Denmark And The Desert

I'm still on my Memoir '44 kick at the moment. Last night I organsied a game with Stuart, but June was also available and was interested in playing too. So I stepped aside and tutored the two of them since neither had played it before.

As a starting game I went for the Roadblock At Hokkerup scenario. This represents a fairly small-scale action during the German invasion of Denmark in 1940. Germans have to break through a defended Danish roadblock and get points for exiting nits off the Danish board edge as well as eliminating enemy units.  It's mostly infantry, but the Germans do get their special Blitzkrieg rules which make them strong in air support.

In the first game June took the Danes. It looked like a quick win for Stuart was on the cards when he overwhelmed the Danish left and had a clear run to the exit point with enough units to get a win.

But his good cards ran out after exiting a couple of units, and a Danish counterattack pushed back the outflanking moves.

When June's turn came to play the Germans in the second game she got a good draw of cards in the centre and was able to launch a massive assault on the Danish position. Air attacks forced the Danes out of their defences.

I'm sorry to say that in all the excitement I forgot which side won each game, but I seem to recall that when the scores were aggregated the margin was only one victory medal; both games were very close, I remember that.

We then switched theatres and set up the November 1941 battle at Sidi Rezegh Airfield, which sees an all armoured British force trying to take the eponymous airfield being ambushed by German panzers.

It has a lot of tanks.

Again June and Stuart played both sides. In the first June's British were pinned against their baseline  by an aggressive German assault and suffered a lot of casualties. In the second game Stuart was able to push teh British forward and attack the airfield.

Once again I forget who won what in terms of games. The margin of victory when the scores were aggregated was pretty close though. The game was good fun, with lots of swirling tank action, and the impassable escarpments causing some problems with retreats.

So a great evening, even if I didn't get to play.