Memoir ’44 Campaign Book Volume 1
Our last entry in our Memoir ’44 board game expansions review is actually a book – Memoir ’44 Campaign Book Volume 1.
It may sound funny to have a book as a board game expansion, since a book won’t contain any cool new army miniatures, terrain tiles, or a board. But that doesn’t mean it can’t enhance the game in great ways.
And we love having it as part of our Memoir ’44 game collection.
We were actually lucky enough to get the Memoir ’44 Campaign Book Volume 1 while it was out of print. This past Christmas we took part in The Dice Tower Secret Santa gift exchange. And the person who had us saw that we loved Memoir ’44 and sent us a copy of the Campaign Book Volume 1. It turns out that he had two copies from years before and decided to send us one. Boy did we luck out on our Secret Santa!
Days of Wonder has since created a Campaign Book Volume 2 and just this year put an electronic version of Campaign Book Volume 1 on their online store. Great to see it’s back available for folks again because it’s a fantastic addition for those that enjoy playing Memoir ’44.
(The physical Campaign Book pack actually includes a number of new cards as well as a sheet of new tokens for use in Campaigns. The downside of an electronic version is that it can’t include the various cards and tokens included with the physical version. That’s just the only version available now unless you pay extremely high prices on eBay.)
What’s the draw of the Memoir ’44 Campaign Book?
Memoir ’44 Campaign Book Volume 1 is pretty cool because it delivers a new way to experience the scenarios of Memoir ’44. Instead of just playing solitary scenarios, the Campaign Book sets out multiple scenarios strung together to make a Campaign.
Here it is straight from the opening pages of the book: “A Campaign is a series of thematically and chronologically linked scenarios designed to be played in succession. As the campaign progresses, players will have various options at their disposal to press their advantage or shore up their defenses.”
The Campaigns
Volume 1 has 12 Campaigns, each made of 3 to 8 distinct battle scenarios – for a total of over 40 scenarios!
The best part about a Campaign is that the results of one battle scenario will play into the subsequent scenario. Which side wins may determine which scenario will be played next . It will also determine any special elements of how the next scenario will be set up.
For example, in The Breakout Campaign, if the Allies win the first battle (Panzer Lehr Counter Attacks) they will have an opportunity to win a free army reserve unit for the next battle if they capture an objective. Whereas if the Axis player wins the first battle, they have an opportunity to roll an extra Victory Events roll at the end of the second battle if they hold Hill 122. And if the Allies win the 3rd battle (Operation Cobra), then the Campaign ends. If the Axis win the 3rd battle, then players move on to a 4th battle (Counter-Attack on Mortain).
And that’s what makes the Campaigns so cool – one battle affects subsequent battles.
Determining a winner at the end of a Campaign depends on the special point conditions that are set forth for that particular Campaign. In addition, the rules set for different Degrees of Victory depending on the final point spread – Minor Victory, Major Victory, or Decisive Victory!
A few of the scenarios are from the original base game or an expansion, but most are completely new via the Campaign Book. So when we wrote about the Eastern Front or Pacific Theater expansions including 8 scenarios, that’s just a handful to what you get in the 112 page Campaign Book Volume 1.
In addition, each Campaign is part of a Grand Campaign – where you can string together multiple Campaigns.
As an example, part of the Battle of Normandy Grand Campaigns includes the following Campaigns: Flanking Caen, The Breakout, Taking Caen, Early Falaise, and Falaise. And each of those Campaigns is made up of 3 or 4 scenarios.
Special Elements / Rules
Playing Memoir ’44 as Campaigns adds a few new rules to the game play. The first of note is that before each campaign, players roll dice to determine what Reserve units they can have through the campaign. There are a couple different ways to deploy units and the players choose when and how they want to use these units to help them in battle.
Between two battles in a Campaign, players will have a Victory Events roll. Each player rolls 2 dice plus 1 for each battle won up to that point in the campaign. The results of those rolls will affect the set up of the next battle. For example if Player 1 rolls an Infantry symbol, Player 2 has to remove one infantry figure from a unit of their choice. Other effects can be reducing the cards they have or retreating units.
The Book
The book itself is very nice and the way the Campaigns are set up are easy to follow. You can see the general structure from the photos we’ve included. The first portion is showing how the battles are strung together and the order of battles. Then the individual scenarios are presented like all Memoir ’44 scenarios are done – with their board set up, their Historical Background, conditions of victory, and any special rules.
Final Thoughts
As you can tell, we love the Memoir ’44 Campaign Book Volume 1. But there is one major downside. Many of the scenarios require terrain tiles from other Memoir ’44 expansion sets. So if you just have the base game, you’ll have to do some improvising and may not get the full experience. In fact, getting the Campaign Book was one of the reasons why we bought the Eastern Front expansion.
But when you enjoy a game as much as we like Memoir ’44, it’s not really a problem to add another expansion to the game.
Chances are high that we’ll keep adding to our Memoir ’44 game with additional expansions, but we’re pacing ourselves and those additional expansions will just have to wait a while. For now, we’re very happy with what we have – tons of game play to keep us playing together for a very long time.
