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In recent years, a Memoir tournament scene has sprung up in England thanks to the efforts of Sam Wilderspin and his wife, Eleanor, who have organized the British Open and other local events. WBC GM Sam Edelston invited Sam to choose the scenarios for this year’s tournament here, and the latter selected six of his own creations.
As is customary in Memoir, our format was single elimination with a Mulligan round the night before, and 2-game matches: You play both sides of each battle. We don’t bid for sides. Also, when signing in, every player draws a tiebreak number that will be the final decider if a match is tied on all other attributes. A higher series of numbers is reserved for players who bring a game, so bring your game if you can, folks! (The GM can vouch from hard personal experience that tiebreakers can matter.)In order to assure that we’d have two survivors for the Final, this year we instituted a new rule that if only three players remained for Round 5, they would play a round robin, and the loser would be awarded 3rd place. (Spoiler alert: More about that later.)
Our attendance of 46 was identical to last year, but we only had 7 past WBC Memoir champions, because two of our perennial threats, Joe Harrison and John Skiba, were unavailable this year. Nevertheless, we had plenty of sharks in the water.
Oh, one more thing: The aforementioned Eleanor has a reputation as a tank killer, and this has given rise to the term “Eleanor Special,” which is when you attack a 3-figure armored unit with 3 dice and kill it off with all tank and grenade figures. To be in the proper spirit, the GM asked the players to report any Eleanor Specials in their matches, and we did get some interesting stories.
That’s the prelude; now, on to the first movement.
Mulligan Round: D+1: The Canadian’s Right Flank:
Our first four scenarios came from the aftermath of D-Day, Canadians vs Germans, and the Canadians had Firefly tanks with a special rule that at full strength they roll an extra die against armor. This opening map also included train tracks and a road running across the board, plus scattered hedgerows and forests, and a bunch of town hexes.
The Mulligan had 29 players available, so 14 matches, same as last year, and the most recent past Champion (who happened to also be the GM) had to take a bye by Convention rules. The results were 10 sweeps, 3 splits won by Allies, and 1 split won by Axis. The Allies won 16 games, versus 12 for Axis, by an average score of 4.89-4.68 medals and 21.21-19.71 figures.
Highlights: Biggest Allied win was a 6-0 shutout scored by Luke Heinz, with honorable mentions at 6-2 for Geoff Heintzelman and Chris Kalmbacher. Biggest Axis wins were 6-2 scored by Justin Hasty, Luke Heinz, and David Hitchcock. Ethan Shipley-Tang swept 2018 champ Christopher Miller, 6-5, 6-5.
Eleanor Specials were rolled by Jon Manley on his first roll of the game. Justin Wu also rolled one. And in a noteworthy occurrence, Steve Lollis and Erel Warszawski rolled Eleanor Specials against each other on consecutive turns. Thank goodness those weren’t real tanks.
Round 1: D+1: The Canadian’s Right Flank:
Same scenario as the night before, with 17 new competitors and 9 returning players restarting after losses in the Mulligan. We had 13 matches. The advantage reversed compared to the night before: There were 9 sweeps and 4 splits won by Axis. The Allies won 9 games, and Axis won 17, with an average score of 3.85-4.54 medals and 18.11-18.54 figures. The GM imposed a time limit on the round and four games had to be adjudicated on medals and figures.
Highlights: The biggest win for the Allies was 6-1 scored by Chris Mlynarczyk, followed by a 6-2 win by Gary Nichols. Four players won as Axis by 6-2 scores: Marc Gibbens, Ernest Pysher, Nathan Wagner, and Justin Wu.
Christopher Miller rolled an Eleanor Special as part of a victorious return after the previous night’s loss. Wayne Saunders rolled one in a match where he lost to Doug Hull by a razor-thin margin of 1-1 games, 10-10 medals, 44-47 figures. And Nathan Wagner rolled one when his one-figure infantry Ambushed Patrick McLafferty’s full-strength Panzer.
Round 2: South of Caen
This one had two roads spanning from the near to far edges, and 17 town or factory hexes (plus a church). Since the base game comes with only 8 town hexes, not counting the church, the GM brought his father’s old 1940s vintage poker chips to serve as spare towns. This scenario also had a bazooka and some exit hexes.
We had 25 active players, plus John Parker serving as an eliminator. Out of 13 matches, we had 7 sweeps, 3 splits won by Allies, and 3 splits won by Axis. The Allies won 13 games and lost 13, with an average score of 4.38-4.27 medals and 17.73-19.62 figures.
Highlights: Matthew Miller, last year’s third-place finisher, eliminated Justin Hasty, last year’s second-place finisher, with a 6-1 win as Allies and a 6-0 win as Axis. Nathan Wagner, 2023 second-place finisher, eliminated his opponent by identical scores of 6-1 as Allies and 6-1 as Axis. Additional 6-1 Allied wins were posted by David Gubbay and Jon Manley. Christopher Miller’s Germans scored a 6-1 victory, as well.
Ernest Pysher eliminated 2004 champion Steve Lollis. David Gubbay eliminated two-time champ Geoff Heintzelman.
Eleanor Specials in this round were scored by Shawn O’Connor, Justin Wu, and Steve Lollis, all of whom lost their matches. For both Justin and Steve, it was their second ones in the tournament.
Round 3: Operation Totalize
More roads and towns. The Canadians occupy two hexes on the far side of the board, so any retreats are into danger.
Though there had been 13 matches in the previous round, we had a couple of dropouts, so there were only 11 surviving players, and an eliminator was recruited. Pairings were done randomly, as usual. Five of this round’s 6 matches were swept, and the remaining match was a split won by Axis. Overall, the Allies won 5 games and Axis won 7, with an average score of 4.50-4.92 medals and 15.86-18.93 figures.
Dan Winnowski swept 2015 champ Chris Kalmbacher. Jon Manley swept Matthew Miller. Sam Edelston swept eliminator John MacCarthy. Dabid Gubbay swept David Wolfe. Nick Kramer swept Ernest Pysher. And in the round’s only split, Christopher Miller won a 6-1, 2-6 squeaker over Michael Shea.
Highlights: Christopher Miller’s 6-1 was the biggest Axis win. Dan Winnowski’s 6-1 was the biggest Allied win. Jon Manley rolled the round’s only Eleanor Special, his second one.
Round 4: Closing The Falaise Gap
There’s a river running across the board, crossed by two bridges and three fords. Each bridge is on a road that traverses from top to bottom. Towns, forests, and hedgerows provide cover, especially for the Allies. The Germans can exit anywhere along the Allied baseline.
The six surviving players were assured of earning Laurels. We had a 4-way tie for first, with David Gubbay, Jon Manley, Nick Kramer, and Sam Edelston, because byes count as sweeps with full medals, all at 6-0, 36 medals. Then Dan Winnowski, 5-1, 34 medals, and Christopher Miller, 5-1, 32 medals.
The Allies and Axis each won 3 games in this 7-medal scenario, with an average score of 5.17-5.33 medals and 24.67-20.00 figures.
David Gubbay swept Nick Kramer, 7-2 as Axis and 7-4 as Allies. David hadn’t appeared in this tournament in a long time, but in 2010 he brought home the second-place plaque.
2017/2023 champion Jon Manley swept 2018 champion Christopher Miller, 7-3 as Axis and 7-5 as Allies.
Two-time bronze medalist Dan Winnowski swept GM and reigning champ Sam Edelston, 7-4 as Allies and 7-3 as Axis. Sam hastens to add that Dan’s anti-tank dice were lethal in both games, while Sam’s were more like placebos.
Round 5: Operation Strike
Change of locale: We’re now on a desert map in Tunisia, 1943. Allied forces are a mix of British and American; Axis is German and Italian. Axis infantries can retreat up to 3 hexes per flag. All armor is limited to moving 2 hexes, but Fuel Supply rules are in effect which means you roll a die at the end of your turn to try to get fuel tokens that you can spend to allow a tank to move a third hex. Fuel Supply rules were introduced by the Dutch Open organizers a few years ago.
The map has a couple of roads and an assortment of ergs and palm forests. There’s also a two-hex wadi in the middle. The Allies must control at least one temporary objective hex to win.
With only three players remaining, the new Round Robin rule had to be invoked. The two lower seeds would face each other for one game. The loser of that would change sides and face the top seed, and then the remaining pair would meet only if necessary. If nobody lost two games, then medals, figures, and if necessary cumulative results would determine which two players would continue and which one would be awarded third place.
The contenders were Manley and Gubbay, both 8-0, 50 medals, Winnowski 7-1, 48. Because Manley had brought a game and Gubbay hadn’t, Manley had the higher tiebreak and was seeded first. Bring your game, folks!
Game 1: David Gubbay as Allies vs Dan Winnowski as Axis: All the fighting was in the center and the Axis left flank. The Allies tried unsuccessfully to remove the German tank threat, but the end result was a single Axis tank dominating the center of the battlefield. David’s Allies never moved any of the USA units from their left flank. The Axis infantry took a fair number of hits, but the Italian multi-hex retreat rule came in handy a few times to minimize dice and avoid deaths. Mid-game, Dan was able to reposition his Panzers from the middle to his left flank to support his infantry that had been there fighting in the early game. After Dan was able to eliminate David’s armor, things "snowballed" and he was able to get even more aggressive with his armor against David’s remaining infantry, which had by then dug in. Ultimately, they wiped out nearly all of the right half of the Allied forces, gaining a 5-1 or 6-1 advantage in this 7-medal scenario. The Allies made a comeback when Axis encountered a lack of cards and options: At one point, all five of Dan’s cards were right flank section cards, which were useless. In the end, Dan’s Axis prevailed, 7-3 medals, 27-18 figures.
Game 2: Jon Manley as Allies vs David Gubbay as Axis: Jon’s Allies started with an Air Power, which reduced all three German tanks to 2 figures, handicapping the Axis’s defensive abilities. David Countered the Air Power, hitting an infantry and two tanks on the Allied right flank. Because of the wounded armor, Jon expected to see a slow, cautious defense, but the Panzers charged forward and there was a shootout in the center. The Allies had more units engaged, and thus more figures to take hits, so if the dice were about average, Jon felt he was bound to come out on top. Indeed, that's what eventually happened, as Jon eliminated several Axis units in the center, then moved into the town hexes on his right for the objective needed to win. The final tally for Jon’s Allies was 7-2 medals, 26-12 figures.
With David having lost two games, he was eliminated, and the Final would be between two-time champion Jon Manley and two-time third-place finisher Dan Winnowski.
Round 6 Final: Wadi Akarit, The Fighting Retreat
We finished the tournament with a Breakthrough map. It’s another 1943 Tunisia desert scenario. The Allies have superior numbers, including 7 armored units and a mobile artillery. Axis infantry has terrain protection and half a row of mines.
Game 1: Dan, as Allies, had only played Breakthrough two times before this. Being inexperienced in Breakthrough and his first WBC Final, his expectations were low against a strong opponent like Jon. Fighting started on the Allied left. Early in the battle, the Allies rolled a disproportionate number of flags, and Jon retreated those sandbagged infantries into better cover and moved a couple way back into the medal objectives near the Axis baseline, making it very hard for the Allies to reach them. The Allies twice probed the minefields and got a scary 3 and 4. A few turns later, Dan had accumulated all center cards except for a useful infantry assault. He had already massed his forces in the center as this hand was developing, so he pushed into the mines and found some 0's this time. A couple of turns later, as Dan kept pushing in the middle, he got lucky and eliminated Jon’s artillery in about two rolls. But on the next few turns, Jon’s German armor took out much of the advancing British infantry force. On Dan’s last turn, he eliminated two German armor units to get to 6 medals and give himself a chance in the second game. Jon’s Axis forces won the game, 10-6 medals, 33-28 figures, and Jon went into game 2 feeling pretty good.
Game 2: Jon was the Allies and Dan was the Axis. Dan got an Eleanor Special on his first roll of the game, which he dearly needed. Early fighting was similar to game 1, focusing on the Allied left flank. One key difference between this game and game 1, Jon’s Allies went around the mines and came up the flanks. Jon moved his armor up from his left flank, but Dan was able to counter them with his own armor, aided by his central artillery. Mid game, Dan used "on the move" orders mostly to retreat two infantry units to the back row and take the 2 key town objectives. Dan felt lucky that Jon never got a Barrage or Air Power, as either of those could have made it hard to hold the objectives while fending off the Allied onslaught.
As the game developed, Jon was trailing, 8-5, but enjoyed a decent advantage in figures, so he was hoping for one more medal to get to 6. He advanced a 2-figure armor and mobile artillery into range to roll 5 dice against a singleton tank, but his tank rolled a miss and two flags. He then tried to pick off the tank with one die from the artillery, but nobody died. He tried again with the artillery on his next turn but missed again. Failing to get the tank, Jon then went after the German Flak 88 artillery, but those attacks resulted in only one hit. So, with the score still 8-5, Dan played Their Finest Hour, which he’d been holding for half the game. He rolled 5 orders, survived a scary Ambush, his tank took out an infantry unit, and the armor overrun claimed the mobile artillery and the victory. Dan’s Axis took game 2, 10-5 medals, 31-29 figures … which was sufficient to give Dan a 16-15 match win and his first WBC championship.
Jon mentioned after the game how much more difficult this scenario was for the Allies than he expected, and Dan agreed. Jon also observed that if he could have finished off that one-figure armor, his advantage in figures probably would have sufficed to give him the match. In the end, a tense match, a close match, and a lot of fun.
Multi-Player Overlord Games
In addition to the tournament, we had six multi-player Overlord games. These are always a highlight, because many players only have a chance to play them at conventions. They also tend to be a source of great battle stories. As always, we had a mix of elementary and advanced Overlords; the elementary ones are particularly great for bringing in inexperienced players.
This year, thanks to large numbers of players, we opened up a second table during one of the five periods.
Roi-Namur Landings
We had 12 players, so six of us played Roi-Namur Landings as scheduled, and we quickly set up another scenario for the six others.
Roi-Namur is a Pacific Theater Overlord from Campaign Book 2. Marine infantry and armor coming ashore onto beaches with Japanese infantry in the jungle and bunkers. The Marines have a big numerical advantage of 35-21, but the Japanese have terrain protection. A pair of American destroyers in the water means that no full-strength Japanese infantry is safe, except on the extreme left end of the map.
The Marines were commanded by Brian Durham, with left-to-right Field Generals Doug Hull, Brian Durham, and Wayne Saunders. The Japanese were commanded by Rob Gendrom, with Field Generals Gary Nichols, Rob Gendrom, and Jim Magnanti facing them.
The Marines attacked hard on both flanks. IJA eliminated five Marine armored units and reduced four more to single figures. The Marines blew up the ammunition bunker for a medal. Ultimately, the Marines prevailed by a narrow 10-9 margin.
Walcherin
This was a pre-printed map from the 2024 Dutch Open. The organizers of this tournament always create excellent, interesting scenarios, and this Overlord was no exception. A large part of this map is covered in a unique terrain type called “Dutch Soil,” which has some similarities to marshes. Each Allied Field General has three infantries that travel in LVT (Landing Vehicle, Tracked), which can move and battle freely on water and Dutch Soil.
The Allies were commanded by Hannah Manley. Field Generals, left-to-right, were Chuck Canova, Hannah Manley, and Marc Gibbens. The Germans were commanded by Sam Edelston. Field Generals, right-to-left, were Sam Edelston, John Parker, and Drew Henig.
The Allies swarmed the left and right flanks. They took a town objective on their left quite early. In the center, there’s an 8-hex city, which they marched through, but they weren’t able to hold ground beyond it. On the right, the Germans defend a bunker against a superior number of Allied units that have to cross a narrow land bridge. There was bloody fighting in all three sections, and in the end the Allies prevailed, 12-9.
4th Battle of Monte Cassino
Another pre-printed Dutch Open scenario. This is an insidious map, where an ample Allied force wishes to punch its way through a scattered German force that sits atop mountains and steep hills. It’s just one infantry sitting there on top of that mountain. How hard can it be?
The mixed Allied force (United States, Unites Kingdom, France, Poland) was commanded by Sam Edelston, who also led the left flank. Matthew Miller commanded the center and right. Commanding the Germans was Christopher Miller, who also took the German left. The German center and right were led by David Gubbay.
On the left, the Allies tried to unseat some of the mountain troops but finally gave up on that after experiencing significant losses. Ultimately, they tried to take on some lower-altitude troops and also made a run for the exit hexes. While they did exit one unit, they lost a total of 6 units while killing off only 4.
On the outer right, nothing happened, not even much movement. On the inner right, the Allies tried to knock out an infantry on a church hex called The Abby, but they lost an engineer and a tank before finally killing it with a hit-and-run Behind Enemy Lines attack. Then the Allies went around that hill/mountain complex to battle on the flat ground of the center, where each side scored some late kills, but in general the Allies were outgunned there. After 12 turns, the final score was a 13-9 victory for the defending Germans, who won the battle on their mountainous flanks.
Rommel is Back
A 1942 desert scenario near El Alamein, composed by prolific French scenario designer jdrommel. It features a good balance between armor and infantry. Axis has more armor by a 9-7 margin, but the Allies have an extra artillery and they have a few bazooka units to help even things out a bit.
Allied commander: Sam Edelston, with left-to-right Field Generals Kevin Fabanich, Dan Winnowski, and Sam Edelston. The Axis forces were commanded by John Parker, with right-to-left Field Generals Tim Tu, John Parker, and Jim Magnanti.
There was ample battling for all Field Generals. The critical blow for the Allies came on their fifth turn, when a Probe Center and Assault Right combined for 5 kills, including 4 armored units. The critical non-blow for Axis came on their eighth turn, when they played Their Finest Hour and rolled 11 orders, including four tanks and two artilleries, but managed only two kills. In the center, the Allies’ Dan Winnowski held the 6-4 advantage, thanks to three armor kills on that big Allied turn. The Axis destroyed all seven Allied armor units, while the Axis lost 8 out of 10. So, the result was an Allied 12-10 victory.
Rats in a Factory
The Russian Front, along the Volga River, it’s the flip side of the Sword of Stalingrad Battle map. We played this one with Combat cards.
The Allies were commanded by Sam Edelston. Field generals, left-to-right: Justin Wu, David Gubbay, Sam Edelston. Axis commanded by Matthew Miller. Field generals, right-to-left: Matthew Miller, Marvin Birnbaum, Ethan Shipley-Tang. It should be noted that Sam always offers the commanding job to others, and only commands if there aren’t enough other willing volunteers. This year, we didn’t have many people who wanted to command.
The big story here was the center, where German Field General Marvin Birnbaum was deadly Infantry Assault, Assault Center, DHQ, another Infantry Assault, and then three orders on a Finest Hour. All that plus a couple of kills on their last turn added up to 10 Russian units being eliminated in the center, compared to 6 German losses.
Meanwhile, the German Left had enough orders to send a major force flooding over the balka, and they ultimately swarmed the Tractor Factory. The German Right poured a ton of ammo into the Barracks near the edge of the board, but every time Matthew would kill a unit there, Justin would put another unit there, so the Germans made no meaningful advances on that flank. Truly a war of attrition in this 18-15 German victory.
Offenive on Saint-Lo
This scenario was part of the Equipment Pack. It’s rich in Special Weapons Assets, machine guns, bazookas, mortars, and Flak 88 anti-tank artillery, but it doesn’t get into the more exotic unit types, and the only exotic terrain hex is one Fortress.
Allies were commanded by Michael Shea. Field Generals, left-to-right were David Gubbay, Ethan Shipley-Tang, Justin Wu. Axis were commanded by Marvin Birnbaum. Field Generals, right-to-left, were Jeff Cornett, Alex Nesenjuk, Sam Edelston.
Let’s start with the center. Even though the Allied Center received cards on eight of the games eleven turns, no units on either side were eliminated in the center during the entire battle. The only notable thing that happened there is that, on the three turns when Ethan had initiative rolls for the Allies, he rolled two grenades and a flag. We try to have scenarios that will be interesting for all sections, but sometimes the cards or the course of the battle don’t cooperate.
After five turns, each side had eliminated two enemy units. But on their sixth turn, the Allied Left had a DHQ and eliminated an infantry and tank, and then when the Germans tried to fight back, the Americans Ambushed another Panzer off the board. On the following turn, the Americans on that flank knocked out the Flak 88, making it four kills in two turns. This wound up being the bloodiest flank as, on the remaining turns, the Americans would claim two more kills while losing three of their own units. Total casualties for the left flank: Allies got 6 kills; Axis got 5 kills.
Meanwhile, on the opposite flank, most of the fighting happened around the open space in the Allies’ inner-right section, close to the line between the two right sections. After two early kills by the Allies, the remaining 7 kills were scattered through the last five turns of the game. The Allies got 5, Axis got 4.>/p?
Nail-biter ending: The Germans had held small leads for most of the battle. On their tenth turn, the Allies had notched two kills to bring the score up to 11-11 in a 12-point game. The Germans Counter-Attacked a Barrage, going against a 2-figure infantry, scoring only one hit and flagging it out of range. Meanwhile, the Axis Right had taken a chance and left a hill objective hex uncovered during an attempt to kill off an invading tank that simply refused to die. The Allies responded with an Infantry Assault that claimed the hill objective for the decisive 12th medal.
Out of six Overlords this weekend, one was decided by 4 medals, and the others were all by 3 or less. No runaway scores. In all, we had 24 players, including 9 different people who commanded in at least one game.
Acknowledgements
The GM wishes to thank AGMs Geoff Heintzelman and Jon Manley for their help in the tournament room and leading some of the Overlords. Special thanks to Matthew Miller who monitored the room when I had to step out for a couple of minutes during Round 1 – and then, unasked, continued patrolling the tournament room and answering questions for players; in recognition, the GM gave him a field promotion to AGM and invited him to AGM officially next year. Thanks also to Jon Manley, for leading the pre-tournament instructional demo and to Hannah Manley, Matthew Miller, and John Parker for their assistance with tournament sign-ins. Thanks again to Sam and Eleanor Wilderspin for choosing the scenarios and making this tournament so, um, Special.
Thanks, as always, to Richard Borg for creating this wonderful game, and to Days of Wonder/Asmodee for continuing to support it. And special thanks to the organizers of WBC for allowing us to make this North America’s premiere Memoir ’44 event year after year.
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Edelston, Sam [14th Year]