Memoir ’44 is an extremely light World War II war game. Players select scenarios, build battlefields, and deploy troops to recreate some of the highlight campaigns of the Great War. The game is easy to learn and quick to play, and while strategy hardcores might hate the luck or unbalanced game play, anyone who likes a game would be hard-pressed to say it isn’t a whole lot of fun.

The Pieces

Days of Wonder, the publisher of Memoir ’44, has a sort of credo. This credo states that, when you open one of their games, they want you to feel like you did when you were a little kid opening a new and awesome toy. And when you open Memoir ’44, or any of the expansions, it is easy to see that Days of Wonder is serious about that credo.

The first thing you might notice when you open the base game is the good number of little plastic soldiers. There are green Allied forces and blue-gray Axis forces, and each side is molded differently. The green G.I. figures are distinctively American, though they do have to serve double-duty as British troops and French Resistance members. The Axis soldiers, which are pretty much exclusively Germans, also match up nicely to historical models. The tanks for each side are also individually attractive – the green tanks are Shermans, and the gray tanks are Panzers. There are also barbed wire counters, sandbags, artillery guns, and hedgehogs (those big crosspieces of metal you see on the beach in any D-Day movie). All are molded from soft plastic, and are extremely well-made and durable, and they look great.

The board for Memoir ’44 is double-sided. One side is entirely covered with green, grassy hexes, while the other side has sand, grass, and rolling waves. After all, you can’t storm Omaha Beach if you don’t have a beach. The art for both sides is simple enough, but extremely attractive.

The beauty of the board is evident when you look at the modular hex tiles used for terrain. There are hexes to represent rivers, towns, forests, hedgerows, and more, and they are all awesome. The art is brilliant. The towns look like you could almost walk the streets.

The order cards are likewise outstanding. A very fun design invokes the spirit of a war room, with generals moving little counters to simulate battles and troop movements. The cards, which are used to give orders to troops, are on a nice stock and contain great art.

One of my chief complaints with many games is plastic dice. When a game has flat plastic dice with graphics printed on the faces, those graphics often rub off after enough games. The wooden dice in Memoir ’44 will not face this problem, especially since the graphics on the individual faces are engraved into the wood.

The expansions continue the tradition of excellent workmanship. The Winter/Desert Board Map allows you to play any battle from North Africa to the Winter Campaign on the Eastern Front. Obviously, one side is covered with snow, and the other is decorated exclusively with sandy desert. The art is once more simple, yet fantastic.

And in case you were wondering how you’re going to play the Soviets, the Eastern Front expansion contains all the armies, additional terrain, and scenarios you need to engage the Germans all across the steppes of Northern Russia. The brown plastic Russian soldiers are specifically Russian, and the tanks are also specific to the Soviet forces. There’s even a very nice, heavy clay counter used for play when the Soviets are in a battle, which is used to represent the gross inadequacies of the Soviet leadership after Stalin’s bloody coup.

The terrain tiles in the Eastern Front expansion deserve their own paragraph. These depict frozen rivers, ‘dragon teeth’ tank blockades, and frost-covered ruined cities. Many of the tiles work exactly like the green ones in the base game, but look a lot better on the snowy side of the Winter/Desert Board Map. The art on all these tiles continues to be excelsior.

The Terrain Pack expansion is full of terrain tiles you can use to take the battle across the deserts of Algeria, or just expand the battles in France and Germany. There are railroad sections, roads, oases and rocky canyons. There are also minefields, power plants, prison camps and locomotives. The staggering number of tiles is awesome, and although it is beginning to sound redundant, these are all beautifully illustrated.

All told, the components in Memoir ’44 are brilliant. They certainly make you feel like you just opened a brand new toy at Christmas, and they just beg to be played.

The Game

Memoir ’44 is not a deep or difficult game. Players select a scenario, with one side taking Axis and the other Allies, and they set up a board. The scenario shows players where to set up rivers, bridges, forests, and the other terrain, and it shows the starting position of each side. Once players have all their forces in place – a process that can be accomplished inside five to ten minutes – the game begins.

Each player draws a number of order cards as dictated by the scenario. The board is split into three sections, designated with dashed red lines, and order cards allow players to issue orders to their soldiers in particular ‘flanks’ of the board. A general who masses all his troops in the center could find himself without a card that allows him to tell those troops to fight, so the order cards encourage players to spread out their armies for maximum flexibility.

On a player’s turn, he begins by playing one of his available cards. This card tells him how many units he can move, and in what sections. For instance, a card might allow a player to order three units on the left flank, one in each section, or just one on the right. Special cards allow players to take special actions, such as blitz attacks with tanks, bombardment with artillery, or air strikes.

Once a player chooses his units, he moves them. There are different rules for each unit type. Infantry units can move one hex and battle, or move two hexes. Tanks can move up to three hexes and still battle, and artillery may either move one hex or fire.

Once all units are moved, the player can fight. Any units that were ordered can attack as long as they can trace line of sight and range. Infantry units attack adjacent hexes with three dice, one hex with two dice, and two hexes out with one die. Armor can hit three hexes out, with three dice every time, but much more difficulty piercing cover. Artillery can shoot up to six hexes, with anywhere from three to one dice.

The dice use a relatively familiar mechanic seen in many battle-type games. An infantry symbol kills a figure in an infantry unit, a tank symbol kills a tank figure, and a grenade symbol kills any single figure. A purple flag forces the enemy to retreat, and the green star is generally a miss. Since each unit is made of two to four figures, it takes several successful hits to destroy a unit completely.

One interesting rule allows figures to take ground after they force a retreat. This handy ability allows an adjacent attacking unit to move into the vacated space, and this special ability cannot be overstated. If a unit is ejected from a forest or town, and the attacker can move into that space, it can make the retreating unit’s life very difficult.

While many scenarios grant victory points for specific objectives, like capturing bridges or towns, you can always earn a victory point by completely destroying an enemy unit. When one player has enough victory points, as determined by the scenario, the game is over and that player has won.

Expansion Comments

The scenarios and components in all three expansions add a huge amount to the game. Aside from simply providing another batch of scenarios and some new toys, there are new rules to allow you to tromp through minefields, ski through the frozen battlefields, or sail across rivers in collapsible boats. The option to chase Rommel through the deserts of North Africa or repel Finnish Ski Troops adds a huge element to an already fantastic game.

One new rule that especially intrigued me is the Political Commissar chip. Every turn, rather than play a card directly from his hand, the Soviet player must place a unit card under the Commissar chip, and play the order card that was there from last turn. This means that the Soviet player is always a turn behind, unable to react quickly or use powerful cards as soon as they are drawn. This rule is a ton of fun, and hilarious in use. It is especially fun to be playing the Germans when the Soviet player groans in pain and reveals a completely useless card.

Observations

Memoir ’44 is not just a pretty face. The game is an absolute hoot to play. It goes at mach speed, with turns flipping very fast, and in most cases, a complete game will take less than a half hour. The problem is that most scenarios make no attempt to be balanced. German soldiers dug in on Sword Beach are almost certain to devastate attacking Allied forces, and the surprise attack at Pegasus Bridge by British Commandos is virtually a lock. But happily, with the games playing out so quickly, it is a simple matter to spin the board, trade sides, and play a rematch. If players are so competitive that they simply must know who won in a fair fight, they can compare total victory points claimed in both fights.

Another issue that many might have with Memoir ’44 is the heavy luck factor. Interestingly, the problem is not really with the dice. They tend to allow a statistic advantage to the player that uses them correctly. The real issue lies in the order cards. The player who has heavy reinforcements in the left flank, but no cards that allow him to move those units, is completely handicapped. A bad draw can leave a player with no way to move the units critical to his success.

Both of these problems – the imbalance and the luck factor – would seem to render Memoir ’44 a throw-away kids’ game. Nothing could be further from the truth. As with many games that feature a lot of luck, a player must be flexible in order to succeed. The trick is to have forces positioned in each section, and save the really powerful cards for when you need them. This is still not any guarantee of a win, but a good player will be able to win with more regularity than a lucky player.

The balance issue is also not of particular concern. Since the game goes so very fast, it is a matter of simply changing sides and playing twice. Sure, you can take Mont Mouchet with superior Allied forces, but can you defend it as well as your opponent did? The game still allows for an awesome amount of strategic game play, and having to deal with an inferior position actually makes it more of a challenge.

All things considered, Memoir ’44 is a spectacular game that hearkens back to Christmas day, opening a great toy and spending the day playing with it. I can say, without reservation, that it is the most fun I have had playing a game in a very long time. No gamer worth his dice should be without a copy of Memoir ’44, and no fan of Memoir ’44 should be without the excellent expansions.

Style: 5 – Almost impossibly attractive.

Substance: 5 – Ten pounds of fun in a five-pound bag.