In the Memoir 44 expansion pack for the Pacific Theater, there are some scenarios which include escape rows. Sometimes these escape rows are for the Japanese, and sometimes for the Allied forces.

The reality is that in most games, they are hardly ever used.  That is most games are decided just by the brute force of destroying enough enemy units to win.

But sometimes they are used, and when they are, they can be very decisive.

Here is a game I just played, which illustrates this.

This is a two-round game like most are in Board Game Arena.  The truth is, that I got badly beat in the first round, when I was playing as the Japanese.  I lost 5 - 2!  That's pretty terrible, and I am still now sure how it happened.  So that meant, that if I was to win the series, when I played the Allies, I would need to win the game with a score of 5 - 1, which is also pretty crazy to need to do.

I was able to do that and win the next round at 5 -1 as you can see in the picture. And if you look at the medals, you will see that the last two I gained in order to win it, was by escaping two Allied units off the board on the Exit Row.

So when playing Memoir 44 with escape options, it is always wise to be making a two-pronged strategic plan: first, to attack the enemy of course, but secondly, to relentlessly be pushing your forces ever closer to that Exit Row. It can make all the difference for you.

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