Memoir '44 and Me

Last week was my birthday, and I got to make some birthday game purchases. One of these was Memoir '44 from Days of Wonder. This WW2 battle game was released in 2004 to commemorate the D -Day landings in 1944. The game is comes with two sets of high-quality plastic figures of the American and German armies, including tanks, artillery and battlefield obstacles such as razor wire and tank traps. Each player commands his troops using cards to decide what units can move and fight and uses special dice to determine the outcome of the battle. Sound familiar? The underlying game system, called the Command and Colors system, is also used in the game Commands and Colors: Ancients, Battlecry and Battlelore. While not having all the rules and troop types of the Ancients game, Memoir provides a very solid tactical experience. Plus it plays out in about 30 to 60 minutes, making it very playable for busy adults who may not have the six or seven hours it might take to play games like Axis and Allies. Memoir '44 is definitely going to see a lot of play on my table.