|
|
|
|
The Command Card
April 8, 2026
|
|
|
Play Smarter. Strike Harder.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Memoir '44 News
Attention Memoir ’44 Commanders!
|
|
Your battlefield intelligence just got an upgrade.
|
The new Scenario Manuals are here—designed to help you plan, play, and prevail with confidence.
|
|
--> Field Manual 44: Tactics, Tenacity & Triumph – A collection of hard-won battlefield wisdom and proven strategies for seasoned and new commanders alike.
|
|
--> Field Manual 17: Base Game Scenarios – Every official base game mission summarized and organized for quick reference at the table.
|
|
--> Field Manual 8A: Pacific Theater
|
|
--> Field Manual 8B: Eastern Theater
|
--> Field Manual 8C: Mediterranean Theater
|
2️⃣ Individual Scenario Guides – Focused, printable briefings for each battle—perfect for studying tactics or sharing with friends.
|
Sharpen your strategy, master every map, and lead your troops to victory. Your next campaign begins here!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
STRATEGY & TACTICS
|
The Power of Exit Hexes
|
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 successfully reached. That is to say, 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. [ pic1 ]
|
|
|
|
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 not sure how it happened. So what that meant, was 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 a pretty crazy goal.
|
But, I was able to do achieve that goal, 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. I had an Assault card, and happened to have two Infantry close to the Exit. It is rare to even get one across the Exit row; but in this case, we made it happen twice!
|
|
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, so if you get the right set of cards, you can make a run for it. It can make all the difference for you.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
From General Howitzer:
The Dunkirk Evacuation (or 'Exit')
|
|
Exit Hexes are not just a thing in Memoir 44.
|
They happen in war too. They most famous being the Dunkirk Evacuation (1940)
|
The most famous Allied escape of the war. British and French forces were encircled in northern France but evacuated over 330,000 troops across the Channel. Though equipment was lost, the preservation of the British Army made continued resistance possible.
|
The Dunkirk Evacuation was one of the most consequential withdrawals in military history and occurred during the collapse of Allied defenses in France in May–June 1940, early in World War II.
|
After Germany launched its offensive through the Ardennes, German panzer forces broke through Allied lines and drove rapidly to the English Channel. This maneuver cut off the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), along with large French and Belgian units, trapping them in northern France around the port city of Dunkirk.
|
By late May, Allied armies were pressed against the sea with German forces closing in from the south and east. Destruction—or surrender—appeared imminent.
|
On 26 May 1940, Britain launched Operation Dynamo, a desperate evacuation to save as many troops as possible by sea. The Royal Navy coordinated the effort, but the shallow beaches and damaged harbor meant that conventional warships alone could not do the job.
|
Hundreds of civilian vessels—later immortalized as the “Little Ships of Dunkirk”—were requisitioned or volunteered. These ranged from fishing boats and ferries to pleasure craft. They ferried soldiers from the beaches to larger ships offshore, often under air attack.
|
Over nine days, approximately 338,000 Allied soldiers were evacuated:
|
Roughly 140,000 French and Belgian
|
However, the British Army survived. That single fact changed the course of the war. Without Dunkirk, Britain would have lacked the trained manpower to defend the homeland, fight in North Africa, or later return to Europe.
|
Dunkirk became both a military retreat and a psychological victory. In Britain, it was framed not as a defeat, but as a testament to resilience, improvisation, and national resolve—the origin of the phrase “the Dunkirk spirit.”
|
Strategically, it ensured that Britain remained in the war, making all later Allied victories—El Alamein, Normandy, and the liberation of Europe—possible.
|
Now in Memoir 44, the units do not "live to fight another day"; they exit the field of play. But you do get a Victory Medal - and sometimes two! - for each unit that escapes.
|
|
|
|
|
Ruins of St. Lo, near the Battle for Hauts-Vents
|
|
(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ARuins_of_St._L%C3%B4.jpg?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
|
|
|
|
The five new scenarios in the 2025 Memoir 44 Refresh attempt to recreate the historical realities of these battles.
|
|
From the main game Scenario book:
|
|
Scenario 7 - Battlegroup Heintz at Hauts-Vents - the battle begins on July 10th, 1944 in and around the village or Hauts-Vents
|
|
Scenario 8 - Belle-Lande - an attempt is made to outflank the Germans by attacking the nearby town of Belle-Lande
|
|
Scenario 9 - Panzer Lehr at Hauts-Vents - at midnight on July 11th, the Panzer Lehr, one of the best German units in action on the western front, moved in to attack
|
|
Scenario 10 - Counter-Attack of Panzer Lehr - the Germans are able to stage a counter-attack and even get as far as 2,000 yards behind the American front, until the 9th Army shows up
|
Scenario 11 - Hauts-Vents is Taken - principally Hill 91.
|
|
[ Part of this article was assisted by AI; double-check for accuracy when necessary.]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Recent Updates to the General Howitzer Community
|
|
|
Capture of Sapun Ridge
|
|
6 VP'sCard Balance: Allies (Soviet Union) - 6 Axis (Germany) - 5Complexity: 2Conditions: Countryside Context: HistoricalLocation: CrimeaYear: 1944Theater: EasternCampaign: Codename: Summary: Objectives: 6 VP's Battlefield: Countryside with trees and hills Troops: Allies - 11 Infantry, 2 Armor, 1 Artillery Axis - 9 Infantry, 1 Artillery Special Rules: 1. Sniper 2. Special Weapons 3. Night Attacks 4. Steep Hills Allied Strategy: …
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Capture of Asosa
|
|
Listen up—this is how wars are won. In March of ’41, a hard-fighting outfit from the Belgian Congo—the 11th Battalion of the Force Publique—marched into Abyssinia to take the fight straight to the Italians. No hesitation, no excuses. They clawed their way up the brutal high ground of Mount Kirin, took their hits in ambushes near Asosa and Megale, and …
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Easy Company - Paradrop in the Night
|
|
They dropped our boys all over hell and back—but that didn’t stop them. The 506th Parachute Infantry hit the Normandy bocage scattered, disorganized, and under fire. But Americans don’t wait for perfect conditions—we make them. Lieutenant Richard Winters pulled together what he had—35 men—and went looking for the fight. Through hedgerows thick as walls and Germans lurking in every field, …
|
|
|
|
|
|
Scenario Field Guide: Braskir Offensive
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Scenario Field Guide: Soviet Raid on Grigorevka [Ukraine]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Scenario Field Guide: Knightsbridge [Battle of Gazala]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Keep track of wins & losses for Axis vs. Allies in each scenario!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Battlefield & Strategy Tips
|
|
|
|
|
|
Events, Sitelinks, & Resources
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
