Memoir 74 in Africa (28mm)

[Mac]

I have been using Combat Cards and Crossfire for my 1970's Africa games. However, after playing Chain of Command (CoC) I have been thinking about what is important to me, in gaming at the platoon level. CoC is one of the best sets of rules I have played, but for a club-night game CoC is just too long and hard. Partly this is due the time and the brain-bandwidth I have on weeknights; but it also has to do with my view of simulating platoon-level actions.

 

My impression of platoon-level skirmishes was that they often lasted no more than twenty minutes before one platoon or another gave way. My concern with CoC is that this little action is taking us three hours at least to play out, or about one sixth of real time.

 

So I started to ask myself "What game can I play in twenty minutes?" and the answer was to use the semi-boardgame Memoir 44' with my "little friends".


Of course it had to be updated a little to Memoir 74'; but Memoir 74 had two other attractive advantages other than speed.

1. You can play two games in one night. This means the skirmish can be as unfair as you like, since at the end of the game you are going to cross the table and play it again from the other side. Seeking game balance, wargamers tend to be obsessed with finding the few instances of warfare that were evenly matched, but warfare is rarely so. In fact most actions at the platoon level had to decidedly unfair (or they simply wouldn't have taken place). Removing the need for play-balance removes the need for many rules to a large degree. It also removes the contentious requirement for a points system; instead players can just turn up with whatever they have got painted so far.

2. Scenario design. It is really easy to come up with scenario's for Memoir 74', in fact I find I can cook them up as I set up the terrain.



With all that in mind, here is a scenario I devised up in four minutes. It is set in the long suffering imagi-nation of Maroubra. A regular mechanised platoon has been ordered to attack the camp of the Maroubran United Marxist Peoples Squadron or MUMPS.



Figures by Eureka and Mongrel:
 

More at my blog:http://macslittlefriends.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/memoir-74-in-africa.html
http://macslittlefriends.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/memoir-74-in-africa.html

[Cherno]

I really like that table, having played Memoir 44 a lot I agree taht the hex tile system gives great flexibility, as well as the short scenarios that can be played back-to-back with both players switching sides. Makes me want to start my own African project again.

[grant]

Nice! The receipt sticker for a chopper stand is a swell idea 

[juergen c. olk]

Great looking game,I like the bushes in the middle of the hexes,I have never played memoir 44,who makes them?Also may I put a link to your Blog for my yahoo group?   http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/ModernAfricanBushwars

[Mac]

Juergen, please feel free... and I just joined your Yahoo! group.

[Doudou]

awesome stuff !

[Stepman3]

Very Nice...great job on the Alouette. (mine is pissing me off, I'm so frustrated with it, I ordered the Alouette II from Heller to use instead....

[Doudou]

what is the civilian African manufacturer?

[Mac]

Most of the civilians are from an very fun part of Eureka's modern range. Two are from the Perry's range.

[Elbows]

I've considered this kind of gaming too - I have several hex mats, and I had 100 MDF hexes to match cut up for me (for quick and easy terrain placement).  I might give it a whirl some time.  Since I love love love card based stuff, I'd be down for making up some nice decks of cards to go along with them.  Maybe not directly Memoir 44, but something in a similar vein.

[blacksoilbill]

That's a really interesting idea. Great set-up, too!

Bill.