Mid game. Usually between generations, sometimes mid-generation between turns (the turns are early, middle and late years of that generation). Basically there is a page for every set of buildings etc that might be in play based on stuff going on in the app. Sometimes there’s also tile overlays or tokens.
It’s pretty cool. The generational reset in particular is a big deal because absent some very specific choices/structures/etc you only keep recorded knowledge (i.e. knowledge you’ve spent to advance journal tracks by taking an action that then counts towards all future experiments and can also give bonuses later in the track), one experiment you haven’t completed in hand and one completed experiment (because higher tier experiments require a certain number of completed experiments of a lower tier). Which means you have a very limited time window in which to progress your agendas and they need to pay off no later than the third turn of a generation. But it also means you can happily sacrifice your mundane workers (servants and spouse) on actions that expose the dark truth of your work to them in the late years. Your child will just get more. It’s fine.
It does look cool. Went to go look at the app and… it’s not on the google play store. Only on the Amazon app store. Waaaat? And I couldn’t get it installed on my old Amazon Fire tablet (can’t find it in the appstore), although admittedly it might be too old.
The app just came out - apparently not approved by Google yet. It could be worse - the game shipped 2 months ago and people have been waiting to play and weren’t really able to until a week ago.
That’s because a lot of people complained they had to have the game in hand as soon as possible, so they released prior to app being finished. The beta app worked fairly well, but glad to have the full game now.
Tylertoo,
As stated by others events trigger the map changes I believe there are 8 different game endings story wise for each scenario. That doesn’t include the branching things that can happen in each Lot’s of repeatability. Though I’ll be curious to see how interesting the game is after a few games or how much will be dependent on new scenarios being put out.
Though I do give credit to the designers of this and Merchants of the Dark Road both games have been designed in a way that can easily expand and replace boards with another notebook or, in the case of the MotDR, replace the puzzle pieces making up the board.
It’s long for a worker placement. But it’s got lots of theme. There are 8 different endings for the first scenario alone. It’s also a game that can induce analysis paralysis (it does for someone in our group and that bring the game to over 4 hours) if that’s a concern.
Also, the narration on the app is intermittent and not great.
But the variable map is cool, the components are gorgeous and it’s a tight game with fun mechanics. If you can fit a 3 hour game in your life, it’s worth considering, IMO.
Another game of Black Rose Wars. For those who haven’t seen or played it, it’s basically a more Euro version of Wiz War with amazing minis and some deckbuilding and programming thrown in for good measure.
I got Memoir 44 from Amazon Prime Day, and had a chance to play 3 solo rounds of it.
What a spectacular experience. So light and accessible. The card system prevents the map from getting overwhelming, and the real focus comes down to the dice rolling, which is exciting. But the games are short enough I don’t feel bad if I get burned by randomness.
The war theme unfortunately puts off my family, but hopefully I can get them going on some multiplayer.
I can see that. It definitely isn’t a deep tactical experience (at least not the base game). But it is fun to get troops out on a map and work away at objectives without get bogged down in wargame details.
How does solo play work in Memoir 44? Is a solo mode included in the manual? It looked fun but I passed on that Prime day deal because it didn’t seem to offer a single player mode.
I’ve been meaning to pick up M44 for years. Time might be right now, since it looks like it plays well down to 8yo.
I was also going to ask about solo, seems like there are several options - two-handed best best of your ability, one handed with random hand or top deck draws for the opponent, or one of a few generic CDG solo systems. All apparently work quite well, despite BGG community votes not really acknowledging solo is a common method of play for M44.
The one I used tonight was the generic CDG one from Stuka Joe. I added some variation.
Basically, there is a shared 5 card hand. Cards are facedown. The card the AI picks is based on a d6 roll. Rolling a 6 flips all the cards over.
When the AI plays a card, you basically assign D6 numbers to units, and roll to see which moves, and then again for any decisions that need to be made (ex. If the AI can shoot two units equally, then I roll D6 to determine which one). I do lightly and manually optimize the AI out of this rule set if necessary. I’ve also had to fiddle with some cards that impact your normal card draw (recon, for example).
My first game I played two handed and it was fine, but clunky. I worried the Stuka Joe method would.feel weird… But the whole game is light enough that it worked great, and.the game played fast and fluid.
Here is a video of a method I played last night. It is wholly flexible so you could run 2 hands, use the die to determine card options, then play logical. Or you can follow this with a shared hand, and add it more randomness, but less risk of human bias.
