Memoir ’44 – Showcase and Quick Review

Memoir ’44 by Days of Wonder is a great boardgame that I hold close to my heart. The reason it is close to my heart is because it is like a miniatures game, but super easy to get non-miniatures players to play. Whether a person plays just board-games or no games at all, most people are willing to give this game a shot. The mechanics are simple enough that it is easy to teach, yet there is a good deal of strategy. Because it is so much fun, I bought a number of the expansions for the system. Below is a picture of my Memoir ’44 collection.

My Memoir ’44 collection… It consists of the Base Game, Terrain Pack, Pacific Theatre, Air Pack, Campaign Book 2, Breakthrough and the Winter/Desert Board.

Inside the core box are a bunch of tiles, cards, figures, terrain pieces, dice, a gaming board and a beautiful rule book. Days of Wonder really did a fantastic job on this rule book. I find it well written and easy to use. My background playing BattleLore (1st Edition) helps, but I have even had an 8 year-old playing this game without an issue.

A picture of the inside of the box.

The Plano case in the box did not come in the game. I bought it separately to keep my minis organized. Open the lid, and see that I painted absolutely every single game piece in this set. To do this, I spray painted them White with Krylon Fusion for Plastic, painted my colours onto the pieces, stained them with MinWax to provide shading and finished with a coat of Clear Krylon Varnish. The paint on these figures has held up well for years despite being carried around in a Plano box.

Open the box and see that I have painted every “mini” in the box.

These minis turned out great! All I did to them was a base coat followed by a stain wash. Fantastic!

And their backs.

My Tanks are not as impressive as the Infantry, but still look good.

Sword Beach recreated using the Breakthrough Map, Terrain Pack and Base Set.

Another look at the game board for Sword Beach on D-Day. The British are landing with plenty of infantry, tanks and guns. The Germans are well dug in. Who will win? Perhaps that will be the subject of another gaming post. 🙂

How impressive is this? 40 painted infantry figures, 15 painted tanks and 4 painted guns storm the beach. This is one of the reasons that I love getting this game onto the table.

I also bought the Pacific Theatre Expansion and, like the Base Game, I painted every single mini in the box.

Every Mini in my Pacific Theatre Box is painted.

I did these ones a little quicker because I wanted to get them to the table.

A close-up on the Japanese Infantry.

One of the Japanese Tanks.

Personally, I love my copy of Memoir ’44. The pieces look fabulous, the rules are well written and it is easy to get opponents. Most people will play this game as its mechanics are not intimidating and it plays fairly easily. There is a lot of luck involved as cards dictate what sections of the board a player can use and dice determine the outcome of the battles. While there is a lot of luck involved, Skill also helps so tactics are important.

This is one of the games that I got into during my hiatus from miniatures and it remains one of my favourite and most well used board games. With all of the expansions out there, this game can be made a little more complicated but it is no where near as complicated as a miniatures game. For me, I find that I use just the base set in most cases. The second most used item in the collection is the Terrain Pack. For anyone getting into Memoir ’44 and looking to expand, I would recommend that they look at the Terrain Pack after the Base Game as it adds a lot of variety to the battlefield and is often used in some of the other expansions (ie Breakthrough and the Campaign Books).

The expansions that make it to the table the least for me are the Campaign Book and the Air Pack. It is not that they are bad products. It is that I don’t have a dedicated opponent to play the campaigns with and the planes add more complexity than I am willing to walk my usual opponents through.

If you see this game and have been thinking about it, it is a great buy in my opinion. It is one of those gateway games that is easy to get people to play and can eventually lead to either more complex Board Games or to Miniatures Games.

A picture of the Air Pack.

I hope that my readers enjoyed this Quick Review and Showcase of Memoir ’44.

Until next time, Happy Gaming Everyone!!! [amazon_link asins=’B0002TV2NS,B000H7KXHG,B000H7MM7K,B003H05K6O,B001HOJ4MI,B004DCTB2Y,B001IAKQKK,B000HYQKL2′ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’mustcontainmi-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’6a9c9f70-78f5-11e8-86da-0d2528097cc5′]

Suggested Reading…

Article Archives Article Archives Select Month September 2020 (14) August 2020 (22) July 2020 (22) June 2020 (9) May 2020 (11) April 2020 (9) March 2020 (6) February 2020 (6) January 2020 (5) December 2019 (10) November 2019 (8) October 2019 (7) September 2019 (9) August 2019 (11) July 2019 (12) June 2019 (10) May 2019 (13) April 2019 (12) March 2019 (13) February 2019 (10) January 2019 (13) December 2018 (15) November 2018 (12) October 2018 (13) September 2018 (9) August 2018 (7) July 2018 (8) June 2018 (10) May 2018 (10) April 2018 (9) March 2018 (10) February 2018 (10) January 2018 (14) December 2017 (12) November 2017 (12) October 2017 (18) September 2017 (14) August 2017 (10) July 2017 (15) June 2017 (12) May 2017 (11) April 2017 (10) March 2017 (11) February 2017 (13) January 2017 (14) December 2016 (10) November 2016 (12) October 2016 (20) September 2016 (20) August 2016 (21) July 2016 (16) June 2016 (18) May 2016 (8)