Memoir '44

Hi JFaria, welcome to my blog!

Every so often the term 'Memoir 44' appears on the Wargames Miscellany blog, a board game that Bob is quite fond of it seems. I am not a huge boardgames fan myself, although that is not necessarily true; I just never seem to play any is probably more accurate. Some of them are so expensive I would rather spend the cash on figures, but so many look good. I have a copy of War on Terror: The Boardgame! that I roll out occasionally and I do enjoy that, so I wonder what is stopping me?

Anyhooo, having seen the various boards and expansion packs available to Memoir 44 players on Bob's blog I have to admit my curiosity was piqued. I then noticed that you could download 'Memoir '44 Online' via Steam, the online games site. It was free too, so I gave it a go and downloaded the program and was impressed. Whilst the download is free you will need to buy points to play games but these are very, very cheap and you get 45 to start with. i have played a dozen games and have loads of points left, another 135 points will cost you just £4.00. The game plays exactly as the boardgame would but with the added bonus that you could play people from anywhere in the world. The game is simple enough to get to grips with and the basic rules very straight forward. The interesting thing for me is that the board is divided into three sectors, left centre and right, and the actions you can perform are dictated by cards that only allow you limited activations. For example, you may have a lot of pieces in your centre and right sectors but most of the cards you end up with will only activate units in your left sector; or vice versa, its all quite random. As you play one card it is replaced with another so things can change turn by turn.

Combat is worked out by rolling a number of special dice marked with an infantryman, tank, grenade, flag and a star. All units roll the same dice but the number rolled depends upon range and cover etc. so, if you are attacking a tank unit, for example, and get to roll four dice you will kill one model in the unit for every tank or grenade symbol you roll. Flags make the unit retreat one space and stars are misses. If you roll an infantryman against tanks then that is a miss, a tank symbol against infantry is a miss; grenades kill everything. It is a simple but elegant system.

Thing you can do is download the game and see for yourself, I can heartily recommend it....so much so that I am now seriously considering buying a 'hard copy'! Prices vary wildly I have noticed so do shop around if you are ever tempted, Amazon seems the best option so far.

Just thought I would bring this natty download to you attention, it has got to be worth a look. And, if anyone out there plays Memoir '44 the board game, let me know what you think of it.