More midsummer games: Lost Valley, Street Soccer, Memoir '44

Next day after our Lost Valley game, Johanna wanted a rematch. That's remarkable! I was more than pleased to play the game again. It was fun - this time we explored the whole of the valley. In the end Johanna won with a healthy margin - I wasted my time with river gold.

After the game, Johanna voiced some concerns - will the game be pretty much the same each time? After all, there's not that much variety in the tactics. I think the river gold is, indeed, bit problematic. It's basically waste of time, especially in the two-player game. However, some fast river gold with some mountain gold might do the trick. Well, I don't care, really - the game is fun to play no matter what.

Johanna left for a picnic with her friends (unfortunately the weather was rainy, so they had to stay indoors), while Olli H. popped by to play some games.

We started with StreetSoccer. Olli had designed some cards to even out the dice luck in the game. We tried two different card distribution variants (four cards, no new cards during the game and three cards, new card every five turns; the latter one was better).

The cards could do beneficial stuff (automatic die roll of six, +4 to die for kicking the ball, two extra moves) or harm the opponent (halve the die roll, only straight kicks allowed). They were fun, if a bit unnecessary in my opinion. Still, it was an interesting idea worth developing further.

Olli hadn't tried Memoir '44 yet, so it was about time. We started with the intro scenario Pegasus Bridge, where I (playing Axis) got three kills before losing 4-3. What a sorry result. The scenario is pretty interesting, if a bit small. However, it works pretty well as an introduction to the game.

Our second battle was Vassieux, Vercors, where I fought Olli's French resistance troops. My forces ran out of steam too soon, leaving me with another bitter 3-4 loss. The scenario has a rather heavy Axis win percentage, too - it's one of the few scenarios in the book which the Germans actually won in the war. It's also a slightly boring scenario, two-star material - decent, but nothing too exciting.

Even though I've been losing a lot (thanks to playing the Axis), I like Memoir a lot. The battle system is simply brilliant, it's all very exciting. I'm really looking forward to the expansion that is coming. I wonder what's in it - new scenarios, I hope, since I'm now three scenarios from playing all the sixteen that come in the book.