Disclaimer: I was lucky enough to get my hands on the new Air Pack and digest its impact on the Memoir ’44 world. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the chance to get an actual game in. As such, I have opted to forego the review of play at this point and have chosen instead to give a detailed analysis of the contents of the expansion.


OVERVIEW



The Air Pack had its origins under the ill-fated Memoir ’44 Official Carrying Case announced in the rulebook of the Pacific Theater expansion. It seemed that the Air Rules might have been an afterthought that was thrown into the mix to convince players for the need to purchase the Carrying Case. Design issues crept up and the expansion was postponed. With the announcement and energy behind BattleLore, it seemed that Memoir ‘44 would forever be on the backburner and suffer the same fate as the Carrying Case. What we learned after a long silence from Days of Wonder (DOW) was that they had postponed the Carrying Case but were determined to release the Air Pack. What we have now is supposedly a much deeper version of the Air Rules that were heavily play-tested plus some additional goodies to boot.

The Air Pack is heralded by some as Memoir ’44 v2.0. Not only has DOW created a new "module" to insert into old scenarios along with pre-painted miniature aircraft, it has also revamped the entire line and filled in the missing pieces along the way. Every official non-Overlord scenario released to date has been given a new look and in most cases tweaked in some way. All the scenarios are reprinted under one cover in the 80-page rulebook. New terrain hexes, mostly filling in the gaps from the Eastern Front and Terrain Pack expansions, have been included. The most exhaustive work has come from the inclusion of 118 Summary Cards ranging from Air Rules to Nations to Terrain. What DOW has created is an expansion worthy of the original title; an expansion that will become integrated into the base game and used in most subsequent games of Memoir ’44.


COMPONENTS



The Air Pack comes in box with the standard footprint of the DOW games. The height is only half the size of the original game. Luckily, they opted to return to the linen-finish of the game box as opposed to the shiny Colosseum box. The inside has a clear plastic tray to hold the cards, the miniatures and their stands, and the new terrain hexes. Unfortunately, not everything fits perfectly and some of the components can easily slide around the box; the hex compartments are about two tiles too shallow.



First and foremost, the expansion features the airplane miniatures. DOW opted to go with their first ever pre-painted figures straight out of the box. The decision was made to help increase the visibility of the pieces against the other standard units. Each plane also has its own removable clear plastic flight stand to indicate its status in the air (as opposed to sitting on a vulnerable airfield). The paint job is nice and fairly detailed for such a small scale. The plastic is soft and fits snuggly on the stands. It appears they will stand up to long hours of repeated play.



The terrain hexes continue with the linen-finish and are on par with the previously published hexes. There is no significant difference between the earlier ones and they should meld with those quite easily. All of the hexes have one side dedicate to the Eastern Front expansion. Most are visual upgrades finally giving us winter hills to replace the green ones in most of the winter scenarios. A few new Russian villages have been added to suppliment the meager amount we received before and the last couple are winter airfields to be used by the new rule set. On the flip side, 2/3 of the hexes are dedicated to the countryside with half of them gullies (a “green” wadi), about half additional trenches, and the last couple airfields. The final 1/3 represents the desert hills that replace the hills in their respective scenarios.



A handful of rectangle tiles are also included. All of them depict Landing Crafts (LCs) for the beach scenarios (a bonus rule set!) while the flip side gives us a couple more winter tiles, an additional battleship, and a blown-up bridge for future use. The cardboard components are rounded out by the Ready To Take-Off Markers used with the Air Rules. Half have other sides depicts Bomb Craters in each of the three board types (countryside, winter, and desert). The other half gives us new Exit Markers to distinguish exit paths from standard victory objectives.

Probably the most utilized component (after the Rulebook) will be the Summary Cards. The original Summary Cards have been revamped and extended to cover all subsequent game concepts and terrain introduced under the expansions. Six new summary decks are included: Actions (15 cards), Air Rules (10), Airplanes (8), Nations (4), Terrain (62), and Troops (15). All decks have a new back with each of the card faces having unique themes.



Each card is numbered and identified by deck along with a symbol. Probably the most innovative feature is that each Summary Card also contains a tiny symbol and page number reflecting the corresponding Rulebook entry. This is handy for locating more information and possible examples or graphics when you run into questions. The decks are further explained below:



- Actions mostly encompasses the optional rules given under the Terrain Pack but also includes the Blitz Rules, the Night Attack chart, and the additional concepts introduced in Pacific Theater.

- Air Rules cover the new rule set and the specific actions taken by the planes within the game.

- Airplanes cover specific information about each plane. The card tells you which nations may use them, the theater of war, the years in service (if you want to apply the Air Rules to scenarios not already designed with the Air Rules in mind), and the specific actions that model plane may perform.

- Nations are a recap of the nation-specific attributes introduced so far: French Resistance, Red Army, Imperial Japanese Army, and the USMC. Hopefully, a 5th card depicting the British will be seen shortly!

- Terrain are the most extensive set of cards covering every terrain introduced. Errata from previous editions have been included along with a few changes here and there. The text has been standardized for the most part. More than just a revised layout, the Terrain cards also include the new Air Check Roll mModifier.



- Troops are also a rehash of the old summary cards expanded to cover all generic troop types. This ranges from Infantry to Cavalry to Supply Trains to the new Landing Crafts.

The final two cards in this expansion are the Air Sortie cards. These cards are designed to be integrated into the standard Command Card deck. While DOW seems to have gone to great lengths to ensure the cards match the existing deck, it does fail on a couple of minor points. Before I get to that, I must say the new cards feel very much like the original cards. DOW has passed the test on duplicating the quality of the originals. The first flaw is that the colors of the backs do not match up perfectly. Under good lighting conditions, the difference should be noticeable. DOW has designed around this by forcing players to play the card in front of them as soon as it is drawn. Since it is no surprise when the card enters play, this minor flaw can be overlooked.



The more noticeable flaw is the cut on the corners. Instead of perfectly round corners, the corners on the new cards extend out farther and are a bit more "square." This may cause a problem as the position of the card among the deck will be fairly obvious. As I mentioned in the beginning, I have yet to play so do not know the extent of impact of this knowledge during the game (i.e. "Do I play a Recon 1 card now because I can see the Air Sortie is the 2nd one down?"). A potential solution would be to trim the corners back to the outline of the old cards to better hide them in the deck (Something I may attempt to do after a few plays).



The final concern would be the worn-condition of your existing cards versus brand-spanking new cards. Again, this is a mott point since the Air Sortie cards never make it to your hand. With two sets and most games played on Vassal, my decks are still in good shape. For those not so lucky, DOW has devised a way to eliminate all of the above concerns: you may purchase replacement decks (all 62 cards) on their website (which I will probably do when I mis-cut my cards!).

Overall, the components of this expansion line up with the high expectations of a DOW product. Though it was produced in China, the components match well with the original sets (which may have been printed in China for all I know!). The bad rap China has received of late does not appear to extend to this set. For an inventory sheet of the expansion in the same format as previous sheets, please check out this file: Roll Call Sheets – Air Pack


AIR RULES

As mentioned previously, I have not yet played this expansion so this is a commentary on the rules and not actual game play. The new Air Rules add another level of depth to the Memoir ’44 game system and are used in one of three ways in the scenarios. In one quarter of the revised scenarios, the Air Rules are now mandatory. Clear instructions are given on where the two Air Sortie cards start: one player or the other receives two, one or none of the cards; if cards are unassigned, they are either shuffled in the command deck or set aside and not used. In most cases, a specific plane is called out and possible Ready to Take-off markers are positioned for the start of the game. Another quarter of the scenarios have detailed instructions on how to implement the Air Rules but leave their use optional. When any of these scenarios are selected, the Air Rules follow the scenario-specific instructions.

In the remaining half of the scenarios, no specific Air Rules are called out. In this case, players may opt to use the generic rules if both agree before the start of play. Both Air Sortie cards are shuffled into the command deck. Only planes available historically (as referenced on the Airplane summary cards) are used when an Air Sortie card is played. This method will also cover all of the hundreds of user-created Scenarios From the Front until their authors decide to revise their set-up instructions.

Once drawn (or at the beginning of the scenario if so assigned), the Air Sortie card is placed face up on the table until used. It does not count against your hand limit. If played alone, it does not allow you to draw a new Command Card. If drawn at the end of a turn, a second Command card is also drawn to keep your hand size at the proper limit. When played, the Air Sortie card is placed in the discard and reshuffled as normal when the draw deck is exhausted or Their Finest Hour is played.

When Air Rules are in effect, the Air Power card turns into a third Air Sortie card. Likewise, any scenario specific cards originally designated as Air Power cards, such as Recon 1 cards, also become Air Sortie cards (though they are limited to their section only, if applicable). These equivalent cards still remain in your hand and are not revealed face up on the table. In addition, a Command Card is drawn to replenish these cards.


(Image uploaded by Aingeru)

Playing an Air Sortie cards allows you to do one of three things. First, you may bring a plane onto the board through any full hex along the board’s perimeter. Alternately, if a plane is already on the board but grounded, it may now take off with no Air Check Roll. Finally, if a plane is on the board and in the air, the card may be used to move the plane as normal and again with no Air Check Roll. Each player may only have one plane on the board at any given time.

The Air Check Roll is the abstract means of dealing with any of the calamities that may befall the plane. Whenever a plane is ordered but before it is moved, an Air Check Roll is made by rolling a number of dice equal to the modifier for the starting hex (i.e., Airfields are 0 while Towns are 2) plus one die per adjacent enemy soldier plus two dice per adjacent enemy plane. If at least one grenade is rolled, the plane is simply removed from the board. If an enemy unit was adjacent during this grenade result, the plane results in a victory medal for your opponent. New planes may continue to enter the board in later rounds.

Once a plane is on the board, it is ordered like any other unit. All Section cards, Air Sortie cards (and their equivalents), Direct from HQs, and a star-result on Their Finest Hour can be used to activate the plane. All planes may move up to four hexes. They move over all terrain and units; they must land in an empty hex and can never enter the same hex twice during one turn. A plane must also stay on the move; if at any time they cannot be ordered, they must be removed from the board with no victory medals awarded. On the flip side, units may not move into a hex occupied by a plane. Airborne planes do not block Line of Site (LOS) while grounded planes and Ready to Take-off markers do block LOS.


(Image uploaded by Aingeru)

In lieu of an actual battle, a plane may do one Air Battle – Special Action based on the options presented on the Airplane summary card. Strafing ground units works similar to the original Air Power card. Ground Support allows terrain reduction to be ignored for adjacent attacking and enemy units. Ground Interdiction prevents adjacent enemy units from moving and will be ignored when the next Air Check Roll is made. Kamikaze Attack rolls 2 dice against a target within range and the plane is immediately removed from the board. If the unit’s symbol or a grenade is rolled, the entire unit is removed as a Victory medal. If a grenade is rolled, the kamikaze plane also counts as a Victory medal for the defender. Recon has the same effect as playing a Recon 1 card. Rescue can remove a friendly 1-figure infantry unit from the board with no Victory medal awarded. Finally, a plane may Take-off / Land on any Airfield hex or Aircraft carrier present on the board. This final action is “free” and may be played in conjunction with any other special action.

Planes in the air cannot be targeted except indirectly through the Air Check Roll. Grounded planes and Ready to Take-off markers can be targeted just like any other unit. A single Grenade result destroys any plane and/or all markers on a single hex. However, no more than one Victory medal is awarded per stack. Planes and markers on an Aircraft Carrier cannot be targeted. If the ship sinks, the planes are lost with no Victory medals awarded.


(Image uploaded by Aingeru)

While it will be an exercise in card management to keep planes flying, it seems the most challenging aspect will be to keep planes on the board. If a scenario does not start with a plane on the board, the only way to bring one in is through Air Sortie/Air Power cards (or their equivalents). Once used, it will be difficult to cycle through the deck and discards in search of launching more air attacks. The Ready to Take-off markers will be a good means to keep planes active in the scenario. But the presence of these markers typically indicates an airfield; and the airfield is the most viable way to keep the plane in the scenario (since grounded planes do not need to be ordered every turn). This will likely balance the scenarios to keep the planes from having a lasting effect on each scenario. The subtle use of distributing the Air Sortie cards, making their equivalents available, or removing them from the deck altogether should give a variety of mixes in each game and place them in their historical context.


SCENARIOS

The Air Rules only make up a small portion of the Air Pack. All official scenarios have been given a face-lift with a new layout and more standardized scenario conditions. It appears 51 of the scenarios have been given some sort of change while 13 appear to have received no game-altering changes (some historical notes have been revised).



The new layouts look very nice and are color coded by theater of war. All of the scenarios have been renumbered to put them in chronological order. But DOW graciously marked each scenario with the old number for easy cross-reference. A quick glance at the top will also tell what expansions are needed for this scenario. Probably the most significant addition is reducing the scenario notes to consistent redirects to the Summary cards. This should clarify previous questions on some scenarios.

The most drastic upgrade has been Pegasus Bridge which is no longer the sissy introduction game! The Allied units are now British elite units. Night Attack rules are in effect. The Germans have air superiority by turning all Recon 1 cards into Air Power cards (no Air Sorties in this one though). Plus a 5th medal is now needed to win.

Almost half of the scenarios (26) have some sort of Visual Upgrade. Hexes have been switched out to match the underlying terrain, proper badges are given to Special Forces, and actual hexes have replaced some of the stand-ins of previous scenarios.

A third of the scenarios have what I call a Minor Modification. They are more than just the Visual Upgrades; they tweak the scenario in some way. For most of the beach landing scenarios, this means adding Landing Crafts under the units that have floated in the ocean the past few years. Quite a few scenarios have also taken advantage of Roads and other hexes provided in the Terrain Pack. This group also includes the handful of scenarios that start with planes and airfields on the boards.

After the Air Pack was announced, many began to wonder if the other expansions were necessary to take advantage of the scenario revisions. The Air Pack is obviously an integral part of the revisions and is used in 64% of the revised scenarios. After that, the Terrain Pack is the most utilized; one quarter of the scenarios now use the components of this expansion where they were not previously used before. The other three expansions are used in a half-dozen scenarios or less each: Eastern Front (6), Desert Winter Board (6), and Pacific Theater (4). Almost all of the expansions exclusively use their own pieces (so if you are only interested in Eastern Front you will not need to get Pacific Theater to play the revised scenarios). Only the base game heavily borrows from all the expansions. To help you better decide what expansions you really need, I have created a chart detailing the changes to each scenario and which pieces are needed from each expansion. You can download that file here: Air Pack Scenarios.



FINAL THOUGHTS

One thing lacking in this expansion is any mention of Overlord (OL) scenarios or how planes will be integrated into that method of play. DOW stated that something more will come out at a later date. It is unclear if a second set will be needed to play OL scenarios. It would seem likely that each game would have to add two additional Air Sortie cards (since two decks are combined in OL). It is also hard to imagine that one plane per side would have any major impact on the larger board. Perhaps DOW will plan to do a mini-expansion of just the additional Air Sortie cards and spare miniatures (a la BattleLore’s Epic Expansion) that will answer all of our Overlord questions while upgrading the OL scenarios.

The Air Pack is quite the extensive expansion. It left no stone unturned in bringing all the pieces to form one whole. The MSRP may put some people off but I think every penny is worth it. This reshapes the base game and should become an integral part of it hereafter. With ever increasing prices for base games, this does not seem to be an outrageous price for so much effort. The components are on par with all previous editions. The Summary cards help organize and bridge the many expansions. Much needed terrain hexes were provided to round out the set. To top it all off, a beautiful single-edition scenario book pulls it all together. This is another winning production from DOW and a much needed expansion to the game. The Air Pack is the expansion to get to make Memoir ’44 “mightier yet.”

EDIT: Corrected minor typos and grammar mistakes that my weary eyes missed at midnight.

Can't wait for this baby.

The new card stock is also much heavier - and less flexible - than the one used for the original cards.

This expansion sounds like a must have for me.

Thanks for the great review Coltsfan. It's so long I'll have to read it in more detail later!!

One question -- One of the criticisms of the Terrain Pack was that not all of the new rules were used in the scenarios that were included. Could you comment on how many of these unused rules and option are included in the revised scenarios?

Geoff

Thank you. It turned out a bit longer than I expected but there was so much to comment on.

I don't have things in front of my right now but I don't recall that many of the old concepts were injected back into the scenarios. The vast majority of the upgrades involving the Terrain Pack were limited to utilizing the terrain that was provided: roads, marshes, nation-specific special forces badges, etc.

So it appears that the Terrain Pack will still primarily remain an expansion for "Do-it-yourself" players who want to toy with the concepts in their own scenarios. The Air Pack has made it a little more convenient in that each of the concepts are captured on the Action Summary cards.

EDIT: Quick check through the chart I made on the differences, the old #20 Gold Beach has included the radar station and radar rules. That seems to be the only one.

Thanks for the review, Coltsfan!

Can you tell us if the new scenarios have enough room at the margin such that the spine could be trimmed and the remaining pages punched and three-ring bound for removal?

Sacrilege, sure, to ruin a printed book, but I'm thinking of the having the pages trimmed, punched, and laminated so I can insert them into a binder.

The book is bound exactly like the rulebook for BattleLore. It has the glued binding with 8 sheets folded in half at a time (sorry, don't know all the technical terms).

I think it would be fairly easy to pull the book apart and cut the pages in half. The margins are sufficient on the pertinent data to not loose any information. Looking at my raw scan of the Pegasus Bridge scenario, you may cut into the graphics in the title bar a bit if you try this though. Again, nothing pertinent to the scenrio will be lost though.

One word of warning, I recall the BattleLore book being larger than a typical 8.5 x 11 sheet. So if you are using a standard laminator, it might be too small for the laminating sleeve. But it is is not so large that it won't fit in a 3-ring binder.

I use a photocopier and page protectors/binder, no need to ruin the main book.

Peace

And thank you for your contributions! Good to know a solid M44 player contributed to the expansion - in playtesting and an approved scenario!

Well done Brian, a great review and enough positive information there to convince me to get this as soon as possible.

Thanks for all the info. I think that all of my major questions have been answered now.

Although it has not been overtly stated, I get the impression that DOW is intending for this to be the last real expansion for the game. I can't see them going to all the work to create the new scenario book and summary cards in order to tie everything together if they intend to expand the system again in the future. We will certainly see new scenarios, and maybe new rules, but I don't expect to see any new pieces or terrain in the future.

Next year I intend to track down this Air Pack, along with the terrain pack and Desert/Winter board. It will be costly, but I think its worth it to have the complete package.

I just wanted to comment on a few suggestions you made for fixing the small issues with the new cards that go in the Command decks.



I got just one suggestion for you, card protectors.

With the CCG market still plugging a long at a good clip you can find these at all game stores and online retailers. I personally buy them for every board game that uses cards (this is why I don't buy as many games as I want cause I am spending a lot on card covers).

That should solve the different colored backs, the different corners, and the wear and tear on the old vs new cards, I would suggest card covers with opaque backs.

Great review BTW, I really appreciate you going in depth on all the rules and components it was very helpful.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for a very thorough preview. I'm happy with this news--I would much rather have a scenario compendium, revised scenarios, supplemental terrain and fresh air rules than a case to carry the stuff in.

Re the "unused" terrain, I've heard from several sources that a dedicated British expansion module is on the way--with numerous North Africa scenarios. I hope we'll see this one in the first half of '08 as the mobile desert actions should be very wild and woolly to play using the M'44 system.

Also hoping for some nice sleek Crusader tanks!

DOW has stated that they will release a British expansion, the Overlord-air pack thing, are still trying to figure out the carrying case, and I thought one or two more announced items. I do not think Memoir '44 is anywhere near running out of steam.

Thanks for the suggestion. Even though I used to play some CCG's, I always forget about card protectors. I thought I had heard that these are not standard sized cards. I know I have heard that about BattleLore and I always assumed M44 cards were the same size.

Really mine work fine????

What kind do you use? I have the same problem as generalpf.

There are too many of these $$$$$$$ flashing in DOW eyes to let Memoir die.

Anyone know if you can have the base game and the air pack, or if you need the eastern front and pacific also?

If you own just the Base game and the air pack, you can play all the games dedicated to just the base game. In some scenarios, you may be missing some terrain but you can try to work around it. Between the Summary cards and hte online rules of the expansions, you could probably make most scenarios work.

Of the 64 expansions, 36 are classified as "base game," 6 Terrain pack, andd 11 each of Eastern Front and Terrain Pack.

The cards do not fit perfectly in MtG or Yu-Gi-Oh protectors. Korean game shops sell protectors for Battlelore/Memoire cards that fit perfectly. I know because i used them.

This would give me more of a reason to get the other expansions just to complete the set. Thanks for the info. Great work. My buddies at the office and I play at lunch and they love it. They would enjoy the expansions and the air pack.

Nice review. Makes me want to go out and get all the Memoir '44 stuff I sold and play it some more...

Or we could stop time and finally get another gaming weekend together!