Over the past half year I’ve played all scenarios of the base Memoir ’44 game. Last Sunday saw the final confrontation: Saverne Gap.

The scenario has several special rules:

• The hills are impassable and the artillery can’t shoot over it.
• If two town hexes of Saverne are captured by the allies, it’s an instant win.

Axis

I started the game on the Axis side. With only four cards, I was restricted in my movement but with three center cards I thought it was ok.

The first turns saw the Allied player moving up to Phalsbourg and trying to remove the garrison.

 

To prevent the city from falling to the Allies I moved my tanks in the center forward for support. I also redeployed the tanks from my left flank to the north of Saverne. I was able to push back some of the allied infantry and cause casualties but the return fire forced me to retreat behind the city.

Meanwhile on my right flank the Allied shermans were advancing to the lonely garrison of La Petitte Pierre.

It was the only unit on my right flank and I was forced out of the city into the forest.

With my center under pressure and the right flank being overrun I started a retreat on my left flank. I wanted to move the two infantry units into Saverne to prevent the city hexes from being captured.

That plan however had to wait, as I had drawn an armor assault card.  Time to push them back! The attack caused some serious headaches for the Allied player as he lost several infantry units in the center. Unfortunately on the right flank the shermans were not annihilated.

The next turns saw casualties on both sides which eventually resulted in an even amount of victory points.

The battle on the center had calmed down and my right had been destroyed. The Allied player was now also advancing on my left flank where the units which I had wanted to retreat to Saverne were now fully exposed to Allied tank fire.

In a last effort I tried to move them back into the forest but it was too late. The tanks shot again and although they can only use one die, it was enough for the final victory point. It was a very close game, 5 vs 4 victory points.

Allied

We redeployed the troops and switched sides. Now it was my turn to push back the Germans. In my first turns I moved forward all the tanks on my left flank and after two turns I had destroyed the entire German right flank while only losing one unit.

 

I also tried to move forward on my right flank, but the narrow path that you have to take is not really tank friendly. One sherman unit got destroyed. With a bunch of good cards I started my offensive in the center and eventually destroyed the first line of defense. With a behind enemy lines card I charged forward, destroying a german unit and moving further into Saverne. I then moved the shermans from my left flank to the city as well.

A lucky roll caused another casualty on my end but it was not enough to stop my advance. The shermans rolled into the city causing an instant allied win. The victory points were even, each side had scored 3 VPs.