Memoir 44 Scenario Review: Escape Via the Coastal Road

MEMOIR 44 SCENARIO 101: ESCAPE VIA THE COASTAL ROAD
Memoir 44 is a tactical WWII game from Days of Wonder that successfully combines elements of both miniatures and board games. The game was designed by Richard Borg and uses his card-driven system of issuing orders to units on the board Featured in other games like Command and Colours, Battlecry and Battlelore). In 2010, DOW also launched an on-line version of Memoir 44 that mimics the board game perfectly.

Over the next few weeks I will provide you with my experience in playing Memoir 44 scenarios both at the tabletop and on-line, with my rating of the scenario and a few tips for play for both Axis and Allied forces. This week’s feature is the “Escape by the Coastal Road” scenario.

Escape by the Coastal Road (June 14, 1942)
Front: Mediterranean
Victory Conditions: 6 medals (the Commonwealth Player can gain by exiting units from two hexes)
Special Rules: North African desert rules, reduced Allied armour movement, buttes, road movement, exit points, Nation rules for British and Italian forces.

Field Marshall Rommel’s Afrika Corps have engaged Commonwealth forces defending the approach to Tobruk and are threatening to destroy the 1st South African Division and the remnants of the Northumbrian Division. The defence must hold long enough for those Divisions to withdraw, using the overcrowded roads along the coast to do so.

German Strategy
The Commonwealth forces have their back against the sea and are strung out along a road that roughly follows the coastline. They score points for exiting units off the road (only) from either flank. The road on your left flank is defended by two entrenched Italian infantry units. The rest of your infantry and armour is strung out along the back line on your centre and right flank.

It’s important to intercept the Commonwealth forces attempting to exit the board as your enemy will score most of their medals this way. Remember, the road movement rules will allow them to move quickly and if they manage to draw an “Infantry Assault” card you could be in big trouble. Your priority is the road that exits on your right flank. It’s undefended and provides the best opportunity for Commonwealth forces to exit the board. Send your units on that flank forward as soon as possible and secure the pass between the line of buttes that runs down the middle of the battlefield.

Your opponent will probably use some infantry and armour to plug the gap there, supported by their single artillery unit. If the Commonwealth can delay you in the pass, their artillery can do some damage, so push through as soon as possible, harass any units moving on the road and secure the exit hex as soon as possible, with your armoured units. You may be able to afford to assign one tank to take out his artillery and wreak havoc on any infantry that remain to make a stand in the centre.

It is highly likely that the Commonwealth will also commit forces to escape via the road that exits on your left flank. Your Italians are behind sandbag defences so it’s unlikely that they will be required to retreat. However, they usually come under a lot of fire from the three Commonwealth infantry and one armour unit positioned on your centre left and left flank. Assign one of your armoured units and two infantry to reinforce the Italians when you get a spare moment. You need six medals to win, which means you can be reasonably ‘bold’ with your moves. Your strength is armour (you outnumber your opponent 5:2) so make good use of them. If you make overrun attacks use the desert movement rules for armour to stay away from Commonwealth infantry at the end of your turn. The enemy does have a considerable number of infantry units and can inflict damage on your tanks if you get in too close.

Commonwealth Strategy
I find the best plan is, if the early command cards are favourable, concentrate on solely exiting the board via the road on your left flank. Striking out for both left and right exits splits your forces and reduces your combat effectiveness. Rapidly deploy your armoured unit on your left flank to defend the pass there, with support from an infantry unit. While these units make a brave stand (with the aid of your artillery), begin to move all your units along the road to your left flank.

Make your priority to exit units off the board whenever you can and, if the pass falls, plug it with some of the units travelling from the centre and right flank. Note, when you withdraw from the right, your opponent may choose to abandon the fixed positions of the Italian units and pursue your retreating troops. Depending on what enemy forces have been committed to the area, you may be able to take the initiative and launch a counter-attack, destroying the Italians and opening up the escape route to the right. This should only be considered if you have any cards that will allow you to move rapidly against the right and exit the board before reinforcements are deployed.

The Axis player’s main advantage is their superiority in armour (combined with the fact your infantry is exposed and out in the open). You have two armoured units so use then judiciously to attack your opponent’s thrusts through the three major passes. You can use the buttes as cover from his marauding panzers and attack in conjunction with your infantry to try and eliminate his armoured units.

Most of your skill will be tested in how efficiently you mange a small defensive force, while moving the bulk of your troops off the left flank road. Your medal count is not going to come from the elimination of the enemy but through the successful evacuation of your units.

Rating of this scenario: 3 out of 5 stars.

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The Benefits of Tabletop

Tabletop, the Youtube show that has been covering board and card games, is having a positive effect on the games it covers in each episode. How big an impact? ICv2 asked Days of Wonder how it affected Small World, the first game covered.

“We had close to five times the sales that month that we would have had normally and the next month it continued to be extremely high as well.”

A 500% sales increase has to be good. Of course, we linked to that video through our website previously, so perhaps there’s an LXG effect in there too? I kid, I kid!

Check out Tabletop on YouTube, you won’t be sorry.

Memoir 44 Scenario Review: Breakout at Lisyanka

MEMOIR 44 SCENARIO 101: BREAKOUT AT LISYANKA (February 16, 1944 – February 17, 1944)

Memoir 44 is a tactical WWII game from Days of Wonder that successfully combines elements of both miniatures and board games. The game was designed by Richard Borg and uses his card-driven system of issuing orders to units on the board Featured in other games like Command and Colours, Battlecry and Battlelore). In 2010, DOW also launched an on-line version of Memoir 44 that mimics the board game perfectly.

Over the next few weeks I will provide you with my experience in playing Memoir 44 scenarios both at the tabletop and on-line, with my rating of the scenario and a few tips for play for both Axis and Allied forces. This week’s feature is the “Breakout at Lisyanka” scenario.

Breakout at Lisyanka
Front: Eastern
Victory Conditions: 7 medals
(Special Rules: engineers, frozen rivers, ravines)

In January, 1944 a large pocket of 6 German divisions with over 56,000 troops had been cut-off by the Soviet Army’s 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Front troops. For days the Russians continued the attack in an attempt to split up the pocket and destroy the German forces. Finally, on February 16th, the German forces made a bid for freedom and this scenario simulates an attempt by elements of the 72d Division and 5th Panzer Division to break through the Russian lines and escape across the frozen Gniloy Tickich River.

Soviet Strategy
You have two strong points; – the line of hills across the middle of the board and a group of massed armour positioned behind the village of Dzhurzhentsy. You need to hold that central line where your infantry is entrenched. Failure to do so will allow the German player to exit units across the river. Tanks, exited in this way score 1 medal but infantry scores 2 medals. If your opponent is able to punch a hole in the centre and is lucky enough to draw a few infantry assault cards, you will be looking at a quick defeat; the Germans will take out a few units to force the hole and then finish the game by scoring medals as their units cross the frozen river.

As soon as you are able, move the armoured units based at Dzhurzhentsy to the centre, taking up positions to support your infantry in the hills from the inevitable armour attack that will take place there. You may want to base one on the far left forest in the centre in case the lone German armour unit on your left flank tries to break out through the clear terrain between Dzhurzhentsy and the hills. The armoured and infantry units in the village on your right flank are also useful.

You have two artillery units on the board so use them effectively to harry German units that advance in the centre to try and punch a hole through the hills. Where possible target their infantry as they are worth two medals if the cross the river. Also, if the German player does not move his units on your left flank early in the game, your artillery in Dzhurzhentsy can play havoc with them. You will be rolling 2 dice and retreat flags will score a hit.

In addition, you have some men on the frontline holed up in a ravine (centre left) and a forest (centre right). Engage the enemy with these put be prepared to pull them back as soon as they take damage; they are far more effective as reinforcements for your defenders on the hills.

If you can organise the defence of the centre quickly enough you should be able to break up the German Armour that threatens your centre with your infantry and if they start taking too much damage, you can send in your tanks to mop up and score the required seven medals.

German Strategy
Although getting your troops to cross the river can be a strategy, you are reliant on drawing cards that will allow you to continue to push your centre infantry forward (with the support of your armour). If you manage to score cards like “Infantry Assault” and “Move Out” early enough then definitely try and punch a hole in the Russian line that is defending the central line of hills. A big threat to this is the mass of Russian armour on your right flank, hiding behind Dzhurzhentsy.

If you opt to make a push for the river you need to make sure you don’t sacrifice your tanks taking the hills as they will be needed to match the Russian tanks when they decide to commit to the battle. You only have one standard tank unit on the right, so consider pulling one of your elite tank from the centre to the right to help out.

I have won this scenario several times by sending the German Infantry in Kormarovka forward to seize the nearby woods and the infantry in Khilki to take the ravine. From there, I have fought a long range war with infantry and tanks, chipping away at the units on the central hills. This usually ends with the Russians sufficiently weakened so that they are susceptible to an assault that will overrun their defensive position. If this occurs, and the Russian tanks have not already been committed, you will most likely force the Russian player’s hand, so make sure you have cards that will allow you to send your tanks in (an “Armour Assault” card is your best friend). Even when using this more defensive style of play, always be mindful of any easy medals you can obtain by crossing the river.

So, if you do take the hills and then mange to draw an “Infantry Assault” or “Behind Enemy Lines” card, use them to move infantry off the board. Alternatively try and use the forest behind the hills to give cover to your infantry from any prowling Russian armour before making a dash to the river (which is only two hexes from the forests).

Your biggest battle will probably be fought in the centre both on the hills and in the plain in front of the river. As stated, if you have taken the hills and your armour relatively intact at this stage you will have a good chance of winning the day. Don’t commit your infantry to the plains if the Russian has a strong armour presence – you may get a few god hits in but the tanks can carve you up quickly in the open. Use the defensive bonuses of the hills and forests instead and take the Russian tanks on with your own armour, until such a time that its safe for infantry to venture forward.

Scenario Rating: Three out of five stars

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Memoir 44 Scenario Review: Meatgrinder

MEMOIR 44 SCENARIO 101: THE MEATGRINDER

Memoir 44 is a tactical WWII game from Days of Wonder that successfully combines elements of both miniatures and board games. The game was designed by Richard Borg and uses his card-driven system of issuing orders to units on the board Featured in other games like Command and Colours, Battlecry and Battlelore). In 2010, DOW also launched an on-line version of Memoir 44 that mimics the board game perfectly.

Over the next few weeks I will provide you with my experience in playing Memoir 44 scenarios both at the tabletop and on-line, with my rating of the scenario and a few tips for play for both Axis and Allied forces. This week’s feature is the “Meatgrinder” scenario.

The Meatgrinder
Front: Pacific
Victory Conditions: 7 medals
(Special Rules: engineers, flame tanks, jungle, minefields, cave movement, US Marine Nation rules,
Japanese Nation rules).

The Meatgrinder is a scenario simulating the assault on a series of well fortified hills and the village of Minami on Iwo Jima between February 26, 1945 – March 06, 1945. Marines of the US 4th Division fought a bloody series of engagements and suffered significant casualties that gave the battle the nick-name of the “Meatgrinder”.

Japanese Strategy
Most of your troops are entrenched largely in a cave complex in the hills, which offers you a great defensive bonus. The US player’s artillery and armour will be shooting at you with 1 dice for most of the time. However, the great strength of the Japanese Infantry is their ability to move 2 spaces and attack with 4 dice in close assault (as long as the unit remains undamaged). The cautious US player will hang back and chip away at the Japanese defences, so that the Japanese Infantry get their ‘teeth’ pulled before the US Infantry go in to attach the caves.

I find the strategy that has worked for me is to hit ‘em and hit ‘em hard! You need 7 medals to win so don’t be afraid to advance from your fortified defences if you have cards that will maximise your ability to attack with 4 dice every time. In particular, your position on your right flank allows you to hit the US positions early in the game. You can take out 2 or 3 units completely. The US forces on that flank are bottled up early in the game and there is a minefield that slows down any response. If you are lucky, you can retreat back to your cave complex relatively intact and even swap any damaged units with full strength Infantry from your centre, by utilising cave movement rules.

Another hint is to try and target Engineers and Flame Tanks, as the US player will rely on these to take out some of you fortified positions. You have 3 artillery units (1 in each section) that are hard to dislodge. Use them to maximum effect by targeting those units who will cause problems for your hill defenders later in the game. So, rule of thumb, fire artillery at engineers or Flame Tanks, unless there is some damaged unit with only one figure left trying to make it back to the edge of the board.

I have always found that the Japanese centre suffers the least attacks (mainly because there is not a lot of cover for the US player to hide behind if assaulting the centre). This will allow you to move troops to your right flank using cave movement and, as you have two artillery units in the centre (one being in the centre and the left flank) you can give support to any US assault on your left.

You have three units in the village of Minami sitting in sandbags. They are hard to dislodge but easier for the US player than attacking the caves. I’ve always found the US will launch an attack on your left flank, hitting the artillery there first. Again, if the US pushes close enough, don’t hesitate to do a charge and close assault with 4 dice, providing you have cards to allow you to organise a quick retreat.

US Strategy
If you get cards to move your left flank troops early enough – do so. The infantry and tanks are jammed into a small space in front of an extensive minefield and are in danger of large assault by Japanese infantry who will hit you with 4 dice each time, as long as they are intact units. Protect your engineer units on that flank and push your armour into the breach to fire at the Japanese cave defensive positions (and hopefully damage his units so they are unable to mount an effective banzai charge.

You have a lot of armour but it’s largely useless against the entrenched positions of the enemy, as tanks roll only one die. Position your tanks in the centre, where the terrain is more favourable, but out of reach of any sudden advances by Japanese infantry. Use your tanks as artillery and slowly chip way at your opponent, reducing the effectiveness of their infantry. If you weaken your opponent significantly you may force their hand at making an assault against you. If your armour is well-positioned, you can do a lot of damage to his troops out in the open.

Move your infantry on the right flank up into the protective jungles and position your armour nearby to either respond to any surprise attack by the Japanese or to make a concerted attack on the village of Minami and the bunker nearby. Remember, the Japanese have two armoured units on this flank. They shouldn’t cause you much trouble but make sure you have tanks ready to respond when your enemy makes a move.

The Japanese cave movement is a real pain and will make it difficult for you to take the caves on your left flank. So engage the left at long range and concentrate on moving forward in the centre and the left, especially if your opponent sends troops from the centre to reinforce the caves on your left flank. The three Japanese artillery units can be a real pain, but they are far back from the front and only score real damage when you make an attack inland. Try to remove them by bombarding them with your own artillery – remember, marines can order an extra unit each turn, so continually order your artillery to weaken the enemy artillery. Also, if you are able to draw a “Behind Enemy Lines” or “Barrage” card, try and use it to effect on the Japanese artillery units.

Overall, be slow and cautious. The medals score you need is quite big (7) and there are no objectives to capture. You can afford to take your time wearing down the Japanese defences instead of charging into a close assault situation. When you are ready to hit a weakened line, use you engineers and flame tanks, as these units give you better firepower against the cave defences.

Rating of this scenario: 4 out of 5 stars.

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Memoir 44 Scenario Review: Juno Beach

MEMOIR 44 SCENARIO 101: JUNO BEACH

Memoir 44 is a tactical WWII game from Days of Wonder that successfully combines elements of both miniatures and board games. The game was designed by Richard Borg and uses his card-driven system of issuing orders to units on the board Featured in other games like Command and Colours, Battlecry and Battlelore). In 2010, DOW also launched an on-line version of Memoir 44 that mimics the board game perfectly.

Over the next few weeks I will provide you with my experience in playing Memoir 44 scenarios both at the tabletop and on-line, with my rating of the scenario and a few tips for play for both Axis and Allied forces. This week’s feature is the “Juno Beach” scenario.

Juno Beach
Front: Western
Victory Conditions: 10 medals (4 medals can be achieved from temporary medal objectives)
Special Rules: fortified positions/beach movement/obstacles

Juno Beach is one of the main assaults that took place during the Normandy Beach invasion on the 6th June 1944. Canadian infantry, supported by special DD (amphibious) tank units mount an attack against a heavily fortified beachhead. There are 5 temporary victory markers that only the Allied player can score from; these are positioned in towns behind the beaches and on 2 strategic bridges. Barbed wire and tank trap obstacles are designed to tie down Allied forces on the beach, allowing Axis forces positioned in bunkers to pick them off.

German Strategy
This isn’t an easy one for the Germans. You really don’t have a lot of troops to deal with the invasion
force. You do have a single artillery unit on the back-line but its distance from the beaches makes it
ineffective and its position behind the rivers makes it hard to easily move it forward.

There are 3 objective markers on your left flank which makes that area a prime target for the Allies. Most of your defence is based on your right, so try and divert some of those units to the left flank early in the game to protect the bridges and to support the town of Vaux. One problem in doing this is having your infantry caught out in the open if the Allied armour is able to land and advance inland from the beach.

Use your infantry in the bunkers on the beach (next to the River Seulles) to target any armour that lands, if the opportunity arises. Also, if you draw a “Dig In!” card, use it to fortify infantry relocated to your left flank – the two hexes running between the river and Vaux have worked for me, creating a successful defensive line that harried Allied movement on the beaches.

Try to hang onto the town and bunkers that cover the beaches on your right flank. If you decide to reinforce the left, don’t strip everyone from there; use the infantry unit on the central hill and the one in the town (beside the bunker). If reduced in strength on centre/right flank, pull back to objective marker town hex of Courseulles-sur-Mer and attempt to draw the Allies toward your artillery.

Canadian Strategy

Hit your right flank. The bulk of your objective medals are there, so it makes sense. The configuration
of the barbed wire and obstacles makes it difficult to move armour quickly off the beach and reduces your infantry’s effectiveness in attacking the bunker and the town of Vaux. So it pays to devote some of your infantry attacks to the removal of wire or, alternately, run your tank unit up the beach through the wire.

Use your infantry on the right to take Vaux as soon as possible. The bunker on the beach can wait. They are an annoyance and have no real ability to withdraw, due to their position with regards to the River Seulles. Once Vaux is secured you can direct fire on the bunker. Also, try to move the armoured unit that is in the centre (on the back line) to support the right flank. The left flank beach inhibits tank movement far greater than the left. The defence of the left by the German player can usually cope with one tank unit but not two.

Use your infantry on the left flak to fire at long range from the protection of the tank traps. The armoured unit that start there may not get much opportunity to engage as they are trapped behind the obstacles but they are a good deterrent for any assault that the Gemans may consider against the beaches. If the Germans are reduced significantly or move troops to defend against your attacks on the right, you may chance a direct assault on the towns and bunkers that defend the centre/left.

Rating of this scenario: 3 out of 5 stars.

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Memoir 44 Scenario Review: Red Barricades Factory

MEMOIR 44 SCENARIO 101: RED BARRICADES FACTORY

Memoir 44 is a tactical WWII game from Days of Wonder that successfully combines elements of both miniatures and board games. The game was designed by Richard Borg and uses his card-driven system of issuing orders to units on the board Featured in other games like Command and Colours, Battlecry and Battlelore). In 2010, DOW also launched an on-line version of Memoir 44 that mimics the board game perfectly.

Over the next few weeks I will provide you with my experience in playing Memoir 44 scenarios both at the tabletop and on-line, with my rating of the scenario and a few tips for play for both Axis and Allied forces. This week’s feature is the “Red Barricades Factory” scenario.

Red Barricades Factory
Front: Eastern
Victory Conditions: 10 medals (4 medals can be achieved from temporary medal objectives)
Special Rules: Commissar/Snipers/Minefields/Ruins/Blitz

The Red Barricades Factory scenario simulates an assault on a ruined Soviet factory complex in Stalingrad that occurred in October 1942. It’s a balanced affair and can go either way. The German forces begin the game behind and on top of an embankment and are the aggressor –taking the temporary objective medals spread out across three ruined structures, is critical to their success. A small force of the Soviet forces are positioned in ruins and buildings close to the embankment. The bulk of their forces are on the back line waiting to go into action. How well the Soviet player mounts a defence, while chipping away at the Germans is important for their success.

German Strategy
The key to winning with the Germans is to take the temporary objective markers off the Soviets. The Soviets can seize these very early in the game, giving them 4 of the 10 medals they need to win. Then, they just need to eliminate 6 German units. These objectives are located close to board edge of the Soviet side, so it’s a hard slog to capture them, especially as you have to negotiate a maze of barbed wire and tank obstacles.

First task is to get you forces off the top of the embankment. Your infantry is prone to attack from the frontline defenders and snipers, which can give the Soviets some easy medals. Also, don’t commit your tanks early as the Soviets are entrenched in ruins and buildings and your tanks only get to roll 1 die against them. If you go charging in next to the Soviet positions they will be shooting back at 3 dice. Instead, hang back and shell the frontline with your tanks and artillery, slowly weakening their position of forcing them to withdraw.

In my opinion, your most important units are your engineers. They negate the defences of the ruins and buildings the Soviets are holed up in. Use them to remove defenders from strategic places but use them sparingly as their real strength is employing them in the end game to drive the Soviets out of the objectives. You have to employ a fine balancing act – infantry are needed to cut through the initial defences but sacrifice too many any you are too weak to mount an effective attack the zones where you score extra medals.

Which front to attack? I favour the right flank. There are just too many obstacles on the left, while a thrust on the right allows you to push infantry and armour through the 2 medal objective at the Soviet rear. You will be harried by Soviet artillery and snipers. If you get a shot at them through a “Barrage” or “Behind Enemy Lines” card give it a go, otherwise ignore them and put up with the damage. Remember that you don’t get medals for destroying snipers, so concentrate on hitting units where possible. You have a sniper unit as well which is useful at taking shots at the objective hexes, if you position your sniper so they are out of range of return fire.

You have the advantage of “Blitz” and “Commissar” rules so use them to your advantage. “Blitz” means you can use “Reconnaissance 1” cards as airpower. But as the Axis only gets to roll 1 die on 4 adjacent hexes, this is only effective if the Soviet forces are badly damaged. Hitting their artillery with airpower is a waste of time as its hard to roll the grenade symbol required to take them out and they begin the game in a fortified position which means you will not destroy them by causing them to retreat off the board. I tend to use the “Reconnaissance 1” cards as what they are intended for, instead of Airpower, and that way you get to draw two cards when refreshing your hand.

The “Commissar” rules forces the Soviets to play their command cards one turn in advance, which means they are usually reacting to your moves. Try deliberately playing cards from a different sections each turn or pulling back troops so that the Soviet player finds it difficult to anticipate your move and commits resources when the fight has already moved on.

A final note: If you are lucky enough to draw an “Artillery Bombardment” card don’t be tempted to shell the crap out of the Soviet frontline. Instead, clear the Soviets using a combo infantry, artillery and snipers. The “Artillery Bombardment” card is better used to move your guns up from behind the embankment, later in the game. The Soviets will gradually retreat to defend their all important objectives and, if you leave your artillery behind they will be useless, when they could be most effective shelling the defenders of the objective hexes in the latter parts of the game.

Soviet Strategy
Knowing when to pull back your frontline troops is important to the Soviet player. You have the advantage of being able to claim the objective hexes very early in the game so you must inflict maximum damage on the Germans, while depriving them access to your rear lines. Defend the front as long as you can put be prepared to pull back your infantry and use your snipers and artillery to pin down the enemy infantry when they seize your frontline positions.

It is important to control the objective hexes and one strategy is to move snipers or artillery to those positions as they are harder to hit than artillery and thus more difficult to drive them out. The larger 2 medal complex on your left flank will become a prime target for the Germans and you need to get your reserves of the back line and mount an effective defence there, in case the German Armour forces a breakthrough on that flank.

You have 2 tank units, one on each flank. Use these sparingly as they will be taken out quickly by the mass of German armour on the field. You will most likely have to sacrifice them but do so when they can inflict maximum damage (either against infantry caught in the open or if you score a “Armour Assault” card). The terrain is a nightmare for tanks on both sides but you, at least, don’t have to worry about minefields.

Don’t be afraid to take the battle to the enemy on your right flank, where a large minefield blocks the German advance. If they attack you back and try an overrun you can lead them into the minefield and there’s nothing like a tank unit suffering a 4 dice minefield attack!

Be relentless on hitting the German infantry and especially target there engineers who can negate your terrain advantage. Ignore their armour if you can. In the end, it is the infantry who will be a greater threat in removing you from the objective hexes, not their tanks. Use long range strikes at, your snipers and artillery to hammer the German infantry. It’s tempting to break cover and hit the Germans with a 3 dice attack but that’s only going to get those units targeted by tanks and they have a lot of them. Hide in the ruins and chip way at enemy, only striking out when you have a good hand of cards that will get you out of trouble quickly.

You have 2 snipers and they can be quite deadly against German infantry. They can’t target armour, so use anytime you can to fire at enemy infantry and artillery. They have greater range than infantry and can take up positions where they can’t be hit. Also, if the Germans pull back units that are badly damaged, go hunting them. Snipers are difficult to hit and I’ve often crept over the embankment position to take out units with one remaining figure, sheltering there.

Rating of this scenario: 4 out of 5 stars.

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Wil Wheaton plays Ticket To Ride

Ticket to Ride is the latest game to get the Tabletop viedoe treatment. The video gives you a playthrough of the game, along with an explanation of the rules and what each player is trying to achieve. Right near the end of the video there is a great illustration of what you should never do while adding up everyone’s points at the end of the game.

LXG has several different versions of Ticket to Ride in our Games Library. You may also like to see the videos playthroughs for Settlers of Catan and Small World.

Board Games as Apps?

Following from yesterday’s Small World video review, The Penny Arcade report has a very interesting article up. It is an interview with Days of Wonder covering their strategy of releasing their more successful board games (club favourites Ticket to Ride and Small World) as apps on the ipad.

Apparently app sales have given a measureable boost to board game sales, so this could be an ongoing strategy for the future.

From the aticle: “they began to wonder why the market was still dominated by 70 year-old games. “Monopoly was still the most popular game, and we started wondering why that was the case,” Hautemont said. They decided Monopoly remained popular because people grew up with it; it was taught to them as children. It’s rare to find board game enthusiasts or designers with kind words for Monopoly, but the game’s momentum seemed unstoppable. People bought it because they knew how to play it”

No, the committee will not be buying club ipads!

Game Review: Small World

Small World, from Days of Wonder, is a fantasy conquest board game with an interesting twist. The world is too small for everyone to fit. The object of the game is to expand at the expense of your neighbours.

There are plenty of fantasy races to choose from as you expand your empire. Halflings, Humans, Elves, Orcs and more. Each race has its own innate ability to help them through the game. Halflings build their little holes in the ground, Orcs love to pillage, and so on. In addition, each race is randomly assigned a second ability.

Abilities range from gaining more gold from a particular terrain type to more esoteric abilities such as flying! This changes game to game and provides a huge variety in play, as races rarely play the same way twice.

The objective of Small World is to push your opponents out of the way and grab as many provinces on the map as you can. More provinces equals more money, and the player with the most money at the end of the game is the winner.

One twist in play is that each race loses the ability to conquer as turns go by. Eventually they are of no more use to you, and here you can push them into decline and take a new race. A race in decline can hold provinces until pushed out, but has no special abilities. Your new race can conquer provinces around the old one, or even take over another area of the board entirely. One trick of a successful game of Small
World is knowing just when to push your current race into decline and choose a new one.

Small World is a game for 2-5 players and scales nicely with the number of players in your game. Two double-sided boards are provided, with a different board for a 2,3,4 or 5 player game. Each race has a number of tokens to represent its current military might and both tokens and board are very well illustrated and add to the bright fantasy feel of the game.

Small World takes only one game to master and can be played in around one hour. The game is available in the LXG club library.

If you enjoyed this review, you may also enjoy our reviews of:

Chaos in the Old World
Cyclades
Summoner Wars

Memoir 44, Ticket to Ride, playable online

The guys at Days of Wonder have made online playable versions of some of their board games, including club favourites Memoir 44 and Ticket to Ride.

For all you fans of Memoir 44, Days of Wonder has launched a great new on-line version of the game at their site, located at: http://www.daysofwonder.com/memoir44-online/en/

Jeremy Norton has been playing on the site and mentioned it to me at the July meeting, so I gave it a whirl this week and was very impressed. All the familiar Memoir 44 scenarios from all Fronts are included as well as a large number of scenarios not available in the published products.

The on-line version is very user friendly and the mechanics and look are just like the game, with the bonus of animated graphics of explosions as units take damage and great combat sound effects (the sound of tanks on the move, hustling soldiers, strafing airplanes etc – keyed to the cards played).

You start with 50 gold for free and each scenario costs an amount of gold. Of course, once you run out you need to get out the credit card and top up your gold, but at $12 for 200 gold, its affordable and great value. You can play all scenarios against the computer or other players around the world (I’ve played against people in the USA, France, Canada, Denmark and Russia so far). The game uses a system where you can view avatars of players waiting for a game and invite them to play a scenario (or wait to be invited). Every time I was on-line it only took less than a minute before someone wanted to play against me. The initiator of the game gets to choose which side they will play but at the end of the game there is an option for a rematch straight away, with the sides swapped. Most people seem to want to play the rematch option.

One of the attractions of the game is acquiring ranks – I rose from cadet to second lieutenant over the three days I have played so far. Also, I love the badges! You get achievement badges for completing specific tasks. For example, I have been awarded badges for:

- destroying 2 complete units using Airpower

- invading Normandy

- destroying a fully intact unit with a single figure

- destroying two units with artillery

Statistics on all games are recorded and your performance in each game (regardless of a win or loss) is displayed, rating you as having overachieved or underachieved.

Thoroughly recommend having a go at Memoir 44 on-line, even if you just use the freebie starting gold. If you do, let me know your ID so I can look at for you and give you a game. Mine’s easy – it’s keithdone.

Also, if you are interested in other DOW games, like Ticket to Ride and Pirate’s Cove, they are also available in an on-line format.