After Action Reports from The Front
15 years after it was released, we played a game of Memoir 44, at Dice Tower West in Las Vegas.
The game itself was on my radar for many years, but for one reason or another I simply ignored it.
But once Nels and I played a game, we both agreed that it was a good game. So much so that I finally ordered a copy of the base set, which appears to be out of print. Along with all of it’s expansions.
I’ve been able to find a few of the expansions locally and online, and I’ve picked up a couple and may end up getting more of them in the future.
Right now my white whale/holy grail is the Pacific Theater expansion, which has always been my chosen area of interest in World War II. I seem to be able to find all of the expansions EXCEPT this one.
Here’s hoping I can find a copy. Or it gets reprinted in the near future.
So here we have the new full game box for Battletech.
I’m really hoping my gaming friends and I can play this one.
BEHOLD!
Another scenario/test, this time playing with pilot cards/tokens and Talents/Flaws. I also added terrain (asteroids and a planetoid).
Vipers triumphant
And for the third game in a row, the Cylons simply got bad draws from the damage counters
Both Colonials sustained minor damage while they shredded the toasters…
I tried the first scenario listed in the scenario book, which is based on the Battle of Ragnar Anchorage during the original 2003 miniseries.
Of course, you only get to play with 4 ships.
I set up the ships on opposite ends (more or less) of a 36″ x 28″ play area.
While the Cylons attempted to close the distance to the Vipers, the Colonials turned toward each other, rotated to face the Toasters, and fired at Raider E after they crossed past each other. Result: scratch one Toaster.
The other Raider (F) managed to close the range and fire, damaging a Viper (D).
The Vipers continued to drift apart…
As Cylon F tried to get into close range for another shot at Viper C…
… the Vipers managed to get into more favorable positions.
Two turns later, it was over. Viper ‘D’ got in the last kill shot.
The game lasted about 7 turns out of a limit of 15. I’m sure the outcome would be different if I played an actual opponent, instead of playing both sides.
If anything, running this scenario cleared up a lot of the movement rules for me, especially the Kinetic Energy/Acceleration rules.
USS Yorktown CV-5
I decided to try a more difficult campaign in Corsair Leader, so I picked the Battle of the Coral Sea (short campaign, 2 days), which allowed me to use my personal pilot card.
I actually used the ‘skilled’ version of this card, making him the squadron leader.
After assigning skills (gave Gung Ho to 4 pilots who had none, and Attack Run to the Devastator and Dauntless pilots), I drew two targets:
I sent 6 planes after the carrier (Shōkaku, which was damaged in the actual battle), 3 Wildcats (VF-42), 2 Devastators (VT-2), and 1 Dauntless (VB-2). I armed the Devastators and Dauntless with 500lb bombs, when i should have (historically) armed the torpedo bombers (Devastators) with (duh) torpedoes.
They made short work of the carrier and sunk her. The campaign awarded an additional 2 Victory Points for sinking the carrier.
Meanwhile, Saguisag escorted a single Dauntless on a bombing run against the small freighter, which had an additional VP attached to it. Again, they sank the target, with no losses.
The combined Victory Point total for the day was 10 VPs, which gave me a great result, and I decided to give the squadron the 2nd day off.
