World Boardgaming Championship
2025 Memoir '44 Tournament
World Boardgaming Championship
2025 Memoir '44 Tournament
Welcome to the World Boardgaming Championship Memoir '44 remote PBeM ("play by email") 2025 tournament.
Eligibility: All entrants are required to be members of the Boardgame Players Association (BPA) at the Associate level ($10 USD) or higher. See https://www.boardgamers.org/joinindex.html for details about joining.
To Register: Send real first and last name, email address, and BGA name via direct message to Winn81 on BGA or BGG. Once BPA membership is verified (one week before the tournament, but if you played in the 2024 tournament you are automatically eligible) I will send you an invite to the tournament on BGA.
Prizes: BPA will award a plaque to the tournament winner. The top 6 finishers receive laurels.
December 1, 2024
2-4 months
Games will take place on Board Game Arena (www.boardgamearena.com) as a private, invitation only tournament. There will be two stages: a groups stage followed by a single elimination stage.
Time Limit: Each game's maximum duration is 30 days, which means each player has a maximum of 15 days to finish the match. If a player runs out of time they can be skipped by their opponent, which will result in a loss.
Scenario: This year the scenario is going to be randomly determined at the start of each match.
Schedule: The next round will automatically start as soon as possible from the conclusion of the previous round.
Tiebreaker: At the conclusion of the tournament, the following tiebreakers will be used in order to determine places 3-8. Based on the last match played: Medal differential, figure differential, dice rolled differential.
None
If needed, the GM and assistant GM will determine the fairest resolution for all.
Top 6 Standings:
Joe Harrison aka Gonzoj
Justin Hasty aka gotigerssc
Jon Manley aka mrmanley31
Laurent Lemaire aka DiaboLau
Frederik De Buck aka VCX1302
Geoff Heintzelman aka Nittany Devil
Full Standings: https://boardgamearena.com/tournament?id=317988
A total of 34 players participated in the tournament, which included players from 6 different countries and 4 different continents! This is an increase of 9 players compared to the last year. This year the scenario played was random for each match.
Stage 1 - Round Robin
3 of the 4 groups were very tight. In all 4 groups, the eventual 3rd and 4th place players lost to both the 1st and 2nd place player (with only one exception). Every match was critical to the outcome. Undoubtedly many fates were decided by a handful of critical dice rolls.
Group 1 - Joe Harrison 1st, Justin Hasty 2nd. A tough group, including both eventual finalists.
Group 2 - Jon Manley 1st, Michael Lyman 2nd.
Group 3 - Laurent Lemaire 1st, Frederik De Buck 2nd.
Group 4 - Geoff Heintzelman 1st, Jeroen van der Ham 2nd. Geoff (7/7) was the only player to go undefeated in the Round Robin.
Stage 2 - Single Elimination
1st Round:
Justin Hasty def Geoff Heintzelman (11-9) at Breakout at Klin. Justin had seemingly endless supply of multi-front cards to impressively gain 5 medals as Russians, while Geoff's cards and dice were less than ideal. The key sequence may have been in the second game, Justin's assault center as Axis which set up Armor Assault, invaluable cards as Axis at this scenario.
Laurent Lemaire def Frederik De Buck (18-16) at Braskir Offensive. Game 1 was a war of attrition, as is typical for this scenario. Atypically, the objectives stayed unoccupied for a long time. Game 2, Frederik was handicapped when his powerful mobile artillery unit was destroyed on the first turn, followed by too many recons and probes throughout the match.
Jon Manley def Joroen van der Ham (9-6) at Knightsbridge. Both players pulled off improbable wins as Allies, with the help of some great cards for a 4 card hand.
Joe Harrison def Michael Lyman (12-7) at Battle of Warsaw. Joe had great cards (especially for center section) throughout the match, and he unsurprisingly played them very effectively.
Semi Finals and Finals:
Justin Hasty def Laurent Lemaire (10-5) at Martinville Ridge. In the first game, an early ambush allowed Justin to be aggressive, followed by an armor unit surviving many dice. Mid game 4/4 grenades doesn't hurt to finish off 2 two-figure units. Laurent was hamstrung by poor cards, too many recons and probes. In the second game, Laurent had a lot of trouble hitting infantry with his dice. Justin was able to take advantage of this and occupy the hill medal objective while Laurent's tanks could do nothing but helplessly watch.
Joe Harrison def Jon Manley (9-8) at Escape via the Coastal Road. A classic scenario. And a clash of two of the best memoir players in the USA and world. Game 1, Joe was able to amazingly exit 5 units! Aided largely by Jon's lack of cards on his right flank early in the game. Between the exiting, a lot of infantry fighting happened on the Allies right flank. Game 2, Joe's opening hand was average but not great, I bet he was worried, but luckily for him neither was Jon's. However, Joe quickly drew 2 assaults and an attack on the vital right flank and was able to eliminate Jon's infantry units who were trying to exit, to win the match.
Joe Harrison def Justin Hasty (11-7) at Japanese Counterattack. Game 1, daylight came quick, including 2 stars on the first roll, which really helped Joe as the Allies as he was able to use his artillery early. Justin did not have the cards early on to mount an attack on the Japanese left flank, which is typically the best strategy. Mid game his cards improved but too little too late. Joe's experience and patience definitely showed as this game played out, as this can be a tricky scenario to play as Japanese. Game 2, Joe started by rolling 4/5 hits on his first turn. He also had a behind enemy lines card in hand, with permanent medals available for the taking took away any suspense about the match. Soon Joe played a 6-unit infantry assault, assault left, move out, another infantry assault and did a lot of damage before Justin was able to fend him off. Amazingly, daylight never got higher than level 3.
Congratulations to Joe for winning his 3rd Memoir '44 WBC championship. Thanks everyone for your participation. I heard from several players about the random scenarios. Although the vast majority of scenarios were perfectly fine for a tournament, occasionally the more luck based desert scenarios were played. All players knew this was possible and bravely that chance to compete. Next year we will play specific scenarios which are more strategic and less dependent on luck.