Let the History Begin!

The first week of the Memoir '44 History Club has come and gone! I hope the students had as much fun as I did, and are excited about our plans for this year. We have 13 members in our club right now (one member is behind someone in our picture) and all of them were in my class last year so they know the basic rules and the concept behind Memoir '44. This picture was taken in the school computer lab on Thursday, just at the end of our session.

Our first session began on Tuesday, January 13th, with a quick review of the basic rules, a short overview of our plans for the club, and a snack. We headed into the library and got back into the game with the scenario "Carentan Causeway", a quick battle that mostly uses infantry. For many of the club members, this was their first time playing Memoir '44 since June 2008 when they were in my class.

Students will need to have a steep learning curve during the start of this club because I'm expecting a lot from them. They are now expected to set up their own battles, remember most of the rules, learn Tactic Cards that they didn't use last year, and learn new terrain and rules that come with expansions that they've never used. To help with all of the information they are getting, I provided each club member with copies of my Memoir Player Aid, Roll Calls and various other cheat sheets. From what I've seen, their excitement and interest is going to make the necessary learning easy.

Our second session dealt more with housekeeping and less with playing, which was hopefully still fun. We reviewed all of the basic rules, covered the Tactic Cards that are new to the club members, looked at new terrain from the Terrain Pack and Pacific Theater, and learned about how to read the scenario maps. The rest of our time was spent on computers in our computer lab learning how to create scenarios and navigate around the Memoir '44 web site and User Pages.

Next week we will start our first tournament; The D-Day Landings.