Memoir '44

I have Battlecry and have played Memoir '44.

If you find Battlecry enjoyable you will find Memoir a similar experience– sort of a Backgammon war game, are you a good player or a really lucky player.

The rule set is more complex but not by much and it is more a matter that there are MORE rules than in Battlecry not that they are harder. It took me several games to get a handle on the Armor overrun rules (or was that several games to figure out I was playing my armor incorrectly?) There are also it seemed to me more special cards in the order units deck.

The sets are nice, particularly the terrain tiles which are a bit higher quality than the Battlecry set. The minis are adequate but not what I’d call award winning. I don’t usually feel my A&A or Battlecry pieces need paint but I always think the Memoir pieces do.

The games come with storage trays but they are inadequate to organising the terrain pieces for faster set-ups. They keep them from being a total mess. You’ll need some sort of tackle boxes for the minis and for the various badges, emblems and smaller (not a whole hex) terrain features like the bridge sections.

I haven’t played a lot of scenairios but the ones I played seemed balanced enough. Most have special units and a special rule for them which is a source of the ‘more rules’ thing.

Days of Wonder has a great website. You can download all of the rules.

@Emperor_Taiki:

thx frimmel, have you aquired the campaign book

that looks really fun

what other expansions to it do you recomend?

Well it is my buddy’s set and he doesn’t have the campaign book.

He had, last time we were able to get together, the main game, the winter/desert map board, and the Eastern Front (russian troops) and the extra terrain pack which depending on how often you can play will keep you busy for quite awhile. He intended to get the Brits and Japanese (Med and Pacific sets.)

The Russian Front battles often use ‘commisar rules’ where the Russian player has to pick his order cards a turn ahead and playing on the winter board with the winter terrain you can almost feel the cold.

If you are more interested in the history than gaming or are maybe playing with younger players and especially if you like quicker games it is terrific. Most of the rulebook battles contain a bit of history of the battle and since you are on a smaller scale and create a map you get a much better idea about each individual battle’s nature.

It is a nice little system.

Question- of course

Which is better and WHY- Axis and Allies Minis or Memoir 44 sets???  They seems very similar- both tactical and based on individual battles and such.

Thanks to those who answer.

:-) :?

Answers.

One they are very different games. They are both smaller scale battles but for the most part all the tank units and infantry and artillery work the same in Memoir while you can have six different units and no two would have the same ability in minis. Any similarities is strictly on the surface.

Memoir '44 is better as you get everything you need to play a lot of scenarios just buying the main game. You need a lot more units to get the same variety from minis as from Memoir and it WILL cost more you don’t have to chase rares and the guy who spent the most doesn’t have an advantage over the cash strapped. They have never ‘rewritten’ the rulebook or made earlier sets obsolete as they add expansions and you don’t need several pages of FAQ sheets to keep track of unit interactions.

Minis is better as you can have much more detailed battles and more mix of units and not just recreate battles but very small parts of battles and some of the pieces are pretty decent models and those Memoir pieces are pretty generic. The variety of units touches on a lot more aspects of combat.

Each has their advantages and disadvantages.  :-)

Oh and one last thing – Go Buckeyes.