After a long break there is a new expansion for Memoir’44. The fans have been waiting a long time for this. Also it is a battle map! On the cover it states: The Battle Map Series II – Volume 1. Thus inferring there will be more Volumes following. As the first four battle maps are still very much sought by Memoir’44 players this seems to be a good “Battle Plan” for Asmodee/Days of Wonder.
Also from a player point of view: setting up the larger scenarios (Overlord Breakthrough) can be time consuming. So having preprinted maps for Overlords and Breakthroughs helps speed things along. Especially handy for play days/evenings of the many Memoir’44 communities spread around the globe.
We, the Memoir’44 Brigade Nederland, got our hands on a copy early on because someone won it as a prize at the Memoire 44 French Open 2016. So in December on an evening we played the two Overlords and the following Monday I played the campaign against another player. I have now played all battles once and thought I was ready to write a review.
Content
The package looks like we are used to from the first series of Battle maps, with the plastic minis of the Tankettes and Armored Cars on the front. Of the provided Battle maps the Cape Torokina Landings Overlord is the most striking with its large Bright Blue Ocean part.
The bilingual maps (English and French) have the historical information, rules for this scenario and the appropriate compendium cards printed on the sides as usual. And also as usual it all looks fine and makes me want to set up and play as soon as possible.
There are some cardboard badges and tokens with this expansion you need to set up if you do not own certain previous expansions. (field bunkers, landing craft, destroyers, machine gun, anti tank, mortar, Big Guns, Flame thrower tanks, cavalry, Russian special forces, Russian Engineers, Russian snipers, Russian medals, Japanese, medals, Japanese special forces, Japanese engineers, green stars)
Specific for this expansion there are <PERSON> tokens, and curiously also tokens for armored car and tankettes. Those last you do not need because you already have the plastic mini’s for that.
The minis
Fit in very well with al the other Memoir’44 gear and are of the same quality. 993
They are the uniform grey that was also used for the equipment pack, but I feel the plastic is a little bit harder, so no crooked barrels here. Although that could also be due to the smaller barrels used for these two units.
Here is a link to the rules for this expansion: https://cdn1.daysofwonder.com/memoir44/en/img/mm_khalkhin-go...
The Campaign
The Battles are usually fast and furious and do not last long. Most of them are only 5 medals.So it is very possible to play the whole campaign in about a day or two evenings. (Not having to set up the Breakthroughs really helps save time here.)
Overall known Rules for all scenarios:
Known rules: All the scenarios play with the Japanese and Russian nations rules. Machine guns (early war), anti tank guns (early war) and big guns are very frequently featured, mostly on the Russian side. All stream are fordable (Terrain 61- Fordable streams)
Rules more specific for this expansion:
Air rules are not in effect. Neither side has Air Superiority, so both sides roll 1 die when the Air Power card is played.
All armor moves may only move 1-2 hexes and battle, except the Axis Te-Ke armor, which may still move 1-3 hexes and battle.
Tankettes and Armored Cars are new units specific for this expansion. (For the rules see link above)
Cavalry is also present in a lot of the battles, and featured on both sides, so we also have Japanese Cavalry.
A new action: Molotov Cocktails is introduced. When in effect you get a limited number of Molotov Cocktails (2 or 3) that you can use on specific dice rolls, to be announced before rolling. If played stars also count as hits in Close assault.
My take on the above:
I do like it that the Air Power only gives one die per hex to both sides. Although there is only one Air Power in the deck, the two dice per hex for the allies normally, can have a huge impact. It is more balanced this way, which is especially good since the scenarios tend to be on the short side.
The rule that normal armor may only move 1-2 hexes as opposed to the Tankettes still going 1-3 adds a tactical layer to the game. The Tankettes are more maneuverable but after two hits your opponent has a shiny medal. 993