Notes from the front

Here are a few in-game action shots from a recent Memoir '44 session.  I am playing the Germans, and six objective point are required for a win.

Since you switch sides after each game, it behooves you to watch very closely what happens to the other side during the game.  You also want to establish as big a lead as possible in the first game, so you have the opponent taking as many chances as possible to make up the gap in that second game.

The action is card based, in the form of orders. The battlefield is divided into three areas... left, center and right.  You can see by my cards that each one lets me move a certain number or type of unit in a specific zone.  You have to be careful... just because you have a bunch of orders early on that let you press an action in a certain area, there is no guarantee that you will have more cards later to continue that actions.

I was fortunate to have the kind of order cards that would allow me to move across all areas of the board.  We had also instituted the rule of command cars, which let you move one additional unit in that area.  I used that to great effect on my right flank.

The attack continues to be pressed, in spite of some casualties.  I have managed to wipe out his long range threats, which is letting me go forward without losing entire units.  With my own long range artillery intact, he has to be careful how far out in the open he goes to respond to the attacks.

I allow the tanks and paratroopers on the left flank to take some losses, as I surge towards the town in the rear of his lines on the right flank.  If I can wipe out the unit defending it, and capture it this turn, I can claim the two final objectives I need!

It is important that this happens now, since I have a number of units at low strength.  If he has any kind of sweeping battlefield orders, he could pick those off and make the game much closer.

Success!  Victory achieved, and a 6-2 conquest.  The Tiger tank finishes off the last of the hapless GI's defending it, and the elite troops march into town!

Now for the fun part... playing the other side!  Knowing that I only needed to get 3 victory points for the overall win, I did not have to be as aggressive as I was with the German side.

You can see my order cards here.  I was desperate to get the troops that were lined up against the board edge out of the way, so that the dreaded turn one air power card would not force me to flee in terror off the board!

Wouldn't you know it... the FIRST card played was the air power.  I was fortunate that the rolls did not go more against me, and I did not lose even more vital elements of my force (or give up more free victory points!).

However, I had the Barrage card, which wiped out the command cars!  That would prove to be the most devastating blow of the game.

As I mentioned before, I could let the Germans come to me a bit more, since they had a lot of VP's to make up.  This allowed me to set up some traps.  I also tried to maneuver as many forces as possible into the areas for which I had the most orders, or to get the on the red line hexes.

Units placed there count as being in both areas, which is huge!

You can see I have done this with a few units.  The idea was to set up one unit for destruction.  I only needed to take down one more, and it would be impossible for the Germans to get the points needed to force a third game.

Rich was able to make a lot of headway on the left flank, capturing that town.  He was unable to wipe out a few units, however.

Things were actually getting much closer.  He had been able to move enough units into place to threaten a few units that had previously taken hits.

However, I was able to knock off that last unit, giving me three victory points!  At that point, my total VP's had assured me the win.

This is very fast paced, and it is a lot like poker.  You don't know what your opponent has in front of him.  You can hang onto certain 'response' cards that will allow you to repeat his order, which is good to save if he has something nasty!

We continue to learn new things all the time as we test out more scenarios and units.

It will also be much more interesting when everything is painted!!