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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.

Memoir '44 by Days of Wonder

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.

How I Organized my Memoir 44 Core Box

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.

What is in the Box - Memoir '44

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.

Painted Models

The Painted Memoir ’44 Miniatures

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

Days of Wonder

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

Game by Days of Wonder

And their backs.

Painted Tanks for Memoir 44 for Days of Wonder

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

The Game on the Tabletop

Days of Wonder

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

Days of Wonder

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.  🙂

Days of Wonder

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.
 
Days of Wonder Game Review
Every Mini in my Pacific Theatre Box is painted.
 
Memoir '44
 
I did these ones a little quicker because I wanted to get them to the table.
 
Memoir 44
 
A close-up on the Japanese Infantry.
 
Memoir 44
 
One of the Japanese Tanks.
 

My Thoughts on the Game

 
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

 
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.
 
Memoir 44 Expansion
 
A picture of the Air Pack.
 

Wrapping it up…

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

Until next time, Happy Gaming Everyone!!!

Update: December 2020

This post is now up on YouTube too. Check it out!!! In this post I even talk about how I painted my Memoir 44 Miniatures.

Memoir 44 on YouTube – Painted and Reviewed

This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. Paul O'G

    I really like this game too and have a bunch of expansions – you still have more collect you know 🙂

  2. jacobstauttener

    Paul, there certainly is a lot more to collect. I decided to switch to Flames of War when the Equipment Pack was released. Wish I could own everything, but I have to pick and choose how to spend my hard-earned money. 🙂

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