Memoir '44: Mediterranean Theater is the British expansion for
Memoir '44, set in the deserts of Africa.
The Components
Mediterranean Theater comes with:
A British Army: This is 42 infantry men, 24 Crusader tanks, and 6 25-pounder guns. They're all molded in the British color of brown (which is nicely individual, but blends right into the desert).
There are also 3 anti-tank weapons. Technically they're not British troops, as they come in gray and could be used by any army, as appropriate.
All of these figures are up to the usual good standards of Memoir '44. The molds are unique and give the British troops a nice character that differentiates them from the other armiesin the game.
Notably, though there are also some rules for Italian troops in this supplement, there are no Italian figures. Instead, you can mark them with Italian national medals.
Cardboard Bits: The other major component of the expansion is a large set of cardboard bits. They're all linen-textured and match the other M44 expansions to date. These bits include 44 hexagonal terrain tiles (which depict desert terrain), 10 round tokens(for minefields, exits, and other things), 4 rectangular obstacles, and 14 new Special Forces badges.
The Rules: The full-color 24-page rulebook explains all the new rules, but more importantly also has 8 new scenarios, detailing battles that occurred in and around Tobruk, from 1941-1942.
You can play this expansion on your normal M44 map, but if you want it to look its best, you'll also want to pick up the Winter/Desert board produced by Days of Wonder in 2005.
As with all of the boxed national expansions, Mediterranean Theater is a little on the pricey side, but it has great components that are exactly what you need to bring M'44 into this new arena. I've given it a "4" out of "5" for Style, with my only issue being the price.
The Gameplay
Mediterranean Theater expands your Memoir '44 game to a new front, here the desert battles with the Italians (and Germans).
New Terrains: There are desert duplicates of some existing terrain, but in addition, Mediterranean Theater introduces some totally new terrain types:
- Ergs & Ridges: Hill-like dunes that also stop movement when you enter one.
- Escarpments: Impassable hexes.
- Oasis: Defensive at -1/-1, stops movement. Also allows for unit recovery if the Oasis Recovery rules are in effect.
- Wadis: Stops movement in specific directions, also entirely shields units from faraway enemies and is defensive at -1 to everyone, even artillery.
New Obstacles: These are the rectangular pieces which show up in most M44 expansions. The only totally new one is a road block, which blocks everyone but infantry and otherwise acts like a sandbag.
Nationality Rules: Both the British & the Italians have special rules.
- British: Get to counteract if they survive a close combat with exactly one figure.
- Italian: Infantry is motorized and can thus retreat 1, 2, or 3 spaces per flag. Artillery is brave and can ignore a flag.
New Badges: There are new badges for the Italians as well as badges for British and Italian special forces. There are also combat engineer rules for both nationalities.
- Combat Engineers: Ignore protective terrain used by enemies, remove wire faster, and may remove mines.
Special Weapon Assets: Mediterranean Theater introduces the idea of the "special weapon asset" (or SWA), which is a special weapon that's given to a unit that slightly changes how the unit works. There's just one in this expansion:
- Anti-Tank Gun: An infantry weapon. It slows its unit down, by only allowing it to attack if it has moved 0 hexes. However, when the unit attacks a tank, all stars also count as hits.
Mines: The only other rule of particular note is for mines. These round counters are laid out in certain spaces, according to a scenario. They stop movement. When an enemy lands on them, they're revealed, causing 0-4 combat dice to be rolled against the enemy. The mine then stays there (unless it was a 0) to do damage to future units. Only engineers can get rid of them.
New Scenarios: The eight new scenarios are all set in the deserts, and thus do a good job of highlighting all the new rules. Though some of the deserts are a bit sparse of terrain, there are roads, minefields, wire, and sandbags to keep you on your toes.
Although every scenario uses the British, the Italians appear much less frequently, and usually only as a couple of units. Disappointingly, the special bravery rule for Italian artillery never comes up, because there aren't any (though maybe that's just Days of Wonder saving the Italians for a full-fledged expansion).
Relationships to Other Games
Mediterranean Theater is the third national expansion to date, the others being Eastern Front and Pacific Theater.
It's closely related to the Terrain Pack, another small-box expansion. The Terrain Pack introduced much (though not all) of the desert terrain, introduced mine fields, introduced combat engineers, and also featured the first desert scenario, Knightsbridge (which could be slotted right into the sequence of battles included in Mediterranean Theater). However, I was personally underwhelmed by Terrain Pack, because it was more a do-it-yourself kit than a look at part of the war; I feel like Mediterranean Theater has finally done the early African battles of WWII justice.
Mediterranean Theater is the first two-player release since Air Pack. As such, it includes references to rules from the Air Pack. You could probably get by without it, but given that Air Pack was one of the best expansions ever, you should pick it up.
(You can also find a few additional Mediterranean Theater scenarios in Air Pack too, including an update to Knightsbridge and some others that fall either before or after those in this new supplement.)
The Game Design
Mediterranean Theater pretty much does what it needs to. There isn't a lot of originality in it, but on the other hand it's clean and well-designed.
The most interesting rules, having to do with the minefields and the engineers, are old news because they've appeared in previous sipplements. Similarly about half of the terrain is straight from Terrain Pack. I like the wadis and the oasis, but I've also seen them before. However, the ridges working slightly differently from hills is a nice innovation that gives some new color to the desert.
The new nationality rules aren't nearly as interesting as some of the ones we've seen in the past. The British rules come up fairly rarely and the Italian retreat rules are interesting, but not controllable.
None of this is exactly a complaint: as I said, the supplement does what it needs to. However, don't expect fireworks.
The one truly innovative element in the expand is the SWA, which is introduced with the anti-tank weapon. It's an interesting unit in itself because it takes tactical care. It also offers the opportunity to expand M44 in an interesting new way without adding a lot of complexity.
Though a lot of the new rules aren't that exciting, I think the scenarios make excellent use of them, bringing out their color as much as is possible. There are a couple of pretty empty desert battles, but there are also several scenarios which make enough use of new bits to form some of the more complex strategic puzzles in Memoir '44. "Hellfire Pass", the first scenario in the book, makes excellent use of a combination of minefields, ridges, wire, and sandbags to create a hard fortified position. Though I haven't played it yet, "Flanking Maneuver at Bir Hakeim" also makes interesting use of fortifications, a badly split army, and the possibility of recovery at an Oasis.
On the whole, I'd call Mediterranean Theater a pretty average expansion for Memoir '44, boosted up only by scenarios. On that basis, I'm tempted to give it a high "3" out of "5" for Substance. Nonetheless, I think it's well worth buying for any serious M'44 fan and even moreso for people who haven't seen some of these rules yet because they don't have the Terrain Pack.
(In fact, I generally think that Mediterranean Theater is an excellent replacement for much of the Terrain Pack's functionality. If I pretended that Terrain Pack didn't exist, and that the mines and combat engineers were both innovations, I'd give Mediterranean Theater a "4", perhaps a "5", and it could be that's the more fair way to rate it. My actual rating nearby reflects this.)
Conclusion
It's not that innovative, but Mediterranean Theater is nonetheless a good, chunky supplement for Memoir '44 that'll give you a great opportunity to play the British and fight in the deserts of Africa.
Review Summary