Memoir '44 Variant Rules: Memoir Medieval

A month or so ago my buddy and I got the chance to sit down and spend a day playing games.  We both have kids, so this basically never happens, so it was lots of fun.

Our wives both enjoy board games too, but in this case they weren't around, so we broke out the 2-player games.  One of them was Memoir '44, by Days of Wonder, which I hadn't played before.  We ran through a couple of the starting scenarios to get used to the system and ended up splitting the first 2 games.  Game 1 I won by taking a couple of bridges, game 2 Rayn won by dint of a very fortunate air-drop and my inexperience.

Rather than playing a third game, my innate desire to hack things up kicked in, and I decided I wanted to build a set of medieval/fantasy variant rules for the game.  The basic mechanics are great - play cards to move your troops, roll dice to attack - damage the enemy or force them to retreat based on the dice results.

I figured that these mechanics could be translated easily into a medieval/fantasy game, so I dug through all the other board games at Rayn's house and came up with a spread of figures that we could use to replace the existing soldiers and tanks and artillery.

We didn't bother to make up specific scenarios, so we put together some rules for quickly building maps cooperatively.  We also set up a point buy system for building armies and some basic deployment rules.

Scenario Setup:

 

Skirmish

75 points each, no giants allowed.  4 command cards each.  15 terrain cards each. 4 VP's required to win. 

The Skirmish rules are for a small engagement with quite a bit of terrain.  Point restrictions will likely mean no catapults.

Battle

100 points each.  5 command cards each.  12 terrain cards each.  5 VP to win.

The Battle rules are for a medium/normal engagement, which can include catapults and giants.  Less terrain means freer movement.

Large Battle

150 points each, 1 free commander on each side (if commanders are being used), 5 command cards each. 10 terrain cards each.  6 VP to win.  1 VP location place-able by each player.  2 VP locations placed along center line of board.

The Large Battle rules are for a big, full-scale engagement.  Player-placed VP locations must be placed within 2 hexes of the center-line of the board.  The 2 center line VP locations are placed according to mutual agreement after the terrain tiles are placed.

Siege

Side 1 150 Points, 10 terrain cards, 5 command cards.  Side 2 100 points, 15 terrain cards, 1

fortification, 3 sandbags, 5 barbed wire, 2 VP location markers, 3 command cards (draw 2 on 1^st 2 rounds).  6 VP to win.

The Siege rules are designed  to simulate an attack by a larger force on a smaller, entrenched force, which starts with the VP locations. 

Terrain Placement:

Players pick the requisite number of terrain tiles blindly from a bag.  Players then alternate placing terrain tiles on the board.  They may play either side of the tile.  The first tile must be placed somewhere along the centerline of the board.  Subsequent tiles must be placed within 1 hex of an existing tile.

River tiles should be placed contiguous to other river tiles, in the direction of the closest edge of the map, unless both players agree to set the river up differently.

Unless both players agree, all tiles must be played within 3 hexes of the center line of the board.

Other terrain features, like bridges, barricades or fortifications, can be placed if both players agree.  Remember, the setup is a collaborative process designed to create an interesting map.

Deployment

Once the board is set up, both players alternate deploying 1 unit at a time, until both armies are deployed.  Units cannot be moved once deployed unless both players agree.  Units must be deployed within at 2 hexes of the players map edge, unless both players agree.

Units

 

Infantry Units:

Footmen 

4 figures. 

Move: 0/1 and battle or move 2 and no battle.   

Attack: 3.

Cost: 10 points.

Close Support:  Ignore 1 retreat flag for each friendly unit in contact.

We used the spearmen from Risk:Godstorm.

Archers

4 figures.

Move 0/1 and battle or move 2 and no battle. 

Attack 1/2/3.

Cost: 10 points.

Arcing Shot:  Can hit targets that are within range that allied units have LOS on, even if they do not.

Or 

Elusive: Count as armor for defensive purposes when in rough terrain.

We couldn't find good archers, so we used infantry units from vanilla Memoir '44.

Cavalry 

4 figures.

Move: 3.  Can move before AND after battling.

Attack: 2  

Cost: 10

Flank:  Gain +1 combat if another unit is in close assault with target.

Or

Pursuit:  retreat flags count as hits against infantry units.

We used cavalry from Conquest of the Empire.

Optional Cavalry type: 

Horse Archers

4 figures.

Move: 3.

Attack: 2/2.

Cost 15.

Armor Units

 

Giants

3 figures

Move: 0/1 and battle or move 2 and no battle.

Attack: 4

Cost: 25

Terror: Any unit taking damage from giants must retreat 1 space.

We used the Saxon and Pict figures from Shadows Over Camelot.

Heavy Cavalry (Elephants)

3 figures.

Move 2 and battle.

Attack 3.

Cost: 15.

Overrun:  If close combat destroys a unit, the heavy cavalry may move into their space and launch an additional attack.

We used the elephants from Risk:Godstorm.

 

Artillery Units

Catapult

2 figures.

Move: 1 or attack.

Attack: 3/3/2/2/1/1 

Cost: 25 
We used the catapults from Conquest of the Empire, but the catapults from Shadows Over Camelot would work just as well.

Commanders

Commanders are an optional rule that I added after the initial playtesting, so they might not work.  I thought it might be interesting to add a Commander/General type unit to the board, which would allow some additional options for issuing orders.  If both players agree, then each player secretly selects a Commander type, revealing them during setup.

I used the god tokens from Risk:Godstorm.

All Commander Units have a single figure.  They cannot take hits in combat, but any hit or retreat result counts as a retreat.  The Commander is destroyed if they are forced off the board.

Warlord

Move 3, no order required.

The Warlord can issue 1 order/turn to a unit that it is adjacent to.  Units in close assault fight at +1 if the Warlord is adjacent to them.

Wizard

Move 2, no order required.

If the Wizard is issued an order, the Wizard may either

Teleport to any location on the board.  If that location is adjacent to a friendly unit, the Wizard may issue an order to that unit. 

or

Launch a 3 attack (counts as artillery) against 1 unit within 2 squares.

Cultist

Move 2, no order required.

The Cultist can issue an order to up to 3 infantry units in their current battle area each turn.  These units must move directly forward up to 2 squares and can battle.  Friendly units adjacent to the Cultist ignore the 1^st retreat flag rolled when attacked.

Enchantress

Move 2, no order required.

The Enchantress can issue 1 order/turn to any unit in the same battle area.  If the Enchantress is issued an order, she may swap locations with another friendly unit on the board.

To download a complete PDF version of these rules, click here:  Medieval '44 Variant Rules
 

Middle Earth Quest and other Board Games

When I'm not playing RPG's or video games (damn you Torchlight 2), I like to play boardgames, and Middle Earth Quest looks really cool.

It's a co-operative/competitive board game based around the good ole Lord of the Rings.  This game would tie nicely into the start of a Lord of the Rings Roleplaying campaign, as I discussed earlier in Boardgames as a first RPG session.

I would want to play Sauron, personally.  I'm just like that.

If you want more information, PATV has a great show called Shut Up and Sit Down which reviews boardgames.  This week they did Middle Earth Quest.

Check it out here: http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/middle-earth-quest

In addition to Shut Up and Sit Down we have Wil Wheaton's Tabletop.  Every week Wil and his guests review the rules of a different board game, then do a play-through video.  It's funny and a great way to check out board games to see if they would be entertaining.

Youtube is also a good place to look for video reviews/playthroughs of board games.  The first time we played Arkham Horror, we used Grudunza's very comprehensive videos to orient ourselves.

We also used the complete tutorial for the Game of Thrones board game the first time we played it.  That one is actually produced by Fantasy Flight Games.  Tutorials like this are a handy way to get acclimatized to a game without having to read through the entire manual while everyone else is sitting around waiting for you.

Boardgame as RPG First Session

Paul Thornton over at Shortymonster put up a post talking about his love for boardgames and talked about Fantasy Flight Games and the use of a character sheets in many modern boardgames.

I’m a big fan of boardgames myself – in fact, my friends got me Arkham Horror for my birthday last year, and we got to play it again this summer.  Since I’ve done so much table-top gaming, it seems pretty natural to me to have character sheets along with a game, but I know that for the board game community, this is a relatively recent development.

From an RPG player’s perspective, it’s a GREAT THING!  It means that the barrier to entry for RPG’s is getting lower and lower.  Think about it – there are now a lot of people out there who, through boardgames, have experience using a character sheet and interacting with a rule-set through it!    Paul also correctly notes that playing with a character sheet gets the player much more involved with the game as a story or narrative, which is very good preparation for traditional RPG play as well.

My brainstorm here is that you can lower that bar even further by using a character-sheet boardgame as the first session of an RPG!  The obvious one that comes to mind is Call of Cthulhu with an Arkham Horror first session.  Keep the same characters, and allow things like equipment, spells and skills to continue over into the RPG game.

If you really want to do something interesting – carry over the events of the game into the start of the RPG.  Make notes of some of the major monsters that appeared and what happened to them when the game ended.  Use the Big Baddie as the ultimate antagonist in the RPG game, track the PC’s interactions with things like the Silver Lodge or the Police, and make quick notes about activities that the PC’s got up to in-game – you can carry stuff through to the table-top game very easily.

Using Arkham also gives you a ready-made base of operations, basic character backgrounds and a shared experience for all the players.  Heck, you could even give out XP based on the results of the boardgame.  Suddenly, you’ve gone from introducing a new way kind a game to an easy-to-grasp continuation of a game you already started.

I bet that both experienced and new table-top RPG players would enjoy starting a game this way.  In fact, you don’t have to constrain it to just games with stat sheets.  You could play a tactical game, like the Game of Thrones board game or Lords of Waterdeep, and start as agents/members of whatever group won the game – or the loser, if they lost in a spectacular and interesting way.  Just make sure to carry the events of the game over into the RPG sessions.

As I said, Arkham Horror is an obvious one, but here are some others that you could try:

Castle Ravenloft (for 4e D&D or a Ravenloft game)

Lords of Waterdeep (for any Forgotten Realms Campaign)

Descent (for any fantasy rpg, really)

Mansions of Madness (for more Cthulhu)

Shadows over Camelot (Pendragon or anything Arthurian)

Last Night on Earth or Zombicide (any horror or zombie rpg)

Mutant Chronicles: Siege of the Citadel (Mutants and Masterminds?)

Warhammer Quest (Warhammer Fantasy RPG)

Battlestations (Rogue Trader or Traveller)

Vampire: Prince of the City (Vampire the Masquerade)

This thread here has some other ideas, too.

Worst-case scenario – you’ll have a fun time playing the boardgame and have some neat plot/adventure hooks for when you RPG next.  Best-case?  Awesome board game that flows directly into awesome RPG, and you introduce some new players into RPG’s in a cool way.