[Board/Tactical Game]: Memoir '44 and Expansions (Eastern Front, Terrain Pack, Winter/Desert Map), reviewed by Matt Drake (5/5)

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/11/11754.phtml

Matt Drake's Summary:

Storm Normandy, chase Rommel across North Africa, or hold off German troops in Russia in the WWII game that is about the most fun you can have with plastic figures and some dice.

Go to the full review for more information.

[Jamie Herbert]

Actually I have to disagree, I have played a lot of M44, and found the game to be extremely well balanced in the scenario department. I have a tendancy to play the axis forces, and my win to loss ratio is about 50/50. that taking into account different levels of opponents, (from novice, to been gaming way longer than me) and varying scenario. Even on the same scenario, I tend to have the same ratio, with the same player. I will grant you that this is helped by the randomness of the cards, ( I don't care how well dug in you are, or how pathetic your enemy's forces appear, a hand of crap cards is a death knell in even the best strategies.) But I will agree that it is a great game, I have yet to get the expansions, but even at the basic level this game is well worth the price of admission and is one you'll be talking about for years.

[ShannonA]

I think that 5-10% of the time, card draw can really hose you. I was playing a game the other night where I constantly had a handful of recons, and that just didn't do much for me. I'd say that's the exception though, not the rule.

However I have to totally disagree with your assessment of balance. The scenarios are quite unbalanced. Like Matt I don't have a problem with this because, as he said, you just play the scenario twice. My wife and I have consistently done that as we've moved through 30+ games. However if you look at the results at www.memoir44.com, it's obvious that there is a significant imbalance in many scenarios.

Pegasus Bridge, for example, is 491:197. Even more notably Omaha Beach is 48:239. The newer scenarios from the expansions don't have enough plays yet to be significant, but two that I found particularly imbalanced were Knightsbridge (6:18) and Breakout at Klin (1:10).

[Jamie Herbert]

That may be what the online polls show, but for me, and those I play with we have encountered quite different results. and I know I have had my share of all left flank cards when my army is on the right flank.