 Campaign Book is now available for pre-order from Days of Wonder. It sounds like it has a lot of good stuff in it that could keep you playing for many years to come. I saw an announcement today that describes what is in the book. Here is what they say:

"The Campaign Book includes 12 different campaigns in three theaters of operation - Battle for Normandy in the summer of 1944, playable with the base game; the Blitzkrieg to the West in 1940, which takes advantage of the Terrain Pack; and Operation Barbarossa, for use with the Eastern Front expansion on the Russian Front in 1941. Along with the Advanced Campaign Rules, over 50 new Memoir '44 scenarios are included in the 112 page, full-color book."

50 new scenarios! That will definitely keep you busy!

Having Fun with "Memoir '44"

So, what are your plans for New Year's Eve? Wine, women, and song? I'll tell you what I'll be doing. I'll be sitting at home playing quick and easy boardgames such as "Memoir '44." (And maybe drinking one beer, or maybe two or three.) If your are not familiar with "Memoir '44" let me just tell you that it is a very clever, very easy, WWII combat boardgame. It's a bit like "Axis and Allies," but whereas "Axis and Allies" is at the strategic level, "Memoir '44" is at the operational/tactical level. It is easy to set up, learn, and play a quick game or two, or even three, in one setting on your kitchen or dining room table. The game comes with numerous soft plastic tank, infantry, artillery, sand bag, barbwire, and obstacle pieces. It also comes with a double-sided game board so you can run beach scenarios or normal terrain scenarios. There are numerous double-sided hexagonal terrain tiles for creating many different scenarios, each one having a total different terrain situation. The game's utilizes a card system that limits what you can do each turn; so you have to choose wisely. Some of the cards only allow you to activate 1 to 3 units in your center, or right, or left flanks. Some of them allow you much more latitude, and some of them allow you to put a real big hurt on your opponent if you are lucky enough to draw them. Learning when to use the right card at the right time is an important, and fun, part of the game.

My son and I have been having a good time with the game. We are working on the Normandy scenarios that come with the basic game box. We just finished playing through the first Normandy beach landing scenario (Sword Beach) which is a big challenge for the allied side. We played it through four times before I finally proved that the allied side can win the scenario.

"Memoir '44" has become a very popular game system with several expansions and web site support. The publisher is called "Days of Wonder." We have two of the expansions but we still have a long way to go with just playing through all the scenarios in the basic box. The next one on our list is Point du Hoc. That should be interesting!

Rome at War: Fading Legions

Well recently I returned to my wargaming roots a little bit. I grew up playing various board games, mainly those published by Avalon Hill. Lately I had my eye on this "Rome at War: Fading Legions" game because it looked like it might be an easy way to play out some ancient wargame battles without a lot of complicated rules and stacks of small pieces of carboard cluttered on a board laid out in hexagons.

I stopped playing board games quite a while ago because I got tired of dealing with stacks of cardboard and overly detailed rules, charts, etc. So I decided to take a chance and give Fading Legions a try. I'm glad I did! I have to say that I like it and find it to be a nice change of pace.

To begin with the pieces are extremely attractive. Many of them are long double length pieces; these represent the heavy infantry units. The rules allow only one heavy infantry unit per square so there are no large stacks to push around. Also, if there are any light infantry and cavalry in the same square as the heavy infantry unit there is room in the square to lay them alongside the heavy infantry unit. Same goes for leader pieces. So there really is no need to any stacking of pieces at all! This is a nice feature because it makes for a nice tidy playing area and you can see everything on the board without constantly picking through the little stacks to remind yourself what is there. And the graphics printed on the pieces actually make the game appear to be somewhat like a miniatures game. So with all the pieces laid out on the board it actually looks, dare I say it, somewhat realistic?! At least to me it does, but then maybe I just have a vivid imagination.

I have more to say about this game, but I will cover that later.