Angie

I LOVE playing Memoir 44, but one problem I’ve found with this game setup time can cut heavily into play time, especially as extra expnasions are added in. In order to maximize gaming time, you can prepare scenarios ahead of time. Planning ahead and storing all of the terrain tiles, reference cards, unit badges, rules summary cards, and special pieces (sandbags, wire, airplanes) for a scenario in a plastic ziploc bag makes it much quicker to setup the game than digging through piles of expansion boxes, cards, and bits at the start of game night.

You can make one-shot baggies for several individual scenarios with widely varying rules at once without repeating componets so that each bag stands alone and is ready to go. You can also make campaign baggies with the basic rules cards and pieces used in each scenario in the first bag, and just the terrain or special items to add in later bags. Writing the name of the scenario on each bag with a Sharpie makes it easy to just pull and play.

This game comes with a fun soundtrack with retro style music reminescent of alien space battles and anthems. Not only does it help set the mood for this game and add a little flavor to the alien races (the soundtrack names mention the alien races from the game), but the soundtrack can be a great addition when playing other space games such as Cosmic Encounter or Space Alert as well.

Try it out in the background with your favorite space-themed games, or select a few tracks from it to include on a mix that best suits your taste. Adding a little music can be an easy but effective way to help set the mood for a great space game night!

We’ve found that the scoreboard provided with the game can be quite confusing for new players. In addition to the game length adjustments provided by other users, I would also suggest considering making your own scoreboard that goes up numerically left to right consistently or maybe goes around in a cool spiral like the portal dice. The scoreboard provided weaves back and forth each line, which can cause some big scoring errors if someone isn’t aware. I’ve seen more than a few blocks get moved the wrong direction. At least be wary, and point out how the direction shifts to new players during the first game!

A great way to get started with Magic is to pick up a recent Duel Deck set at your favorite local game store (or even at big retailers like Wal-Mart or Target). The Duel Decks cost about $20 dollars and offer two complete fun decks that are very well balanced and have a good selection of cards that work well together.

Many of the Duel Decks are planeswalker vs. planeswalker sets which offer players a chance to experience this exciting type of card (many of which are very expensive as singles and extremely rare in booster packs). Each player has a specific planeswalker and a deck that is built to suit that planes walker’s unqiue style and full of flavor. The other Duel Decks that have been released in the recent past are faction vs. Faction, which offers a fun look into the various types of cards out there and a good introduction into the lore ofnthe Magic multiverse.

My husband and I have picked up several Duel Deck sets and thoroughly enjoyed each one. They all offer solid decks, help you learn the strategies and combos that make the game so fun to play, and are very well balanced against each other. In repeated plays we have not yet found one side or the other to be overpowered in any of the match ups.

Lilianna Vs. Garuk gives Pits the forces of darkness (Lilianna’s black deck) against the vast power of nature (Garuk’s Green deck) with two very different styles of play.

Phyrexia Vs the Coalition revists a famous battle in the history of the Magic multiverse, with a zombie ridden black Phyrexian deck against a 4 color (everything but black) deck full of interesting legendary creatures and dragons.

Elspeth Vs. Tezzeret pit a white soldier deck against a blue artifact deck with powerful and interesting planes walkers on each side.

Knights Vs. Dragons presents the classic battle between the chivalrous knights (white and green) against the fire breathing terrors of the sky (red deck).

With these sets we have had many hours of fun enjoying the flavorful themed decks, learned a number of new strategies and combinations, played with cool cards that would be too expensive to buy as singles, and experienced a series of evenly matched duels which often seem to end with the winner barely hanging in there. We enjoy games where it is close and tense all the way through, and these are one of the most balanced options I’ve found fro casual magic play.

Upcoming Duel Decks thatnhave been announced are Ajani Vs. Nicol Bolos and Vesner Vs. Koth, and hopefully they will continue to be amazing and a great value!.

I played as the Trun tonight, and was initially a little bummed because their ability didn’t look as fun or interesting as some of the others….. but I was wrong! It’s fun to be so tough, it’s fun to get to roll and sometimes survive a fight after you’ve lost, and it’s fun to be able to turn an “almost” into a crushing victory! Don’t forget to spend a few actions building up alien menace tokens, and you’ll be a nearly unstable force to be reckoned with, blazing a trail of devastation through the lands of the puny humans… Mwahahahaha!