Memoir 44 - Sword Beach

I played my second game of Memoir 44 for the Six by Six Challenge.  This time it was the Sword Beach scenario, which saw the British trying to storm up and off the beach in the face of stiff German defences of "hedgehogs", barbed wire and concrete bunkers.  The starting positons are shown below:

Sword Beach  - starting positions taken from the rulebook

Once again I faced my oldest across the battlefield, taking charge of the plucky (or Imperialist?) British forces complete with elite commandos in an effort to displace my determined (or tyrannical?) German forces.

It was, like the last game, pretty quick, pretty bloody and pretty balanced.  If the British had not taken down my fifth unit, thereby earning the required 5 medals, I would have taken down theirs.  It was very much a game of the flanks, with the vagaries of the command cards meaning that much of the effort took place away from the centre - which was a bit of shame as I had a very powerful artillery unit ensconced in the central bunker that only got the chance to shoot twice!

I'm still not sure what to make of Memoir 44. It plays quickly and is finely balanced and the map boards look great but there does not seem to be much in the way of tactical or strategic thought due to the chance cards.  Armour seems particularly brittle although I suspect engaging infantry at point blank range is not the best tactic.  I will give it to the end of 6 plays and then I will see whether it stays or not.