Memoir ‘44 … twenty years on

MEMOIR '44 was created by Richard Borg and published in 2004 by Days of Wonder and has proven to be a very popular hybrid miniatures/board game. I own the basic set as well as most of the supplements and one of the scenario books, and over the years I have enjoyed playing the game. In fact, it was playing MEMOIR ‘44 that sparked off my development of MEMOIR OF BATTTLE (MOB), MEMOIR OF MODERN BATTLE (MOBAT) and eventually THE PORTABLE WARGAME.

A new, revised version of the game has (MEMOIR ‘44 REFRESH) been released to mark the twentieth anniversary of the game’s release … and I just could not resist buying a copy. I ordered it via Amazon, and it arrived on Wednesday.

The box contains:

• 1 x A double-sided board
• 144 x Axis and Allied miniatures
• 36 x Obstacles
• 44 x Double-sided terrain tiles
• 60 x Command cards
• 22 x Summary cards
• 8 x Attack dice
• 6 x Activation tokens
• 2 x Cardholders
• 1 x Rulebook
• 1 x Scenario book

If one compares the two editions, the new version includes the following changes:

• New elevation rules: Units on a higher elevation can now shoot over their own adjacent troops.
• More scenarios: The new edition includes a total of 22 rather than the original's 16.
1. Pegasus Bridge
2. Sainte-Mère-Église
3. Sword Beach
4. Pointe Du Hoc
5. Omaha Beach (First Wave)
6. Mont Mouchet
7. Battlegroup Heintz at Hauts-Vents
8. Belle-Lande
9. Panzer Lehr at Hauts-Vents
10. Counterattack of Panzer Lehr
11. Hauts-Vents is taken
12. Vassieux, Vercors
13. Operation Cobra
14. Counterattack on Mortain
15. Toulon
16. Liberation of Paris
17. Montélimar
18. Arnhem Bridge
19. Arracourt
20. Saint Vith, Ardennes
21. Saverne Gap, Vosges
22. Omaha Beach - Overlord (this requires two game boards)
• New miniatures: The new edition has re-modelled miniatures that are made of a harder, more detailed plastic.
• Activation tokens: The new edition includes activation tokens to track which units have moved and fired.
• Card holders: The game now includes two curved card holders fore players to place their cards in.
• New dice: New, plastic dice, have replaced the original wooden ones.
• Terrain pieces: The sandbags and barbed wire are now produced in a neutral grey colour, unlike those in the original game where they were coloured for either the Axis or Allied side.
• Terrain pieces: Some new, double-sides terrain tiles(e.g. sea walls) have been added.
• Rulebook: The rulebook has updated and reorganised
• Box: The new edition’s box is larger and thicker, with a better designed insert for storing the components.
• Box art: The new edition uses a slightly different colour palette and the box art has been updated.

All-in-all, the new edition is a worthy celebration of the original game and - in my opinion - was well worth buying. All I’ve got to do now is to persuade someone at my local club to play it!

Mythic Commander

I have been going to our local games club (Dice on the Hill) for some time and have been enjoying taking part in a RPG set in Dolmenwood. I have also introduced several fantasy players to wargaming with miniatures, and they have shown an interest in playing some more. The question that confronted me was to find something that I could easily transport to the club and that bridged the gap between fantasy RPGs and miniature wargaming ... and then I saw an advert for Modiphius Entertainment's MYTHIC COMMANDER.

The game comes from the same company that produced AIRFIX BATTLES and costs £16.00 plus postage from the Modiphius website. The game comprises:

• A 40-page Rulebook containing the rules and step-by-step tutorials.
• 7 different fantasy armies with 6 customisable options.
• 6 Scenarios.
• A double-sided folding map used as the game’s battlefield.
• 98 punch-out Game Cards:
• 60 Command Cards
• 36 Spell Cards
• 1 Fortune of War Card
•  Round Tracker card.
• 97 punch-out tokens:
• 48 double-sided Unit Tokens
• 35 double-sided Damage Tokens
• 14 double-sided Morale and Retreat Tokens.

Each game is expected to take about an hour to play and is aimed at players who are 14+ years old.

I hope to take it to the club sometime soon to show to the potential players ... and possibly encourage them to give it a try or even buy their own copies.

English Heritage’s Risk, the Battle for Medieval England

On Wednesday, Sue and I paid a visit to Eltham Palace. After a very enjoyable walk around the palace grounds, we stopped off in the shop. Sue saw that they were selling copies of RISK, THE BATTLE FOR MEDIEVAL ENGLAND.

This game was exclusively made for English Heritage and is only available from them, and as it was a ‘Member’s Day’ and everything was 20% off, she bought me a copy.

The game contains the following components:

• A gameboard which is divided up into five regions (North, Midlands, East Anglia, Southeast, and Southwest), each of which is made up on a number of territories that are named after English Heritage properties).
• Five armies of small plastic figures (red, blue, yellow, black, and green) that are comprised of infantry, cavalry, and siege catapults.
• Five D6 dice (three black and two red).
• A pack of forty-two Territory Cards, ten Mission Cards, and nine Power Cards.

It looks as if the game will be an interesting version of RISK to play ... and I can see myself using the figures for a Medieval version of the PORTABLE WARGAME and the gameboard for a campaign.

Phil Sabin’s Counter-Air wargame

Phil Sabin has recently uploaded a YouTube video about his new two-player air combat board game, COUNTER-AIR.

Now, I’ve never really got the hang of air combat wargames, so I looked forward to watching and listening to Phil's explanation of how his game worked … and I was not disappointed!

Phil's video explains the rules of his simple Counter-Air simulation game about attacks on modern airbases. It is a chess-like game of skill and was designed to be used air force personnel as well as wargamers. It is published by the military wargaming group Fight Club International, and can be downloaded for free from their website.

The game sees a superior Blue force attack Red's defended airbase.

The gameboard.

During the game, Blue can mount five sorties with the intention of destroying Red's airbase and its defences whilst minimising its own losses. Red's objective to to prevent this and to cripple Blue's offensive capability.

The game counters. These are double-sided. The reverse side has an S in place of the A to show when the unit is 'spent'.

During the first turn of the demonstration Blue places its forces in the various sections of the playing board according to the task each flight of aircraft is to undertake during the sortie.

Blue's initial positions.

Red counters by placing those assets it intends to use to counter this attack.

Red's initial positions.

Action begins with a flight of Blue's escorting fighters engaging the Red interceptors with AAMs ...

One of Blue's escort flights fires AAMs at a flight of Red interceptors/.

... and Red counters with their own AAMs, causing two flights of Blue's escort fighters to turn for home.

One of Red's interceptor flights returned fire with its AAMs.

The remaining flight of Blue escort fighters then engage a flight of Red interceptors with their AAMs ...

The battle between the Blue escort flights and the Red interceptors continues.

... and a flight of Red interceptors withdraw. One of the remaining flights of Red interceptors now engage a flight of Blue aircraft that are undertaking the high strike role, causing the latter to jettison their bombs.

The red interceptors change target and engage one of Blue's high strike flights.

The remaining flight of Red interceptors follow suit, causing another flight of Blue high strike aircraft to abort their mission.

Red's interceptors continue to engage Blue's high strike aircraft.

As both side's escorts and interceptors are 'spent' (i.e. they are no longer able to take part in further combat until they have returned to their respective basses and rearmed), the game moves into the air defence phase.

The fighting moves on to the next phase. Blue will now try to suppress Red's SAM defences..

Blue begins by trying to suppress Red's SAMs.

One of Red's SAM units is destroyed by weapons fired by a flight of Blue's SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defences) aircraft. The destroyed SAM unit is moved into the Graveyard area on the gameboard.

They manage to destroy one of Red's SAM batteries, but the remaining once Red SAM battery engages one of the Blue high strike flights, destroying it.

The remaining Red SAM unit engages one of Blue's 'spent' high strike flights. The flight is destroyed and placed in the gameboard's Graveyard area. 

The combat then continues ... but rather than describe it in detail, I recommend that you watch the video. (I don't want to spoil your enjoyment by telling my regular blog readers what happens next!)

The game is intended to last two hours, with each player having the opportunity to command Blue and Red. The game can be played many times so that players can discover for themselves the best offensive and defensive tactics to employ.

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Please note that all the screenshots from Phil Sabin's video are © Professor Philip Sabin.

Phil Sabin’s Combined Arms … with figures

Professor Phil Sabin contacted me over Christmas about his latest YouTube video, and I’ve just managed to watch it.

Phil has developed his earlier FIRE & MOVEMENT game into one where the solo player or a team of players command a battalion (plus additional assets) during an attack against an enemy force whose positions and strength are unknown. The terrain is randomly generated using a very simple but effective system and the number and location of the defenders are unknown until they open fire on the attackers. This expanded game is entitled COMBINED ARMS and is available as a free, full-colour download from his website.

In his video, Phil explains how his game works using his hexed gameboard and collection of 20mm figures and weapons. It is interesting to note that his German infantry are all plastic figures from the Axis & Allies boardgame. These are mounted in threes on small oblong bases. He has trimmed the bases down so that they can be laid down to show that they are prone.

Phil's video begins with a brief history of the development of his game ...

... and an example of the map terrain board ...

... and then an example of how the map terrain board looks when it has been 'converted' into a hexed tabletop battlefield.

The video then explains such things as line-of-sight and how the units are organised before outlining Phil's four-stage plan for the forthcoming German attack on the Russian defenders.

(The Russian figures shown in the above photographs show the notional positions that might be occupied by Russian forces. They do not show the actual positions of the Russian troops; these are identified as the game progresses.)

He then explains how the game's playsheet/recordkeeping system works ...

... before beginning a detailed blow-by-blow account of his battle. The following photographs give a flavour of the early moves included in Phil's battle report.

It is well worth watching this video if – like me – you enjoy listening to a game designer explain the thinking behind their rule's design and then they include a comprehensive battle report that shows how that design works in practice.

Although I have done it several times in the past, may I suggest that Phil Sabin's blog is well worth following as it an excellent way in which to access his past wargames designs and to follow those that are currently under development.

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Please note that all the still photographs used above are screenshots from Phil Sabin's video and are © Professor Philip Sabin.

Phil Sabin’s latest air war games

Before he retired from King’s College, London, and moved abroad, Professor Phil Sabin was a relatively near-neighbour of mine. We often met and had a chat at a local wargame show, I visited his home and fought a wargame with him, and he regularly invited me to take part in wargame sessions (including Connections UK) at KCL.

One of his specialist areas of study was air warfare, and I was very interested to see that his latest games have been featured on his YouTube channel and the BoardGameGeek website.

The games are:

• Dogfight Full Circle
• Fighter Duel Lite
• Jet Duel

I have yet to try the latest versions of these games, but if past experience is anything to go by, they’ll be great wargames.

Replacement figures for the Risk boardgame

Over the past week I have managed to buy two sets of replacement figures for Risk.

The first set came from the USA, where they are sold by Morrisons Games via Amazon.com.

The second – and somewhat earlier – set I bought via eBay.

Amazingly, the former arrived first, even though the latter were posted in the UK!

I originally bought them so that I could photograph them for the next Compendium, but since then I've had lots of ideas as to how I might use them.

The iPad app of Guy Debord's Kriegsspiel

As I mentioned back in early October, Guy Debord's Kriegsspiel game had recently been released as an app for the iPhone and iPad. I understand that this app has been created by Andrew Galloway, and I must admit that he has done a very nice job of it.

During my recent cruise, I was able to fight several battles on my iPad using this app. Because the cost of an Internet connection from the ship is – in my mind – very expensive, I used the AI opponent rather than an online one, and it proved to be an excellent way to learn the rules of the game.

The standard starting positions for the two sides, North and South. The supply lines are indicated by different coloured dotted lines, and units must be in contact with ta friendly supply line (or in contiguous contact with another unit that is in contact with a friendly supply line) in order to move. The arsenals are fixed, but the supply depots can move along the supply lines from the arsenals in order to give other units mobility.

Overall, I thought that this was an excellent wargame, and I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone who – like me – is travelling or does not have easy access to an opponent. Like chess, you must think several moves ahead otherwise you can end up stringing your forces out all over the place, unable to sustain them because they are not connected to the lines of supply. (Yes, logistics – or rather keeping one's access to the lines of supply open – is a vital element of this game! Bu**er up your logistics, and you lose. Cut your opponent’s supply lines, and you win!)

This game app certainly gave me thing to think about, and although the terrain is fixed, there are a number of different starting positions players can choose and this give you lots of variety. Certainly, this wargamer – who is no great lover of computer wargames – found it challenging and enjoyable, and I suspect that quite a few of my regular readers will find the same.

Napoleon's War: The 100 Days

As I have written many times before, it took me a long time to get really interested in the Napoleonic era, and after several failed attempts to put a figure collection together, it wasn't until Del Prado published their WATERLOO LIVE series of magazines and associated 25/28mm figures that I finally began to put a proper collection together.

Once the bug had bitten, I continued to acquire more figures and a few relevant board games, and now I have added a copy of NAPOLEON'S WAR: THE 100 DAYS to my collection.

I did this on the recommendation of David Crook, and to be frank, it was not cheap (a nearly new copy cost me just under £60.00) ... but now that it has arrived and I have unpacked it, I think that I certainly got my money's worth!

The game includes:

• 120 plastic figures in three colours (red, blue, and grey to represent the Anglo-Dutch, French, and Prussian armies)
• 1 Counter Sheet
• 4 Gameboards (one each for Wavre, Ligny, Quatre Bras, and Waterloo)
• A book of rules
• Two D6 dice

The figures are very reminiscent of those found in some of the more recent versions of RISK, and the figures (which all seem to be wearing British Army uniforms) are about 12mm.

I am looking forward to playing the battles featured in the game, and now that I have a copy, it may well be possible to fight a remote face-to-face one with David Crook.

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NAPOLEON'S WAR: THE 100 DAYS was designed by Grant and Mike Wylie and produced by Worthington Games in 2010.

Guy Debord's Kriegsspiel is now available as an app

According to Wikipedia, Guy-Ernest Debord (28th December 1931 to 30th November 1994) was 'a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, critic of work, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situationist International'.

He was also the designer of a very impressive, gridded wargame.

Debord wrote about the wargame that he devised in his book A GAME OF WAR, which was co-authored with Alice-Becker-Ho and published in 1987. He described the book as follows:

So I have studied the logic of war. Indeed I succeeded long ago in representing its essential movements on a rather simple game-board… I played this game, and in the often difficult conduct of my life drew a few lessons from it — setting rules for my life, and abiding by them. The surprises vouchsafed by this Kriegspiel of mine seem endless; I rather fear it may turn out to be the only one of my works to which people will venture to accord any value. As to whether I have made good use of its lessons, I shall leave that for others to judge.

Although all the unsold copies of his book were pulped on his orders in 1991, it was republished in French in 2006, with an English translation in 2008. Since then, Class Wargames has been demonstrating it at special events around the world.

I first became aware of Guy Debord's game when I began the research for my book, THE PORTABLE WARGAME, and I became intrigued by it. I bought Richard Barbrook's book entitled CLASS WARGAMES: LUDIC SUBVERSION AGAINST SPECTACULAR CAPITALISM, which described the game in some detail, but until now I have never had the opportunity to play it.

Guy Debord's wargame is now available as a free iPad app, and I recently downloaded it to mine. The app allows you to play online against a live opponent or against the game's own artificial intelligence. So far, I have chosen the latter option as I want to master the rules before trying my luck against someone who has more experience than me.

On screen, the gameboard looks like this:

The rules are deceptively simple and can be briefly summarised thus:

• The game is played on a 20 x 25 square gridded board
• The terrain is broken up by mountains, and there are several forts that either side can occupy during the course of the game
• Each side has two arsenals or supply bases, and the game ends when one side loses all their units or both of these arsenals
• There are supply routes that run vertically, horizontally, and diagonally across the board, and in order to move a unit, players must either have them on one of the supply routes or be contiguous with a friendly unit that is on a supply route
• Each player has a number of different units (infantry, cavalry, foot artillery, horse artillery, and generals)

• Players take turns moving troops across the board
• Each player can move up to five units each turn and is allowed mount one attack.
• Attacks are decided by summing the offensive power of all the units that are in the range of an enemy target square and then subtracting the total defensive power of the other player's unit.
• If this number is greater than 2 then the attack is a success

Sounds simple, doesn't it ... but like with all 'simple' games, the subtlety is in the play.

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Some illustrations from Richard Barbrook's book show how the basic game (as shown above in the screen shot of the iPad screen) ...

... can be adapted for Napoleon's Marengo campaign ...

... and the Battle of Austerlitz.

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Please note that the copyright of all the illustrations from Richard Barbrook's book lie with him and are used here for review purposes only.

Some important changes to my simple Napoleonic campaign rules for use with my version of the Waddington's Campaign map

In the light of some very useful feedback and some play-testing of my own, I am proposing several important changes to the existing draft of the rules.

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CAMPAIGN TIME

• Each turn represents two days of game time.
• During the summer (June, July, and August) four playing cards are turned over for each day.
• During spring and autumn (March, April, May, September, October, and November) three playing cards are turned over for each day.
• During the winter (December, January, and February) two playing cards are turned over for each day.

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ACTIVATING FORMATIONS

• Each side is allocated a playing card colour.
• A standard pack of playing cards is shuffled and placed face down.
• At the start of each turn, the top playing card is turned over, and the colour of the playing card determines which side activates its formations first and how many formations it may activate.
• If the playing card is an Ace, that side may move all its formations one grid square.
• If the playing card is a numbered playing card, that side may move one formation one grid square.
• If the playing card is a Jack, that side may move its formations a total of two grid squares (i.e. it may move one formation two grid squares or two formations one grid square).
• If the playing card is a Queen, that side may move its formations a total of three grid squares (i.e. it may move one formation three grid squares or one formation two grid squares and one formation one grid square or three formations one grid square).
• If the playing card is a King, that side may move its formations a total five grid squares.
• If the playing card is a Joker, that side throws a D6 die and reads the result from the list of Special Events.
• Special Events
1. That side may not move any of its formations for six game turns and any cards that favour them and that are turned over during those game turns are discarded.
2. That side may not move any of its formations for four game turns and any cards that favour them and that are turned over during those game turns are discarded.
3. That side may not move any of its formations for two game turns and and any cards that favour them and that are turned over during those game turns are discarded.
4. That side may not move any of its formations for a game turn and and any cards that favour them and that are turned over during that game turn are discarded.
5. The Joker is treated as if it were a numbered card, and that side may move one formation one grid square.
6. The Joker is treated as an Ace and that side may move all its formations one grid square.
• After the playing card has been turned over and any actions have taken place, the playing card is discarded. The discarded playing cards are placed face up in a separate pile.
• The next playing card is turned over, and the process is repeated until all the playing cards for that game turn have been turned over. That game turn is then over, and play moves on to the next day's turn.
• Once all the unused playing cards have been used, the pile of discarded playing cards is shuffled and placed face down where all the players can see it, ready to be dealt when required.

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I am hoping that these changes will speed up the whole campaign game, but further play-testing will be needed to see if it does.

Some simple Napoleonic campaign rules for use with my version of the Waddington's Campaign map

The following rules are based on my RED FLAGS & IRON CROSSES CAMPAIGN SYSTEM. I have adapted and simplified them somewhat as the original rules were intended for eastern Europe rather that central and western Europe.

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CAMPAIGN TIME

• During the summer (June, July, and August) each campaign move represents two days of game time.
• During spring and autumn (March, April, May, September, October, and November) each campaign move represents four days of game time.
• During the winter (December, January, and February) each campaign move represents six days of game time.

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ACTIVATING FORMATIONS

• Each side is allocated a playing card colour.
• A standard pack of playing cards is shuffled and placed face down.
• When the campaign starts, the top playing card is turned over, and the colour of the playing card determines which side activates its formations first and how many formations it may activate.
• If the playing card is an Ace, that side may move all its formations one grid square.
• If the playing card is a numbered playing card, that side may move one formation one grid square.
• If the playing card is a Jack, that side may move its formations a total of two grid squares (i.e. it may move one formation two grid squares or two formations one grid square).
• If the playing card is a Queen, that side may move its formations a total of three grid squares (i.e. it may move one formation three grid squares or one formation two grid squares and one formation one grid square or three formations one grid square).
• If the playing card is a King, that side may move its formations a total five grid squares.
• If the playing card is a Joker, that side throws a D6 die and reads the result from the list of Special Events.
• Special Events
1. That side may not move any of its formations for six turns of the cards. (This includes all turns of the cards, including those that favour the enemy as well as cards that may favour themselves)
2. That side may not move any of its formations for four turns of the cards. (This includes all turns of the cards, including those that favour the enemy as well as cards that may favour themselves.)
3. That side may not move any of its formations for three turns of the cards. (This includes all turns of the cards, including those that favour the enemy as well as cards that may favour themselves..)
4. That side may not move any of its formations for two turns of the cards. (This includes all turns of the cards, including those that favour the enemy as well as cards that may favour themselves.)
5. The Joker is treated as if it were a numbered card, and that side may move one formation one grid square.
6. The Joker is treated as an Ace and that side may move all its formations one grid square.
• After the playing card has been turned over and any actions have taken place, the playing card is discarded. The discarded playing cards are placed face up in a separate pile.
• Once all the unused playing cards have been used, the pile of discarded playing cards is shuffled and placed face down where all the players can see it, ready to be dealt when required.

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MOVEMENT RULES

• Movement takes place orthogonally (i.e., through the faces of a grid squares) and not through the corners of grid squares).
• No formation may enter or pass through a grid square that is already occupied by an enemy formation.
• When a formation comes into contact with an enemy formation (i.e., it moves into an orthogonally adjacent grid square to one occupied by an enemy formation), it  must engage that enemy formation in battle.

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BATTLES

• Battles take place when opposing formations come into contact (i.e., they occupy orthogonally adjacent grid squares).
• The formation moving into contact is deemed to be the attacker and must set up their formation on the battlefield before the enemy sets up theirs.
• The formation that loses a battle must immediately retreat one grid towards its nation's capital by the most direct route possible. This movement does not require the formation to be activated.
• The formation that wins a battle must remain where it is until it is activated again.

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CASUALTY RECOVERY

• 33% of all lost SPs lost by a formation during a battle are recovered immediately after the battle has ended.
• 33% of all lost SPs lost by a formation during a battle are recovered six turns of the cards after the battle has ended. (This includes all turns of the cards including those that favour that side’s opponent as well as cards that may favour themselves.)
• The remaining SPs lost by a formation during a battle are lost for the rest of the campaign.
• Any commanders who are killed are replaced immediately after the battle.

Oops! Where’s Stettin?

After I had published my version of the CAMPAIGN map/game board, I realised that I had missed Stettin from the Prussian section of the map … so here are the correct versions:

Complete map/game board

Prussia

Now that I am fairly satisfied that I have got my version of the map/game board correct, my thoughts are turning to the campaign rules I want to use ... and looking back at the ones I used for my RED FLAGS & IRON CROSSES CAMPAIGN SYSTEM, which were based on the campaign rules featured in my PORTABLE COLONIAL WARGAME book, I think that they will be an ideal starting point for me to work from.

Drawing my own version of Waddington’s Campaign map: Further progress

Over the past few days I have been working on my own version of Waddington’s CAMPAIGN map/game board, and it presently looks like this:

Most of the terrain fits quite easily into the squared grid, but the rivers and borders, which tend not to conform to the grid, presented me with problems. I tried drawing freehand, but however careful I was, they just didn’t look right.

In the end I decided to depict both the rivers and borders as straight lines that run along or at a right angle to the edges of the grid squares. I know that this is a compromise and will not appeal to everyone, but it is the best solution that I could come up with.

France

Prussia

Russia

Spain

Italy

Austria

You will also note that I have yet to add any place names, but I intend to once I am totally happy with my version of Waddington's original map/game board.

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All the above maps can be enlarged by clicking on them. They are all in JPEG format, but I hope to make them available in other formats as and when I can. I give permission for blog readers to download and use these maps for their own personal use, but not for distribution for commercial purposes.